Food is what people or animals eat, but whether it should be taken depends on the surrounding instruction. Genesis describes trees that are pleasing to the eye and good for food in the garden God plants.
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Full entry for מַאֲכָל (H3978) · Open the biblical lexicon
Food is what people or animals eat, but whether it should be taken depends on the surrounding instruction. Genesis describes trees that are pleasing to the eye and good for food in the garden God plants.
The BSB source-word alignment has 30 aligned rows for this entry. Common renderings include food (5), for food (5), of food (3), as food (2), the food (2).
The source-word alignment first shows this entry at Genesis 2:9. Its strongest book concentrations include Genesis (4), Jeremiah (4), Ezekiel (3), Psalms (3).
Food is what people or animals eat, but whether it should be taken depends on the surrounding instruction. Genesis describes trees that are pleasing to the eye and good for food in the garden God plants. Before the flood, Noah receives a command to gather food for his household and the animals. Deuteronomy distinguishes trees that can supply food from other trees when regulating the actions of an army during a siege.
The noun names material nourishment; it does not independently decide permission, ownership or holiness. A reader should notice the provider, those who need to eat and any command governing access. Food's usefulness remains real, yet usefulness alone is not a moral authorization to consume or destroy whatever is available.
Garden provision, ark supplies and protection of food-bearing trees situate nourishment within different divine instructions. The food noun identifies what sustains life without replacing those instructions.
Out of the ground the Lord God gave growth to every tree that is pleasing to the eye and good for food. And in the middle of the garden were the tree of life and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.
God makes trees grow that are attractive and good for food, locating nourishment within the garden's created provision.
You are also to take for yourself every kind of food that is eaten and gather it as food for yourselves and for the animals.”
Noah must gather food for people and animals, a specific provision command within the ark instructions.
But you may destroy the trees that you know do not produce fruit. Use them to build siege works against the city that is waging war against you, until it falls.
The siege instruction distinguishes trees not producing food from the fruit trees protected in the preceding verse.
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. Concrete sustenance category encompassing all consumable forms: grain, meat, fruit, provisions for physical survival.
Concrete sustenance category encompassing all consumable forms: grain, meat, fruit, provisions for physical survival.
an eatable (includ. provender, flesh and fruit) BDB: food Usage: food, fruit, (bake-)meat(-s), victual.
How this word appears across different grammatical cases and numbers.
מַאֲכָל is built from this root:
Compound and idiomatic phrases that include this word. Follow a link to study the phrase and how its parts work together.
Noah's food gathering includes the animals as well as his household. That detail keeps the ark instructions material and specific: survival involves supplied nourishment, not merely an abstract lesson about preparedness. Genesis's garden similarly presents food among God's created gifts, while later instructions distinguish permitted and forbidden eating. Deuteronomy's siege rules recognize the continuing value of food-bearing trees even within destructive conflict.
A responsible explanation therefore pays attention to both nourishment and restraint. The ordinary food noun can support a reading about provision because the passages name God as provider or instructor; it cannot authorize a teacher to prescribe every reader's diet. Practical care for hunger follows the actual need to eat, while moral claims require the commands and relationships of the particular passage.
Gen.6.21
The Hebrew noun supplies a broad food category rather than a complete list of permitted items. An adjective describing food's desirability does not override a command about whether to eat.
Matthew 6 addresses anxiety about food and points to the Father's care. That explicit teaching can be compared with Genesis's material provision; it does not promise that Noah's exact storage instructions apply to every household or eliminate practical help for hunger.