Word study
Numerous
6 Hebrew words behind this English word
The original-language words that the Berean Standard Bible translates with “numerous”. English often uses one word where Hebrew or Greek has several, each with its own shade of meaning. Under each word are verses where it is translated this way; choose the word itself for its full study: every verse, how else it is translated, the forms it takes and what the dictionaries say.
At a glance
How often each original word is translated “numerous” or one of its forms.
Compare the Hebrew words side by side
Hebrew and Aramaic words (Old Testament)
- רַב rabmuch, many, greattranslated this way 10 times of its 445 uses · Strong’s H7227Adjective · Translated: many 171, great 65, captain 24, long 14Full study and all 426 verses →
Exodus 1:9 “Look,” he said to his people, “the Israelites have become too numerous and too powerful for us.
Numbers 22:3 and Moab was terrified of the people because they were numerous. Indeed, Moab dreaded the Israelites.
- רֹב rôbmultitude, abundance, greatnesstranslated this way 8 times of its 142 uses · Strong’s H7230Noun · Translated: many 28, abundance 22, great 18, abundant 10Full study and all 138 verses →
Genesis 16:10 Then the angel added, “I will greatly multiply your offspring so that they will be too numerous to count.”
Deuteronomy 1:10 The LORD your God has multiplied you, so that today you are as numerous as the stars in the sky.
- רָבָה râbâhbe, or become, much, many, greattranslated this way 7 times of its 219 uses · Strong’s H7235Verb · Translated: multiply 39, multiplied 23, many 15, much 10Full study and all 207 verses →
Genesis 26:4 I will make your descendants as numerous as the stars in the sky, and I will give them all these lands, and through your offspring all nations of the earth will be blessed,
Exodus 32:13 Remember Your servants Abraham, Isaac, and Israel, to whom You swore by Your very self when You declared, ‘I will make your descendants as numerous as the stars in the sky, and I will give your descendants all this land that I have promised, and it shall be their inheritance forever.’”
- עָצַם âtsambe vast, mighty, numeroustranslated this way 7 times of its 18 uses · Strong’s H6105Verb · Translated: numerous 5, more 2, more numerous 2Full study and all 18 verses →
Exodus 1:7 but the Israelites were fruitful and increased rapidly; they multiplied and became exceedingly numerous, so that the land was filled with them.
Psalm 105:24 And the LORD made His people very fruitful, more numerous than their foes,
- רָבַב râbabbe or become, many, muchtranslated this way 2 times of its 21 uses · Strong’s H7231Verb · Translated: many 8, multiply 3, more numerous 2Full study and all 21 verses →
Deuteronomy 7:7 The LORD did not set His affection on you and choose you because you were more numerous than the other peoples, for you were the fewest of all peoples.
Jeremiah 46:23 They will chop down her forest, declares the LORD, dense though it may be, for they are more numerous than locusts; they cannot be counted.
- מִסְפָּר mispârnumber, taletranslated this way 2 times of its 113 uses · Strong’s H4557Noun · Translated: number 35, according to the number 13, counting 13, few 9Full study and all 111 verses →
Jeremiah 2:28 But where are the gods you made for yourselves? Let them rise up in your time of trouble and save you if they can; for your gods are as numerous as your cities, O Judah.
Jeremiah 11:13 Your gods are indeed as numerous as your cities, O Judah; the altars of shame you have set up— the altars to burn incense to Baal— are as many as the streets of Jerusalem.’
How to study a word well
- Start from the verse, not the dictionary. Find which Hebrew or Greek word stands in the verse you are studying. One English word often translates several different original words.
- Read every place the word is used. A word means what its writers used it to mean. The list of verses and the count by book show its range, and who uses it most.
- Look at how it is translated. A word rendered five different ways has a wider meaning than any one English word can carry.
- Notice the form. A command is not a statement, and a passive verb is something done to the subject. The form in your verse is part of the meaning.
- See what it keeps company with. The words that appear beside it again and again show how the Bible itself connects ideas.
- Then read the dictionaries. They give the considered view of scholars, with their evidence.
- Come back to the verse. Context decides. A word does not carry every one of its meanings into every verse, and where a word came from does not settle what it means in a sentence written centuries later.
Scripture text and translation counts: Berean Standard Bible. Full entry: Brown, Driver and Briggs, A Hebrew and English Lexicon of the Old Testament (1906, public domain), in the digital edition Brown-Driver-Briggs Enhanced by unfoldingWord (Joel Ruark, J. de Joode), based on data by Eliran Wong and Stephen Ku; its additions are used under CC BY 4.0. Strong’s Hebrew Dictionary: Open Scriptures Hebrew Bible Project, CC BY 4.0. Hebrew-to-English verse numbering: original work of the Open Scriptures Hebrew Bible available at https://github.com/openscriptures/morphhb, CC BY 4.0. We reformatted the data, linked the references to this site’s Bible text and left out words in other scripts that the source holds only as images. These are historical reference works; an entry gives its authors’ view, and a word’s meaning in any verse depends on how it is used there.