עֶשֶׂר

From the study of Amos 6:9

Range of meaning

Ten is a round, complete number in Hebrew and is often used as a small but meaningful group: ten righteous people (Gen 18:32), ten elders as a legal quorum (Ruth 4:2), ten as the last figure in a shrinking count (Amos 5:3).

Against the English

'Ten men' is a literal and correct translation. NIV's 'people' widens the reference to everyone, which is possible, but the usual sense of anashim is adult males.

Used elsewhere in the period

Amos 5:3 runs a thousand, a hundred, ten. Genesis 18:32 stops Abraham's bargaining over Sodom at ten. Amos himself mentions Sodom and Gomorrah (4:11). The later Jewish rule that a prayer gathering needs ten men (the minyan) dates from long after Amos and should not be read into this verse.

From the study of Deuteronomy 4:13

Range of meaning

Davar covers a word or saying, a spoken message, a report, a matter or affair, and even a 'thing' or event. In the plural with an article it often means 'the words' (what someone said) or 'the matters' (the business at hand). The exact phrase 'the ten words' occurs only three times in the Hebrew Bible: Exod 34:28, Deut 4:13 and Deut 10:4.

Against the English

Nearly every major English version renders the phrase 'the Ten Commandments'. YLT ('the Ten Matters') and footnotes in some versions (e.g. ESV, 'the ten words') keep the Hebrew. Hebrew had ready words for commands (mitsvot, from tsavah, which appears in this very verse; also ḥuqqim and mishpatim in v.14), but the fixed name for this set uses 'words'.

How it drifted

The Greek Septuagint kept 'ten words', and Greek-speaking Jews and Christians coined the name 'Decalogue' ('ten words') from it (Philo wrote a treatise called On the Decalogue). The Latin Vulgate also keeps 'ten words' (decem verba). The English name 'Ten Commandments' came in with Reformation-era English Bibles (Tyndale, Geneva, KJV), which described the content (they do command) instead of translating the name. Over time the content-label replaced the Hebrew title in popular memory.

Used elsewhere in the period

LXX translates with 'ten words' (ta deka rhēmata here; tous deka logous in Exod 34:28 and Deut 10:4). Philo, De Decalogo, treats them as the ten headings of the whole Law. Josephus (Antiquities book 3) describes the ten things God spoke at Sinai. In Jewish tradition the first 'word' is Exod 20:2 / Deut 5:6, 'I am the LORD your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt', which is a statement of who God is and what he has done, not an order.

From the study of 1 Samuel 25:38

Range of meaning

'Eser/'aseret is the numeral ten. The prefix ke-/ka- before a number means "about, approximately" (compare Ruth 1:4, "about ten years"; 1 Sam 14:2, "about six hundred men").

Against the English

Every major English version reads "about ten days later" or similar. KJV adds a bracketed "[after]" because the Hebrew simply says "it was about the ten days." No real distortion.

Used elsewhere in the period

Ten days appears elsewhere as a short, defined waiting period (Gen 24:55; Dan 1:12–15; Jer 42:7). Here it is probably just a narrative time marker. Claims that "ten" carries a special symbolic meaning in this verse go beyond the evidence.