We are correct about the translation error. The Hebrew word ashishah has a consistent semantic field across all its occurrences, and the KJV’s rendering as “flagon” misrepresents it entirely.
The word ashishah properly means “a cake of pressed raisins,” and “flagons of wine” in the Authorized Version should be “cakes of raisins” in all passages where it appears[1]. The word denotes a “pressed cake composed of meal, oil, and dibs”[2]—a solid food item, not a liquid vessel.
The contextual evidence makes this clear. In 2 Samuel 6:19, David distributes to the people “a cake of bread, and a good piece of flesh, and a flagon of wine,” after which everyone departs to their homes[3]. If ashishah were actually a wine vessel, the passage would read as distributing a bread cake, meat, and a wine container—an odd combination for a food distribution. But as a raisin cake, it fits naturally alongside bread and meat as portable food items.
The same Hebrew word appears in Isaiah 16:7 as “raisin-cakes,” which the KJV mistranslates as “foundations”[2], further confirming the word’s consistent meaning across contexts.
The KJV’s error stems from a misguided etymological assumption. Luther, like the KJV, adopted a false Rabbinical derivation and interpretation of ashishah, translating it as wine vessels[2]. Modern scholarship has corrected this, and modern versions translate the word as “raisin-cakes”[3], aligning translation with the word’s actual semantic content and the natural reading of the passages themselves.
[2] John A. Selbie, “FLAGON,” in A Dictionary of the Bible: Dealing with Its Language, Literature, and Contents Including the Biblical Theology, ed. James Hastings et al. (New York; Edinburgh: Charles Scribner’s Sons; T. & T. Clark, 1911–1912), 2:13.
[3] Gary H. Everett, The Books of 1 and 2 Samuel, Study Notes on the Holy Scriptures (Gary Everett, 2011), 127–128.
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