אַרְבַּע

From the study of Ezekiel 37:9

Range of meaning

'From the four winds' is a fixed expression for the four points of the compass, meaning everywhere, the whole earth.

Against the English

English readers may picture weather: four breezes meeting. The phrase is about geography and covering everything, not about meteorology.

Used elsewhere in the period

Jeremiah 49:36 (Elam scattered 'to all these winds'), Ezekiel 5:10, 12 and 12:14 (Jerusalem's survivors scattered 'to every wind'), Daniel 7:2 and 8:8, Zechariah 2:6 (10 in Hebrew) and 6:5, Mark 13:27 / Matthew 24:31 (the elect gathered 'from the four winds'). Mesopotamian kings called themselves 'king of the four quarters' (šar kibrāt erbetti), meaning ruler of the whole world.

From the study of Leviticus 11:21

Range of meaning

The number four. Here it stands without a noun, with 'feet' (feminine) understood.

Against the English

KJV prints 'upon [all] four' with 'all' in italics as an addition. BSB, ESV and NIV say 'on all fours', an English idiom for a crawling human or a quadruped. The Hebrew just says 'on four'.

How it drifted

'On all fours' is a ready-made English phrase. It makes the text sound like a precise anatomical count, which is how critics often read it.

Used elsewhere in the period

The same phrase is used of the land swarmers in Lev 11:27 and 11:42 ('whatever goes on its belly, and whatever goes on four'). There it plainly describes a way of moving (on all fours as against on the belly or on many legs), not a careful count of limbs.