Leaven
חָמֵץStrong’s H2557chamets (cha-mets)
Appears in 11 verses of the Old Testament
In short
Chamets is the Hebrew word usually translated “leaven” and “from a thing leavened”. It appears in 11 verses of the Old Testament.
“Seven days shall ye eat unleavened bread; even the first day ye shall put away leaven out of your houses: for whosoever eateth leavened bread from the first day until the seventh day, that soul shall be cut off from Israel.”
Meaning
- The thing leavened, leaven
How it's translated
- leaven 10
- from a thing leavened 1
Word-by-word English from the STEPBible tagged text.
Where it's used most
- Exodus 5
- Leviticus 4
- Deuteronomy 1
- Amos 1
4 books in all.
Explore in Scripture
- Exodus 13:3And Moses said unto the people, Remember this day, in which ye came out from Egypt, out of the house of bondage; for by strength of hand the LORD brought you out from this place: there shall no leavened bread be eaten.
- Exodus 13:7Unleavened bread shall be eaten seven days; and there shall no leavened bread be seen with thee, neither shall there be leaven seen with thee in all thy quarters.
- Exodus 23:18Thou shalt not offer the blood of my sacrifice with leavened bread; neither shall the fat of my sacrifice remain until the morning.
- Exodus 34:25Thou shalt not offer the blood of my sacrifice with leaven; neither shall the sacrifice of the feast of the passover be left unto the morning.
- Leviticus 2:11No meat offering, which ye shall bring unto the LORD, shall be made with leaven: for ye shall burn no leaven, nor any honey, in any offering of the LORD made by fire.
- Leviticus 6:17It shall not be baken with leaven. I have given it unto them for their portion of my offerings made by fire; it is most holy, as is the sin offering, and as the trespass offering.
Hebrew dictionary
חָמֵץ chamets · leaven
the thing leavened, leaven
From STEPBible’s Hebrew lexicon (based on Brown-Driver-Briggs).
Webster's 1828 Dictionary
How the English word “leaven” was understood when the King James Version was still the common Bible of English readers.
LEAVEN, noun
lev'n. [Latin levo, Eng. to lift.]
- A mass of sour dough, which, mixed with a larger quantity of dough or paste, produces fermentation in it and renders it light. Exodus 12:15
- Any thing which makes a general change in the mass.“Beware of the leaven of the Pharisees and of the Sadducees” Matthew 16:6
All definitions and other forms of “leaven”
LEAVEN, verb transitive
lev'n.
- To excite fermentation in; to raise and make light, as dough or paste.“A little leaven leaveneth the whole lump” 1 Corinthians 5:6
- to taint; to imbue.
Noah Webster, An American Dictionary of the English Language (1828). Verse references are checked against the KJV. Read the full entry.
Verses are from the King James Version. Word meanings come from the original Hebrew, not from any one translation.