Evidence for the Cupped Hand in Ancient Israel
Turning to the biblical record, the concept of filling the (cupped) hand
was intricately linked with priestly consecration in service to Yahweh. Rendered
as “consecrate” throughout the King James Version (KJV), the Hebrew idiom מלא את-יד
describes the action Aaron was to perform in inaugurating his male descendants into
the priesthood. The phrase means literally “fill the hand” and is coupled with
the verb קדש (“sanctify”) in passages such as Exodus 29:33 KJV: “And they [the
Aaronic priests] shall eat those things wherewith the atonement was made, to consecrate
[מלא את-יד] and to sanctify [קדש} them: but a stranger shall not eat thereof,
because they are holy.” Additional passages from the Pentateuch providing instruction
on the consecration of Aaronic priests interchange the verbs מלא (את-יד) and קדש,
thus reinforcing the unmistakable relation the ritual action of filling the
hand had with priestly service.
|
“fill the hand” // מלא את-יד |
“sanctify” // קדש |
|
Exodus 28:41 |
Exodus 19:22-23 |
|
Exodus 29:9, 29, 33 |
Exodus 28:3 |
|
Exodus 32:29 |
Exodus 29:33 |
|
Leviticus 8:33 |
Exodus 30:30 |
|
Leviticus 16:32 |
Exodus 40:13 |
|
Leviticus 21:10 |
Leviticus 8:11-12 |
|
Numbers 3:3 |
Leviticus 21:8 |
Besides the “Hand” (יד), the Pentateuch also describes the “palm” (כף)
being filled with cultic offerings for Yahweh. Among the offerings listed
throughout Numbers 7 (verses 14, 20, 26, 32, 38, 44, 50, 56, 62, 68, 74, 80),
for instance, is the כף “filled with incense” (מלאה קטרת). Rendered “spoon” in
the KJV or “dish” in contemporary translations, כף is, in fact, “the common
word for the hollow part of the hand” is “used to indicate a shallow bowl used
as a censer, for burning incense.” Such dishes are “mentioned in variously
priestly texts in the Pentateuch (e.g., Exodus 25:29; Numbers 4:7) dealing with
the tabernacle, and they appear in other parts of the Bible in relationship to temple
equipment (see 1 Kings 7:50; 2 Kings 24:15).” (Meyers, “Incense Dish,” 3:410) (Stephen
O. Smoot, “The Symbolism of the Cupped Hand in Ancient Egypt and Israel:
Iconography, Text, and Artifact,” in The Temple: Symbols, Sermons, and
Settings [Temple on Mount Zion Series 5; Orem, Utah: The Interpreter
Foundation, 2023], 170-72)
Further Reading:
