Māshaḥ appears 70 times in the Hebrew Bible. The basic meaning is to smear or rub with oil, but in a religious-official context it means to consecrate by anointing. The practice served multiple purposes: anointing tabernacle vessels to set them apart (Exodus 40:9-11), anointing priests at their ordination (Exodus 29:7; Leviticus 8), and anointing kings at their installation (1 Samuel 10:1; 16:12-13; 1 Kings 1:39). When Samuel anointed David, 'the Spirit of the LORD came powerfully upon David from that day on' (1 Samuel 16:13) — showing that anointing was not merely ceremonial but conveyed divine commissioning and empowerment.
The act of anointing has enormous theological and prophetic significance. Anointing marked the transition from ordinary status to sacred office. The king was uniquely 'YHWH's anointed' — to harm him was to harm God's representative. This reverence extended to the prohibitions against harming even a wicked king (1 Samuel 24:6; 26:9). The verbal noun māshîaḥ (Messiah) is the title of the ultimate anointed one. At Jesus's baptism, when the Spirit descended on him like a dove, it was the heavenly anointing that paralleled Samuel's oil on David — the commissioning of God's Messiah for his mission (Isaiah 61:1; Luke 4:18; Acts 10:38).