Senses
1. soothing, pleasing (aroma) — A substantive meaning 'soothing, pleasing,' used almost exclusively in the cultic phrase רֵיחַ נִיחֹחַ 'an aroma of soothing/pleasing' describing the acceptable scent of burnt offerings to YHWH. Occurs 43 times across the Pentateuch and Ezekiel: first in Gen 8:21 (Noah's offering), extensively in Leviticus sacrificial law (Lev 1:9,13,17; 2:2,9,12; 3:5,16; 4:31; 6:15,21; 8:21,28; 17:6; 23:13,18; 26:31), Numbers (15:3,7,10,13,14,24; 18:17; 28:2,6,8,13,24,27; 29:2,6,8,13,36), Exodus (29:18,25,41), and Ezekiel (6:13; 16:19; 20:28,41). Arabic uniformly renders سرور (surur 'delight/pleasure'), German consistently lieblicher ('lovely'), Korean alternates between 향기로운 (hyanggiroun 'fragrant'), 좋은 (joeun 'good'), 기쁜 (gippeun 'joyful'), and 편안한 (pyeonanhan 'comfortable'), while Spanish varies between descanso, satisfaccion, grato, and agradable. Despite the Korean and Spanish variation, this is a single lexical sense -- all auto-clusters (pleasing, soothing, the soothing, your soothing, soothing their, my pleasing) represent the same word with different pronominal suffixes or articles, not distinct senses. 43×
AR["سَرُورٍ","سُرُورٍ"]·ben["নিখোখ","প্রশান্তিকর","সন্তোষজনক","সুখকর","সুগন্ধের"]·DE["pleasing"]·EN["pleasing"]·FR["agréable"]·heb["ניחוח"]·HI["सुखदायक"]·ID["menyenangkan","yang-menyenangkan"]·IT["gradita"]·jav["arum","arum;","pinareng","seger"]·KO["기쁘게-하는","좋은","향기로운-것"]·PT["agrado","agradável","descanso","satisfação"]·RU["приятного","приятное"]·ES["agradable","descanso","grato","satisfacción"]·SW["nzuri"]·TR["hoş","hoşnutluk"]·urd["خوشگوار","پسندیدہ"]
Gen 8:21, Exod 29:18, Exod 29:25, Exod 29:41, Lev 1:9, Lev 1:13, Lev 1:17, Lev 2:2, Lev 2:9, Lev 2:12, Lev 3:5, Lev 3:16 (+31 more)
BDB / Lexicon Reference
נִיחֹחַ and (Lv 1:9) נִיחוֹחַ43 n.[m.] a quieting, soothing, tranquillizing (cf. i. נַחַת Jb 36:16) (ריח ניחח also Ecclus 45:16 c; on format. v. Ol§ 187 b Sta§ 233 BaNB § 142 Köii. 1, 151, 489, where, after PhilippiBAS ii. 362, ִי expl. as dissim. from וֹ);— abs. נ׳ Gn 8:21 +; sf. נִיחֹחִי Nu 28:2, נִיחֹחֲכֶם Lv 26:31, נִיחוֹחֵיהֶם Ez 20:28;—a soothing, tranquilizing, only in phr. רֵיח נ׳ =…