mispar · number

What it means

mispar (מִסְפָּר) is a Hebrew word of the Bible that means “number”.

Quantity; "few in number".

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 amount that results from counting: how many there are.
2. An account: telling something to someone, in order.

From Brown-Driver-Briggs (1906)

Word study

Number, quantity; also a telling. BDB: a number, definite or indefinite (large, innumerable; small, few); abstractly, also narration. It comes from סָפַר, “to count” (H5608).

• “According to the number of names”: the census Numbers 1:2
• “He counts the number of the stars” Psalms 147:4
• “Without number”: countless Judges 7:12
• “Few in number” Genesis 34:30Deuteronomy 4:27
• The telling of a dream Judges 7:15

How we translate it

“Number” 124 times, “few” 3, “count” 2, “telling” 1… מְתֵי מִסְפָּר, “men of number”, is translated “few” (“I {have} few men”, Genesis 34:30).

How it is translated

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

• number ×124
• few ×3
• count ×2
• account ×1
• are numbered ×1
• as many as ×1
• numbers ×1
• telling ×1

Related words

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

Where it appears

• Genesis×2
• Exodus×2
• Leviticus×4
• Numbers×34
• Deuteronomy×4
• Joshua×2
• Judges×5
• 1 Samuel×3
• 2 Samuel×5
• 1 Kings×1
• 1 Chronicles×21
• 2 Chronicles×5
• Ezra×4
• Nehemiah×1
• Esther×1
• Job×13
• Psalms×6
• Ecclesiastes×3
• Song of Songs×1
• Isaiah×3
• Jeremiah×6
• Ezekiel×5
• Daniel×1
• Hosea×1
• Joel×1

• Genesis 34:30

  Jacob said to Simeon and to Levi, “You have brought trouble on me by making me odious to the inhabitants of the land, the Canaanites and the Perizzites. And I have few men; if they gather against me and strike me, I will be destroyed, I and my house.”

• Genesis 41:49

  Joseph stored up grain like the sand of the sea, very much, until he stopped counting, for it was without number.

• Exodus 16:16

  This is the thing that YHWH has commanded: ‘Gather of it, each one according to what he can eat, an omer per head, according to the number of your persons; each one for those in his tent you shall take.’ ”

• Exodus 23:26

  None shall miscarry or be barren in your land; the number of your days I will fulfill.

• Leviticus 25:15

  According to the number of years after the jubilee you shall buy from your neighbor; according to the number of years of harvests he shall sell to you.

• Leviticus 25:16

  The more the years, the more you shall increase its price, and the fewer the years, the more you shall decrease its price; for it is a number of harvests that he is selling to you.

• Leviticus 25:50

  And he shall calculate with the one who bought him from the year he sold himself to him until the year of jubilee, and the silver of his sale shall be according to the number of years; as the days of a hired worker it shall be with him.

• Numbers 1:2

  “Take a census of the whole community of the sons of Israel by their families, by their fathers’ houses, according to the number of names, every male, head by head.

• Numbers 1:18

  and they assembled the whole community on the first day of the second month, and they declared their descent by their families, by their fathers’ houses, according to the number of names, from twenty years old and upward, head by head,

• Numbers 1:20

  The sons of Reuben, Israel’s firstborn, their generations, by their families, by their fathers’ houses, according to the number of names, head by head, every male from twenty years old and upward, everyone who went out to the army:

• Numbers 1:22

  Of the sons of Simeon, their generations, by their families, by their fathers’ houses, those of them counted, according to the number of names, head by head, every male from twenty years old and upward, everyone who went out to the army:

• Numbers 1:24

  Of the sons of Gad, their generations, by their families, by their fathers’ houses, according to the number of names, from twenty years old and upward, everyone who went out to the army:

• Numbers 1:26

  Of the sons of Judah, their generations, by their families, by their fathers’ houses, according to the number of names, from twenty years old and upward, everyone who went out to the army:

• Numbers 1:28

  Of the sons of Issachar, their generations, by their families, by their fathers’ houses, according to the number of names, from twenty years old and upward, everyone who went out to the army:

• Numbers 1:30

  Of the sons of Zebulun, their generations, by their families, by their fathers’ houses, according to the number of names, from twenty years old and upward, everyone who went out to the army:

• Numbers 1:32

  Of the sons of Joseph, of the sons of Ephraim, their generations, by their families, by their fathers’ houses, according to the number of names, from twenty years old and upward, everyone who went out to the army:

• Numbers 1:34

  Of the sons of Manasseh, their generations, by their families, by their fathers’ houses, according to the number of names, from twenty years old and upward, everyone who went out to the army:

• Numbers 1:36

  Of the sons of Benjamin, their generations, by their families, by their fathers’ houses, according to the number of names, from twenty years old and upward, everyone who went out to the army:

• Numbers 1:38

  Of the sons of Dan, their generations, by their families, by their fathers’ houses, according to the number of names, from twenty years old and upward, everyone who went out to the army:

• Numbers 1:40

  Of the sons of Asher, their generations, by their families, by their fathers’ houses, according to the number of names, from twenty years old and upward, everyone who went out to the army:

• Numbers 1:42

  The sons of Naphtali, their generations, by their families, by their fathers’ houses, according to the number of names, from twenty years old and upward, everyone who went out to the army:

• Numbers 3:22

  Those of them counted, according to the number of every male from a month old and upward, those of them counted were seven thousand five hundred.

• Numbers 3:28

  According to the number of every male from a month old and upward, there were eight thousand six hundred, keeping the charge of the Holy Place.

• Numbers 3:34

  And those of them counted, according to the number of every male from a month old and upward, were six thousand two hundred.

• Numbers 3:40

  And YHWH said to Moses, “Count every firstborn male of the sons of Israel from a month old and upward, and take the number of their names.

• Numbers 3:43

  And all the firstborn males, according to the number of names, from a month old and upward, of those of them counted, were twenty-two thousand two hundred seventy-three.

• Numbers 9:20

  And sometimes the cloud was a few days over the dwelling; according to the command of YHWH they would camp, and according to the command of YHWH they would set out.

• Numbers 14:29

  In this wilderness your corpses shall fall, and all of you who were counted in all your number, from twenty years old and upward, who have grumbled against me,

• Numbers 14:34

  According to the number of the days that you explored the land, forty days, a day for a year, a day for a year, you shall bear your iniquities, forty years, and you shall know my opposition.

• Numbers 15:12

  According to the number that you offer, so you shall do for each one according to their number.

• Numbers 23:10

  Who can count the dust of Jacob, or number the fourth part of Israel? Let my soul die the death of the upright, and let my end be like his!”

• Numbers 26:53

  “Among these the land shall be divided as an inheritance according to the number of names.

• Numbers 29:18

  and their grain offering and their libations for the bulls, for the rams, and for the lambs, by their number, according to the rule;

• Numbers 29:21

  and their grain offering and their libations for the bulls, for the rams, and for the lambs, by their number, according to the rule;

• Numbers 29:24

  their grain offering and their libations for the bulls, for the rams, and for the lambs, by their number, according to the rule;

• Numbers 29:27

  and their grain offering and their libations for the bulls, for the rams, and for the lambs, by their number, according to the rule;

• Numbers 29:30

  and their grain offering and their libations for the bulls, for the rams, and for the lambs, by their number, according to the rule;

• Numbers 29:33

  and their grain offering and their libations for the bulls, for the rams, and for the lambs, by their number, according to their rule;

• Numbers 29:37

  their grain offering and their libations for the bull, for the ram, and for the lambs, by their number, according to the rule;

• Numbers 31:36

  The half —the portion of those who went out to the army— was in number three hundred thirty-seven thousand five hundred sheep;

And 94 more times.