What does מִזְרָק (mizĕrāq) mean in the Bible?
Bowl names a vessel, and its contents and setting identify how it is used. Exodus includes bronze sprinkling bowls among altar utensils.
Hebrew · H4219
מִזְרָק
Bowl names a vessel, and its contents and setting identify how it is used. Exodus includes bronze sprinkling bowls among altar utensils.
Reading a lexicon entry
What this page is: Each lexicon entry shows the original Hebrew or Greek word behind the English translation: its meaning, its range of use, and where it appears in Scripture.
Strong's number: The Strong's code (H- or G-) is the standard reference number for this word. It connects this entry to chapter and passage language tabs.
Where it appears: The witness passages show where this word is used in context. Click any to open the study page for that passage.
This lexicon entry is part of our ongoing editorial review. If you notice missing content, unclear wording, or a possible correction, please send us a note through theConnect page. Screenshots are helpful.
מִזְרָקH4219
Pronunciationmizĕrāq
What does מִזְרָק (mizĕrāq) mean in the Bible?
Reader summary
Full entry for מִזְרָק (H4219) · Open the biblical lexicon
Questions this entry answers
How does the BSB render H4219?
The BSB source-word alignment has 32 aligned rows for this entry. Common renderings include bowl (12), sprinkling bowls (7), and sprinkling bowls (5), bowls (3), [silver] bowl (1).
Where does מִזְרָק (mizĕrāq) appear in Scripture?
The source-word alignment first shows this entry at Exodus 27:3. Its strongest book concentrations include Numbers (15), 1 Kings (3), 2 Chronicles (3), 2 Kings (2).
What This Word Actually Means
Bowl names a vessel, and its contents and setting identify how it is used. Exodus includes bronze sprinkling bowls among altar utensils. Numbers describes a silver bowl filled with flour and oil as part of a leader's dedication offering, so the word does not always identify blood as the contents. Kings distinguishes temple repair spending from the making of these articles, and Jeremiah reports vessels carried away when the temple is plundered.
Amos uses bowlful drinking within a charge against luxurious indifference to Joseph's ruin. Zechariah compares ordinary cooking pots with altar bowls in its announced future scene. Keep these differing uses visible. The vessel itself cannot make every drink sinful, every expensive object holy or every current repair budget subject to the same ancient arrangement.
Its role must be read through actual service, contents and stated moral concern.
How the Bible Uses It
Altar utensils, flour-filled dedication gifts, repair priorities, plundered vessels, indifferent luxury and a holiness comparison supply distinct contexts. Contents and narrated evaluation determine the bowl's role.
- Exod.27.3
Make all its utensils of bronze—its pots for removing ashes, its shovels, its sprinkling bowls, its meat forks, and its firepans.
Sprinkling bowls are listed among the altar's bronze utensils, keeping the vessel within explicitly described sanctuary equipment.
- Num.7.13
His offering was one silver platter weighing a hundred and thirty shekels, and one silver bowl weighing seventy shekels, both according to the sanctuary shekel and filled with fine flour mixed with oil for a grain offering;
The named silver bowl contains fine flour mixed with oil for a grain offering, showing why the vessel's name alone cannot establish its contents.
- Amos.6.6
You drink wine by the bowlful and anoint yourselves with the finest oils, but you fail to grieve over the ruin of Joseph.
Drinking wine by the bowlful is charged alongside failure to grieve Joseph's ruin, preserving the passage's specific complaint against indifferent luxury.
Source Word Evidence
BSB source-word alignment connects this entry to exact verse rows, English rendering, source form, transliteration, and parsing.
How English Renders Itbowl12×Numbers 7:13, Numbers 7:19, Numbers 7:25, Numbers 7:31
sprinkling bowls7×Exodus 38:3, 1 Kings 7:50, 2 Kings 12:13, 1 Chronicles 28:17
and sprinkling bowls5×Numbers 4:14, 1 Kings 7:40, 1 Kings 7:45, 2 Kings 25:15
bowls3×Numbers 7:84, 2 Chronicles 4:8, Nehemiah 7:70
[silver] bowl1×Numbers 7:85
by the bowlful1×Amos 6:6
its sprinkling bowls1×Exodus 27:3
like sprinkling bowls1×Zechariah 9:15
like the sprinkling bowls1×Zechariah 14:20
Show sample aligned rows
Exodus 27:3וּמִזְרְקֹתָ֔יוtoits sprinkling bowlsConjunctive waw | Noun - masculine plural construct | third person masculine singularExodus 38:3הַמִּזְרָקֹ֔תtosprinkling bowlsArticle | Noun - masculine pluralNumbers 4:14הַמִּזְרָקֹ֔תtoand sprinkling bowlsArticle | Noun - masculine pluralNumbers 7:13מִזְרָ֤קtobowlNoun - masculine singular constructNumbers 7:19מִזְרָ֤קtobowlNoun - masculine singular constructNumbers 7:25מִזְרָ֤קtobowlNoun - masculine singular constructNumbers 7:31מִזְרָ֤קtobowlNoun - masculine singular constructNumbers 7:37מִזְרָ֤קtobowlNoun - masculine singular constructNumbers 7:43מִזְרָ֤קtobowlNoun - masculine singular constructNumbers 7:49מִזְרָ֤קtobowlNoun - masculine singular construct
Usage map
A compact distribution from source-word alignment before the full evidence tables.
First aligned rowExodus 27:3
Aligned rows32
Books represented10
Exodus2Numbers151 Kings32 Kings21 Chronicles12 Chronicles3Nehemiah1Jeremiah2Amos1Zechariah2
Source forms
מִזְרָ֤ק12xmiz·rāqNumbers 7:13, Numbers 7:19, Numbers 7:25, Numbers 7:31
וְהַמִּזְרָק֛וֹת3xwə·ham·miz·rā·qō·wṯ1 Kings 7:50, 1 Chronicles 28:17, 2 Chronicles 4:22
הַמִּזְרָק֗וֹת2xham·miz·rā·qō·wṯ1 Kings 7:45, 2 Kings 25:15
הַמִּזְרָקֹ֔ת2xham·miz·rā·qōṯExodus 38:3, Numbers 4:14
בְּמִזְרְקֵי֙1xbə·miz·rə·qêAmos 6:6
הַמִּזְרָ֣ק1xham·miz·rāqNumbers 7:85
הַמִּזְרָק֑וֹת1xham·miz·rā·qō·wṯ1 Kings 7:40
הַמִּזְרָק֜וֹת1xham·miz·rā·qō·wṯJeremiah 52:19
Parsing patterns
Noun - masculine singular construct12xNumbers 7:13, Numbers 7:19, Numbers 7:25, Numbers 7:31
Article | Noun - masculine plural8xExodus 38:3, Numbers 4:14, 1 Kings 7:40, 1 Kings 7:45
Conjunctive waw, Article | Noun - masculine plural3x1 Kings 7:50, 1 Chronicles 28:17, 2 Chronicles 4:22
Noun - masculine plural construct3xNumbers 7:84, 2 Chronicles 4:8, Nehemiah 7:70
Article | Noun - masculine singular1xNumbers 7:85
Conjunctive waw | Noun - masculine plural construct | third person masculine singular1xExodus 27:3
Noun - masculine plural1x2 Kings 12:13
Preposition-b | Noun - masculine plural construct1xAmos 6:6
Using This Word Well
Be careful not to...
- Attend to neglected people without issuing a private financial judgment from the container.
- Do not prescribe a complete contemporary worship budget or ritual from these selected vessel references.
Avoid claiming...
- Every occurrence names a blood-filled bowl or makes all costly vessels spiritually superior.
- The word alone condemns every drink, celebration or modern repair purchase.
Evidence Summary
Hebrew word. Ritual vessel for sprinkling blood or liquids; emphasizes cultic purification and covenant enactment
Source Gloss
a bowl (as if for sprinkling)
Extended definitionSource: Open Scriptures Hebrew Lexicon + Brown-Driver-Briggs
Ritual vessel for sprinkling blood or liquids; emphasizes cultic purification and covenant enactment
a bowl (as if for sprinkling) BDB: bowl Usage: bason, bowl.
Grammatical Forms
How this word appears across different grammatical cases and numbers.
Word Origins
מִזְרָק is built from this root:
For the Preacher and Teacher
The container does not settle the character of what it holds or the conduct of its users. Exodus names altar equipment, while Numbers explicitly fills a dedication bowl with flour and oil. Temple repair funds in Kings serve a named repair need rather than the making of new vessels, and Jeremiah later describes vessels taken away in the temple's destruction. Amos' bowlful wine belongs to luxurious people who fail to grieve over Joseph's ruin; the indictment includes their indifference rather than merely the existence of a bowl.
Zechariah's comparison places cooking pots alongside altar vessels in its announced holiness scene. Teach contents, circumstances and stated concerns together. Do not extract a universal purchasing rule from a particular repair arrangement, condemn every celebration from Amos' charge or assign present buildings guaranteed holiness through their furnishings.
Anchor passage
Num.7.13
Doctrinal connections
- Exodus 27:1-5 names sprinkling bowls among bronze altar utensils, attaching their material and use to the described sanctuary construction.
- Numbers 7:11-15 places Nahshon's flour-and-oil-filled silver bowl within the altar dedication offering, preserving contents and the named occasion.
- Second Kings 12:11-15 explains that repair money paid the workmen rather than making bowls and other articles, retaining the account's specific practical priority.
- Jeremiah 52:17-19 reports temple articles including bowls carried away to Babylon, naming actual loss rather than promising that sacred objects prevent destruction.
- Amos 6:4-8 condemns luxurious feasting joined with failure to grieve Joseph's ruin, keeping the explicit indifference and announced consequences together.
- Zechariah 14:20-21 compares cooking pots with altar bowls in its stated future scene, without identifying every present household vessel with that fulfillment.
The licensed Hebrew range identifies a bowl, including uses in sanctuary lists. A rendering such as sprinkling bowl describes the relevant setting, but the dedication account explicitly names flour and oil as contents. Read the actual contents and use instead of deriving them from the container's name alone.
From Old to New Testament
Revelation 5:8 describes golden bowls full of incense and explicitly connects the scene with the prayers of the saints. This later Greek vision supplies its own contents and explanation. Reading it alongside the Hebrew bowls preserves differing vessels and settings rather than making Numbers' grain offering an identical prayer symbol or treating every bowl in a household as a revealed spiritual instrument.