What
is hyssop?
Hyssop,
a herb in the mint family with cleansing, medicinal, and flavoring properties,
was prolific in the Middle East and was used in a variety of ways.
The
Bible mentions hyssop several times, mostly in the Old Testament. In Leviticus,
God commanded His people to use hyssop in the ceremonial cleansing of people
and houses. In one example, God tells the priests to use hyssop together with
cedar wood, scarlet yarn, and the blood of a clean bird to sprinkle a person
recently healed from a skin disease (likely leprosy). This act would
ceremonially cleanse the formerly diseased person and allow him to reenter the
camp.
The
same method was used to purify a house that had previously contained mold.
Hyssop
is also used symbolically in the Bible. When the Israelites marked their
doorposts with lamb’s blood in order for the angel of death to pass over them,
God instructed them to use a bunch of hyssop as a “paintbrush”.
This
was probably because hyssop was sturdy and could withstand the brushing, but it
also likely signified that God was marking His people as “pure” and not targets
of the judgment God was about to deal out to the Egyptians.
From
gotquestionsdotorg
___________
Psalm
51;7
Purify
me with hyssop, and I shall be clean; Wash me, and I shall be whiter
than snow.
Exodus
12;22
You
shall take a bunch of hyssop and dip it in the blood which is in the
basin, and apply some of the blood that is in the basin to the lintel and the
two doorposts; and none of you shall go outside the door of his house until
morning.
Leviticus
14;4
then
the priest shall give orders to take two live clean birds and cedar wood and a
scarlet string and hyssop for the one who is to be cleansed.
Leviticus
14;6
As
for the live
bird, he shall take it together with the cedar wood and the scarlet string and
the hyssop, and shall dip them and the live bird in the blood of the
bird that was slain over the running water.
Leviticus
14;49
To
cleanse the house then, he shall take two birds and cedar wood and a scarlet
string and hyssop.
Leviticus
14;51
Then
he shall take the cedar wood and the hyssop and the scarlet string, with
the live bird, and dip them in the blood of the slain bird as well as in the
running water, and sprinkle the house seven times.
Leviticus
14;52
He
shall thus cleanse the house with the blood of the bird and with the running
water, along with the live bird and with the cedar wood and with the hyssop
and with the scarlet string.
Numbers
19;6
The
priest shall take cedar wood and hyssop and scarlet material and
cast it into the midst of the burning heifer.
Numbers
19;18
A
clean person shall take hyssop and dip it in the water, and
sprinkle it on the tent and on all the furnishings and on the persons
who were there, and on the one who touched the bone or the one slain or the one
dying naturally or the grave.
1
Kings 4;33
He
spoke of trees, from the cedar that is in Lebanon even to the hyssop
that grows on the wall; he spoke also of animals and birds and creeping things
and fish.
Psalm
51;7
Purify
me with hyssop, and I shall be clean; Wash me, and I shall be whiter
than snow.
John
19;29
A
jar full of sour wine was standing there; so they put a sponge full of the sour
wine upon a branch of hyssop and brought it up to His mouth.
Hebrews
9;19
For
when every commandment had been spoken by Moses to all the people according to
the Law, he took the blood of the calves and the goats, with water and scarlet
wool and hyssop, and sprinkled both the book itself and all the people