A cup is a drinking vessel, and the selected passages also use it to express an experienced portion or response. Genesis records the chief cupbearer's dream of putting Pharaoh's cup into his hand, followed by Joseph's interpretation.
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Reader summary
Full entry for כּוֹס (H3563) · Open the biblical lexicon
A cup is a drinking vessel, and the selected passages also use it to express an experienced portion or response. Genesis records the chief cupbearer's dream of putting Pharaoh's cup into his hand, followed by Joseph's interpretation.
The BSB source-word alignment has 33 aligned rows for this entry. Common renderings include the cup (12), cup (6), a cup (2), of a cup (2), the little owl (2).
The source-word alignment first shows this entry at Genesis 40:11. Its strongest book concentrations include Jeremiah (7), Psalms (6), Genesis (5), Ezekiel (4).
A cup is a drinking vessel, and the selected passages also use it to express an experienced portion or response. Genesis records the chief cupbearer's dream of putting Pharaoh's cup into his hand, followed by Joseph's interpretation. Psalm 23 describes an overflowing cup beside the Lord's prepared table. Psalm 116 speaks of lifting the cup of salvation and calling upon the Lord's name in response to His goodness.
These settings keep service, abundant provision and thankful response distinct. Other cup passages can describe judgment, so the object is not a fixed symbol of prosperity. This study concerns the selected cup uses rather than the separate bird wording elsewhere. Readers should attend to the owner, contents and stated action before giving a cup an interpretive significance.
Pharaoh's cup in a reported dream, the overflowing cup and the cup of salvation have distinct actions. Selected cup imagery must retain its stated owner and setting rather than one universal promise.
Pharaoh’s cup was in my hand, and I took the grapes, squeezed them into his cup, and placed the cup in his hand.”
The cupbearer recounts a dream about placing Pharaoh's cup in his hand; Joseph supplies the interpretation in the following verses.
You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies. You anoint my head with oil; my cup overflows.
The overflowing cup appears with the prepared table and the Lord's care amid enemies, within the shepherd psalm's larger assurance.
I will lift the cup of salvation and call on the name of the Lord.
Lifting the cup of salvation and calling on the Lord's name respond to His goodness, beside fulfilling vows before His people.
BSB source-word alignment connects this entry to exact verse rows, English rendering, source form, transliteration, and parsing.
How English Renders ItA compact distribution from source-word alignment before the full evidence tables.
Hebrew word. Cup moves from literal vessel to figurative fate or divine allotment—what one must drink or endure.
Cup moves from literal vessel to figurative fate or divine allotment—what one must drink or endure.
a cup (as a container), often figuratively, a lot (as if a potion); also some unclean bird, probably an owl (perhaps from the cup-like cavity of its eye) BDB: owl Usage: cup, (small) owl. Compare 3599.
How this word appears across different grammatical cases and numbers.
Selected passage-level study witnesses for this word. This section is not the full occurrence list.
Showing 4 selected witnesses from 34 lexical occurrence verses.
Compound and idiomatic phrases that include this word. Follow a link to study the phrase and how its parts work together.
Psalm 116 answers a question about responding to the Lord's goodness by naming the cup of salvation, calling on His name and fulfilling vows before His people. The cup belongs within that grateful response. Psalm 23 gives another scene of provision, while Genesis places Pharaoh's cup in a dream that Joseph interprets explicitly. Prophetic cups of wrath demonstrate why no single favorable symbol fits every cup.
A teacher should name the particular owner, action and evaluation before moving toward application. The ordinary vessel does not independently establish a prosperity promise, a dream technique or the meaning of every sacramental passage. Keeping the selected cups within their accounts allows gratitude and provision to be taught without erasing judgment settings or changing separate wording elsewhere.
Ps.116.13
The licensed record contains a vessel and figurative portion range alongside separate bird wording. Selected BSB word rows identify the cups here; this study does not revise the record, merge bird and vessel uses or adjudicate their historical relationship.
Matthew 26:27-28 gives the cup meaning through Jesus' statement about His blood of the covenant and forgiveness. His own words establish that connection, rather than a general rule that every biblical cup has the same sacramental meaning. The selected psalms retain their own settings.