Hebrew word · H5672

עֲבִי

ve'aveyo

thickness

Thickness or density. It is used of the Sea's rim, 'a handbreadth thick' (1 Kgs 7:26; 2 Chr 4:5), of the 'thick bosses' of shields (Job 15:26), and here of soil. It comes from the root 'bh, 'to be thick, dense' (cf. 'my little finger is thicker than my father's loins', 1 Kgs 12:10).

Appears 5 times in 5 verses of the Hebrew Old Testament. ·

What it means

thickness

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 2 Chronicles 4:17

Range of meaning

Thickness or density. It is used of the Sea's rim, 'a handbreadth thick' (1 Kgs 7:26; 2 Chr 4:5), of the 'thick bosses' of shields (Job 15:26), and here of soil. It comes from the root 'bh, 'to be thick, dense' (cf. 'my little finger is thicker than my father's loins', 1 Kgs 12:10).

Against the English

KJV/WEB/ESV/NASB say 'in the clay ground', which interprets 'thick ground' as clay. YLT says 'in the thick soil of the ground', closest to the Hebrew. BSB/NIV/NLT say 'in clay molds', which goes one step further and names the molds themselves, something the Hebrew does not say outright.

Used elsewhere in the period

The parallel 1 Kgs 7:46 uses ma'abeh, a word found only there, from the same root. The Greek Septuagint of Chronicles keeps the literal idea ('in the thickness of the earth'). The Latin Vulgate interprets it as clayey earth (in argillosa terra).

Where it appears

1 Kings · 1

  1. 1 Kings 7:26 וְעָבְי֣וֹ and thickness its

    It was a handbreadth thick, and its rim was fashioned like the brim of a cup, like a lily blossom. It could hold two thousand baths.

2 Chronicles · 2

  1. 2 Chronicles 4:5 וְעָבְי֣וֹ and thickness its

    It was a handbreadth thick, and its rim was fashioned like the brim of a cup, like a lily blossom. It could hold three thousand baths.

  2. 2 Chronicles 4:17 בַּעֲבִ֖י in [the] thickness of

    The king had them cast in clay molds in the plain of the Jordan between Succoth and Zeredah.

    Here: 'In the thickness of.' The same word gave the handbreadth thickness of the Sea's rim in 4:5. Here it describes dense, heavy soil, the sticky clay of the valley floor.

Job · 1

  1. Job 15:26 בַּ֝עֲבִ֗י with [the] thickness of

    rushing headlong at Him with a thick, studded shield.

Jeremiah · 1

  1. Jeremiah 52:21 וְעָבְי֛וֹ and thickness its

    Each pillar was eighteen cubits tall and twelve cubits in circumference; each was hollow, four fingers thick.

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