Hebrew word · H6249

עַשְׁתֵּי

'ashtei

eleven

'One', used only in 'ashtei 'asar/'esreh, 'eleven'. It is an alternative to the ordinary 'aḥad 'asar.

Appears 19 times in 18 verses of the Hebrew Old Testament. · Updated October 30, 2026

What it means

1) one, eleven, eleventh

1a) one as combined with ten ( a.sar (עָשָׂר "ten" H6240))

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: 'One', used only in 'ashtei 'asar/'esreh, 'eleven'. It is an alternative to the ordinary 'aḥad 'asar.
Against the English: No English difference: both forms are simply 'eleventh'.
Used elsewhere in the period: HALOT and most lexicons connect it with Akkadian ištēn, 'one'. It is concentrated in texts from the late monarchy and exile: Jeremiah, Ezekiel, 2 Kings, and priestly passages in the Pentateuch.

Range of meaning: The compound number "eleven." 'Ashtei occurs only in this compound (about 19 times in the Bible). It is usually explained as borrowed from or related to Akkadian ištēn, "one." Hebrew also has the ordinary form achad 'asar ("one-ten").
Against the English: English simply has "eleventh." Nothing of meaning is lost.
Used elsewhere in the period: It appears often in later books and in priestly and administrative lists (e.g. Exodus 26:7; Numbers 7:72; Deuteronomy 1:3; 2 Kings 25:2; Jeremiah 1:3; 39:2). This fits a borrowing at a time of contact with Mesopotamia, though the origin is not certain.

Range of meaning: 'Eleven' (and, used as an ordinal, 'eleventh'). ʿashtê is an old word for 'one' that survives in Hebrew only in this compound. The usual Hebrew word for 'one', ʾeḥad, can also form eleven (ʾaḥad ʿasar). The two forms are used side by side.
Against the English: English has a separate ordinal, 'eleventh'. Hebrew uses ordinal forms only up to 'tenth' and uses plain numbers above that. So 'the eleventh' is a correct rendering of how the number works here.
Used elsewhere in the period: Lexicons (BDB, HALOT) link ʿashtê to Akkadian ištēn, 'one', and to related forms in other Semitic languages. It appears mainly in late or administrative texts in the Bible (Exodus–Numbers lists, Deuteronomy 1:3, Kings, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, Zechariah, Chronicles).

Exodus · 4

Exodus 26:7 עַשְׁתֵּי־ one [plus]

You are to make curtains of goat hair for the tent over the tabernacle—eleven curtains in all.
Exodus 26:8 לְעַשְׁתֵּ֥י [will belong] to one [plus]

Each of the eleven curtains is to be the same size—thirty cubits long and four cubits wide.

Here: With the next word it makes 'eleven'. The prefix 'to/for' marks who the one measure belongs to: 'one measure for the eleven'.
Exodus 36:14 עַשְׁתֵּֽי־ one [plus]

He then made curtains of goat hair for the tent over the tabernacle—eleven curtains in all.
Exodus 36:15 לְעַשְׁתֵּ֥י [belonged] to one [plus]

Each of the eleven curtains was the same size—thirty cubits long and four cubits wide.

Numbers · 2

Numbers 7:72 עַשְׁתֵּ֣י [the] one [plus]

On the eleventh day Pagiel son of Ocran, the leader of the Asherites, drew near.
Numbers 29:20 עַשְׁתֵּי־ one [plus]

On the third day you are to present eleven bulls, two rams, and fourteen male lambs a year old, all unblemished,

Deuteronomy · 1

Deuteronomy 1:3 בְּעַשְׁתֵּֽי־ in [the] one [plus]

In the fortieth year, on the first day of the eleventh month, Moses proclaimed to the Israelites all that the LORD had commanded him concerning them.

2 Kings · 1

2 Kings 25:2 עַשְׁתֵּ֣י one [plus]

And the city was kept under siege until King Zedekiah’s eleventh year.

1 Chronicles · 5

1 Chronicles 12:13 עַשְׁתֵּ֥י [the] one [plus]

Jeremiah the tenth, and Machbanai the eleventh.
1 Chronicles 24:12 עַשְׁתֵּ֣י one [plus]

the eleventh to Eliashib, the twelfth to Jakim,
1 Chronicles 25:18 עַשְׁתֵּֽי־ one [plus]

the eleventh to Azarel, his sons, and his brothers—12 in all;
1 Chronicles 27:14 עַשְׁתֵּֽי־ לְעַשְׁתֵּ֣י־ [was] one [plus], for [the] one [plus]

The eleventh, for the eleventh month, was Benaiah the Pirathonite, an Ephraimite. There were 24,000 men in his division.

Here: The first half of the word for 'eleven'. It is an old word for 'one' that Hebrew only uses in this compound. Standing at the head of the line with no noun, it means 'the eleventh [commander]'.

Jeremiah · 3

Jeremiah 1:3 עַשְׁתֵּ֣י one [plus]

and through the days of Jehoiakim son of Josiah king of Judah, until the fifth month of the eleventh year of Zedekiah son of Josiah king of Judah, when the people of Jerusalem went into exile.
Jeremiah 39:2 בְּעַשְׁתֵּֽי־ in one [plus]

And on the ninth day of the fourth month of Zedekiah’s eleventh year, the city was breached.

Here: With the preposition be- 'in'. 'Ashtei is a special word for 'one' that appears only in the number eleven ('one-ten'). It sets the date as a fixed point in time: 'in the eleventh…'.
Jeremiah 52:5 עַשְׁתֵּ֣י one [plus]

And the city was kept under siege until King Zedekiah’s eleventh year.

Here: First half of the number "eleven." This special word for "one" is used only in the combination with "ten." It is often linked to the Akkadian word for "one" (*ištēn*). Hebrew also says eleven the ordinary way, with *achad* ("one").

Ezekiel · 2

Ezekiel 26:1 בְּעַשְׁתֵּֽי־ in one [plus]

In the eleventh month of the twelfth year, on the first day of the month, the word of the LORD came to me, saying,
Ezekiel 40:49 עַשְׁתֵּ֣י [was] one [plus]

The portico was twenty cubits wide and twelve cubits deep, and ten steps led up to it. There were columns by the side pillars, one on each side.

Zechariah · 1

Zechariah 1:7 לְעַשְׁתֵּֽי־ of one [plus]

On the twenty-fourth day of the eleventh month, the month of Shebat, in the second year of Darius, the word of the LORD came to the prophet Zechariah son of Berechiah, the son of Iddo.

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