The Symbolism of the Cupped Hand
in Ancient Egypt and Israel:
Iconography, Text, and Artifact
Stephen O. Smoot
I n a 1983 study, Lynn M. Hilton explored the concept of the hand
as a cup in ancient temple worship.1 Hilton’s analysis of the imag-
ery of the cupped hand as a ritual gesture offered some useful ini-
tial exploratory insight. This article builds on Hilton’s analysis and
points to additional iconographic, textual, and artifactual forms of
evidence for the cupped hand as a ritual gesture in ancient Egypt
and Israel. As this evidence makes clear, in both ancient Egypt and
ancient Israel, an important ritual action was to fill the cupped hand
with offerings for the deity. These offerings could be made by either
directly filling the palms of the hands or through the use of cultic
vessels shaped as a cupped hand. Furthermore, in ancient Egypt,
the outstretched cupped hand could also represent the petitioner
receiving blessings from the deity as opposed to making an offer-
ing, while in ancient Israel, the action of filling the (cupped) hand
was directly linked with being consecrated in a priestly capacity.
Evidence for the Cupped Hand in Ancient Egypt
“Hieroglyphs had very specific purposes in Egypt,” notes Penelope
Wilson. “They were used for writing texts which were written for
the gods, for an élite in the context of their relationship with the
gods, and for the afterlife. Though hieroglyphs were used to write a
recognizable language of Egypt, it was an exalted mode of commu-
nication within a formal ritual setting and within an architectural
framework defining spatial and temporal zones. . . . The guiding
principles for writing in hieroglyphs come from Egyptian art and
162 The Temple: Symbols, Sermons, and Settings
ceremonial ideology rather than language.”2 It should therefore
come as no surprise that the hieroglyph (D37) for the verb “to give,
place” (rdỉ) is an outstretched arm holding a loaf of bread, or that
the determinative (D39) used for “offering, presenting” is an out-
stretched arm holding a bowl or water pot.3
Since “the pictorial nature of [hieroglyphic] writing allows it to
blend with pictorial scenes on temple and tomb walls,”4 there can
be little doubt that the hieroglyphic representation of the actions
of offering and giving or placing converges purposefully with the
canonical Egyptian iconographic or artistic depiction of the same.
For example, a subject may be present with one hand stretched out
and raised in the typical gesture of greeting or hailing, while the
other hand presents an offering in an outstretched and cupped
palm. This imagery of “both arms extended forward with an object
held in one or both palms” was “developed [from an] ideal form” in
Egyptian artistic consciousness as “the standard, or conventional,
way of expressing desired meaning”—in this case, “presenting,
offering” (fig. 1).5
The surviving evidence for this artistic convention is extensive,
ranging from the Old Kingdom to well into the Roman Period.
A limited sampling of offering scenes from the New Kingdom
onward, at least, reveals that the items offered to the deity, by the
king himself as well as by members of the priesthood, could include,
among other things, incense (fig. 2), liba-
tions (fig. 3), maʽat (fig. 4), ankh, djed, was
(fig. 5), and wadjet (fig. 6). Each of these
items had close associations with king-
ship, so it is often the king who is shown
making the offering directly to the deity.
These items are most often offered directly
in the hands, while incense is frequently
(though not exclusively) represented as
being presented in hand-shaped uten-
sils in addition to being offered directly
Figure 1. The “canonical”
in the hand (fig. 7).6 In the mortuary
Egyptian iconography for
“presenting, offering.” Image realm, examples of funerary papyri and
from Watts, The Art of tomb art featuring incensing and libat-
Ancient Egypt (1998). ing scenes with the prominent display of
Smoot, Symbolism of the Cupped Hand 163
Figure 2. Ramesses
II offering incense
at Abu Simbel.
Figure 3. Ramesses
II offering liquid
libations at Abu
Simbel.
Figure 4. Augustus
offering maʽat at the
temple of Dendur.
Figure 5. Augustus
offering was, djed,
and ankh at the
temple of Dendur.
Photos by Steve
Densley.
164 The Temple: Symbols, Sermons, and Settings
Figure 6. Augustus offering wadjet at the temple of Dendur.
Photo by Steve Densley.
Smoot, Symbolism of the Cupped Hand 165
Figures 7–8. Ramesses I offering incense in a hand-shaped censer at Abydos.
Photo by Steve Densley; Libating and incensing scene from the Book of the Dead
of Ani. Image from Budge, The Book of the Dead (1894).
hand-shaped incense spoons are abundant. The celebrated Book of
the Dead of Ani features such (fig. 8),7 as does the Kerasher Book
of Breathings.8 The New Kingdom tomb of Ameneminet (TT277)
contains a representative scene of the deceased incensing and
libating the deified king Mentuhotep II and his queen Ahmose-
Nefertari (fig. 9).
“The most common verbs in the titles of the scenes for both static
and dynamic offering are ‘doing’ (jrj), ‘giving’ (rdj), and ‘present-
ing’ (ḥnk),” thereby erasing any doubt as to what ritual action these
scenes intended to convey. “In addition to doing incense and/or
166 The Temple: Symbols, Sermons, and Settings
Figure 9. Incensing scene from the tomb of Ameneminet (TT277).
Image from wikipedia.com.
libation, the king can [also] be labeled as doing ḥtp-dj-nsw, doing
purification, encircling, or seeing the god,” thus linking the ritual
action of offering to some sense of deification.9 Indeed, “what is
depicted [in offering scenes] could be the making of a covenant
between the king and the god, and the incense could serve a sym-
bolic function in the ritual (it may be noteworthy that the word for
‘incense’ in Egyptian, snṯr, also means ‘make divine, sanctify’).”10
It is also in the mortuary realm where depictions of the out-
stretched, cupped hand make an appearance as a gesture of receiv-
ing a boon from the deity. Utterance 153 of the Book of the Dead
“insure[s] that the deceased has sufficient food and drink in the
afterlife so as not to be reduced to eating excrement and drinking
urine.”11 The vignette frequently accompanying this utterance, as it
does in the Book of the Dead of Tshemmin, features the deceased
before an offering table with outstretched hands receiving a supply
of food on an offering table (fig. 10). The text reads, “I loathe excre-
ment. I will not [drink urine. I will not walk upside down.] I am a
possessor of bread in Heliopolis. My bread is in the sky with [Re,
and my bread is on the earth with Geb.] . . . May I eat of [what they
eat, and may I live on what they live on. I have eaten] bread in the
chamber of the possessor of offerings.”12
Utterance 106 of the Book of the Dead—“a chapter for giving
gifts in Memphis”—finds the deceased beseeching: “O great one,
Smoot, Symbolism of the Cupped Hand 167
Figures 10–11. Vignette from Utterance 153 from the Book of the Dead
of Tshemmin; Vignette from Utterance 106 from the Book of the Dead of
Tshemmin. Licensed from the Joseph Smith Papers Project, © Intellectual
Reserve, Inc. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
old one, possessor of offerings. O you great one who is over the
upper houses. May both of you give me bread and beer.” Once again,
“the purpose of this chapter is to ensure that the deceased receives
offerings of bread and beer in the afterlife.”13 The vignette accompa-
nying this utterance in the Book of the Dead of Tshemmin depicts
the deceased “standing with the hieroglyphic word for gift (Ꜣw) in
her upraised hands” (fig. 11).14 A visual hieroglyphic pun on the
Egyptian word for “joyful, happy” (Ꜣwt-ỉb; “long of heart”) is easily
detectable in the vignette in the Book of the Dead of Tshemmin, as
168 The Temple: Symbols, Sermons, and Settings
Figures 12–13. Vignette from Utterance 57 from the Book of the Dead of Horsaisis;
Vignette from Utterance 57 from the Book of the Dead of Iwefankh.
Images by Felicitas Weber, http://totenbuch.awk.nrw.de. Used with permission.
well as others,15 reinforcing the beatified state of the deceased upon
receiving perpetual refreshment in the afterlife.
Finally, Utterance 57 from the Book of the Dead serves as a chap-
ter “for breathing air and having power over water in the realm of the
dead.” This utterance invokes the deified Nile god “Hapi, Great One
of the sky in this your name of ‘The sky is safe,’” and implores him to
“grant that [the deceased] have power over water like Sakhmet who
saved Osiris on that night of storm.”16 The customary vignette accom-
panying this utterance depicts, with some variation, the deceased
“holding a sail and enveloped by streams of water, thus guaranteeing
he will breathe air and have power over water”17 or standing before
an anthropomorphized tree goddess that pours out liquid (presum-
ably water) into his or her cupped hands (figs. 12–13).
“Rituals are those activities that address the gods or other
supernatural forces.” At its most basic definition, “ritual is action.”
If “art provides ‘representations of [ritual] acts’” and “texts provide
‘descriptions of [ritual] acts,’” then it is “archaeology [that] provides
the ‘material remains of [ritual] acts.’”18 The recovery of actual speci-
mens of Egyptian hand-shaped censers illustrates this convergence
between text, iconography, and artifact. A number of hand-shaped
censers have been recovered, such as those currently housed in the
British Museum and the Louvre (figs. 14–15).19 Examples such as
the Late Period or Ptolemaic incense burner from Saqqara (British
Museum EA67189), which features a “cartouche-shaped receptacle
supported by the figure of a kneeling king halfway along the main
shaft,”20 are particularly noteworthy. The burners demonstrate the
Smoot, Symbolism of the Cupped Hand 169
Figures 14–15. Bronze incense burner in the British Museum. Image from
www.britishmuseum.org. © The Trustees of the British Museum. All rights
reserved; Bronze incense burner in the Louvre. Image from wikipedia.org.
artifactual reality of the sort of specially stylized incense burner
seen depicted in later temple reliefs (figs. 16–17).
In addition to hand-shaped censers, multiple specimens of
three-dimensional statuary from the Old Kingdom onward have
been recovered that depict the monarch offering nw-vessels to the
deity (typically while kneeling, but sometimes in the classical strid-
ing pose) with outstretched, cupped-hands (fig. 18).21 The ritual
nature of the action depicted in this statuary, as well as the ritual
context of the statues themselves, has not gone unnoticed by schol-
ars.22 This, combined with other evidence, further indicates “that
these scenes are not just emblematic, but represent rituals which
were performed.”23
170 The Temple: Symbols, Sermons, and Settings
Figures 16–17. Augustus offering incense in an incense burner at the temple of
Dendur; Detail showing the image of a kneeling figure on the incense burner.
Photos by Steve Densley.
Evidence for the Cupped Hand in Ancient Israel
Turning to the biblical record, the concept of filling the (cupped)
hand was intricately linked with priestly consecration in service
to Yahweh. Rendered as “consecrate” throughout the King James
Version (KJV), the Hebrew idiom יד- מלא אתdescribes the action
Aaron was to perform in inaugurating his male descendants into
the priesthood. The phrase means literally “fill the hand” and is
coupled with the verb “( קדשsanctify”) in passages such as Exodus
29:33 KJV: “And they [the Aaronic priests] shall eat those things
Smoot, Symbolism of the Cupped Hand 171
Figure 18. Statue of Hatshepsut (Eighteenth Dynasty) kneeling with nw-vessels in
the Cairo Museum. Photo by Stephen O. Smoot.
wherewith the atonement was made, to consecrate [יד- ]מלא אתand
to sanctify [ ]קדשthem: but a stranger shall not eat thereof, because
they are holy.” Additional passages from the Pentateuch providing
instruction on the consecration of Aaronic priests interchange the
verbs יד( מלא- )אתand קדש, thus reinforcing the unmistakable rela-
tion the ritual action of filling the hand had with priestly service.
172 The Temple: Symbols, Sermons, and Settings
“fill the hand” // יד-מלא את “sanctify” // קדש
Exodus 28:41 Exodus 19:22–23
Exodus 29:9, 29, 33 Exodus 28:3
Exodus 32:29 Exodus 29:33
Leviticus 8:33 Exodus 30:30
Leviticus 16:32 Exodus 40:13
Leviticus 21:10 Leviticus 8:11–12
Numbers 3:3 Leviticus 21:8
Besides the “hand” ()יד, the Pentateuch also describes the
“palm” ( )כףbeing filled with cultic offerings for Yahweh. Among
the offerings listed throughout Numbers 7 (verses 14, 20, 26, 32, 38,
44, 50, 56, 62, 68, 74, 80), for instance, is the “ כףfilled with incense”
()מלאה קטרת. Rendered “spoon” in the KJV or “dish” in contempo-
rary translations, כףis, in fact, “the common word for the hollow
part of the hand” and is “used to indicate a shallow bowl used as a
censer, for burning incense.” Such dishes are “mentioned in vari-
ously priestly texts in the Pentateuch (e.g., Exodus 25:29; Numbers
4:7) dealing with the tabernacle, and they appear in other parts of
the Bible in relationship to temple equipment (see 1 Kings 7:50; 2
Kings 25:14).”24
The parallels with the Egyptian material reviewed above are
unmistakable, especially in light of “archaeological discovery of
shallow stone bowls, with a hand carved on the bottom so that the
vessel appears to be a cupped palm” (figs. 19–20). As with the recov-
ered Egyptian specimens, the recovery of these utensils in Syria-
Canaan and Anatolia “provides artifactual evidence for these cultic
objects” as described in the Pentateuch.25 Debate still exists as to
where these cultic objects originated, however, with some scholars
placing their origin in Syria-Anatolia and others “locat[ing] the ori-
gin of these objects in Egypt, emphasizing the similarities with the
metal hand-shaped bowls represented in several Egyptian paint-
ings as containers in which to burn essences.”26 An Egyptian origin
for these ritual vessels is enticing on account of the strong similari-
ties between the vessels and the Egyptian evidence seen above, as
well as on account of the overall “Egypticity” of the Exodus and
Smoot, Symbolism of the Cupped Hand 173
Figure 19. Stone incense bowl in shape of carved hand. Image from Wright,
Solomon’s Temple Resurrected (1941). Redrawn by Jasmin Gimenez Rappleye.
Wilderness narratives describing the origin of these and other rit-
ual objects in the nascent Yahweh cult.27 Whether ultimately origi-
nating from Egypt or Syria-Anatolia, their cultic function cannot
be doubted given the prevalence of these vessels in ritual contexts
in “Syria, Anatolia, Cyprus, and the Levant” as early as the second
millennium BC.28
Besides being filled with incense, the כףcould likewise con-
tain a grain offering, oil, or any number of potentially consecrated
items. Whatever the offering may have entailed, “the filling of the
kap with material to be offered is a common ritual action” amongst
the Aaronic priests and others brought into a ritual setting.29
174 The Temple: Symbols, Sermons, and Settings
Figure 20. Long incense
burner in the shape of a
cupped palm. Image from
Amiran, The “Arm-Shaped”
Vessel and Its Family (1962).
Redrawn by Jasmin Gimenez
Rappleye.
Smoot, Symbolism of the Cupped Hand 175
Type of Action30 Word Used Reference
Aaron fills his palm with כף Leviticus 9:17
grain for the grain offering
Priest pours oil into own כף Leviticus 14:15
left palm for guilt and burnt
offering
Oil poured into the palm to כף Leviticus 14:16,
be used for trespass, guilt, 17, 18, 26–29
and burnt offerings
Priest to place the conse- כף Numbers 6:19
crated item in the palm of the
Nazarite
Priest places the jealousy כף Numbers 5:8
offering in the woman’s hand
The evidence from the biblical text, buttressed with surviving
artifactual sources, demonstrates that part of the process of becom-
ing a set apart ( )קדשmember of the Israelite priesthood involved lit-
erally “filling the hand” ( )ידor “palm” ( )כףwith incense and other
offerings. Sometimes these offerings were placed directly in the hand
or palm, sometimes in special censers shaped as a cupped hand not
unlike those recovered from ancient Egypt and Syria-Anatolia. This
ritual action, in turn, authorized the priest to approach Yahweh in
his residence ( )משכןand present offerings.
Conclusion
This paper’s investigation yielded findings that complement Hilton’s
earlier work. In both ancient Egypt and ancient Israel, an impor-
tant ritual action was to fill the cupped hand with offerings for
the deity. This could be accomplished by either directly filling the
palms of the hands with the offering or by filling special cultic ves-
sels resembling a cupped hand. Based on the archaeological context
of surviving artifactual remains, iconographic evidence, and tex-
tual sources, this exercise was undeniably carried out in a temple
or ritual setting. What’s more, in ancient Egypt, in the mortuary
realm, the outstretched, cupped hand could also represent a gesture
176 The Temple: Symbols, Sermons, and Settings
of the beatified deceased receiving blessings. In ancient Israel, the
action of filling the cupped hand or palm was directly associated
with being sanctified and consecrated in a priestly setting.
Notes
1. Lynn M. Hilton, “The Hand as a Cup in Ancient Temple Worship,” News
letter and Proceedings of the S.E.H.A. 152 (March 1983): 1–5; reprinted
in Discovering Lehi: New Evidence of Lehi and Nephi in Arabia (Spring
ville, UT: Cedar Fort, 1996), 171–77.
2. Penelope Wilson, Hieroglyphs: A Very Short Introduction (New York:
Oxford University Press, 2003), 38.
3. Alan Gardiner, Egyptian Grammar, 3rd rev. ed. (Oxford: Griffith Inst
itute, 1957), 454; James Hoch, Middle Egyptian Grammar (Mississauga:
Benben Publications, 1997), 269.
4. Wilson, Hieroglyphs, 40.
5. Edith W. Watts, The Art of Ancient Egypt: A Resource for Educators
(New York: Metropolitan Museum of Art, 1998), 37.
6. E. A. Wallis Budge, The Book of the Dead: The Papyrus Ani in the British
Museum (London: The British Museum, 1894), Pls. V, VI.
7. E. A. Wallis Budge, The Book of the Dead: Facsimiles of the Papyri of Hun
efer, Anhai, Kerāsher and Netchemet (London: The British Museum,
1899), PL. III.
8. Katherine Eaton, Ancient Egyptian Temple Ritual: Performance, Pat
tern, and Practice (London: Routledge, 2013), 139–40.
9. David Calabro, Ritual Gestures of Lifting, Extending, and Clasping the
Hand(s) in Northwest Semitic Literature and Iconography (PhD diss.,
University of Chicago, 2014), 478.
10. Michael D. Rhodes, Books of the Dead Belonging to Tshemmin and Nef
erirnub: A Translation and Commentary (Provo, UT: Neal A. Maxwell
Institute for Religious Scholarship, 2010), 36.
11. Rhodes, Books of the Dead Belonging to Tshemmin and Neferirnub, 36
12. Rhodes, Books of the Dead Belonging to Tshemmin and Neferirnub, 56.
13. Rhodes, Books of the Dead Belonging to Tshemmin and Neferirnub, 56.
14. E.g., the Books of the Dead of Djeser (Ptolemaic; circa 250 BC) and
Iwefankh (Ptolemaic; unknown), to name just two immediate exam-
ples. See http://totenbuch.awk.nrw.de/spruch/106.
15. Raymond O. Faulkner, trans., The Ancient Egyptian Book of the Dead
(London: The British Museum Press, 2010), 67.
16. Faulkner, Ancient Egyptian Book of the Dead, 91.
17. Eaton, Ancient Egyptian Temple Ritual, 125–26.
Smoot, Symbolism of the Cupped Hand 177
18. The antiquity of these instruments reaches as far back as the Old King
dom. Henry G. Fischer, “Varia Aegyptiaca,” Journal of the American
Research Center in Egypt 2 (1963): 28–34.
19. See “incense-burner,” online at https://www.britishmuseum.org/research
/collection_online/collection_object_details.aspx?objectId=140809
&partId=1.
20. James P. Allen et al., eds., Egyptian Art in the Age of the Pyramids (New
York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 1999), 435–37; Marsha Hill,
ed., Gifts for the Gods: Images From Egyptian Temples (New York: The
Metropolitan Museum of Art, 2007), 3, 55, 82, 121.
21. Hill, Gifts for the Gods, 3, 24, 82; David P. Silverman, ed., Searching
for Ancient Egypt: Art, Architecture, and Artifacts (Dallas, TX: Dallas
Museum of Art, 1997), 101; Adela Oppenheim et al., eds., Ancient
Egypt Transformed: The Middle Kingdom (New York: The Metropolitan
Museum of Art, 2015), 74.
22. Eaton, Ancient Egyptian Temple Ritual, 127.
23. Carol Meyers, “Incense Dish,” in The Anchor Bible Dictionary, ed.
David Noel Freedman (New York: Doubleday, 1992), 3:410.
24. Meyers, “Incense Dish,” 3:410; cf. G. Ernest Wright, “Solomon’s Temple
Resurrected,” The Biblical Archaeologist 4, no. 2 (1941): 30; Ruth
Amiran, “The ‘Arm-Shaped’ Vessel and Its Family,” Journal of Near
Eastern Studies 21, no. 3 (1962): 161–74.
25. Marina Pucci, “The Iron Age II ‘Spoon Stoppers/Censers’ Production
in the Amuq: An Example from Chatal Höyük,” in Overturning Cert
ainties in Near Eastern Archaeology: A Festschrift in Honor of K. Aslıhan
Yener, ed. Çiğdem Maner, Mara T. Horowitz, and Allan S. Gilbert
(Leiden: Brill, 2017), 561.
26. James K. Hoffmeier, “The Exodus and Wilderness Narratives,” in Anc
ient Israel’s History: An Introduction to the Issues and Sources, ed. Bill
T. Arnold and Richard S. Hess (Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Academic,
2014), 46–90; “Egyptian Religious Influence on the Early Hebrews,”
in “Did I Not Bring Israel Out of Egypt?” Biblical, Archaeological, and
Egyptological Perspectives on the Exodus Narratives, ed. James K.
Hoffmeier, Alan R. Millard, and Gary A. Rendsburg (Winona Lake,
IN: Eisenbrauns, 2016), 3–35.
27. Beatrice Teissier, Ancient Near Eastern Cylinder Seals from the Marc
opoli Collection (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1984), 83.
28. Kerry M. Muhlestein, The Use of the Palm of the Hand in the Rituals
of the Tabernacle and the Temple of Solomon (master’s thesis, Brigham
Young University, 1997), 43.
29. Adapted from Muhlestein, Use of the Palm of the Hand, 101.
