זָבַח

From the study of Psalm 106:37

Range of meaning

To slaughter an animal, nearly always as a religious offering. It covers the 'peace offering' type of sacrifice, where part went to the deity and part was eaten by the worshippers. The root also gives zebaḥ ('sacrifice') and mizbeaḥ ('altar', literally 'place of slaughter').

Against the English

English 'sacrifice' now usually means giving something up ('parents sacrifice for their kids'). The Hebrew word is concrete: killing at an altar.

How it drifted

From the 1600s onward, English 'sacrifice' broadened into a metaphor for any costly giving-up. The ritual-killing sense now sounds archaic to most readers.

Used elsewhere in the period

Used hundreds of times for legitimate offerings to YHWH (e.g., Exod 20:24; 1 Sam 1:3). Used of child sacrifice in Ezek 16:20 ('you took your sons and daughters… and sacrificed them') and in v. 38 here. Phoenician and Punic inscriptions use the same root zbḥ for offering.

From the study of Deuteronomy 17:1

Range of meaning

To slaughter an animal, and especially to slaughter it as an offering. The related noun zevach usually means a 'slaughter-sacrifice' whose meat was mostly eaten by the worshipper's household in a shared meal before God, with fat and certain portions going to the altar and the priests. In Deuteronomy the verb also covers ordinary, non-sacred slaughter of meat 'in your towns' (12:15, 21).

Against the English

English 'sacrifice' now mainly means giving up something costly ('she sacrificed her career'). The Hebrew verb starts with the concrete act of slaughtering an animal, and its typical setting was a feast, not a loss.

How it drifted

Over time 'sacrifice' in English moved from temple ritual to the general idea of self-denial.

Used elsewhere in the period

Common across Semitic languages (Ugaritic dbḥ, 'sacrifice, feast'; Aramaic and Phoenician cognates). The Septuagint renders it with thuō, the ordinary Greek word for sacrificial slaughter.

From the study of Deuteronomy 16:2

Range of meaning

To slaughter, especially as a sacrifice. Its noun zevach usually means the sacrifice where the worshipper and their household eat most of the meat (contrast the whole burnt offering, which is entirely burned). It can mean a sacrificial meal or feast.

Against the English

English 'sacrifice' tends to suggest giving something up or a solemn death offered for sin. Zavach is first of all a butchering for a sacred meal: God receives his share, and the people eat before him.

How it drifted

Over time 'sacrifice' in English came to mean self-denial in general, and Christian teaching on atonement shaped the word, so the feasting side of a zevach got lost.

Used elsewhere in the period

Exod 12:27 and 34:25 call the Passover a zevach. Deut 12:15, 21 uses zavach for slaughter. Ugaritic dbḥ means 'sacrifice' and 'sacrificial feast'. Phoenician and Punic tariffs (e.g. the Marseilles Tariff) use the same root for offerings shared between deity, priests and worshippers.