Lentil

ערשים . Gen 25:34; 2Sa 17:28; 2Sa 23:11; Eze 4:9, a sort of pulse; in the Septuagint φακος, and Vulgate lens. The lentils of Egypt were very much esteemed among the ancients. St. Austin says, they grow abundantly in Egypt, are much used as a food there, and those of Alexandria are considered particularly valuable. Dr. Shaw says, beans, lentils, kidney beans, and garvancos are the chief of their pulse kind. Beans, when boiled and stewed with oil and garlic, are the principal food of persons of all distinctions. Lentils are dressed in the same manner as beans, dissolving easily into a mass, and making a pottage of a chocolate colour. This, we find, was the “red pottage” which Esau, from thence called Edom, exchanged for his birthright.

Lentil. A small annual plant with white, violet-striped flowers. The seeds of lentils grew in pods similar to the pea. During Bible times lentil was threshed like wheat and boiled into a reddish-brown pottage. This was the dish which Esau purchased with his birthright ( Gen 25:34). Lentils could also be used as an ingredient for bread ( Eze 4:9).

The lentil plant mentioned in Genesis 25:29–34, 2 Samuel 17:27–29, 23:11, and Ezekiel 4:9 is a small, upright annual plant that looks similar to vetch (a climbing plant with purple, pink, or white flowers that belongs to the pea family). It has thin stems and leaves with tendrils (small, curling parts that help the plant climb or hold onto things).

The plant produces small white flowers with violet stripes. Its seeds grow in flat pods that look similar to pea pods. These seeds are the lentils that people eat.

See Food and Food Preparation.

Aquifer Open Bible Dictionary © 2026 Mission Mutual, an adaptation of the Tyndale Open Bible Dictionary © 2023 Tyndale House Publishers. Licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0.