Confection

Confection in the biblical context refers not to a sweet food but to the art of compounding perfumes, incenses, and ointments — the work of the roqeaḥ or spice-mixer. The sole Old Testament occurrence in the KJV is in Exodus 30:35, where Moses is instructed to make the sacred incense as a confection — a compound spice mixture prepared with the skill of a perfumer, consisting of stacte, onycha, galbanum, and pure frankincense in equal parts. This incense was to be used exclusively in the tabernacle and was not to be replicated for personal use on pain of death.

The making of such sacred compounds required specialized knowledge and was the province of dedicated craftsmen. The same root appears in related forms in the Hebrew Bible for the making of anointing oil and the compounding of temple incense. The confectionaries mentioned in 1 Samuel 8:13 — daughters taken by a king to be confectioners — similarly refers to women skilled in preparing spiced foods and aromatic preparations for royal use. The term thus spans both sacred and domestic realms of compound preparation in ancient Israelite life.