Hebrew word · H8671

תְּשִׁיעִי

hateshi'i

ninth

The ordinal 'ninth'. With a month implied, it means the ninth month counting from spring (Nisan). That month was called Kislev, a name taken from the Babylonian calendar after the exile (Zech 7:1; Neh 1:1).

Appears 18 times in 17 verses of the Hebrew Old Testament. ·

What it means

ninth (as ordinal number)

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 Haggai 2:10

Range of meaning

The ordinal 'ninth'. With a month implied, it means the ninth month counting from spring (Nisan). That month was called Kislev, a name taken from the Babylonian calendar after the exile (Zech 7:1; Neh 1:1).

Against the English

'The ninth month' is accurate, but modern readers count from January and may picture September. In fact it is late autumn or early winter. The NLT converts the date to 'December 18', which helps but hides the Hebrew calendar.

How it drifted

The modern January-first calendar differs from Israel's calendar, which counted months from spring.

Used elsewhere in the period

Using Babylonian records, Parker and Dubberstein's Babylonian Chronology puts 24 Kislev in Darius's second year at about 18 December 520 BC. 1 Maccabees 4:52 later dates the rededication of the temple (Hanukkah) to 25 Kislev.

Where it appears

Leviticus · 1
  1. Leviticus 25:22 הַתְּשִׁיעִ֗ת <the> ninth

    While you are sowing in the eighth year, you will be eating from the previous harvest, until the ninth year’s harvest comes in.

Numbers · 1
  1. Numbers 7:60 הַתְּשִׁיעִ֔י <the> ninth

    On the ninth day Abidan son of Gideoni, the leader of the Benjamites, drew near.

2 Kings · 2
  1. 2 Kings 17:6 הַתְּשִׁיעִ֜ית <of the> ninth

    In the ninth year of Hoshea, the king of Assyria captured Samaria and carried away the Israelites to Assyria, where he settled them in Halah, in Gozan by the Habor River, and in the cities of the Medes.

    Here: Hoshea's ninth year, about 723/722 BC. The parallel account in 18:9–10 says the siege began in his seventh year and ended in his ninth, counting the first and last years in full.

  2. 2 Kings 25:1 הַתְּשִׁיעִ֜ית <of the> ninth

    So in the ninth year of Zedekiah’s reign, on the tenth day of the tenth month, Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon marched against Jerusalem with his entire army. They encamped outside the city and built a siege wall all around it.

    Here: The ninth regnal year of Zedekiah, Judah's last king, whom Babylon itself had installed in 597 BC. That makes it about 589/588 BC.

1 Chronicles · 5
  1. 1 Chronicles 12:12 הַתְּשִׁיעִֽי׃ the ninth

    Johanan the eighth, Elzabad the ninth,

  2. 1 Chronicles 24:11 הַתְּשִׁעִ֔י the ninth

    the ninth to Jeshua, the tenth to Shecaniah,

  3. 1 Chronicles 25:16 הַתְּשִׁיעִ֣י the ninth

    the ninth to Mattaniah, his sons, and his brothers—12 in all;

  4. 1 Chronicles 27:12 הַתְּשִׁיעִי֙ הַתְּשִׁיעִ֔י [was] the ninth, <the> ninth

    The ninth, for the ninth month, was Abiezer the Anathothite, a Benjamite. There were 24,000 men in his division.

    Here: "The ninth" commander in the list. Hebrew leaves out the noun (commander, or division) because verse 1 has already set the pattern. The KJV and WEB add "captain" to fill the gap.

Ezra · 1
  1. Ezra 10:9 הַתְּשִׁיעִ֖י <the> ninth

    So within the three days, all the men of Judah and Benjamin assembled in Jerusalem, and on the twentieth day of the ninth month, all the people sat in the square at the house of God, trembling regarding this matter and because of the heavy rain.

Jeremiah · 4
  1. Jeremiah 36:9 הַתְּשִׁעִ֔י <the> ninth

    Now in the ninth month of the fifth year of Jehoiakim son of Josiah king of Judah, a fast before the LORD was proclaimed to all the people of Jerusalem and all who had come there from the cities of Judah.

  2. Jeremiah 36:22 הַתְּשִׁיעִ֑י <the> ninth

    Since it was the ninth month, the king was sitting in his winter quarters with a fire burning before him.

  3. Jeremiah 39:1 הַ֠תְּשִׁעִית <the> ninth

    In the ninth year of Zedekiah king of Judah, in the tenth month, Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon marched against Jerusalem with his entire army and laid siege to the city.

    Here: 'The ninth' year, counted from the start of Zedekiah's reign. On the usual reckoning this puts the event in the winter of 589/588 BC.

  4. Jeremiah 52:4 הַתְּשִׁעִ֜ית <the> ninth

    So in the ninth year of Zedekiah’s reign, on the tenth day of the tenth month, Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon marched against Jerusalem with his entire army. They encamped outside the city and built a siege wall all around it.

    Here: The ninth year counted from the start of Zedekiah's reign (he was installed by Babylon in 597 BC), so about 589/588 BC.

Ezekiel · 1
  1. Ezekiel 24:1 הַתְּשִׁיעִית֙ <the> ninth

    In the ninth year, on the tenth day of the tenth month, the word of the LORD came to me, saying,

Haggai · 2
  1. Haggai 2:10 לַתְּשִׁיעִ֔י of the ninth [month]

    On the twenty-fourth day of the ninth month, in the second year of Darius, the word of the LORD came to Haggai the prophet, saying,

    Here: 'Of the ninth [month]'. Counting from the spring new year, the ninth month is Kislev (named in Zechariah 7:1). It falls in November–December, when the early rains have come and the grain has been sown.

  2. Haggai 2:18 לַתְּשִׁיעִ֗י of the ninth [month]

    Consider carefully from this day forward—from the twenty-fourth day of the ninth month, the day the foundation of the LORD’s temple was laid—consider carefully:

    Here: "Of the ninth (month)." The word "month" is understood. It is the month later called Kislev (November–December), after the autumn sowing and before any harvest.

Zechariah · 1
  1. Zechariah 7:1 הַתְּשִׁעִ֖י <the> ninth

    In the fourth year of King Darius, the word of the LORD came to Zechariah on the fourth day of the ninth month, the month of Chislev.

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