Hebrew word · H3723

כָּפָר

bakefarim

village

An open village or hamlet, as opposed to a walled town. The related form kopher / kaphar in Hebrew and Aramaic covers 'village, rural settlement'.

Appears 3 times in 3 verses of the Hebrew Old Testament. · Updated October 30, 2026

What it means

village

Also means: ko.pher (כֹּפֶר "village" H3724D)

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

Range of meaning: An open village or hamlet, as opposed to a walled town. The related form kopher / kaphar in Hebrew and Aramaic covers 'village, rural settlement'.
Against the English: English versions keep it as part of a proper name (Chephar-, Kephar-), so the reader doesn't see that the name means 'Village of the Ammonite(s)'.
Used elsewhere in the period: Rare in biblical Hebrew. The related forms appear in Song of Songs 7:11 (12 in Hebrew) 'let us lodge in the villages', 1 Chronicles 27:25, and Nehemiah 6:2 (kephirim). It becomes the ordinary word for 'village' in Aramaic and in later rabbinic Hebrew, and survives in place names such as Capernaum (Kephar Nahum, 'village of Nahum') and the many modern names beginning Kfar-.

Joshua · 1

Joshua 18:24 וּכְפַ֧ר and Kephar

Chephar-ammoni, Ophni, and Geba—twelve cities, along with their villages.

Here: The 'and' joins this name to the list running from verse 21. Kephar is a common noun, 'village', standing in a bound phrase: 'village of…'. It is the first half of a two-word place name.

1 Chronicles · 1

1 Chronicles 27:25 וּבַכְּפָרִים֙ and in the villages

Azmaveth son of Adiel was in charge of the royal storehouses. Jonathan son of Uzziah was in charge of the storehouses in the country, in the cities, in the villages, and in the fortresses.

Song of Songs · 1

Song of Songs 7:11 בַּכְּפָרִֽים׃ in the villages

Come, my beloved, let us go to the countryside; let us spend the night among the wildflowers.

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