chamesh · five

What it means

chamesh (חָמֵשׁ) is a Hebrew word of the Bible that means “five”.

How to say it

Approximate pronunciation. Vowels sound as in Spanish (a as in father, e as in bed, i as in machine, o as in note, u as in rule); the syllable in bold is stressed. The voice is your device's.

Its senses in the Bible

1. The number after four; it also forms 15, 25 or 500.

From Brown-Driver-Briggs (1906)

Word study

Five. From the same root is the verb חָמַשׁ, “take a fifth part”.

• The number five Genesis 18:281 Samuel 17:40
• In ages and larger amounts Genesis 5:6Genesis 45:22

Historical and cultural background

In Genesis 41:34 Joseph proposes to “take a fifth of the land of Egypt” during the seven years of abundance.

How we translate it

“Five” 301 times, “fifteen” 19, “fifteenth” 15. The English form depends on the number it goes with; in larger figures (“forty-five”, “five hundred”) it is part of the number.

How it is translated

The words this translation uses for it, most frequent first.

• five ×301
• fifteen ×19
• fifteenth ×15
• fifth day ×4
• twenty-fifth ×3
• shekels apiece ×1

Related words

Words of the same family, by Strong’s numbering.

Where it appears

• Genesis×25
• Exodus×33
• Leviticus×8
• Numbers×73
• Joshua×10
• Judges×9
• 1 Samuel×11
• 2 Samuel×5
• 1 Kings×19
• 2 Kings×14
• 1 Chronicles×11
• 2 Chronicles×30
• Ezra×9
• Nehemiah×8
• Esther×5
• Job×2
• Isaiah×6
• Jeremiah×3
• Ezekiel×60
• Daniel×1
• Hosea×1

• Genesis 5:6

  And Seth lived one hundred and five years and fathered Enosh.

• Genesis 5:10

  And Enosh lived after he fathered Kenan eight hundred and fifteen years and fathered sons and daughters.

• Genesis 5:11

  And all the days of Enosh were nine hundred and five years and he died.

• Genesis 5:15

  And Mahalalel lived sixty-five years and fathered Jared.

• Genesis 5:17

  And all the days of Mahalalel were eight hundred and ninety-five years and he died.

• Genesis 5:21

  And Enoch lived sixty-five years and fathered Methuselah.

• Genesis 5:23

  And all the days of Enoch were three hundred and sixty-five years.

• Genesis 5:30

  And Lamech lived after he fathered Noah five hundred and ninety-five years and fathered sons and daughters.

• Genesis 5:32

  And Noah was five hundred years old, and Noah fathered Shem, Ham, and Japheth.

• Genesis 7:20

  Fifteen cubits upward the waters prevailed, and the mountains were covered.

• Genesis 11:11

  After he fathered Arpachshad, Shem lived five hundred years and fathered sons and daughters.

• Genesis 11:12

  Arpachshad lived thirty-five years and fathered Shelah.

• Genesis 11:32

  The days of Terah were two hundred and five years, and Terah died in Haran.

• Genesis 12:4

  So Abram went, just as YHWH had told him, and Lot went with him. Abram was seventy-five years old when he went out from Haran.

• Genesis 14:9

  against Chedorlaomer king of Elam, Tidal king of Goiim, Amraphel king of Shinar, and Arioch king of Ellasar: four kings against the five.

• Genesis 18:28

  Perhaps the fifty righteous will lack five; will you destroy for the five the whole city?” He said, “I will not destroy it if I find there forty-five.”

• Genesis 25:7

  These are the days of the years of the life of Abraham which he lived: a hundred and seventy and five years.

• Genesis 43:34

  Portions were carried to them from before him, and Benjamin’s portion was five times larger than the portions of all of them. They drank and became drunk with him.

• Genesis 45:6

  For these two years the famine has been in the midst of the land, and there are still five years in which there will be no plowing or harvest.

• Genesis 45:11

  I will provide for you there, for there are still five years of famine, so that you do not come to poverty, you and your household and all that you have.’

• Genesis 45:22

  To each he gave changes of clothing, but to Benjamin he gave three hundred pieces of silver and five changes of clothing.

• Genesis 47:2

  From among his brothers he took five men and presented them before Pharaoh.

• Exodus 16:1

  They set out from Elim, and all the community of the sons of Israel came to the wilderness of Sin, which is between Elim and Sinai, on the fifteenth day of the second month after their departure from the land of Egypt.

• Exodus 22:1

  When a man steals an ox or a lamb and slaughters it or sells it, he shall repay five cattle for the ox and four sheep for the lamb.

• Exodus 26:3

  Five curtains shall be joined one to another, and five curtains joined one to another.

• Exodus 26:9

  You shall join five curtains by themselves and six curtains by themselves, and you shall double over the sixth curtain at the front of the tent.

• Exodus 26:26

  You shall make bars of acacia wood, five for the boards of one side of the dwelling,

• Exodus 26:27

  and five bars for the boards of the second side of the dwelling, and five bars for the boards of the side of the dwelling at the rear, westward.

• Exodus 26:37

  You shall make for the screen five pillars of acacia and overlay them with gold; their hooks shall be of gold, and you shall cast for them five bases of bronze.

• Exodus 27:1

  You shall make the altar of acacia wood: five cubits long and five cubits wide; the altar shall be square, and three cubits its height.

• Exodus 27:14

  Fifteen cubits of hangings for the one side, their pillars three and their bases three;

• Exodus 27:15

  and for the other side fifteen cubits of hangings, their pillars three and their bases three.

• Exodus 27:18

  The length of the courtyard shall be a hundred cubits, the width fifty all along, and the height five cubits, of fine twisted linen, and their bases of bronze.

• Exodus 30:23

  “And you, take for yourself the finest spices: of liquid myrrh five hundred, and of fragrant cinnamon half as much, two hundred and fifty, and of fragrant cane two hundred and fifty,

• Exodus 30:24

  and of cassia five hundred, by the shekel of the sanctuary, and of olive oil a hin.

• Exodus 36:10

  And he joined five curtains, one to another, and five curtains he joined, one to another.

• Exodus 36:16

  And he joined five curtains by themselves, and six curtains by themselves.

• Exodus 36:31

  And he made bars of acacia wood, five for the boards of the one side of the dwelling,

• Exodus 36:32

  and five bars for the boards of the second side of the dwelling, and five bars for the boards of the dwelling at the rear westward.

• Exodus 36:38

  and its five pillars and their hooks; and he overlaid their tops and their rods with gold; and their five bases were of bronze.

And 303 more times.