Aramaic word · H7240
רִבּוֹ
rabevan
myriad
Ten thousand, a myriad. It is the largest number with its own word, so 'myriad' came to mean 'countless'. 'Thousand thousands … myriad of myriads' is a stepped, poetic way of piling up numbers.
A Biblical Aramaic word, from the parts of the Old Testament written in Aramaic. Why Aramaic?
Appears 2 times in 1 verses of the Aramaic of the Old Testament. ·
What it means
myriad, ten thousand times ten thousand
Aramaic of rib.bo (רִבּוֹ "ten thousand" H7239)
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
- Range of meaning
Ten thousand, a myriad. It is the largest number with its own word, so 'myriad' came to mean 'countless'. 'Thousand thousands … myriad of myriads' is a stepped, poetic way of piling up numbers.
- Against the English
KJV/WEB 'ten thousand times ten thousand' is literal arithmetic. BSB/NASB 'myriads upon myriads' keeps the original word. NLT 'millions … many millions' modernises the number and adds 'angels'.
- Used elsewhere in the period
Deut 33:2 (the LORD came 'from the myriads of holiness'), Ps 68:17 ('the chariots of God are twice ten thousand, thousands upon thousands'), 1 Enoch 14:22 ('ten thousand times ten thousand stood before him'), 1 Enoch 1:9 / Jude 14 ('with his holy myriads'), Rev 5:11 ('myriads of myriads and thousands of thousands').
Where it appears
Daniel · 2
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Daniel 7:10 וְרִבּ֥וֹ רִבְבָ֖ן and a myriad of, myriads
A river of fire was flowing, coming out from His presence. Thousands upon thousands attended Him, and myriads upon myriads stood before Him. The court was convened, and the books were opened.
Here: 'And a myriad of…'. A myriad is ten thousand, the largest round number in ordinary use.
Word data: STEPBible.org (CC BY 4.0), main text only.