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arba

אַרְבַּע

HebrewH0702four, fourth

Appears 318 times · tap a cell to see the verses

Gen 2:10Gen 11:13Gen 11:15Gen 11:16Gen 11:17Gen 14:5Gen 14:9Gen 15:13Gen 23:15Gen 23:16Gen 31:41Gen 32:6(7)Gen 33:1Gen 46:22Gen 47:24Exo 12:6Exo 12:18Exo 12:40Exo 12:41Exo 22:1(21:37)Exo 25:12 (2×)Exo 25:26 (3×)Exo 25:34Exo 26:2Exo 26:8Exo 26:32 (2×)Exo 27:2Exo 27:4 (2×)Exo 27:16 (2×)Exo 28:17Exo 36:9Exo 36:15Exo 36:36 (2×)Exo 37:3 (2×)Exo 37:13 (3×)Exo 37:20Exo 38:2Lev 11:20Lev 11:21Lev 11:23Lev 23:5Num 7:7Num 7:88Num 9:3Num 9:5Num 9:11Num 28:16Num 29:15Jos 5:10Jdg 11:40
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Word studyar-BAHadj

What arba means

four: the cardinal number 4

TranslatabilityDirectCertaintySettled

This is simply the number four. It counts things the way any number does: four kings, four rivers, four corners, four years, four hundred shekels. The Hebrew has a masculine and a feminine form (the spelling shifts depending on what is being counted), but both mean the same plain number, and English carries it with the single word "four" every time.

What is worth noticing is not a second meaning but a pattern of use. Four often stands for completeness across the whole world, because the world was pictured as having four directions. So the Bible speaks of the four winds, the four corners (or quarters) of the earth, and four rivers flowing out of Eden to water the whole land. In Ezekiel's vision the living creatures each have four faces and move toward all four sides, a picture of God's reach in every direction. This is the ordinary number four doing ordinary counting; the sense of "the whole earth, all directions" comes from what is being counted, not from any special meaning hidden in the word itself.

Four also pairs naturally with other numbers in set phrases. "Three and four" is a way of saying "more than enough, again and again" (as in the refrain "for three transgressions and for four"), and "forty" (literally four tens) marks long, complete spans of time such as the forty years in the wilderness.

Gen 2:10Gen 11:13Gen 11:15Gen 11:16Gen 11:17Gen 14:5Gen 14:9Gen 15:13Gen 23:15Gen 23:16Gen 31:41Gen 32:6(7)

What scholars say about arba

A common Semitic cardinal numeral, cognate across the Semitic languages (Akkadian erbe, Aramaic arbaʿ, Ugaritic arbʿ). The lexica (HALOT, BDB) treat it as a single, unambiguous cardinal number with masculine and feminine forms used in the usual gender-discordant agreement of Hebrew numerals. It serves as the base for the ordinal "fourth" (reviʿi) and, multiplied, for "forty" (arbaʿim). Its frequent association with the cosmos (the four winds, the four quarters of the earth) is a feature of biblical cosmology and of the objects counted, not a distinct lexical sense.

Sources

  • HALOT, s.v. אַרְבַּעlexicon
  • BDB, s.v. אַרְבַּעlexicon

All attested forms of אַרְבַּע

c s absolute

אַרְבָּעָה, אַרְבַּע

Gen 14:9, Gen 46:22, Exo 12:6, Exo 25:34, Exo 26:32, Exo 26:32, Exo 27:16, Exo 27:16

conj

אַרְבַּע, אַרְבָּעָה, אַרְבַּעְתָּ, אַרְבַּעַת

Gen 11:13, Gen 11:15, Gen 11:17, Gen 14:5, Gen 32:6, Gen 47:24, Exo 12:40, Exo 12:41

c s construct

אַרְבַּע, אַרְבַּעַת

Gen 15:13, Gen 23:15, Gen 23:16, Gen 33:1, Exo 25:12, Exo 25:12, Exo 25:26, Exo 25:26

f s construct

אַרְבַּעְתָּם

Dan 1:17