Hebrew word · H809

אֲשִׁישָׁה

va'ashishah

raisin bun

A pressed cake, from a root meaning “to press” or “found firmly”. In context, a cake of pressed dried grapes (raisins).

Appears 5 times in 5 verses of the Hebrew Old Testament. ·

What it means

1) raisin-cake, used in sacrificial feasts

1a) consistently translated in AV as "flagon of wine"

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 Hosea 3:1

Range of meaning

A pressed cake, from a root meaning “to press” or “found firmly”. In context, a cake of pressed dried grapes (raisins). Found at 2 Sam 6:19 // 1 Chr 16:3 (David's festival distribution), Song 2:5 (food to revive a lovesick woman), Isa 16:7 (the “raisin cakes of Kir-hareseth” mourned in Moab), and here.

Against the English

KJV has “flagons of wine”, a different object altogether. Modern versions say “raisin cakes”. NIV adds “sacred”, and BSB expands to “love to offer raisin cakes to idols”, both of which decide the cultic sense in the translation itself.

How it drifted

The KJV followed an older interpretive tradition (also found in some medieval Jewish commentators) that took ʾăšîšāh as a vessel of wine. It translates the word the same way in 2 Sam 6:19 and Song 2:5. Archaeological and comparative evidence now strongly supports “raisin cake”.

Used elsewhere in the period

The LXX translates “cakes with raisins” (pemmata meta staphidos). Raisin cakes were festival food at harvest and at shrines. Jeremiah 7:18 and 44:19 describe women baking cakes (a different word, kawwānîm) for the “Queen of Heaven”, a close parallel for cakes as offerings to a deity. Isa 16:7 ties raisin cakes to a Moabite cult centre.

Where it appears

2 Samuel · 1

  1. 2 Samuel 6:19 וַאֲשִׁישָׁ֖ה and a raisin-cake

    Then he distributed to every man and woman among the multitude of Israel a loaf of bread, a date cake, and a raisin cake. And all the people departed, each to his own home.

1 Chronicles · 1

  1. 1 Chronicles 16:3 וַאֲשִׁישָֽׁה׃ and a raisin-cake

    Then he distributed to every man and woman of Israel a loaf of bread, a date cake, and a raisin cake.

Song of Songs · 1

  1. Song of Songs 2:5 בָּֽאֲשִׁישׁ֔וֹת with <the> raisin-cakes

    Sustain me with raisins; refresh me with apples, for I am faint with love.

Isaiah · 1

  1. Isaiah 16:7 לַאֲשִׁישֵׁ֧י for [the] raisin-cakes of

    Therefore let Moab wail; let them wail together for Moab. Moan for the raisin cakes of Kir-hareseth, you who are utterly stricken.

Hosea · 1

  1. Hosea 3:1 אֲשִׁישֵׁ֥י <of> cakes of

    Then the LORD said to me, “Go show love to your wife again, though she is loved by another and is an adulteress. Love her as the LORD loves the Israelites, though they turn to other gods and love to offer raisin cakes to idols.”

    Here: Pressed cakes, here of dried grapes. They were festive food (2 Sam 6:19; Song 2:5), and here they are probably tied to the harvest feasts and offerings of Baal worship.

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