Hebrew word · H3315

יֶ֫פֶת

yefet

Japheth

Proper name. Genesis 9:27 explains it by wordplay with the verb pātâ, 'make wide, give room': 'May God enlarge (yapt) Japheth.'

Appears 11 times in 11 verses of the Hebrew Old Testament. ·

What it means

A man living at the time of the Patriarchs, first mentioned at Gen.5.32;

son of: Noah (H5146);

brother of: Shem (H8035) and Ham (H2526);

father of: Gomer (H1586), Magog (H4031), Madai (H4074), Javan (H3120), Tubal (H8422), Meshech (H4902) and Tiras (H8494)

§ Japheth = "opened"

the 3rd son of Noah whose descendants after the flood settled on the coastal lands of the Mediterranean spreading north into Europe and parts of Asia

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 Genesis 10:2

Range of meaning

Proper name. Genesis 9:27 explains it by wordplay with the verb pātâ, 'make wide, give room': 'May God enlarge (yapt) Japheth.'

Against the English

All English versions transliterate it. What English readers miss is the pun with 'enlarge' and the fact that the name heads the widest-spread of the three lines.

Used elsewhere in the period

Scholars have long compared the Greek Titan Iapetos, whom Greek myth makes an ancestor of humankind (father of Prometheus). Whether the names are actually related is disputed on sound-change grounds. The Hebrew text itself explains the name only through the wordplay in 9:27.

Where it appears

Genesis · 9

  1. Genesis 5:32 יָֽפֶת׃ Japheth

    After Noah was 500 years old, he became the father of Shem, Ham, and Japheth.

  2. Genesis 6:10 יָֽפֶת׃ Japheth

    And Noah had three sons: Shem, Ham, and Japheth.

  3. Genesis 7:13 וָיֶ֖פֶת and Japheth

    On that very day Noah entered the ark, along with his sons Shem, Ham, and Japheth, and his wife, and the three wives of his sons—

  4. Genesis 9:18 וָיָ֑פֶת and Japheth

    The sons of Noah who came out of the ark were Shem, Ham, and Japheth. And Ham was the father of Canaan.

  5. Genesis 9:23 וָיֶ֜פֶת and Japheth

    Then Shem and Japheth took a garment and placed it across their shoulders, and walking backward, they covered their father’s nakedness. Their faces were turned away so that they did not see their father’s nakedness.

  6. Genesis 9:27 לְיֶ֔פֶת <to> Japheth

    May God expand the territory of Japheth; may he dwell in the tents of Shem, and may Canaan be his servant.”

  7. Genesis 10:1 וָיָ֑פֶת and Japheth

    This is the account of Noah’s sons Shem, Ham, and Japheth, who also had sons after the flood.

    Here: Third son, whose line (treated first, in 10:2–5) covers the peoples to the north and west, out to the coastlands and islands. His name echoes Noah's wish in 9:27, 'may God enlarge (yaft) Japheth'.

  8. Genesis 10:2 יֶ֔פֶת Japheth

    The sons of Japheth: Gomer, Magog, Madai, Javan, Tubal, Meshech, and Tiras.

    Here: Noah's son. His line comes first in the Table because it is farthest from Israel, both on the map and in the story. The name echoes Noah's blessing in 9:27, 'May God enlarge (yapt) Japheth,' and his descendants do spread over the widest area: north and west of Israel, from the Iranian plateau to the Aegean.

  9. Genesis 10:21 יֶ֥פֶת Japheth

    And sons were also born to Shem, the older brother of Japheth; Shem was the forefather of all the sons of Eber.

1 Chronicles · 2

  1. 1 Chronicles 1:4 וָיָֽפֶת׃ ס and Japheth

    The sons of Noah: Shem, Ham, and Japheth.

  2. 1 Chronicles 1:5 יֶ֔פֶת Japheth

    The sons of Japheth: Gomer, Magog, Madai, Javan, Tubal, Meshech, and Tiras.

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