To rub with oil , i.e. to anoint ; by implication, to consecrate ; also to paint
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מָשַׁח (mashach) means to anoint — to rub or smear with oil as an act of consecration and commissioning. Its significance in the OT is not primarily the oil but what the oil signifies: the marking-out of a person for a specific role, and the pouring of the Spirit of YHWH upon the one so marked.
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Full entry for מָשַׁח (H4886) · Open the biblical lexicon
מָשַׁח (mashach) means to anoint — to rub or smear with oil as an act of consecration and commissioning. Its significance in the OT is not primarily the oil but what the oil signifies: the marking-out of a person for a specific role, and the pouring of the Spirit of YHWH upon the one so marked.
The BSB source-word alignment has 69 aligned rows for this entry. Common renderings include anoint (5), and anointed (4), anointed (3), coated (3), and anoint (2).
The source-word alignment first shows this entry at Genesis 31:13. Its strongest book concentrations include Exodus (12), Leviticus (8), Numbers (8), 1 Kings (7).
מָשַׁח (mashach) means to anoint — to rub or smear with oil as an act of consecration and commissioning. Its significance in the OT is not primarily the oil but what the oil signifies: the marking-out of a person for a specific role, and the pouring of the Spirit of YHWH upon the one so marked. The noun mashiach (H4899 — anointed one, Messiah) is derived from this verb, and carries the word's full weight into eschatological hope.
First Samuel 16:12-13 is the definitive anointing narrative: 'Samuel took the horn of oil and anointed him (David) in the midst of his brothers. And the Spirit of the Lord (ruach YHWH) rushed upon David from that day forward.' The structure of the event is determinative for all subsequent anointing theology: mashach (the oil applied to the person) is followed immediately by the rush of the ruach (Spirit). The oil does not contain the Spirit — but the anointing is the sign and occasion of the Spirit's coming. This is why mashiach (the anointed one) is always implicitly a Spirit-bearing figure: the one marked with oil is the one on whom the ruach has come.
Isaiah 61:1 gives mashach its prophetic-messianic form: 'The Spirit of YHWH is upon me, because YHWH has anointed me (meshachani) to bring good news to the poor; he has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives, and the opening of the prison to those who are bound.' The speaker of Isaiah 61 is a prophetic figure — possibly the Servant of Isaiah 42-53 in his Spirit-anointed mission. The mashach here is the divine commissioning of a specific saving-and-liberating mission. Luke 4:18-21 quotes this passage as the text of Jesus's inaugural sermon in Nazareth: 'Today this Scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing.' Jesus applies Isaiah 61:1's mashach to himself: he is the one YHWH has anointed to bring good news, bind the brokenhearted, proclaim liberty.
Psalm 2:2 gives mashach its royal-messianic form: 'The kings of the earth set themselves, and the rulers take counsel together, against YHWH and against his mashiach (anointed one).' The mashiach of Psalm 2 is the Davidic king who is YHWH's son (v. 7: 'You are my Son; today I have begotten you') and the heir of the nations (v. 8: 'Ask of me, and I will make the nations your heritage'). Psalm 2 is the royal psalm that opens the entire Psalter's messianic trajectory. Acts 4:25-26 and 13:33 apply it to Jesus explicitly.
For the preacher, מָשַׁח (mashach) gives the congregation the word that names what the Messiah is: the one anointed by YHWH for a specific mission, marked by the Spirit, and sent to accomplish what no human effort could achieve. The anointed one is not self-appointed but YHWH-appointed; the Spirit is not self-generated but poured from above.
מָשַׁח (mashach) appears in the local Hebrew index about 69 times. Its theological center is the anointing of kings (Saul, David, Solomon), priests (Exod 28-30, 40), prophets (Elisha, 1 Kgs 19:16), and the eschatological Anointed One (Ps 2:2, Isa 61:1, Dan 9:25). First Samuel 16:13 gives the defining structure: mashach followed by ruach — the oil-sign accompanied by the Spirit's rush. Isaiah 61:1 and Luke 4:18-21 give the mashach its fullest messianic-mission form.
So Samuel took the horn of oil and anointed him in the presence of his brothers, and the Spirit of the Lord rushed upon David from that day forward. Then Samuel set out and went to Ramah.
The defining anointing event: 'vayiqqach Shemuel et-qeren ha-shemen va-yimshach oto... va-titshlach ruach YHWH el-David mi-hayom ha-hu va-maalah (Samuel took the horn of oil and anointed him... and the Spirit of YHWH rushed on David from that day and onward).' The mashach-ruach sequence is the theological structure of the Davidic anointing: the physical oil (qeren ha-shemen — the horn of oil) is followed immediately by the ruach.
The anointing of David at Bethlehem in the midst of his brothers, overlooked by the world's selection criteria (v. 7 — 'man looks on the outward appearance, but YHWH looks on the heart'), is the pattern for the eschatological Anointed One who is also overlooked by the world (Isa 53:3: 'he was despised and rejected by men').
The Spirit of the Lord God is on Me, because the Lord has anointed Me to preach good news to the poor. He has sent Me to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives and freedom to the prisoners,
The Spirit-anointing and mission of the prophetic servant: 'ruach Adonai YHWH alai, yaan mashach YHWH oti le-vasser anavim (the Spirit of the Lord YHWH is upon me, because YHWH has anointed me to bring good news to the poor).' The mashach is the ground of the mission (yaan — because); the Spirit (ruach) is the empowerment. Luke 4:18-21 quotes this as Jesus's Nazareth inaugural: 'Today this Scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing.'
Acts 10:38 gives the theological explanation: 'God anointed (echriesen) Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Spirit and with power. He went about doing good and healing all who were oppressed by the devil, for God was with him.' The mashach of Isaiah 61:1 is the Jordan-baptism anointing of Jesus (Luke 3:21-22), where the Spirit descends and the Father speaks.
The kings of the earth take their stand and the rulers gather together, against the Lord and against His Anointed One:
The mashiach as the target of the nations' revolt: 'al YHWH ve-al meshicho (against YHWH and against his anointed).' Psalm 2's mashiach is the Davidic king who is YHWH's son (v. 7 — 'You are my Son') and whom YHWH installs on Zion (v. 6) and will give the nations as his heritage (v. 8). The nations' conspiracy against YHWH and his mashiach is YHWH's occasion for laughter (v.
4 — 'He who sits in the heavens laughs; YHWH holds them in derision'). Acts 4:25-28 quotes Psalm 2:1-2 as fulfilled in the Herod-Pilate-Gentile-Israel conspiracy against Jesus: 'they gathered together against your holy servant Jesus, whom you anointed.'
Take the anointing oil and anoint the tabernacle and everything in it; consecrate it along with all its furnishings, and it shall be holy.
The mashach of the tabernacle and its furnishings: 'velaqachta et-shemen ha-mishchah u-mashachta et-ha-mishkan ve-et kol-asher bo (you shall take the anointing oil and anoint the tabernacle and all that is in it).' The same verb that anoints kings and the Messiah also consecrates the tabernacle: the mashach marks out for YHWH's exclusive use. Exodus 30:22-29 specifies the sacred anointing oil (shemen mishchat qodesh) composed of myrrh, cinnamon, aromatic cane, and cassia — not to be replicated for ordinary use (Exod 30:32: 'it shall not be poured on the body of an ordinary person').
The mashach of the tabernacle is the consecrating act that transforms ordinary materials into holy vessels for YHWH's presence.
Know and understand this: From the issuance of the decree to restore and rebuild Jerusalem until the Messiah, the Prince, there will be seven weeks and sixty-two weeks. It will be rebuilt with streets and a trench, but in times of distress.
The eschatological mashiach in Daniel's seventy-weeks oracle: 'ad mashiach nagid shivah shavuim (to anointed one, a prince, seven weeks).' Daniel 9:25-26 is the OT's most chronologically specific mashiach text — the coming of 'an anointed one, a prince' followed by his cutting off ('after the sixty-two weeks, an anointed one shall be cut off and shall have nothing').
The 'cutting off' (yikaret, from karat, H3772) of the mashiach is the OT's closest approach to the language of vicarious death for the anointed one. The NT reads Daniel 9:25-26 as fulfilled in Christ's coming and death.
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Hebrew word. Anointing with oil consecrates a person or object for divine service or royal office.
Anointing with oil consecrates a person or object for divine service or royal office.
to rub with oil, i.e. to anoint; by implication, to consecrate; also to paint BDB: smear Usage: anoint, paint.
How the stem changes the meaning of this verb across the biblical text.
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מָשַׁח is a primitive root - no further derivation.
Compound and idiomatic phrases that include this word. Follow a link to study the phrase and how its parts work together.
מָשַׁח (mashach) is the verb that names the Messiah. The mashiach (anointed one) is not a title the Messiah gives himself but the identity YHWH assigns through the act of anointing — and in decisive royal and messianic contexts the anointing is joined to the ruach (Spirit). First Samuel 16:13 gives the structural pattern: Samuel pours the oil; the Spirit rushes on David.
The oil without the Spirit is ritual; the Spirit evidenced by the oil-anointing is theological reality. Isaiah 61:1 gives the mission form: 'because YHWH has anointed me' is the ground for all that follows — the good news, the binding of the brokenhearted, the liberty, the jubilee-proclamation. The mashach is the cause; the mission is the effect. Luke 4:18 and Acts 10:38 both make explicit that Jesus's mashach was the Jordan-baptism event (the Spirit descending as a dove, the Father's voice) — the oil is no longer literal but the ruach-anointing is the same reality.
For the congregation, the Christ (Christos) is simply the Greek translation of mashiach: every time the congregation confesses 'Jesus Christ,' they are confessing 'Jesus the mashiach' — Jesus the oil-and-Spirit-anointed one, commissioned by YHWH for the mission of Isaiah 61:1, installed on Zion as the royal Son of Psalm 2, and at whose anointing all nations will either submit or shatter.
1Sam.16.13
מָשַׁח (mashach, H4886) produces the noun מָשִׁיחַ (mashiach, H4899 — anointed one), appearing in a focused set of OT covenant contexts. The word enters Greek in John as Messias (G3323), a transliteration, and is translated as Christos (G5547 — from chriein, to rub or smear) — the Greek equivalent that appears over 500 times in the NT. The anointing oil (shemen ha-mishchah, the oil of anointing) is specified in Exod 30:22-33 as a distinct sacred compound.
In the NT, the Spirit-anointing connection (mashach = ruach) is made explicit in Acts 10:38 ('God anointed [echriesen] Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Spirit and with power') and 2 Corinthians 1:21 ('it is God who establishes us with you in Christ and has anointed [chrisas] us'). First John 2:20 applies the anointing to believers: 'you have been anointed (chrisma) by the Holy One, and you all have knowledge' — the congregation shares in the mashiach's anointing through the Spirit.
Luke 4:18-21 is the NT's explicit application of Isaiah 61:1's mashach to Jesus: Jesus reads the Isaiah text in the Nazareth synagogue and says 'Today this Scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing.' Acts 10:38 gives Peter's mashach-summary: 'God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Spirit and with power.' Acts 4:25-28 applies Psalm 2:1-2 ('against YHWH and against his anointed') to the Herod-Pilate-Jewish-Gentile conspiracy that crucified Jesus.
John 1:41 is the one NT passage where Messias appears untranslated: Andrew tells Peter 'We have found the Messiah (Messian), which means Christ (Christos)' — the only place in the NT where the Hebrew Messiah and the Greek Christ are explicitly equated by definition. Hebrews 1:9 quotes Psalm 45:7 ('God, your God, has anointed you [echriosen] with the oil of gladness beyond your companions') as applied to the Son — the mashach of the Davidic king is fulfilled in the Son's eternal anointing.
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