שֶׁ֫מֶן

From the study of Isaiah 25:6

Range of meaning

Shemen means oil (mostly olive oil) or fatness and richness. It is used for anointing oil, cooking oil, and the fertility of land ('a fat hillside', Isa 5:1). The plural here, 'fats', means rich, oily, fatty foods: the best dishes.

Against the English

KJV 'fat things' is literal but sounds greasy or unhealthy to a modern ear. 'Rich food' (ESV and others) or 'choice meat' (BSB, WEB) give the sense better. 'Meat' is an interpretation, though a reasonable one given 'marrow' later in the verse.

How it drifted

In the ancient world fat meant plenty and the best of everything ('the fat of the land', Gen 45:18). Modern diet culture has made fat negative, so KJV's literal rendering now sends the wrong signal.

Used elsewhere in the period

Not the same as ḥēleb, the technical word for sacrificial fat that Israel was forbidden to eat (Lev 3:16–17; 7:23–25). Šemen and related words describe wealth and abundance, as in Isa 30:23 ('bread… rich and plentiful') and Ps 63:5 ('as with marrow and fatness').

From the study of Isaiah 5:1

Range of meaning

Oil, especially olive oil, used in food, light, medicine, perfume and anointing. By extension it means fatness or richness. The 'son of X' idiom (ben-) describes something by its defining quality: 'sons of strength' are valiant men, a 'son of death' is doomed. So 'son of oil' is 'oily, fat, rich'.

Against the English

'Very fertile' (BSB, ESV), 'very fruitful' (KJV, WEB), 'fertile' (NIV). The meaning is right, but the vivid, earthy Hebrew image of a hill 'born of oil' disappears into an abstract adjective.

Used elsewhere in the period

Shemen for 'richness' appears elsewhere: Isa 28:1, 4 ('the head of the rich valley', literally 'valley of oils'). Zechariah 4:14 uses a related idiom, 'sons of oil', for the two anointed ones. The Septuagint paraphrases this verse as 'in a rich place' (en topō piони, 'fat place').

From the study of Isaiah 61:3

Range of meaning

šemen is olive oil, used for food, light, medicine, and anointing the head and body for grooming, honour, or appointment to office. śāśôn is exultant joy, the noisy joy of feasts and weddings, often paired with śimḥâ ('gladness').

Against the English

'Oil of joy' (KJV, BSB) and 'oil of gladness' (ESV, NIV, NASB) are accurate but sound abstract or even 'spiritual' to modern ears. NLT turns it into a 'blessing' and loses the oil altogether.

How it drifted

Modern readers do not oil their hair for a party, so the phrase can sound like a purely inner metaphor. In the ancient setting it was a literal toiletry that signalled celebration.

Used elsewhere in the period

Mourners did not anoint themselves. Joab tells the woman of Tekoa to act the mourner and 'do not anoint yourself with oil' (2 Sam 14:2), and David ends his mourning by washing and anointing (2 Sam 12:20). The exact phrase šemen śāśôn appears in Ps 45:7 [Heb. 45:8], a royal wedding song: 'God has anointed you with the oil of joy'. On śāśôn at weddings see Jer 7:34; 16:9; 33:11.