Biblical Hebrew: 09. Numerals

Cardinal and Ordinal Numerals

Numerals are not difficult to learn because we just need to learn their vocabulary. Therefore, for mastering their knowledge we need to memorize them (use exercises). Nevertheless, some things are needed to be pointed out.

There are two main categories of Hebrew numerals called cardinal numerals (used for counting such as one, two, three, etc.), and ordinal numerals (used for position or consecution such as first, second, third, etc.). Both the cardinal and ordinal numbers are classified as nouns, however, the ordinal numbers also function as adjectives following the modified noun and agreeing with its gender.

The first table shows the cardinal numbers:

Cardinal numbers are able to receive pronominal suffixes on the account of their noun character.

Below is the second table containing the ordinal numbers:

As you can see they come only in one form since they function as adjectives.

The special phenomenon, which can not be satisfactorily explained, is that cardinal numbers 3-10 take feminine forms when they modify masculine nouns and vice versa (they disagree in gender). Ordinals are safe from the phenomenon since they agree in gender and number with the modified noun. This is best seen in this example:

Composition of Greater Numerals

In order to compose a number 11-19 you have to employ the word עָשָׂר at the end of the numeral phrase: (all of the tables below show only masculine forms)

Numerals for tens

In order to compose a number 21-99, you have to add numerals together starting with the greatest to lowest using the conjunction וְ:

Numerals for hundreds

For numbers 300-900 the feminine noun מֵאוֹת is used with 3-9 having the masculine form.

Numerals between 301-999 using the conjunction וְ as follows:

Numerals for thousands

The composition of a number between 3001-9999 uses the conjunction וְ as follows:

The full list of all essential numerals can be found in the exercises.

Alphabet Numbers

Every alphabet character has its corresponding numeral value as is shown in the table:

In order to compose a number you need to add the letters together (additive system) as suggested by the following examples:

This work with alphabet relates to gematria which is the practice of assigning numerical values to letters used in words and suggesting that these numerical values have some meaning. Therefore, especially in Hebrew, some people are trying to interpret hidden meaning in the numerical value of the text. This is known as the Bible code.