Hebrew word · H1165

בְּעִיר

uve'irenu

cattle

Domestic animals as a group: livestock, cattle, beasts, including grazing and pack animals. Probably connected to a root meaning "to graze" (Exod 22:4 [English 22:5] uses a related verb for letting animals graze in someone else's field).

Appears 6 times in 6 verses of the Hebrew Old Testament. ·

What it means

beasts, cattle

Abridged from Brown, Driver and Briggs, A Hebrew and English Lexicon of the Old Testament (1906), via STEPBible.org (CC BY 4.0).

In depth

From the study of Numbers 20:4

Range of meaning

Domestic animals as a group: livestock, cattle, beasts, including grazing and pack animals. Probably connected to a root meaning "to graze" (Exod 22:4 [English 22:5] uses a related verb for letting animals graze in someone else's field). It is a rare word: Gen 45:17; Exod 22:4; Num 20:4, 8, 11; Ps 78:48.

Against the English

KJV says "cattle," which in 1611 meant livestock in general but to modern readers means only cows. BSB and NIV say "livestock," WEB "animals," YLT "beasts." "Livestock" is the best modern equivalent.

How it drifted

In older English "cattle" covered all livestock, including sheep and goats. It has since narrowed to cows.

Used elsewhere in the period

The parallel complaint at the first water crisis (Exod 17:3) uses the more common word miqneh ("livestock, property"). Within Num 20 the rare beʿir appears three times (vv. 4, 8, 11), which ties the people's complaint closely to God's answer.

Where it appears

Genesis · 1

  1. Genesis 45:17 בְּעִ֣ירְכֶ֔ם animal[s] your

    Pharaoh said to Joseph, “Tell your brothers, ‘Do as follows: Load your animals and return to the land of Canaan.

Exodus · 1

  1. Exodus 22:5 בְּעִיר֔וֹ cattle his

    If a man grazes his livestock in a field or vineyard and allows them to stray so that they graze in someone else’s field, he must make restitution from the best of his own field or vineyard.

Numbers · 3

  1. Numbers 20:4 וּבְעִירֵֽנוּ׃ and livestock our

    Why have you brought the LORD’s assembly into this wilderness for us and our livestock to die here?

    Here: A rare collective word for domestic animals, flocks and pack animals. For a herding people the animals were their wealth and their food supply, so their death meant ruin. God's answer deliberately includes them (vv. 8, 11).

  2. Numbers 20:8 בְּעִירָֽם׃ livestock their

    “Take the staff and assemble the congregation. You and your brother Aaron are to speak to the rock while they watch, and it will pour out its water. You will bring out water from the rock and provide drink for the congregation and their livestock.”

    Here: 'Their livestock.' This answers the people's complaint in v. 4 word for word: 'to die here, we and our livestock (beʿîrēnû)'. God meets the complaint at exactly the point where it was made.

  3. Numbers 20:11 וּבְעִירָֽם׃ ס and livestock their

    Then Moses raised his hand and struck the rock twice with his staff, so that a great amount of water gushed out, and the congregation and their livestock were able to drink.

    Here: 'And their livestock.' This answers the complaint of v.4 word for word: 'that we and our livestock (be'irenu) should die here.' God provides for the animals as well as the people.

Psalms · 1

  1. Psalm 78:48 בְּעִירָ֑ם cattle their

    He abandoned their cattle to the hail and their livestock to bolts of lightning.

Word data: STEPBible.org (CC BY 4.0), main text only.