Hebrew word · H7100
קֶ֫צַח
ketzach
dill
A cultivated spice plant with small seeds. It appears in the Bible only in Isa 28:25, 27. Most scholars identify it as black cumin, also called nigella or fennel flower (Nigella sativa). Its small, hard black seeds are still sprinkled on breads across the Middle East.
Appears 3 times in 2 verses of the Hebrew Old Testament. ·
What it means
1) black cummin
1a) a plant with small black acrid seeds used as a condiment
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 Isaiah 28:27
- Range of meaning
A cultivated spice plant with small seeds. It appears in the Bible only in Isa 28:25, 27. Most scholars identify it as black cumin, also called nigella or fennel flower (Nigella sativa). Its small, hard black seeds are still sprinkled on breads across the Middle East.
- Against the English
KJV has "fitches," an old word for vetch, a fodder legume. That is a different plant altogether. WEB, ESV and NASB have "dill." BSB and NIV have "caraway." Some Jewish and recent translations have "black cumin," which is the best-supported choice.
- How it drifted
The Hebrew word is rare, and early English translators guessed. The Geneva Bible and KJV picked "fitches." Later versions moved to familiar kitchen herbs (dill, caraway) without strong evidence for them.
- Used elsewhere in the period
The Septuagint translates it melanthion, "black seed." The Vulgate has gith. Both names mean Nigella. Rabbinic Hebrew uses qeṣaḥ for the same spice. Botanical studies of biblical plants (e.g. Zohary) agree on Nigella sativa.
Where it appears
Isaiah · 3
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Isaiah 28:25 קֶ֖צַח black cumin
When he has leveled its surface, does he not sow caraway and scatter cumin? He plants wheat in rows and barley in plots, and rye within its border.
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Isaiah 28:27 קֶ֔צַח קֶ֖צַח black cumin
Surely caraway is not threshed with a sledge, and the wheel of a cart is not rolled over the cumin. But caraway is beaten out with a stick, and cumin with a rod.
Here: A small black seed used to flavour bread. It is delicate: a sledge would crush it or grind it into the dirt of the threshing floor.
Word data: STEPBible.org (CC BY 4.0), main text only.