An Introduction to Biblical Hebrew Syntax

11. םי ִע ְב ִשׁ ו ְ םינִ ָשׁ שׁמֵ חָ
ה ָנ ָשׁ
12. ת ֶשׁ לֹ֫ ְשׁוּ םוֹי םי ִשׁלֹ ְשׁ
םימָ ִ י
seventy-five years
Gen 12:4
thirty-three days 20
Lev 12:4
15.2.5 Higher Cardinals
a The substantives for ‘one hundred’ and its multiples of ten are האָ ֵמ (fem.) ‘one
hundred,’ ףלֶ א ֶ֫
(masc.) ‘one thousand,’ and וֹבּר, ִ אוֹבּר, ִ ה ָב ָב ר ְ (fem.) ‘ten thousand,
a myriad.’ With these and higher numerals the enumerated item may follow the
numeral as a collective singular (## 1–4) 21 or as a plural (## 5–6).
1. ה ָנ ָשׁ תאַ ְמ־ן ֶבּ 100 years old
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
Gen 11:10
י ִלגְ ר ַ ף ֶלא־ה ֶ֫
אָ ֵמ 100,000 infantry
1 Kgs 20:29
ה ָנ ָשׁ־האָ ֵמ ן ֶבּ 100 years old
ה ָמּ א ַ ףלֶ ֫
Gen 17:17
אֶ 1,000 cubits
Num 35:4
םי ִע ִב ְנ האָ ֵמ 100 prophets
םיזִּ ִע ף ֶל ֫
1 Kgs 18:4
אֶ 1,000 he-goats
1 Sam 25:2
The higher numerals are used in the plural as vague indicators of great magnitude;
in this use, the numeral usually stands alone.
7. ה ָב ָבר ְ יפֵ לְ אַ ְל to thousands upon tens of thousands
Gen 24:60
19
A well-known Arabic parallel is ˒Alf Layla wa Layla ‘A Thousand Nights and (One)
Night, A Thousand and One Nights.’
20
Cf. 1 Chr 3:4.
fem. feminine
masc. masculine
21
It seems likely that these numerals are sometimes used to signify social units rather
than groups of precisely so many (fighting) men, but this usage seems to have had no
effect on the syntax of the terms; such usage is clearest in the case of ˒elep ‘thousand,
company.’ See George E. Mendenhall, “The Census Lists of Numbers 1 and 26, ”
Journal of Biblical Literature 77 (1958) 52–66; N. K. Gottwald, The Tribes of
Yahweh (Maryknoll, New York: Orbis, 1979) 270–84; P. K. McCarter, I Samuel
(Anchor Bible 8; Garden City, New York: Doubleday, 1980)107.