The Hebrew ezov is rendered hyssop by long translation convention, but Hyssopus officinalis is not native to the southern Levant and does not match the plant's described uses. Origanum syriacum, Syrian oregano, fits the ecology and the ritual use better and is the leading candidate, but the identification rests on inference rather than on any ancient description precise enough to settle it.
What would resolve this A botanical description in an ancient source specific enough to exclude the alternatives, or archaeobotanical remains from a ritual context that can be identified to species.
Resolution Sourcing note, 2026-07-25 (W4). Cited to Fleisher and Fleisher 1988 in Economic Botany. Bibliographic details were confirmed against Crossref (DOI 10.1007/BF02858924, volume 42, issue 2, pages 232 to 241) and the NASA ADS bibcode 1988EcBot..42..232F. The abstract was read; the full text is paywalled at Springer and was not opened. Michael Zohary, Plants of the Bible, Cambridge University Press 1982, is the other standard treatment and was not obtainable online.
OpenBotany and Biblical Hebrew philology together. Neither field settles it alone, which is why it has stayed open.Alexander Fleisher and Zhenia Fleisher, Identification of Biblical Hyssop and Origin of the Traditional Use of Oregano-Group Herbs in the Mediterranean Region