Hyssop

Occurrences in Scripture

• Exodus 12:22: On the night of the Passover, the Israelites dipped a bunch of hyssop in the lamb's blood and struck it on the lintel (the horizontal beam above the door) and the two side posts (the vertical posts on either side).
• Leviticus 14: This chapter describes the rite for cleansing a person healed of leprosy. The priest dips cedar wood, scarlet yarn, and hyssop, together with a living bird, in the blood of a slain bird and sprinkles the person seven times (vv. 4–7). The same procedure is used to cleanse a house in which a mold-like growth has spread (vv. 49–52).
• Numbers 19: Hyssop is cast into the fire in which the red heifer is burned (v. 6). Hyssop is also used to sprinkle the water of purification on the tent and on a person who has become unclean through contact with a dead body (v. 18).
• 1 Kings 4:33: The text records that Solomon spoke of plants "from the cedar tree that is in Lebanon even unto the hyssop that springeth out of the wall." The expression contrasts the greatest tree with the humblest plant.
• Psalm 51:7: "Purge me with hyssop, and I shall be clean: wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow." The superscription presents this psalm as composed by David after Nathan rebuked him for the matter of Bathsheba.
• John 19:29: When Jesus said, "I thirst," those present put a sponge soaked in vinegar upon hyssop and held it to His mouth.
• Hebrews 9:19: The writer states that when Moses established the covenant, he took blood and water, with scarlet wool and hyssop, and sprinkled both the book of the law and the people.

The Word and the Plant

The Hebrew term is ezov, and the Greek is hyssopos. Precisely which plant the word denotes cannot be determined. The herb known today in the West as hyssop is generally understood not to be native to the region of Palestine. For this reason, many scholars suggest that biblical hyssop was an aromatic herb of the marjoram group that grows in walls and rock crevices in the region, though this identification is likewise uncertain. A bundle of small-leaved, hairy plants would have been well suited to absorbing liquid and then sprinkling it.

Significance Across Scripture

In the Old Testament, hyssop is an instrument for sprinkling blood or water to remove uncleanness and to make individuals and the community clean before God. Psalm 51 borrows this ritual language and transforms it into a confession of repentance, asking God Himself to wash a heart defiled by sin.

In the New Testament, Hebrews contrasts the Old Testament sprinkling of blood with the New Covenant established through the blood of Christ (Hebrews 9). John's Gospel introduces Jesus as the Lamb of God and, in the crucifixion narrative, cites a regulation concerning the Passover lamb (John 1:29; 19:36). For this reason, many interpreters read the hyssop in the crucifixion scene in connection with the Passover of Exodus 12.

Interpretive Issues

• In their accounts of the same scene, Matthew 27:48 and Mark 15:36 refer to a "reed." Some have noted that a hyssop stalk would be too weak to lift a sponge, and certain scholars have therefore conjectured that the word in John should be emended to read "javelin" (Greek hyssos). The great majority of manuscripts, however, read "hyssop," and some interpreters hold that John used the word for its symbolic significance.
• The account of the covenant ratification in Exodus 24 does not mention hyssop or scarlet wool. Many interpreters understand Hebrews 9:19 as combining elements of the purification rites found in Numbers and Leviticus.
• Claims that hyssop possessed medicinal properties or a mystical power to purify are not part of what the text teaches. In Scripture, hyssop appears as an instrument for sprinkling blood and water.

In the Korean Church

Psalm 51:7 is frequently cited in sermons and prayers on the theme of repentance. In churches that follow the liturgical calendar, Psalm 51 is included in the lectionary (the Scripture readings appointed for each season) for Ash Wednesday, so this verse is often read in services marking the beginning of Lent.