Hebrew word · H6838

צְפִיחִת

ketzapichit

flatbread

Used only here in the Bible, so its exact meaning is uncertain. The lexicons (BDB, HALOT) give 'flat cake, wafer', probably from a root meaning 'spread out flat'. Later Hebrew usage and Rashi understand it as batter or dough fried in honey.

Appears once in the Hebrew Old Testament. ·

What it means

flat cake, wafer

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

From the study of Exodus 16:31

Range of meaning

Used only here in the Bible, so its exact meaning is uncertain. The lexicons (BDB, HALOT) give 'flat cake, wafer', probably from a root meaning 'spread out flat'. Later Hebrew usage and Rashi understand it as batter or dough fried in honey.

Against the English

'Wafer' (KJV, BSB, ESV, NIV, NASB, WEB) is a reasonable guess. YLT has 'cake'. The modern English word 'wafer', though, calls up a crisp factory biscuit or a communion wafer.

How it drifted

In modern English 'wafer' has come to mean a crisp, light biscuit or a thin unleavened communion bread. The Hebrew points to a homemade flat cake or pancake.

Used elsewhere in the period

The Septuagint has enkris, a Greek name for a cake made with oil and honey. It uses the same word in Num 11:8 for manna's taste 'like cakes of oil'. The Latin Vulgate paraphrases with similae cum melle, 'fine flour with honey'.

Where it appears

Exodus · 1

  1. Exodus 16:31 כְּצַפִּיחִ֥ת [was] like a wafer

    Now the house of Israel called the bread manna. It was white like coriander seed and tasted like wafers made with honey.

    Here: 'Like a flat cake'. The word occurs only here in the Bible. It probably means a thin flat cake or pancake, perhaps fried. Later Jewish tradition took it as dough fried in honey.

Word data: STEPBible.org (CC BY 4.0), main text only.