Hebrew word · H503
אָלַף
ma'alifot
to produce thousands
Both verbs are made from number words: elef, 'thousand,' and revavah, 'ten thousand / myriad.' The first means 'to produce thousands' and occurs only here in this sense. The second, in its passive form, means 'to be multiplied to myriads.'
Appears once in the Hebrew Old Testament. ·
What it means
v
1) (CLBL) to make thousand-fold, bring forth thousands
2) (TWOT) (Hiphil) producing thousands
n m
3)(BDB) chief, chiliarch
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 Psalm 144:13
- Range of meaning
Both verbs are made from number words: elef, 'thousand,' and revavah, 'ten thousand / myriad.' The first means 'to produce thousands' and occurs only here in this sense. The second, in its passive form, means 'to be multiplied to myriads.'
- Against the English
Most versions say 'bring forth / increase by thousands and tens of thousands.' This conveys the numbers but loses the coined-verb effect: in Hebrew the numbers themselves become verbs.
- Used elsewhere in the period
The pairing 'thousands… ten thousands' is a stock poetic pair: 1 Sam 18:7 ('Saul has slain his thousands, David his ten thousands'), Deut 32:30, Deut 33:17, Mic 6:7, and the fertility blessing on Rebekah, 'become thousands of ten thousands' (Gen 24:60). Elef can also mean 'cattle' (Ps 8:7; Deut 7:13 'the increase of your cattle,' shegar alafekha), and the same letters return in allufenu, 'our oxen,' in v. 14.
Where it appears
Psalms · 1
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Psalm 144:13 מַ֭אֲלִיפוֹת [will be] producing thousands
Our storehouses will be full, supplying all manner of produce; our flocks will bring forth thousands, tens of thousands in our fields.
Here: 'Making thousands,' a verb built from the noun elef, 'thousand.' The flock literally 'thousands itself.' The same letters reappear in allufenu, 'our oxen,' in the next verse.
Word data: STEPBible.org (CC BY 4.0), main text only.