Dough

A mixture of flour and water to which yeast is added and which is then baked to produce bread. Scripture makes several comparisons with it to teach spiritual lessons.

Dough and the process of making bread

Yeast was normally added and the dough left to rise

Exodus 12:33–34 See also Exodus 12:39

And in order to send them out of the land quickly, the Egyptians urged the people on. “For otherwise,” they said, “we are all going to die!” So the people took their dough before it was leavened, carrying it on their shoulders in kneading bowls wrapped in clothing.

Dough was kneaded before baking

Jeremiah 7:18 See also 2 Samuel 13:8; Hosea 7:4

The sons gather wood, the fathers light the fire, and the women knead the dough to make cakes for the Queen of Heaven; they pour out drink offerings to other gods to provoke Me to anger.

Spiritual lessons from comparisons with dough

The dough offered as firstfruits

Romans 11:13–16

I am speaking to you Gentiles. Inasmuch as I am the apostle to the Gentiles, I magnify my ministry in the hope that I may provoke my own people to jealousy and save some of them. For if their rejection is the reconciliation of the world, what will their acceptance be but life from the dead? If the first part of the dough is holy, so is the whole batch; if the root is holy, so are the branches.

The influence of yeast on the dough

Matthew 13:33 parallel Luke 13:20–21 See also 1 Corinthians 5:1–8; Galatians 5:1–10

He told them still another parable: “The kingdom of heaven is like leaven that a woman took and mixed into three measures of flour, until all of it was leavened.”