Joshua 18:23

Hebrew (Westminster Leningrad Codex)

English Translation

and Avvim, and Parah, and Ophrah,

World English Bible · Public Domain

Highlights

1 hapax legomenon — only here in the Hebrew Bible
2 first appearances in the Hebrew Bible

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Word by word

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וְהַפָּרָ֖ה

Pârâh

H6511

“and · the · Parah”

Conjunction + Particle, Definite Article + Noun, Proper

Appears 1× in the Hebrew Bible
First appears here

Full BDB Definition

Origin: the same as H6510

TWOT: None

Parah = "heifer-town" - a town in Benjamin

About this verse

These counts appear in no published source. They are computed here, from the morphology-tagged text and Lemma’s own curated glosses. What Lemma adds →

3: words
3: distinct lemmas
Historical: section

Notable vocabulary

1 hapax legomenon — a word that appears only here in the entire Hebrew Bible:

וְהַפָּרָ֖ה Parah H6511

First appearance in Scripture

These words make their first canonical appearance in the Hebrew Bible here:

וְהַפָּרָ֖ה Parah H6511
וְעָפְרָֽה Ophrah H6084

Shared distinctive vocabulary

וְהָעַוִּ֥ים Avim H5761 occurs in 2 verses of the Hebrew Bible. Also found in:

Deuteronomy 2:23

Grammatical profile

3 nouns

Hebrew & Septuagint length

In English translation the verse runs 6 words from the Hebrew and 6 from the Septuagint (LXX English) — the same length.

A rough comparison of the two English renderings, which tokenize alike — not a word-level alignment.

Word counts can differ between the Hebrew and the Greek without any difference in meaning — e.g. the Hebrew direct-object marker אֵת has no separate Greek word, and Greek often adds the article ὁ.

Cross-references

Topical passages linked to Joshua 18:23 in the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge — connected by theme and wording, ordered by reader-vote popularity; previews shown in the World English Bible.

1 Samuel 13:17 The spoilers came out of the camp of the Philistines in three companies: one company turned to the way that leads to Ophrah, to the land of Shual;

Cross-references courtesy of OpenBible.info (CC BY 4.0).

Hebrew and Greek witnesses Masoretic Hebrew ↔ Greek Septuagint

The same verse in the two great witnesses to the Old Testament, shown verse-for-verse.

These are two independent witnesses, not word-aligned to each other, and the Septuagint is shown in lemma (dictionary) form.

Hebrew Joshua 18:23 Masoretic · Westminster Leningrad Codex

וְהָעַוִּ֥ים וְהַפָּרָ֖ה וְעָפְרָֽה

and Avvim, and Parah, and Ophrah,

World English Bible · Public Domain

Greek LXX Joshua 18:23 Septuagint · lemma form

καί αιιν καί φαρα καί εφραθα

and Aeein, and Phara, and Ephratha,

LXX2012 (modern English Septuagint) · Public Domain

Hebrew: Westminster Leningrad Codex (CC BY 4.0). Greek: Septuagint (public domain); English from LXX2012 (modern English Septuagint) (Public Domain). How the Septuagint differs from the Hebrew →

Targum (Aramaic paraphrase)

The Targum is the ancient Jewish Aramaic paraphrase of the Hebrew Scriptures — an interpretive translation, not the Hebrew text itself. Onkelos (literal) and Pseudo-Jonathan (expansive) render the Torah, and Jonathan the Prophets. Coverage is partial: where no permissively-licensed English translation exists for a verse, only the Aramaic is shown. This is verse-level text, not a word-by-word alignment to the Hebrew.

Targum Jonathan Prophets (Joshua–Malachi)

וְהָעַוִים וְהַפָרָה וְעָפְרָה:

(no public-domain English translation for this verse)

Targum Jonathan — Aramaic: “Mikraot Gedolot” (public domain). English: “Sefaria Community Translation” (CC0 1.0 (public-domain dedication)); “London "Chaldee Paraphrase," 1871” (public domain). Text via Sefaria.

Commentary

Notes on Joshua 18:23 from classic Christian and Jewish commentators (each source and its license shown beneath its notes). The classic Christian expositions comment on the surrounding passage and are grouped to its opening verse, so a note may address several verses; the Jewish commentaries on the Tanakh (Rashi and others) are per-verse, so they appear only where the commentator wrote on this verse.

Lemma curates 59 commentaries, every one of them public domain or Creative Commons licensed, each selected and text-cleaned for this edition rather than reprinted as found. About our sources →

The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges

gen. ed. J. J. S. Perowne

23. 7. Avim] Some have regarded this as identical with Ai, which is also called Aija (Neh_11:31) and Aiath (Isa_10:28). 8. Parah is unknown. 9. Ophrah appears to be mentioned again in 1Sa_13:17 in describing the spoilers who issued from the Philistine camp at Michmash. Robinson would identify it with El-Taiyibeh, a small village 4 miles E.N.E. of Beitin (Bethel). This was not the Ophrah of Gideon (Jdg_6:11; Jdg_6:15).

The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges (gen. ed. J. J. S. Perowne; Cambridge University Press, 1878–1918) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

John Gill's Exposition

And Avim, and Parah,.... Of the two first of these we read nowhere else:

and Ophrah is not the same with Ophrah in Jdg 6:11; that belonged to the tribe of Manasseh, but rather that which was in the land of Shuah, Sa1 13:17. Jerom calls this place Aphrah, in the tribe of Benjamin, and says (o), in his time there was a village called Effrem, five miles from Bethel to the east, which very probably is the same with this.

(o) De loc. Heb. fol. 88. H.

John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible (1746–1763) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

Whedon's Commentary on the Bible

Daniel D. Whedon

23. Avim — This is supposed by Knobel and others to stand for Ai, the city near Beth-el which was among the first destroyed by Joshua. See Jos_7:2, note.

Parah — “Jerome states that this village still existed in his time, and was situated five miles east of Beth-el. It seems highly probable that we have this old name retained in the wild glen called Wady Farah, which runs down the eastern declivities of Benjamin. It falls into the Wady Suweinit, and in the fork there are the ruins of an ancient village called Farah.” — Porter. Ophrah is identified by Robinson with Taiyi-beh, a village five miles northeast of Beth-el, occupying a commanding site, and containing ancient ruins.]

Daniel D. Whedon (gen. ed.), Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1874–1909) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

The Pulpit Commentary

Avim. Most probably Ai. (see note on Jos_7:2)

The Pulpit Commentary (1880–1919), ed. H.D.M. Spence-Jones & Joseph S. Exell — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Lesson kit

Teaching starters — assembled from the data on this page, not authored interpretation. Every prompt links to the verse data it draws on. Edit before teaching.

Joshua, in the Historical, opens this verse with 3 words (3 distinct Hebrew lemmas). Its most distinctive word is Pârâh (“Parah”). A historical commentator’s framing appears above. Read the whole chapter for the surrounding context.

Discussion questions

The word Pârâh carries the sense “Parah.” How does it shape the verse?
This verse holds 1 word here found nowhere else in the Hebrew Bible. What might the rare word draw attention to?
2 words here appear for the first time in Scripture. What is being introduced at this debut?
Deuteronomy 2:23 shares the word «Avim» with this verse. How do the two illuminate each other?
The translations on this page render this verse differently — a whole-verse word diff, not a word-by-word alignment. What might account for the different wordings?
Reading how The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges and John Gill's Exposition read this verse, where do the two commentators agree and where do they part?

Things to notice

1 word in this verse appears nowhere else in the Hebrew Bible.
2 words make their first canonical appearance in Scripture here.
These translations choose different wording for 4 words in this verse.
3 distinct Hebrew lemmas span 3 words in this verse.