Definition:
A primitive Hebrew verb meaning “to be fat” or “to grow fat,” but with fascinating ceremonial applications. In Exodus 27:3, it refers to removing fat ashes from sacrificial altars. The word carries dual meanings of physical abundance and spiritual satisfaction, connecting God’s blessing with both material prosperity and ceremonial purity.
What This Word Actually Means
When you encounter דָּשֵׁן (dashen) in Scripture, you’re looking at a word that bridges the physical and spiritual worlds in ways that would have been immediately obvious to ancient Hebrew speakers. At its core, dashen means “to be fat” – but not in our modern, negative sense. In the ancient Near East, fatness represented health, prosperity, and divine blessing.
The word appears in Exodus 27:3 in a fascinating ceremonial context: “You shall make its pails for removing its ashes” (לְדַשְּׁנוֹ – l’dashno). Here, dashen specifically refers to removing the fat ashes from burnt offerings on the bronze altar. This wasn’t just maintenance work – it was a sacred act of preparing the altar for fresh sacrifices.
The Hebrew mind would have immediately connected the physical act of removing “fat” ashes (the rich residue of accepted sacrifices) with the spiritual concept of fatness as God’s blessing. The word picture suggests both physical fatness (healthy livestock) and metaphorical fatness (prosperity, blessing, abundance).
The Word Behind the Word
Dashen comes from a primitive Hebrew root that’s all about abundance and richness. The root meaning encompasses being fat, growing fat, fattening, anointing, and satisfying – all concepts that ancient Hebrews associated with divine favor.
Etymology Alert
The root דשן connects to the noun deshen (H1880), meaning “fatness” or “fat ashes.” This word family carries the idea of richness, fertility, and the residue of accepted worship. Think of it as the linguistic DNA of abundance.
What’s particularly interesting is how this word bridges the gap between the physical and ceremonial. The connection between “fat” and “ashes” isn’t arbitrary – fat ashes were the rich, oily residue left after burnt offerings, representing the most valuable part of the sacrifice that had been accepted by God.
How Scripture Uses It
The biblical usage of dashen reveals a fascinating pattern. Scripture employs it literally (to fatten livestock), ceremonially (to remove fat ashes), metaphorically (to satisfy or prosper), and ritually (to anoint).
In Exodus 27:3, the ceremonial use dominates. The bronze altar required special pots (סִירֹתָיו – sirotav) designed specifically for collecting and removing these precious ashes. The word siyr (pot) itself has connections to both “pot” and “thorn,” suggesting something that springs up quickly – like the rapid accumulation of ashes from continuous offerings.
Cultural Context
Ancient Near Eastern temples required constant maintenance. The fat ashes from burnt offerings weren’t waste to be discarded carelessly – they were evidence of accepted worship. Removing them properly prepared the altar for fresh encounters with the divine.
Cultural Context That Changes Everything
Understanding dashen requires stepping into the sandals of ancient worshippers. The bronze altar was the heart of Israel’s worship system, where burnt offerings created a constant cycle of sacrifice, burning, and ash removal. The priests who handled these dashen operations weren’t just janitors – they were stewards of sacred space.
The fat ashes represented something precious: proof that God had accepted the offering. In ancient Hebrew thinking, the transformation of a valuable animal into rich, oily ashes demonstrated divine consumption of the sacrifice. This connects to broader biblical imagery where spiritual satisfaction and physical prosperity intertwine – like in Psalm 23:5 where David speaks of being anointed and satisfied.
Translation Challenge
Modern translations struggle with dashen because we’ve lost the cultural connection between fatness and blessing, between ashes and acceptance. What sounded rich and meaningful to Hebrew ears can sound mundane or even negative to modern readers.
Why This Word Matters for Worship
The verb dashen appears in contexts that reveal God’s heart for both abundance and purity. The altar utensils, including those for removing ashes, ultimately point forward to Christ’s work – the perfect sacrifice that makes all others obsolete.
When priests performed the dashen operation, they were literally making space for new offerings by removing evidence of old ones. It’s a beautiful picture of how God continuously makes us ready for fresh encounters with Him.
Where You’ll Find This Word
Primary passages where this word appears:
- Exodus 27:3 – Making pots to remove altar ashes in the tabernacle construction
- Leviticus 1:16 – Instructions for removing the crop and ashes from bird offerings
- Leviticus 6:10 – Priestly duties for removing ashes from burnt offerings
- Psalm 23:5 – “You anoint my head with oil” (metaphorical use)
- Psalm 63:5 – Being satisfied as with marrow and fatness
Notable translations across versions:
| Version | Typical Rendering |
|---|---|
| ESV | “to receive its ashes,” “make fat,” “anoint” |
| NIV | “to remove the ashes,” “grow fat,” “anoint” |
| NASB | “for removing its ashes,” “be fat,” “anoint” |
Other translation options: “to collect fat ashes,” “to enrich,” “to satisfy abundantly,” “to make prosperous,” “to remove sacred residue”
Words in the Same Family
Root family:
- H1880 – דֶּשֶׁן (deshen) – fatness, fat ashes, abundance
- H1879 – דָּשֵׁן (dashen) – fat, rich, fertile (adjective form)
Synonyms and near-synonyms:
- H2459 – חֵלֶב (chelev) – fat, richest part, differs by emphasizing the choicest portion
- H4886 – מָשַׁח (mashach) – to anoint, differs by focusing on the act of applying oil rather than the resulting fatness
- H7646 – שָׂבַע (saba) – to be satisfied, differs by emphasizing fullness rather than richness
Why This Word Matters
Understanding dashen transforms how we read passages about God’s provision and worship. It connects material blessing with spiritual satisfaction, showing that God cares about both our physical needs and our ceremonial purity. Every time priests removed fat ashes, they were preparing sacred space for fresh encounters with the divine.
Dig Deeper
Internal Resources:
- H1880 – deshen – The noun form meaning “fatness” and “fat ashes”
- Exodus 27:3 analysis – The tabernacle altar and its utensils
- Psalm 23:5 study – Anointing and divine provision
External Scholarly Resources:
- Blue Letter Bible H1878 – Comprehensive lexical data and usage examples
- Bible Hub Hebrew 1878 – Detailed morphological analysis and translations
- Strong’s H1878 at Bible Tools – Cross-references and definitions
- Ancient Hebrew Lexicon – Pictographic and etymological insights for Hebrew roots
