– With a branch of this plant, people were sprinkled with water in the past. The name migrated to the metal sprinkler used today to sprinkle the faithful with holy water on certain occasions of the liturgical year:
Ps 50:9 : Sprinkle myself with a branch of hyssop and I will be clean. Wash me and I will become whiter than snow.
– In the OT, the people were sprinkled with the blood of the animals offered to the Lord so that, in this way, the whole people could participate in the sacrifice:
Ex 24: 8 : Moses took the blood to sprinkle the people with it: “Behold […] the blood of the covenant that the Lord made with you”.
– Also in this way people and objects were sprinkled to be purified for the Lord
Num 19:18 : A clean man, after having dipped some hyssop in it, shall sprinkle the tent and all its furnishings with it.
– In the institution of Easter, the blood of the lamb, sprinkled on the doorposts, served as protection against the exterminating angel:
Ex 12:22 : Take a bunch of hyssop, soak it in the blood[…] and sprinkle the frame with that blood.
