פַּךְ

From the study of 1 Samuel 10:1

Range of meaning

A small flask or jug, probably ceramic, for oil or perfume. The word appears only here and in 2 Kings 9:1, 3.

Against the English

“Vial” (KJV, WEB, YLT) and “flask” (BSB) are both fine. A modern reader may picture glassware, but the original was likely a small clay jug.

Used elsewhere in the period

Only Samuel and Kings. Small juglets for oil and perfume are very common in Iron Age Israelite archaeology. The Septuagint has phakos. Later rabbinic tradition (Babylonian Talmud, Megillah 14a) contrasted Saul's and Jehu's flask with David's and Solomon's horn and saw in it a sign of which dynasties would last.

From the study of 2 Kings 9:1

Range of meaning

A small jug or flask for oil or perfume. Archaeologically it is usually linked to the small juglets found throughout Iron Age Israel. It occurs only three times: 1 Samuel 10:1 (Samuel anoints Saul), 2 Kings 9:1 and 9:3 (Jehu).

Against the English

KJV "box" in 1611 meant any small container, including an ointment pot (compare "alabaster box" in Mark 14:3 KJV). WEB/YLT "vial" and BSB/NIV/ESV "flask" are closer to what a modern reader would picture.

How it drifted

Modern "box" means a square-sided container. The KJV word has narrowed since 1611.

Used elsewhere in the period

The LXX translates it phakos, "lentil-shaped flask", and the Vulgate lenticula, in both 1 Samuel 10:1 and here, so ancient translators heard the same link. The Talmud (b. Megillah 14a; also b. Horayot 12a) observes: David and Solomon were anointed with a horn and their kingdoms lasted; Saul and Jehu were anointed with a flask and theirs did not.

From the study of 2 Kings 9:3

Range of meaning

A small flask or juglet. The word may imitate the sound of liquid gurgling out of a narrow neck. Archaeologists find small dipper juglets and perfume flasks like this all over Iron Age sites. It occurs only in 1 Sam 10:1 and 2 Kgs 9:1, 3.

Against the English

BSB, NIV, ESV and NASB say "flask"; WEB and YLT say "vial." KJV's "box" uses an older sense of box, meaning any small container (as in the "alabaster box" of the Gospels). A modern reader pictures a square case.

How it drifted

In 1611 English, "box" could mean a small jar for ointment. That sense has since died out.

Used elsewhere in the period

In 1 Samuel 10:1 Samuel takes "the pak of oil" and pours it on Saul's head. By contrast, David and Solomon are anointed from a qeren, a horn (1 Sam 16:1, 13; 1 Kgs 1:39). The Babylonian Talmud (b. Megillah 14a) makes a point of the difference: kings anointed from a horn had lasting dynasties, and those anointed from a flask did not. The LXX uses phakos, and the Vulgate lenticula, both meaning a small flask roughly the shape of a lentil.