חֲצִי
half
‘half’ is one of 2 main senses 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
- Common
- A common noun — a general class of person, place, or thing (“king,” “city,” “water”), not a specific name.
State
- Construct
- A noun bound to a following noun in a possessive / “of” relationship (the construct chain).
- Absolute
- The independent form of a noun, not bound to a following word.
Gender
- Masculine
- Grammatically masculine.
Number
- Singular
- One.
Every verse where H2677 appears in the Book of Joshua — 25 distinct verses. 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.
Joshua
- Joshua 1:12 וְ/לַ/חֲצִ֖י conj + prep + n c ms cs To the Reubenites, and to the Gadites, and to the half-tribe of Manasseh, spoke Joshua, saying,
- Joshua 4:12 וַ/חֲצִ֨י conj + n c ms cs The children of Reuben, and the children of Gad, and the half-tribe of Manasseh, passed over armed before the children of Israel, as Moses spoke to them:
- Joshua 8:33 חֶצְי/וֹ֙ וְ/הַֽ/חֶצְי֖/וֹ n c ms cs + sfx pers 3ms conj + ptcl def.art + n c ms cs + sfx pers 3ms All Israel, and their elders and officers, and their judges, stood on this side of the ark and on that side before the priests the Levites, who bore the ark of the covenant of Yahweh, as well the foreigner as the native; half of them in front of Mount Gerizim, and half of them in front of Mount Ebal; as Moses the servant of Yahweh had commanded at the first, that they should bless the people of Israel.
- Joshua 10:13 בַּ/חֲצִ֣י prep + n c ms cs The sun stood still, and the moon stayed, Until the nation had avenged themselves of their enemies. Isn't this written in the book of Jashar? The sun stayed in the midst of the sky, and didn't hurry to go down about a whole day.
- Joshua 12:2 וַ/חֲצִ֣י conj + n c ms cs Sihon king of the Amorites, who lived in Heshbon, and ruled from Aroer, which is on the edge of the valley of the Arnon, and [the city that is in] the middle of the valley, and half Gilead, even to the river Jabbok, the border of the children of Ammon;
- Joshua 12:5 וַ/חֲצִי֙ conj + n c ms cs and ruled in Mount Hermon, and in Salecah, and in all Bashan, to the border of the Geshurites and the Maacathites, and half Gilead, the border of Sihon king of Heshbon.
- Joshua 12:6 וְ/לַ/חֲצִ֖י conj + prep + n c ms cs Moses the servant of Yahweh and the children of Israel struck them: and Moses the servant of Yahweh gave it for a possession to the Reubenites, and the Gadites, and the half-tribe of Manasseh.
- Joshua 13:7 וַ/חֲצִ֖י conj + n c ms cs Now therefore divide this land for an inheritance to the nine tribes, and the half-tribe of Manasseh.
- Joshua 13:25 וַ/חֲצִ֕י conj + n c ms cs Their border was Jazer, and all the cities of Gilead, and half the land of the children of Ammon, to Aroer that is before Rabbah;
- Joshua 13:29 לַ/חֲצִ֖י לַ/חֲצִ֛י prep + n c ms cs prep + n c ms cs Moses gave [inheritance] to the half-tribe of Manasseh: and it was for the half-tribe of the children of Manasseh according to their families.
- Joshua 13:31 וַ/חֲצִ֤י לַ/חֲצִ֥י conj + n c ms cs prep + n c ms cs and half Gilead, and Ashtaroth, and Edrei, the cities of the kingdom of Og in Bashan, were for the children of Machir the son of Manasseh, even for the half of the children of Machir according to their families.
- Joshua 14:2 וַ/חֲצִ֥י conj + n c ms cs by the lot of their inheritance, as Yahweh commanded by Moses, for the nine tribes, and for the half-tribe.
- Joshua 14:3 וַ/חֲצִ֣י conj + n c ms cs For Moses had given the inheritance of the two tribes and the half-tribe beyond the Jordan: but to the Levites he gave no inheritance among them.
- Joshua 18:7 וַ/חֲצִי֩ conj + n c ms cs For the Levites have no portion among you; for the priesthood of Yahweh is their inheritance: and Gad and Reuben and the half-tribe of Manasseh have received their inheritance beyond the Jordan eastward, which Moses the servant of Yahweh gave them.
- Joshua 21:5 וּ/מֵ/חֲצִ֨י conj + prep + n c ms cs The rest of the children of Kohath had by lot out of the families of the tribe of Ephraim, and out of the tribe of Dan, and out of the half-tribe of Manasseh, ten cities.
- Joshua 21:6 וּ֠/מֵ/חֲצִי conj + prep + n c ms cs The children of Gershon had by lot out of the families of the tribe of Issachar, and out of the tribe of Asher, and out of the tribe of Naphtali, and out of the half-tribe of Manasseh in Bashan, thirteen cities.
- Joshua 21:27 מֵ/חֲצִ֞י prep + n c ms cs To the children of Gershon, of the families of the Levites, out of the half-tribe of Manasseh [they gave] Golan in Bashan with its suburbs, the city of refuge for the manslayer, and Be-eshterah with its suburbs; two cities.
- Joshua 22:1 וְ/לַ/חֲצִ֖י conj + prep + n c ms cs Then Joshua called the Reubenites, and the Gadites, and the half-tribe of Manasseh,
- Joshua 22:7 וְ/לַ/חֲצִ֣י וּ/לְ/חֶצְי֗/וֹ conj + prep + n c ms cs conj + prep + n c ms cs + sfx pers 3ms Now to the one half-tribe of Manasseh Moses had given [inheritance] in Bashan; but to the other half gave Joshua among their brothers beyond the Jordan westward; moreover when Joshua sent them away to their tents, he blessed them,
- Joshua 22:9 וַ/חֲצִ֣י conj + n c ms cs The children of Reuben and the children of Gad and the half-tribe of Manasseh returned, and departed from the children of Israel out of Shiloh, which is in the land of Canaan, to go to the land of Gilead, to the land of their possession, which they owned, according to the commandment of Yahweh by Moses.
- Joshua 22:10 וַ/חֲצִ֣י conj + n c ms cs When they came to the region about the Jordan, that is in the land of Canaan, the children of Reuben and the children of Gad and the half-tribe of Manasseh built there an altar by the Jordan, a great altar to look on.
- Joshua 22:11 וַ/חֲצִי֩ conj + n c ms cs The children of Israel heard say, Behold, the children of Reuben and the children of Gad and the half-tribe of Manasseh have built an altar in the forefront of the land of Canaan, in the region about the Jordan, on the side that pertains to the children of Israel.
- Joshua 22:13 חֲצִ֥י n c ms cs The children of Israel sent to the children of Reuben, and to the children of Gad, and to the half-tribe of Manasseh, into the land of Gilead, Phinehas the son of Eleazar the priest,
- Joshua 22:15 חֲצִ֥י n c ms cs They came to the children of Reuben, and to the children of Gad, and to the half-tribe of Manasseh, to the land of Gilead, and they spoke with them, saying,
- Joshua 22:21 וַ/חֲצִ֖י conj + n c ms cs Then the children of Reuben and the children of Gad and the half-tribe of Manasseh answered, and spoke to the heads of the thousands of Israel,
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, חצי (chêtsîy) means “half.” The King James Version usually renders it “half,” while modern versions prefer “half of” (unfoldingWord Literal Text) — see the renderings breakdown. Spanning 101 verses in 19 books, it ranks among the common words of the Hebrew Bible. Its uses concentrate in Joshua (25% of all occurrences). Carrying more than one sense, it rewards its full sense range. 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 H2677 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 →
- 101
- distinct verses
- The word appears in 101 distinct verses.
- 19 / 39
- OT books
- The word appears in 19 of 39 Old Testament books.
- #356
- by frequency
- Top 500 most frequent Hebrew words (rank 356 of 8,640 Hebrew words by occurrence).
View all 101 occurrences in the concordance →
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 101 distinct verses.
- Prophets (Nevi'im) 46 verses · 46%
- Writings (Ketuvim) 31 verses · 31%
- Torah (Pentateuch) 24 verses · 24%
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).
- King James Version: Half 87×, Midst 8×, Other half 3×
- American Standard Version: Half 59×, The 14×, Cubit and a half 8×
- Berean Standard Bible: Half 58×, Half-tribe 23×, Half cubits 4×
- unfoldingWord Literal Text: Half of 67×, Half 28×, Middle of 8×
King James Version Public Domain
Renders H2677 across 125 tagged occurrences — most commonly:
Plus 20 renderings that appear only once — usually multi-word phrases or single function words the recovered tagging swept in, not distinct renderings.
American Standard Version Public Domain
Renders H2677 across 119 tagged occurrences — most commonly:
Plus 20 renderings that appear only once — usually multi-word phrases or single function words the recovered tagging swept in, not distinct renderings.
Berean Standard Bible Public Domain
Renders H2677 across 120 tagged occurrences — most commonly:
Plus 15 renderings that appear only once — usually multi-word phrases or single function words the recovered tagging swept in, not distinct renderings. Not rendered by a distinct English word in 3 further occurrences.
unfoldingWord Literal Text CC BY-SA 4.0
Renders H2677 across 125 tagged occurrences — most commonly:
Plus 9 renderings that appear only once — usually multi-word phrases or single function words the recovered tagging swept in, not distinct renderings.
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 2 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.
- 1. half of anything:—blood of offering Ex 24:6(×2) (JE), beard 2 S 10:4, a hin Nu 15:9, 10; 28:14 (P); curtain Ex 26:12 (P); week ח׳ השׁבוע Dn 9:27 etc.; ח׳ אַמָּה half a cubit Ex 26:16; 36:21 (P) +; especially ח׳ שׁבט half a tribe Nu 32:33; 34:13, 14, 15 (P) +; half of people 2 S 18:3; 19:41; 1 K 16:21(×3) +, etc. so ח׳ הַמְּנֻחוֹת 1Ch 2:52 and ח׳ הַמָּנַחְתִּי v 54 (v. Be and מָנַחַת sub נוח).—On כבחצי 1 S 14:14 v. We Dr. e.g. Exodus 24:6
- 2. middle ח׳ הלילה Ex 12:29 (J) midnight, so Ju 16:3(×2) Ru 3:8; of garments 2 S 10:4; 1 Ch 19:4; altar Ex 27:5; of the Mt. of Olives Zc 14:4; ח׳ יָמַי ψ 102:25 the midst of my days (when they are but half done), Je 17:11. e.g. Exodus 12:29
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
n.m. Nu 12:12 half (NH id.; Ph. חצי; on format. v. Lag BN 113)—abs. חֲצִי 1 K 3:25(×2) + 3 times; הַחֵ֑צִי 1 K 10:7, cf. 16:21; וָחֵ֔צִי Ez 40:42; וָחֵצִי Dn 12:7 + 13 times (usually c. Pashta or Tiphcha), cf. בַּחֵ֖צִי 2 S 10:4 1 Ch 19:4; cstr. חֲצִי Ex 12:29 + 84 times; sf. חֶצְיוֹ Ex 38:4 + 7 times + Jos 8:33 וְהַחֶצְיוֹ (but art. suspicious v. Ges§ 127 R 3, 4); חֶצְיָהּ Ne 3:38; חֶצְיֵנוּ 2 S 18:3; חֶצְיָם Zc 14:8(×2) + 2 times—
— Brown-Driver-Briggs (Oxford 1906, public domain), digitized via Sefaria, supplemented by the OpenScriptures HebrewLexicon (CC BY 4.0). See Sources.
Derived from חצה (châtsâh) (H2673) — to divide.
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.
חצי
- v. חָצַץ)
- 1. to split, divide. B. Bath. 3ᵃ שרצו לַחֲצוֹת, v. מְחִיצָה.
- 2. to pick one’s teeth. Tosef. Bets. III, 18, v. חָצַץ I.
- to order a division, to assign half, divide. B. Kam. 34ᵃ פחת שפחתתו מיתה מַחֲצִין בחי Ms. M. a. Rashi (ed. שפחתו) half of the loss of value which death has caused, is collected from the living animal; Y. ib. I, end, 2ᶜ מחצין את הנזק the loss is divided.
חֲצֵי
- , to pick out (of birds, v. P. Sm. 1349); to pick one’s teeth. Targ. Prov. XXX, 17.—Y. Ḥall. IV, end, 60ᵇ מִיחֲצִי שיניי (not ניח׳) to pick my teeth with; Y. Dem. III, 23ᵇ bot. מיחצד, מחצדן (corr. acc.).
חֵצִי
- preced. wds.) half. B. Kam. IV, 9 חֲ׳ נזק half the damage. Gitt. IV, 5 מי שחֶצְיוֹ עבד וכ׳ he who is half a slave and half a freedman (having been emancipated by one of the partners); a. v. fr.—Pl. חֲצָיִים, חֲצָיִין, חֲצָאִים, חֲצָאִין. Sifra Vayikra, N’dab., ch. X, Par. 9 לא יביאנה ח׳ he must not offer it in parts. Ned. 83ᵃ אין נזירות לח׳ there is no nazaritism by halves, i.e. one cannot vow to be a nazarite by partial abstinence; ואין קרבן לח׳ nor is there a sacrifice for partial nazaritism. Y. Hor. I, 46ᵇ top אין הפסח לה׳ the Passover offering does not take place in divisions (of clean and unclean parties). Kerith. 5ᵃ מפטם לח׳ taking only a part of each ingredient; Y. Yoma IV, 41ᵈ bot. פיטמה ח׳; a. fr.
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 54 distinct written forms H2677 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.
Same root — word family
Other BDB entries built from the same root as H2677, 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
- חצות châtsôwth H2676 half
- חצץ châtsats H2686 to divide
- מחצה mechĕtsâh H4275 half
- מחצית machătsîyth H4276 middle
Proper names from this root
People and places named from this root — a name, not an additional meaning of the word.
- יחצאל Yachtsᵉʼêl H3183 Jahzeel
- יחציאל Yachtsîyʼêl H3185 Jahziel
- חצי המנחות Chătsîy ham-Mᵉnuchôwth H2679 Manahethites
Compare all same-root words → Showing 4 of 9 — not the complete family. 3 of the same-root words are proper names (people or places). They share a root, not necessarily a meaning.
Septuagint verse parallels
This word appears in 86 verses that also exist in the Greek Old Testament (Septuagint), out of the 101 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
- Exodus 12:29
- Numbers 12:12
- Deuteronomy 3:12
- Joshua 1:12
- Judges 16:3
- Ruth 3:8
- 1 Samuel 14:14
- 2 Samuel 10:4
- 1 Kings 3:25
- 1 Chronicles 5:18
- 2 Chronicles 9:6
- Esther 5:3
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.