אלף

אלף¹ thousand

Pronunciation

• Tiberian: ʾelep̄, pausal ʾālep̄^[1][2]
• Samaritan reading tradition: ā̊ləf, plural ā̊lā̊fəm^[3]

Forms

אֶלֶף (ʾelep̄) numeral, masculine^[1][2] Pausal אָלֶף, dual אַלְפַּיִם “two thousand”, plural אֲלָפִים, construct plural אַלְפֵי, with suffixes אַלְפִּי (Judges 6:15) and אֲלָפָיו.^[2][4] In the Siloam tunnel inscription it is written ʾlp.^[5]

Etymology

The numeral is inherited from Proto-Semitic *ʔalp- (“cattle; thousand”).^[6] It is found in Ugaritic ảlp (“thousand”),^[7] Phoenician ʾlp,^[4] Aramaic אֲלַף (ʾălap̄),^[8] Classical Syriac ܐܳܠܶܦ (ʾālep̄),^[2] Arabic أَلْف (ʾalf)^[2][7] and Sabaean ʾlf,^[7] while Ge'ez እልፍ (ʾəlf) and its Tigre and Amharic cognates mean “ten thousand”.^[2][4][8]

HALOT and DULAT explain the number as the noun for cattle: a herd, then a large number, then the fixed number a thousand.^[4][7] Klein instead derives it from the verbal root ʾlp, which he takes to have meant “to be linked”, so that the numeral first meant “group, crowd”.^[8]

Earliest recorded meaning

The oldest dated record is the Siloam tunnel inscription in Jerusalem, from around 700 BC,^[9] which says that the water flowed from the spring to the pool bmʾty[m w]ʾlp ʾmh, “for two hundred and a thousand cubits”.^[5] In the Bible it is already common in the poems that Sáenz-Badillos counts as archaic:^[10] ʾêḵâ yirdōp̄ ʾeḥāḏ ʾelep̄, “how could one chase a thousand?” (Deuteronomy 32:30), and the Song of Deborah's “forty thousand in Israel” (Judges 5:8).^[1]

Semantic evolution

The numeral occurs 493 times in the Hebrew Bible, 140 of them in the late books.^[1] A counted noun usually follows it in the singular, as in ʾelep̄ kesep̄, “a thousand (pieces of) silver” (Genesis 20:16), and multiples are formed with the plural: three thousand, six hundred thousand.^[4] It also stands for a vast number: ʾelep̄ dôr, “a thousand generations” (Deuteronomy 7:9), and ʾalpê rəḇāḇâ, “thousands of ten thousands” (Genesis 24:60).^[4]

From the number came a unit of men: a military division of a thousand, and then part of a tribe, a clan, as when Gideon calls his clan the weakest in Manasseh (Judges 6:15); HALOT also finds the clan's territory (Micah 5:1) and, in later texts, the tribe as a whole (rāʾšê ʾalpê yiśrāʾēl, Numbers 1:16).^[11][12] Klein compares the Akkadian word for “thousand”, Akkadian līmu, which he relates to Hebrew לְאֹם (ləʾōm, “people”).^[12] The Scroll 1QM uses the word for military units.^[13][11]

The Septuagint renders the number with Ancient Greek χίλιοι (khílioi) and χιλιάς (khiliás), and the clan sense once with χιλίαρχος (khilíarkhos).^[1] The numeral Aramaic אֲלַף (ʾălap̄) of Biblical Aramaic appears in Daniel 5:1 and 7:10.^[1] The Dead Sea Scrolls use the Hebrew word 198 times.^[13] In Rabbinic Hebrew ʾelep̄ ʾălāp̄îm, “a thousand thousands”, is a million,^[14] and Modern Hebrew אלף (élef) remains the numeral today.^[6]

Timeline

• c. 700 BC – ʾlp in the Siloam tunnel inscription, the length of the tunnel in cubits.^[9][5]
• Archaic Hebrew poetry – Deuteronomy 32:30 and the Song of Deborah (Judges 5:8).^[10][1]
• Classical Biblical Hebrew – 192 occurrences from Genesis to Kings; the clan sense in Numbers, Joshua, Judges and Samuel.^[1][11]
• Late Biblical Hebrew – 140 occurrences in the late books.^[1]
• 3rd–2nd century BC – the Septuagint translates it with Ancient Greek χιλιάς (khiliás) and χίλιοι (khílioi).^[15][1]
• 2nd century BC – 2nd century AD – 198 occurrences in the Dead Sea Scrolls; military units in 1QM.^[16][13][11]

Meanings

Numeral

1. a thousand; dual two thousand; with other numbers, the thousands of a larger sum.^[4][2]
2. (hyperbolic) a very great number: a thousand generations, thousands of ten thousands.^[4]
3. a military unit of a thousand men;^[2] śārê ʾălāp̄îm, commanders of thousands.^[11][2]
4. a clan, a subdivision of a tribe; the district where a clan lives.^[11][12]
5. (late) a tribe: the heads of the tribes of Israel.^[11]

Descendants

• Modern Hebrew אלף (élef)^[6]

אלף² cattle

Pronunciation

• Tiberian: plural ʾălāp̄îm^[17][18]

Forms

אֶלֶף (ʾelep̄) noun, masculine, only in the plural: אֲלָפִים, with suffix אֲלָפֶיךָ.^[17][19]

Etymology

The noun for cattle is inherited from Proto-Semitic *ʔalp- (“ox, cattle”),^[20][21] kept in Akkadian alpu (“bull, ox”),^[22][23] Ugaritic ảlp (“(head of) cattle, ox”)^[24] and Phoenician ʾlp.^[19][25] In Ugaritic and Phoenician the plural of this noun is the usual way of saying “large cattle”.^[26] HALOT, Klein and Gesenius–Buhl tentatively connect it with the verbal root ʾlp “to be accustomed, tame”, as the name of the tamed or herd animal.^[19][27][25]

Earliest recorded meaning

The noun is rare in the Bible: seven times, always in the plural, four of them in the blessings and curses of Deuteronomy.^[1][17] There šəḡar-ʾălāp̄êḵā, “the offspring of your cattle”, stands beside ʿaštərōṯ ṣōʾnêḵā, “the young of your flock” (Deuteronomy 7:13).^[1][17] Psalm 8:8 pairs it with sheep in the same way, ṣōneh waʾălāp̄îm, “sheep and oxen”, a pair that Tawil matches with Akkadian alpu and immeru, “oxen and sheep”.^[28][17]

Semantic evolution

Besides livestock that multiplies, the cattle of the Bible are working animals: oxen used in tillage in Isaiah 30:24 and Proverbs 14:4.^[19][17] The Septuagint translates the word with Ancient Greek βοῦς (boûs).^[1] Gesenius–Buhl and Klein compare אַלּוּף (ʾallûp̄), which Gesenius–Buhl takes in one sense as a tame animal.^[25][27]

The post-biblical name of the letter aleph, ʾālep̄, is its pausal form, named after the old shape of the letter, which showed an ox's head.^[29][6] The Talmud uses the name of the letter often.^[30] Huehnergard traces both English aleph, through Hebrew, and alpha and alphabet, through Greek, to the Phoenician name of the letter, ʾalp “ox”.^[21] English has used aleph since about 1300.^[31]

Timeline

• Classical Biblical Hebrew – the blessings and curses of Deuteronomy (7:13; 28:4, 18, 51).^[1][17]
• Biblical poetry – Psalm 8:8 and Proverbs 14:4.^[1]
• 3rd–2nd century BC – the Septuagint translates it with Ancient Greek βοῦς (boûs).^[15][1]
• Post-biblical Hebrew – ʾālep̄, the name of the letter aleph.^[29][30]
• c. 1300 – English aleph.^[31]

Meanings

Noun

1. (plural) cattle, oxen, as livestock that multiplies.^[19][17]
2. (plural) oxen as working animals, used for ploughing.^[19][25]

Descendants

• English: aleph^[31][21]

אלף³ to learn, teach

Pronunciation

• Tiberian: qal teʾĕlap̄, piel yəʾallēp̄^[32][33]

Forms

אָלַף (ʾālap̄) verb^[32][33] Qal imperfect תֶּאְלַף (Proverbs 22:25); piel imperfect יְאַלֵּף, אֲאַלֶּפְךָ, participle with suffix מַלְּפֵנוּ for מְאַלְּפֵנוּ (Job 35:11).^[32][33]

Etymology

The verb is borrowed from Aramaic אֲלַף (ʾălap̄, “to learn”), according to HALOT, which follows Wagner.^[32][34] Wagner explains that the root ʾlp meant “to be familiar, accustomed”, as Arabic أَلِفَ (ʾalifa, “to keep to, become familiar with”) still does, and that the specific senses “to learn” in the simple stem and “to teach” in the intensive stem developed in Aramaic.^[34][33] Aramaic has both this verb and יְלֵף (yəlēp̄), and Classical Syriac ܐܰܠܶܦ (ʾallep̄, “to teach, accustom”).^{[33][35][36][37]}

Gesenius–Buhl and Klein start from an original sense “to be joined, attach oneself”, comparing Akkadian ulāpu (“band, bandage”),^[38][35] but Wagner keeps the root apart from elēpu (“to sprout”).^[34]

Earliest recorded meaning

The verb is found only four times, all in the wisdom books: three times in the piel in the speeches of Job and once in the qal in Proverbs.^[1][34] Eliphaz tells Job kî yəʾallēp̄ ʿăwōnəḵā p̄îḵā, “for your guilt teaches your mouth” (Job 15:5), and Proverbs warns against befriending a hot-tempered man pen-teʾĕlap̄ ʾōrḥōṯāw, “lest you learn his ways” (Proverbs 22:25).^[1][33] HALOT allows “become accustomed to” in Proverbs, and records Dahood's reading of the verb in Job 15:5 as one formed on the numeral.^[32]

Semantic evolution

The Septuagint renders it with Ancient Greek διδάσκω (didáskō, “to teach”) and μανθάνω (manthánō, “to learn”).^[1] The Aramaic verb, “to learn, study”, and its intensive “to train, teach”, are common in the Targums and the Talmud.^[37] Klein lists the later Hebrew derivatives of the root, among them אֻלְפָּן (ulpán).^[35]

Timeline

• Biblical poetry – the piel in Job (15:5; 33:33; 35:11) and the qal in Proverbs 22:25.^[1][32]
• 3rd–2nd century BC – the Septuagint translates it with Ancient Greek διδάσκω (didáskō) and μανθάνω (manthánō).^[15][1]

Meanings

Verb

1. qal to learn; to become used to.^[32][33]
2. piel to teach, instruct.^[32][33]

Word family

• אַלּוּף (ʾallûp̄)