Hebrew word · H4729
מִקְטָר
miktar
fumigation
Found only here. It is a noun of place (the m- prefix marks 'place where…') from q-t-r, so 'place of making smoke, burning-place'. Related forms include miqteret ('censer', 2 Chr 26:19; Ezek 8:11) and the verb qitter/hiqtir ('to send up in smoke').
Appears once in the Hebrew Old Testament. ·
What it means
place of sacrificial smoke, altar, hearth, incense
Abridged from Brown, Driver and Briggs, A Hebrew and English Lexicon of the Old Testament (1906), via STEPBible.org (CC BY 4.0).
In depth
- Range of meaning
Found only here. It is a noun of place (the m- prefix marks 'place where…') from q-t-r, so 'place of making smoke, burning-place'. Related forms include miqteret ('censer', 2 Chr 26:19; Ezek 8:11) and the verb qitter/hiqtir ('to send up in smoke').
- Against the English
English versions turn it into a phrase of purpose: 'for burning incense', 'to burn incense upon', 'as a place for burning incense'. That is the right sense. What gets lost is the sound of the Hebrew, where miqtar qetoret repeats the root: roughly 'a smoke-place for sweet smoke'.
- Used elsewhere in the period
Not found elsewhere in biblical Hebrew. Its meaning is clear from the root and from related nouns (HALOT, BDB s.v. מִקְטָר). The Samaritan Pentateuch and the Septuagint read it the same way: the Greek has θυσιαστήριον θυμιάματος, 'altar of incense'.
Where it appears
Exodus · 1
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Exodus 30:1 מִקְטַ֣ר a place of smoke of
“You are also to make an altar of acacia wood for the burning of incense.
Here: This word occurs only here in the Hebrew Bible. It is a place-noun ('the place where something is done') built on the root q-t-r, 'to make smoke rise'. It stands right beside 'altar' and explains it: this altar is a smoking-place.
Word data: STEPBible.org (CC BY 4.0), main text only.