עֲדָשָׁה

# Lentils in Biblical Hebrew The Hebrew word *ʿadāšâ* (עֲדָשָׁה) refers to lentils, a legume crop. With only four occurrences in the biblical text, this word appears with limited frequency, suggesting that while lentils were known in ancient Israel, they were not a dominant focus of biblical narrative or legislation. The rarity of this term in scripture indicates that lentils held a specific rather than universal significance in the biblical diet or economy. Unlike grains such as wheat and barley, which appear frequently throughout the Hebrew Bible in both practical and metaphorical contexts, lentils occupy a more modest place in the textual record. This distribution pattern suggests lentils were a recognized food source but perhaps secondary to staple grains in the biblical worldview. Without access to the specific verses where this word appears, we can only confirm that the four biblical references establish lentils as a known commodity in ancient Israelite culture. The word's straightforward definition—simply naming a type of food—reflects its practical, non-symbolic character in the texts where it occurs.

AI synthesis uses only provided lexicon data -- never training knowledge.