45 Bible Verses about Smells

Most Relevant Verses

Genesis 8:21

The Lord smelled the pleasing aroma [a soothing, satisfying scent] and the Lord said to Himself, “I will never again curse the ground because of man, for the intent (strong inclination, desire) of man’s heart is wicked from his youth; and I will never again destroy every living thing, as I have done.

Leviticus 1:9

But he shall wash its entrails and its legs with water. The priest shall offer all of it up in smoke on the altar as a burnt offering. It is an offering by fire, a sweet and soothing aroma to the Lord.

Leviticus 2:2

He shall bring it to Aaron’s sons the priests. Out of it he shall take a handful of the fine flour and oil, with all of its frankincense, and the priest shall offer this up in smoke on the altar [of burnt offering] as the memorial portion of it. It is an offering by fire, a sweet and soothing aroma to the Lord.

Leviticus 3:5

Aaron’s sons shall offer it up in smoke on the altar [placing it] on the burnt offering which is on the wood that is on the fire. It is an offering by fire, a sweet and soothing aroma to the Lord.

Leviticus 4:31

Then he shall remove all its fat, just as the fat was removed from the sacrifice of peace offerings; and the priest shall offer it up in smoke on the altar as a sweet and soothing aroma to the Lord. In this way the priest shall make atonement for him, and he will be forgiven.

Leviticus 6:15

One of them shall take up from it a handful of the fine flour of the grain offering with its oil and all the incense that is on the grain offering, and he shall offer it up in smoke on the altar, a sweet and soothing aroma, as the memorial offering to the Lord.

Leviticus 8:21

After he had washed the entrails and the legs in water, Moses offered up the whole ram in smoke on the altar. It was a burnt offering for a sweet and soothing aroma, an offering by fire to the Lord, just as the Lord had commanded Moses.

Leviticus 23:13

Its grain offering shall be two-tenths of an ephah of fine flour mixed with [olive] oil, an offering by fire to the Lord for a sweet and soothing aroma, with its drink offering [to be poured out], a fourth of a hin of wine.

Numbers 15:14

If a stranger lives as a resident alien with you, or whoever may be among you throughout your generations, and he wishes to make an offering by fire, as a sweet and soothing aroma to the Lord, just as you do, so shall he do.

Numbers 18:17

But the firstborn of a cow or of a sheep or of a goat you shall not redeem; they are holy [and belong to the Lord]. You shall sprinkle their blood on the altar and shall offer up their fat in smoke as an offering by fire, for a sweet and soothing aroma to the Lord.

Numbers 28:2

“Command the Israelites and say to them, ‘You shall be careful to present at its appointed time [during the year] My offering, My food for My offerings by fire as a sweet and soothing aroma to Me.’

Numbers 29:2

You shall offer a burnt offering as a sweet and soothing aroma to the Lord: one bull, one ram, and seven male lambs one year old without blemish;

Exodus 30:7-8

Aaron shall burn sweet and fragrant incense on it; he shall burn it every morning when he trims and tends the lamps. When Aaron sets up the lamps at twilight, he shall burn incense, a perpetual incense before the Lord throughout your generations.

Exodus 30:22-29

Moreover, the Lord said to Moses, “Take for yourself the best spices: five hundred shekels of liquid myrrh, half as much—two hundred and fifty—of sweet-scented cinnamon, and two hundred and fifty of fragrant cane, and five hundred shekels of cinnamon blossom according to the sanctuary shekel, and a hin of olive oil. read more.
You shall make of these a holy anointing oil, a perfume mixture, the work of a perfumer; it shall be a sacred anointing oil. You shall anoint the Tent of Meeting with it, and the ark of the Testimony, and the table [for the bread] and all its utensils, and the lampstand and its utensils, and the altar of incense, and the altar of burnt offering with all its utensils, and the basin [for cleansing] and its base. You shall consecrate them, that they may be most holy; whatever touches them must be holy (set apart for God).

Exodus 35:28

and spice and [olive] oil for the light and for the anointing oil and for the fragrant incense.

Exodus 37:29

He also made the holy anointing oil and the pure, fragrant incense of spices, the work of a perfumer.

Exodus 40:26-27

He put the golden altar [of incense] in the Tent of Meeting in front of the veil; he burned fragrant incense [as a symbol of prayer] on it, just as the Lord commanded him.

Numbers 4:16

“The responsibility of Eleazar, the son of Aaron the priest, is the oil for the light, the fragrant incense, the continual grain offering, and the anointing oil—the responsibility of all the tabernacle and everything that is in it, with the sanctuary and its furnishings.”

2 Chronicles 2:4

Observe, I am about to build a house for the Name of the Lord my God, dedicated to Him, to burn fragrant incense [of sweet spices] before Him, to set out the showbread continually, and to offer burnt offerings morning and evening, on Sabbaths, New Moons, and on the festivals of the Lord our God, as ordained forever in Israel.

2 Chronicles 13:11

Every morning and every evening they offer the burnt offerings and the fragrant incense to the Lord; and the showbread is set on the clean table [of pure gold], and the golden lampstand with its lamps is ready to light every evening; for we keep the charge of the Lord our God [that is, the obligation we have to Him], but you have abandoned (turned away from) Him.

Leviticus 26:31

I will lay waste your cities as well and will make your sanctuaries desolate, and I will not smell your sweet and soothing aromas [of offerings by fire].

Ezekiel 8:11-13

Standing before these [images] were seventy elders of the house of Israel, and among them stood Jaazaniah the son of Shaphan [the scribe], each man with his censer in his hand and a thick and fragrant cloud of incense was rising [as they prayed to these gods]. Then He said to me, “Son of man, do you see what the elders of the house of Israel do in the dark, each man in his [secret] room of carved images? For they say, ‘The Lord does not see us; the Lord has abandoned the land.’” He also said to me, “Yet again you will see even greater repulsive acts which they are committing.”

Ezekiel 20:27-29

“Therefore, son of man, speak to the house of Israel and say to them, ‘Thus says the Lord God, “Again in this your fathers have blasphemed Me, in that they acted faithlessly and treacherously against Me. For when I had brought them into the land which I swore to give to them, they saw every high hill and every dark and leafy tree [as a place for idol worship], and there they offered their sacrifices and there they presented their offering that provoked My anger; there also they made their sweet-smelling aroma and there poured out their drink offerings. Then I said to them, ‘What is the high place to which you go?’ So the name of it is called Bamah (High Place) to this day.”’

Ezekiel 20:41

I will accept you [graciously] as a pleasant and soothing aroma when I bring you out from the peoples and gather you from the lands in which you have been scattered; and I will prove Myself holy and manifest My holiness among you in the sight of the nations.

Hosea 14:5-6


I shall be like the dew to Israel;
He will blossom like the lily,
And he will take root like the cedars of Lebanon.

His shoots will sprout,
And his beauty will be like the olive tree
And his fragrance like the cedars of Lebanon.

2 Corinthians 2:14-16

But thanks be to God, who always leads us in triumph in Christ, and through us spreads and makes evident everywhere the sweet fragrance of the knowledge of Him. For we are the sweet fragrance of Christ [which ascends] to God, [discernible both] among those who are being saved and among those who are perishing; to the latter one an aroma from death to death [a fatal, offensive odor], but to the other an aroma from life to life [a vital fragrance, living and fresh]. And who is adequate and sufficiently qualified for these things?

Philippians 4:18

But I have received everything in full and more; I am amply supplied, having received from Epaphroditus the gifts you sent me. They are the fragrant aroma of an offering, an acceptable sacrifice which God welcomes and in which He delights.

Psalm 45:8


All Your garments are fragrant with myrrh, aloes and cassia;
From ivory palaces stringed instruments have made You glad.

John 12:3

Then Mary took a pound of very expensive perfume of pure nard, and she poured it on Jesus’ feet and wiped His feet with her hair; and the house was filled with the fragrance of the perfume.

John 11:39

Jesus said, “Take away the stone.” Martha, the sister of the dead man, said to Him, “Lord, by this time there will be an offensive odor, for he has been dead four days! [It is hopeless!]”

Exodus 16:20

But they did not listen to Moses, and some left a supply of it until morning, and it bred worms and became foul and rotten; and Moses was angry with them.

Exodus 7:18

The fish in the Nile will die, and the Nile will become foul, and the Egyptians will not be able to drink water from the Nile.”’”

Amos 4:10


“I sent a plague among you like [those of] Egypt;
I killed your young men with the sword and I captured your horses,
I made the stench of your camp rise up into your nostrils;
Yet you have not returned to Me [in repentance],” says the Lord.

Isaiah 3:24


Now it will come to pass that instead of the sweet fragrance of spices there will be [the stench of] rottenness;
Instead of a belt, a rope;
Instead of well-set hair, baldness;
Instead of fine clothes, a robe of sackcloth;
And branding [of captives by the scorching heat] instead of beauty.

Isaiah 19:6


The canals will become foul-smelling,
The streams of Egypt will thin out and dry up,
The reeds and the rushes will rot away.

Joel 2:20


“But I will remove the northern army far away from you,
And I will drive it into a parched and desolate land,
With its forward guard into the eastern sea (Dead Sea)
And with its rear guard into the western sea (Mediterranean Sea).
And its stench will arise and its foul odor of decay will come up [this is the fate of the northern army in the final day of the Lord],
For He has done great things.”

Genesis 34:30

Then Jacob said to Simeon and Levi, “You have ruined me, making me a stench to the inhabitants of the land, the Canaanites and the Perizzites! My men are few in number, and the men of the land will band together against me and attack me; I shall be destroyed, I and my household.”

Exodus 5:21

And the foremen said to them, “May the Lord look upon you and judge you, because you have made us odious (something hated) in the sight of Pharaoh and his servants, and you have put a sword in their hand to kill us.”

1 Samuel 13:4

All Israel heard that Saul had defeated the Philistine garrison, and also that Israel had become despicable to the Philistines. And the people were summoned to join Saul at Gilgal.

2 Samuel 10:6

When the Ammonites saw that they had become an object of hatred to David, they sent word and hired the Arameans (Syrians) of Beth-rehob and the Arameans of Zobah, 20,000 foot soldiers, and the king of Maacah with 1,000 men, and the men of Tob with 12,000 men [to fight for them].

1 Chronicles 19:6

When the Ammonites saw that they had made themselves hateful to David, Hanun and his people sent 1,000 talents of silver to hire for themselves chariots and horsemen from Mesopotamia, Aram-maacah, and Zobah.

2 Samuel 16:21

Ahithophel said to Absalom, “Go in to your father’s concubines, whom he has left behind to take care of the house; then all Israel will hear that you have made yourself odious to your father. Then the hands of all who are with you will be strengthened [by your boldness and audacity].”

Psalm 115:4-6


The idols [of the nations] are silver and gold,
The work of man’s hands.

They have mouths, but they cannot speak;
They have eyes, but they cannot see;

They have ears, but they cannot hear;
They have noses, but they cannot smell;

Deuteronomy 4:28

And there you will serve [false and foreign] gods, the work of human hands, [lifeless images of] wood and stone, which neither see nor hear nor eat nor smell [the offerings of food given to them].

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Theasaurus: Smells