What does "Frankincense" mean in the Bible?
Frankincense, a vegetable resin, brittle, glittering, and of a bitter taste, used for the purpose of sacrificial fumigation. Frankincense appears in 17 verses across 7 books of the Bible.
What does the Bible say about Frankincense?
a vegetable resin, brittle, glittering, and of a bitter taste, used for the purpose of sacrificial fumigation. (Exodus 30:34-36) It was called frank because of the freeness with which, when burned, it gives forth its odor. It burns for a long time, with a steady flame. It is obtained by successive incisions in the bark of a tree called Arbor thuris . The first incision yields the purest and whitest resin, while the product of the after incisions is spotted with yellow, and loses its whiteness altogether as it becomes old. The Hebrews imported their frankincense from Arabia, (Isaiah 60:6; Jeremiah 6:20) and more particularly from Saba; but it is remarkable that at present the Arabian libanum or olibanum is a very inferior kind, and that the finest frankincense imported into Turkey comes through Arabia from the islands of the Indian Archipelago. There can be little doubt that the tree which produces the Indian frankincense is the Boswellia serrata of Roxburgh, or Boswellia thurifera of Colebrooke, and bears some resemblance when young to the mountain ash. It grows to be forty feet high.
Definition text: Smith's Bible Dictionary · 1863. Public domain.
Compiled by Protos: the verse list on this page. Where one name belongs to more than one person or place, each of them gets a separate entry.
What is the Hebrew word for Frankincense?
Where does Frankincense appear in the Bible?
Frankincense is referenced in 17 verses across 7 books. Every passage below is about this one, not just every verse the word turns up in.
- 1 Chronicles 9:29
- Isaiah 43:23
- Isaiah 66:3
- Jeremiah 6:20
- Jeremiah 17:26
- Leviticus 2:1
- Leviticus 2:2
- Leviticus 2:15
- Leviticus 2:16
- Leviticus 5:11
- Leviticus 6:15
- Leviticus 24:7
- Nehemiah 13:5
- Nehemiah 13:9
- Numbers 5:15
- Song of Songs 3:6
- Song of Songs 4:6
What else appears in these passages?
These turn up in the same passages as Frankincense.
Common questions
How many times does the Bible mention Frankincense?
Frankincense appears in 17 verses across 7 books, most often in Leviticus, which accounts for 7 of them.
Which books of the Bible mention Frankincense?
Leviticus, Isaiah, Jeremiah, Nehemiah, Song of Songs, 1 Chronicles, Numbers.
Where can I read every verse about Frankincense?
This page lists 17 of them. Protos carries all 17, and opens this entry on the verse you are reading rather than in a separate tab.
