zavach · sacrifice

What it means

zavach (זָבַח) is a Hebrew word of the Bible that means “sacrifice”.

Slaughter an animal to offer it to God.

How to say it

Approximate pronunciation. Vowels sound as in Spanish (a as in father, e as in bed, i as in machine, o as in note, u as in rule); the syllable in bold is stressed. The voice is your device's.

Its senses in the Bible

1. To kill an animal as a gift to God or other gods.
2. To slaughter an animal to eat.

From Brown-Driver-Briggs (1906)

Word study

To sacrifice: to slaughter an animal, usually as an offering. BDB: to slaughter an animal, usually in sacrifice. From the same root come זֶבַח, “sacrifice” (H2077), and מִזְבֵּחַ, “altar”.

• “That we may sacrifice to YHWH our Elohim” Exodus 3:18
• The altar of earth on which to sacrifice Exodus 20:24
• Sacrificing the Passover Deuteronomy 16:2
• Solomon sacrifices before the ark 1 Kings 8:5
• Sacrificing to other gods Psalms 106:37

How we translate it

“Sacrifice” 62 times, “sacrificed” 41, “sacrificing” 17, “one who sacrifices” 3, “sacrifices” 3, and “offer” or “offered” a few times. This edition sets זבח = “sacrifice”, so that verb and noun (זֶבַח, “sacrifice”) are seen to be the same word.

How it is translated

The words this translation uses for it, most frequent first.

• sacrifice ×62
• sacrificed ×41
• sacrificing ×17
• one who sacrifices ×3
• sacrifices ×3
• Offer ×2
• offered ×2
• they offered ×2
• while he was offering ×1
• you butcher ×1

Related words

Words of the same family, by Strong’s numbering.

Where it appears

• Genesis×2
• Exodus×18
• Leviticus×8
• Numbers×1
• Deuteronomy×12
• Joshua×1
• Judges×2
• 1 Samuel×14
• 2 Samuel×2
• 1 Kings×15
• 2 Kings×8
• 1 Chronicles×3
• 2 Chronicles×14
• Ezra×1
• Nehemiah×2
• Psalms×9
• Ecclesiastes×2
• Isaiah×3
• Ezekiel×5
• Hosea×6
• Jonah×2
• Habakkuk×1
• Zechariah×1
• Malachi×2

• Genesis 31:54

  Then Jacob offered a sacrifice on the mountain and called his brothers to eat bread; they ate bread and spent the night on the mountain.

• Genesis 46:1

  Israel set out with all that he had, and came to Beersheba, and offered sacrifices to the Elohim of his father Isaac.

• Exodus 3:18

  They will listen to your voice; and you shall come, you and the elders of Israel, to the king of Egypt and say to him, ‘YHWH, the Elohim of the Hebrews, has met with us. And now, please let us go a journey of three days into the wilderness, that we may sacrifice to YHWH our Elohim.’

• Exodus 5:3

  They said, “The Elohim of the Hebrews has met with us. Please let us go a journey of three days into the wilderness and sacrifice to YHWH our Elohim, or he will fall upon us with pestilence or with the sword.”

• Exodus 5:8

  But the quota of bricks that they were making before you shall impose on them; you shall not reduce any of it, for they are lazy; that is why they cry out, saying, ‘Let us go and sacrifice to our Elohim.’

• Exodus 5:17

  He said, “You are lazy, lazy! That is why you say, ‘Let us go and sacrifice to YHWH.’

• Exodus 8:8

  Then Pharaoh called Moses and Aaron and said, “Pray to YHWH that he remove the frogs from me and from my people, and I will let the people go, that they may sacrifice to YHWH.”

• Exodus 8:25

  Then Pharaoh called to Moses and to Aaron and said, “Go, sacrifice to your Elohim in the land.”

• Exodus 8:26

  But Moses said, “It is not right to do so, for what we sacrifice to YHWH our Elohim is an abomination to the Egyptians. If we sacrifice what is an abomination to the Egyptians before their eyes, will they not stone us?

• Exodus 8:27

  We will go a journey of three days into the wilderness and sacrifice to YHWH our Elohim as he tells us.”

• Exodus 8:28

  Pharaoh said, “I will let you go, that you may sacrifice to YHWH your Elohim in the wilderness; only you must not go very far away. Pray for me.”

• Exodus 8:29

  Moses said, “Look, I am going out from you, and I will pray to YHWH, and the swarms of flies will depart from Pharaoh, from his servants, and from his people tomorrow. Only let Pharaoh not again deal deceitfully by not letting the people go to sacrifice to YHWH.”

• Exodus 13:15

  When Pharaoh hardened himself against letting us go, YHWH killed every firstborn in the land of Egypt, both the firstborn of people and the firstborn of animals. That is why I sacrifice to YHWH every first offspring of the womb that is male, but every firstborn of my sons I ransom.’

• Exodus 20:24

  An altar of earth you shall make for me, and you shall sacrifice on it your burnt offerings and your peace offerings, your flocks and your herds; in every place where I cause my name to be remembered I will come to you and bless you.

• Exodus 22:20

  Whoever sacrifices to gods, other than to YHWH alone, shall be devoted to destruction.

• Exodus 23:18

  You shall not offer the blood of my sacrifice with leavened bread, and the fat of my feast shall not remain until morning.

• Exodus 24:5

  He sent young men of the sons of Israel, and they offered burnt offerings and sacrificed bulls as sacrifices of peace to YHWH.

• Exodus 32:8

  They have turned aside quickly from the way that I commanded them; they have made for themselves a calf of cast metal and have bowed down to it and sacrificed to it and said, ‘These are your gods, Israel, who brought you up out of the land of Egypt!’”

• Exodus 34:15

  Lest you make a covenant with the inhabitants of the land, and they prostitute themselves after their gods and sacrifice to their gods, and someone invites you, and you eat of his sacrifice,

• Leviticus 9:4

  and an ox and a ram for peace offerings, to sacrifice before YHWH, and a grain offering mixed with oil; for today YHWH will appear to you.’”

• Leviticus 17:5

  This is so that the sons of Israel bring their sacrifices that they are sacrificing in the open field, that they bring them to YHWH, to the entrance of the tent of meeting, to the priest, and sacrifice them as sacrifices of peace to YHWH.

• Leviticus 17:7

  So they shall no longer sacrifice their sacrifices to the goats after which they prostitute themselves. This shall be a statute forever for them throughout their generations.

• Leviticus 19:5

  And when you sacrifice a sacrifice of peace to YHWH, you shall sacrifice it so that you are accepted.

• Leviticus 22:29

  And when you sacrifice a sacrifice of thanksgiving to YHWH, you shall sacrifice it so that you are accepted.

• Numbers 22:40

  And Balak sacrificed oxen and sheep and sent some to Balaam and to the princes who were with him.

• Deuteronomy 12:15

  However, with all the desire of your soul you may sacrifice and eat meat according to the blessing of YHWH your Elohim that he has given you within all your gates; the unclean and the clean may eat it, as they eat the gazelle and the deer.

• Deuteronomy 12:21

  If the place that YHWH your Elohim chooses to put his name there is far from you, then you may sacrifice from your herd and from your flock that YHWH has given you, as I have commanded you, and you may eat within your gates with all the desire of your soul.

• Deuteronomy 15:21

  But if it has a defect, if it is lame or blind, any bad defect, you shall not sacrifice it to YHWH your Elohim.

• Deuteronomy 16:2

  And you shall sacrifice the Passover to YHWH your Elohim, from the flock and the herd, in the place that YHWH chooses to make his name dwell there.

• Deuteronomy 16:4

  And no leaven shall be seen with you in all your territory for seven days, and none of the meat that you sacrifice in the evening on the first day shall remain all night until morning.

• Deuteronomy 16:5

  You may not sacrifice the Passover in any one of your gates that YHWH your Elohim is giving you,

• Deuteronomy 16:6

  but at the place that YHWH your Elohim chooses to make his name dwell there, there you shall sacrifice the Passover in the evening, at the going down of the sun, at the appointed time of your coming out of Egypt.

• Deuteronomy 17:1

  You shall not sacrifice to YHWH your Elohim an ox or a lamb that has a defect, anything bad, for it is an abomination to YHWH your Elohim.

• Deuteronomy 18:3

  And this shall be the due of the priests from the people, from those who sacrifice the sacrifice, whether an ox or a lamb: he shall give to the priest the shoulder, the two cheeks, and the stomach.

• Deuteronomy 27:7

  And you shall sacrifice peace offerings and eat there and rejoice before YHWH your Elohim.

• Deuteronomy 32:17

  They sacrificed to demons, who are not Eloah, to gods they had not known, new ones who came from nearby, whom your fathers did not dread.

• Deuteronomy 33:19

  Peoples to the mountain they will call; there they will sacrifice sacrifices of righteousness, for they will suck the abundance of the seas and the hidden treasures of the sand.”

• Joshua 8:31

  just as Moses the servant of YHWH had commanded the sons of Israel, as it is written in the book of the instruction of Moses: an altar of whole stones, on which no iron had been lifted. And they offered up on it burnt offerings to YHWH, and sacrificed peace offerings.

• Judges 2:5

  They called the name of that place Bochim, and they sacrificed there to YHWH.

• Judges 16:23

  Now the lords of the Philistines gathered to sacrifice a great sacrifice to Dagon their god and to rejoice, and they said, “Our god has given into our hand Samson our enemy.”

And 94 more times.