חֵ֫פֶר
Hepher
BDB lists 5 entries for ‘Hepher’ fuller range ↓
Full lexicon entry — Brown-Driver-Briggs (BDB)
From Brown-Driver-Briggs (BDB)
Where this word appears
Grammar key — what these labels mean
Part of speech
- Noun
- A naming word — a person, place, thing, or idea.
Noun type
- Proper
- A name of a specific person, place, or people (e.g. Abraham, Zion, Israel).
Every verse where H2660 appears — 9 distinct verses across 4 books. Click any verse to open its interlinear word-by-word view. Verse text shown in the World English Bible for context — . Each verse’s Hebrew form is shown with its reference; the English is not keyword-highlighted, since the data carries no word-level English alignment. Use “Compare translations” on any verse to read it across multiple English versions. This concordance covers the Hebrew Bible; Septuagint (Greek Old Testament) occurrences are not indexed here.
Numbers 3 verses
- Numbers 26:32 וְ/חֵ֕פֶר conj + n Proper and [of] Shemida, the family of the Shemidaites; and [of] Hepher, the family of the Hepherites.
- Numbers 26:33 חֵ֗פֶר n Proper Zelophehad the son of Hepher had no sons, but daughters: and the names of the daughters of Zelophehad were Mahlah, and Noah, Hoglah, Milcah, and Tirzah.
- Numbers 27:1 חֵ֤פֶר n Proper Then drew near the daughters of Zelophehad, the son of Hepher, the son of Gilead, the son of Machir, the son of Manasseh, of the families of Manasseh the son of Joseph; and these are the names of his daughters: Mahlah, Noah, and Hoglah, and Milcah, and Tirzah.
Joshua 3 verses
- Joshua 12:17 חֵ֖פֶר n Proper the king of Tappuah, one; the king of Hepher, one;
- Joshua 17:2 חֵ֖פֶר n Proper So [the lot] was for the rest of the children of Manasseh according to their families: for the children of Abiezer, and for the children of Helek, and for the children of Asriel, and for the children of Shechem, and for the children of Hepher, and for the children of Shemida: these were the male children of Manasseh the son of Joseph according to their families.
- Joshua 17:3 חֵ֨פֶר n Proper But Zelophehad, the son of Hepher, the son of Gilead, the son of Machir, the son of Manasseh, had no sons, but daughters: and these are the names of his daughters: Mahlah, and Noah, Hoglah, Milcah, and Tirzah.
1 Kings 1 verse
1 Chronicles 2 verses
About this entry
At a glance — auto-summarized from this page’s data, not written by a person. Every figure links to its source below. This summary describes the numbers; it doesn’t interpret them.
At its core, חפר (Chêpher) means “Hepher.” It first appears in Numbers 26:32. Spanning 9 verses in 4 books, it ranks among the uncommon words of the Hebrew Bible. Its uses concentrate in Numbers (33% of all occurrences). Each statement above links to its evidence; the full detail follows below.
Gloss history
Strong's 1890 vs modern scholarship
About this word
Strong's H2660 catalogs a Hebrew word from the Hebrew Old Testament.
These counts are not copied from any lexicon or concordance. They are computed here, from the morphology-tagged Hebrew Old Testament. What Lemma adds →
- 9
- distinct verses
- The word appears in 9 distinct verses.
- 4 / 39
- OT books
- The word appears in 4 of 39 Old Testament books.
- #2,481
- by frequency
- Top 2500 most frequent Hebrew words (rank 2,481 of 8,640 Hebrew words by occurrence).
View all 9 occurrences in the concordance →
Most concentrated in
- Numbers 3 verses 33%
- Joshua 3 verses 33%
- 1 Chronicles 2 verses 22%
By section of the Old Testament
By traditional corpus
Conventional, traditional groupings — biblical authorship is debated, so this is a traditional corpus grouping, not an authorship claim. Each share is this word’s portion of its verses in that division of the Hebrew canon. Each figure is a share of the word’s 9 distinct verses.
- Prophets (Nevi'im) 4 verses · 44%
- Torah (Pentateuch) 3 verses · 33%
- Writings (Ketuvim) 2 verses · 22%
How translations render this word
Counts come from each version’s own published word-to-Strong’s tagging or interlinear alignment — an approximate guide to how each version renders this word, not a word-level alignment the data otherwise carries. Because each total is that version’s own tagged count, the per-version totals vary from one another and need not match the appearance or distinct-verse counts above. These counts may also differ from a printed concordance because Lemma counts each distinctly tagged rendering and does not collapse phrase taggings into a single head-word total. This is a fixed set of word-tagged versions (KJV, ASV, BSB, ULT) and does not change with the reading translation you choose elsewhere. Each version’s license is shown beside its name below (and on Sources).
BDB lists this Strong’s number as 2 distinct words (homographs). Each count above pools all of them and is not split by sense — see the Senses section below. A low-frequency rendering may belong to a different one of those words, not the primary meaning.
- King James Version†: Hepher 9×
- American Standard Version†: Hepher 9×
- Berean Standard Bible†: Hepher 9×
- unfoldingWord Literal Text†: Hepher 9×
King James Version Public Domain
Renders H2660 across 9† tagged occurrences — most commonly:
American Standard Version Public Domain
Renders H2660 across 9† tagged occurrences — most commonly:
Berean Standard Bible Public Domain
Renders H2660 across 9† tagged occurrences — most commonly:
unfoldingWord Literal Text CC BY-SA 4.0
Renders H2660 across 9† tagged occurrences — most commonly:
Senses in the full BDB
What do BDB’s symbols mean?
BDB uses these scholarly abbreviations:
| Symbol | Meaning |
|---|---|
| 𝔊 | the Septuagint (the ancient Greek translation, LXX) |
| 𝔙 | the Vulgate (the Latin translation) |
| 𝔖 | the Syriac version (the Peshitta) |
| 𝔗 | the Targum (the Aramaic translation) |
| ψ | the Psalms |
| √ | root (the underlying root or stem) |
| ‖ | parallel passage (a synonymous or contrasted parallel) |
| † | the dagger: every passage where the word occurs is cited |
The 5 senses and sub-senses the full Brown-Driver-Briggs lexicon distinguishes for this word, in lexicon order (not ranked by frequency), with BDB’s own verbatim wording and sub-sense lettering. Shown in Hebrew script with BDB’s own scholarly abbreviations. The condensed entry is in the Lexicon Entry tab. See also the Forms in the corpus table below.
חפר I
- 1. a Manassite Nu 26:32, 33; 27:1 Jos 17:2, 3, 𝔊 Οφερ. e.g. Numbers 26:32
- 2. a man of Judah 1 Ch 4:6; 𝔊 Ηφαλ, 𝔊L Αφερ. e.g. 1 Chronicles 4:6
- 3. one of David’s heroes, according to 1 Ch 11:36 (but on text v. Be VB and Dr 2 S 23:36). e.g. 1 Chronicles 11:36
חפר II loc.
- 1. Canaanitish town, with a king, named just before Aphek Jos 12:17, exact site unknown. e.g. Joshua 12:17
- 2. 1 K 4:10 in Judah (ארץ ח׳);—on גִּ֫תָּה ח׳ Jos 19:13, גַּת הַח׳ 2 K 14:25, v. גַּת sub יגן. e.g. 1 Kings 4:10
Senses from the full Brown-Driver-Briggs lexicon (Brown, Driver, Briggs; Oxford 1906 — public domain), digitized via Sefaria, supplemented by the OpenScriptures HebrewLexicon (CC BY 4.0). Full attribution on Sources.
Word origin
Derived from חפר (châphar) (H2658) — to dig.
Jastrow Dictionary
A second Hebrew/Aramaic lexicon for comparison, covering Aramaic and post-biblical (Talmudic, Targumic, Midrashic) usage that the biblical-Hebrew BDB does not. Matched by lemma rather than by Strong’s number, so a lemma may carry more than one Jastrow headword (shown separately below), and the entries cover usage well beyond the Bible.
חפַר
- to dig, hollow out. B. Kam. V, 5 החוֹפֵר בור וכ׳ if one hollows out a pit on private ground, but opens it on public ground; Tosef. ib. VI, 4. B. Mets. 50ᵃ, v. אוּשׁ II. Midr. Sam. ch. XXXII, end לַחְפֹּור to dig graves, v. חֵפֶר; a. fr.
חֲפַר I
- 1. to dig. Targ. Ps. VII, 16 (Ms. כרא). Targ. Gen. XXVI, 15; a. fr.—Part. pass. חֲפִיר q. v.
- 2. (trnsf.) to plan, espy. Targ. Prov. XVI, 27. Targ. Job XXXIX, 29.
חֲפַר II
- to be white, be ashamed. Targ. Prov. XIII, 5.
חֵפֶר
- (חָפַר) grave-digging. Y. Taan. IV, end, 69ᶜ בטל הח׳ the grave-digging (for the generation of the wilderness) ceased; Lam. R. introd. (R. Z’era). Y. l. c. צאו לח׳ go out for grave-digging; (Lam. R. l. c.; Midr. Sam. ch. XXXII, end לַחְפּוֹר).
A Dictionary of the Targumim, the Talmud Babli and Yerushalmi, and the Midrashic Literature (Marcus Jastrow; London, Luzac, 1903) — Public Domain. Digitized via Sefaria. Digitized via Sefaria. Full attribution on Sources.
Forms in the corpus
The 8 distinct written forms H2660 takes in the Hebrew Bible, most frequent first — each parse links to that state’s occurrences in the concordance. Hebrew forms include their vowel points and cantillation, so a single lemma takes many written forms.
| Form | Parsing | Example | Uses |
|---|---|---|---|
| חֵ֖פֶר | Noun, Proper | Joshua 12:17 | 2 |
| וְ/חֵ֕פֶר | Noun, Proper | Numbers 26:32 | 1 |
| חֵ֔פֶר | Noun, Proper | 1 Chronicles 4:6 | 1 |
| חֵ֗פֶר | Noun, Proper | Numbers 26:33 | 1 |
| חֵ֚פֶר | Noun, Proper | 1 Chronicles 11:36 | 1 |
| חֵ֤פֶר | Noun, Proper | Numbers 27:1 | 1 |
| חֵ֨פֶר | Noun, Proper | Joshua 17:3 | 1 |
| חֵֽפֶר | Noun, Proper | 1 Kings 4:10 | 1 |
Same root — word family
Other BDB entries built from the same root as H2660, grouped by Strong’s listed origin. These share a root / origin per the lexicon — not necessarily a shared meaning. Each links to that word’s own entry.
Derives from
Shares the same root
Proper names from this root
People and places named from this root — a name, not an additional meaning of the word.
Compare all same-root words → Showing 4 of 6 — not the complete family. 2 of the same-root words are proper names (people or places). They share a root, not necessarily a meaning.
Bible dictionary
Public-domain dictionary articles matched to this entry by name (Hepher). A biblical name can be shared by more than one person or place, so an article may treat several.
Easton's Bible Dictionary · M. G. Easton, 1897
A well or stream. (1.) A royal city of the Canaanites taken by Joshua (12:17).
(2.) The youngest son of Gilead (Num. 26:32; 27:1).
(3.) The second son of Asher (1 Chr. 4:6).
(4.) One of David's heroes (1 Chr. 11:36).
Smith's Bible Dictionary · William Smith, 1863
a place in ancient Canaan which occurs in the lists of conquered kings. (Joshua 12:17) It was on the west of Jordan. Comp. (Joshua 12:7) and 1Kin 4:10
(a well).
+ The youngest of the sons of Gilead, (Numbers 26:32) and head of the family of the Hepherites. (B.C. before 1450.) + Son of Ashur, the "father of Tekoa." (1 Chronicles 4:6) (B.C. about 1445.) + The Mecherathite, one of the heroes of David's guard. (1 Chronicles 11:36) (B.C. 1046.)
Hitchcock's Bible Names Dictionary · Roswell D. Hitchcock, 1869
a digger
Classic public-domain reference works; full attribution on Sources.
Septuagint verse parallels
This word appears in 9 verses that also exist in the Greek Old Testament (Septuagint), out of the 9 Hebrew verses it occurs in. You can read those verses in Greek by switching the Old Testament edition to the Septuagint.
Read these verses in the Septuagint
This is a verse-level parallel only — the same verses exist in both the Hebrew and Greek Old Testaments. No word-level Hebrew↔Greek correspondence is claimed: the data carries no such alignment, so no Greek word is shown as this Hebrew word’s translation. Coverage is not total — the Septuagint omits the deuterocanon and renumbers the Psalms, so some Hebrew verses have no direct Greek parallel.
