meat · little, few

What it means

meat (מְעַט) is a Hebrew word of the Bible that means “little, few”.

A little; few.

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. A small amount: few in number, or a short time.
2. A short while, or very nearly: barely, by a little.

From Brown-Driver-Briggs (1906)

Word study

Little: a small amount, few in number, or a short time. BDB: a little or few; also, adverbially, little by little or almost.

• “A little water” Genesis 18:4
• Few in number Genesis 47:9Deuteronomy 7:71 Samuel 14:6
• “Little by little” Exodus 23:30
• “{Is it} too little for you …?” Numbers 16:9
• “Better {is} a little”: the wise saying Psalms 37:16Proverbs 15:16

How we translate it

“Little” 62 times, “few” 20, “small” 9, “almost” 3, “soon” 3… “Small” when the text compares a large group with a small one, as in the sharing of the land (Numbers 26:54); in Deuteronomy 7:7, “the fewest of all the peoples”.

How it is translated

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

• little ×62
• few ×20
• small ×9
• almost ×3
• soon ×3
• Scarcely ×1
• brief ×1
• might easily ×1
• were the fewest ×1

Where it appears

• Genesis×11
• Exodus×3
• Leviticus×1
• Numbers×7
• Deuteronomy×6
• Joshua×2
• Judges×1
• Ruth×1
• 1 Samuel×4
• 2 Samuel×3
• 1 Kings×2
• 2 Kings×1
• 1 Chronicles×1
• 2 Chronicles×2
• Ezra×2
• Nehemiah×2
• Job×5
• Psalms×10
• Proverbs×10
• Ecclesiastes×4
• Song of Songs×1
• Isaiah×7
• Jeremiah×2
• Ezekiel×5
• Daniel×2
• Hosea×2
• Haggai×3
• Zechariah×1

• Genesis 18:4

  Let a little water be brought, please, and wash your feet, and rest under the tree.

• Genesis 24:17

  The servant ran to meet her and said, “Please let me sip a little water from your jar.”

• Genesis 24:43

  look, I am standing by the spring of water. Let it be that the young woman who comes out to draw, and to whom I say, “Please let me drink a little water from your jar,”

• Genesis 26:10

  Abimelech said, “What is this you have done to us? One of the people might easily have lain with your wife, and you would have brought guilt upon us.”

• Genesis 30:15

  She said to her, “Is it a small thing that you have taken my husband? Would you take my son’s mandrakes too?” Rachel said, “Then he will lie with you tonight in exchange for the mandrakes of your son.”

• Genesis 30:30

  For you had little before me, and it has increased abundantly, and YHWH has blessed you at my coming. But now, when will I too do something for my own house?”

• Genesis 43:2

  When they had finished eating the grain that they had brought from Egypt, their father said to them, “Go back, buy us a little food.”

• Genesis 43:11

  Israel their father said to them, “If it must be so, then do this: take some of the choicest products of the land in your containers and carry down to the man a gift: a little balm and a little honey, aromatic gum and ladanum, pistachios and almonds.

• Genesis 44:25

  And our father said, ‘Go back, buy us a little food.’

• Genesis 47:9

  Jacob said to Pharaoh, “The days of the years of my life as an alien are a hundred and thirty years. Few and evil have been the days of the years of my life, and they have not reached the days of the years of the life of my fathers in the days of their life as aliens.”

• Exodus 17:4

  Moses cried out to YHWH, saying, “What shall I do with this people? A little more and they will stone me.”

• Exodus 23:30

  Little by little I will drive them out from before you, until you increase and take possession of the land.

• Leviticus 25:52

  And if few years remain until the year of jubilee, he shall calculate with him; according to his years he shall pay back the price of his redemption.

• Numbers 13:18

  and see the land, what it is like, and the people who live in it, whether they are strong or weak, whether they are few or many,

• Numbers 16:9

  Is it too little for you that the Elohim of Israel has separated you from the community of Israel to bring you near to himself, to do the service of the dwelling of YHWH and to stand before the community to minister to them,

• Numbers 16:13

  Is it too little that you have brought us up out of a land flowing with milk and honey to kill us in the wilderness, that you should make yourself a prince over us, even make yourself a prince?

• Numbers 26:54

  To the large you shall increase his inheritance, and to the small you shall reduce his inheritance; to each his inheritance shall be given according to those counted of him.

• Numbers 26:56

  According to the lot its inheritance shall be divided between the large and the small.”

• Numbers 33:54

  You shall take as inheritance the land by lot according to your families; to the large you shall increase his inheritance, and to the small you shall reduce his inheritance; wherever the lot falls for him, that shall be his; according to the tribes of your fathers you shall take inheritance.

• Numbers 35:8

  And the cities that you shall give from the possession of the sons of Israel, from the large you shall take more, and from the small you shall take fewer; each according to his inheritance that they inherit shall give of his cities to the Levites.”

• Deuteronomy 7:7

  It was not because you were more numerous than all the peoples that YHWH set his affection on you and chose you, for you were the fewest of all the peoples;

• Deuteronomy 7:22

  YHWH your Elohim will clear away these nations from before you little by little; you will not be able to finish them off quickly, lest the animals of the field multiply against you.

• Deuteronomy 26:5

  And you shall answer and say before YHWH your Elohim, “A wandering Aramean was my father; and he went down to Egypt and lived there as a foreigner, with few men, and there he became a great, mighty, and numerous nation.

• Deuteronomy 28:38

  Much seed you will carry out to the field, and little you will gather, for the locust will consume it.

• Deuteronomy 28:62

  And you will be left few in number, whereas you were like the stars of the heavens in multitude, because you did not listen to the voice of YHWH your Elohim.

• Joshua 7:3

  They returned to Joshua and said to him, “Do not let all the people go up; let about two thousand men or about three thousand men go up and strike Ai. Do not weary all the people there, for they are few.”

• Joshua 22:17

  Is the iniquity of Peor too little for us, from which we have not cleansed ourselves to this day, and for which the plague came on the community of YHWH?

• Judges 4:19

  He said to her, “Give me to drink, please, a little water, for I am thirsty.” She opened the skin of milk, gave him a drink, and covered him.

• Ruth 2:7

  She said, ‘Let me glean, please, and I will gather among the sheaves behind the reapers.’ So she came and has been standing from the morning until now; she has sat in the house only a little.”

• 1 Samuel 14:6

  Jonathan said to the young man who carried his weapons, “Come, let us cross over to the post of these uncircumcised; perhaps YHWH will act for us, for there is no hindrance for YHWH to save by many or by few.”

• 1 Samuel 14:29

  Jonathan said, “My father has brought ruin on the land. See, please, how my eyes have brightened because I tasted a little of this honey.

• 1 Samuel 14:43

  Saul said to Jonathan, “Tell me what you have done.” Jonathan told him and said, “I did indeed taste, with the tip of the rod that was in my hand, a little honey. Here I am; I will die.”

• 1 Samuel 17:28

  Eliab his oldest brother heard when he spoke to the men, and the anger of Eliab burned against David, and he said, “Why have you come down? And with whom have you left that little flock in the wilderness? I know your arrogance and the evil of your heart: for in order to see the war you have come down.”

• 2 Samuel 12:8

  I gave you your lord’s house and your lord’s wives into your bosom, and I gave you the house of Israel and of Judah; and if that were too little, I would add to you as much and as much again.

• 2 Samuel 16:1

  David had gone on a little from the summit, and there was Ziba, the young man of Mephibosheth, to meet him, with a pair of donkeys saddled, and on them two hundred loaves of bread, a hundred clusters of raisins, a hundred summer fruits, and a skin of wine.

• 2 Samuel 19:36

  Your servant will cross the Jordan with the king just a little way; and why should the king repay me with this reward?

• 1 Kings 17:10

  So he got up and went to Zarephath, and came to the entrance of the city; and there a widow was gathering sticks. He called to her and said, “Bring, please, me a little water in a vessel, so that I may drink.”

• 1 Kings 17:12

  She said, “As YHWH your Elohim lives, I have no cake, only a handful of flour in the jar and a little oil in the jug; and look, I am gathering a couple of sticks, and I will go in and prepare it for myself and for my son, and we will eat it and die.”

• 2 Kings 10:18

  Jehu gathered all the people and said to them, “Ahab served Baal a little; Jehu will serve him much.

• 1 Chronicles 16:19

  when you were few in number, very few, and resident aliens in it.

And 61 more times.