מְעַט
few
also: littleness, a little, fewness 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.
- Adjective
- A word that describes or qualifies a noun.
- Adverb
- A word that modifies a verb, adjective, or other adverb.
Noun type
- Common
- A common noun — a general class of person, place, or thing (“king,” “city,” “water”), not a specific name.
State
- Absolute
- The independent form of a noun, not bound to a following word.
- Construct
- A noun bound to a following noun in a possessive / “of” relationship (the construct chain).
Gender
- Masculine
- Grammatically masculine.
Number
- Singular
- One.
- Plural
- More than one (in Hebrew, generally three or more).
Every verse where H4592 appears in the Book of 2 Samuel — 3 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.
2 Samuel
- 2 Samuel 12:8 מְעָ֔ט n c ms I gave you your master's house, and your master's wives into your bosom, and gave you the house of Israel and of Judah; and if that would have been too little, I would have added to you many more such things.
- 2 Samuel 16:1 מְעַט֙ n c ms When David was a little past the top [of the ascent], behold, Ziba the servant of Mephibosheth met him, with a couple of donkeys saddled, and on them two hundred loaves of bread, and one hundred clusters of raisins, and one hundred summer fruits, and a bottle of wine.
- 2 Samuel 19:36 כִּ/מְעַ֞ט prep + n c ms Your servant would but just go over the Jordan with the king: and why should the king recompense it me with such a reward?
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.
The Hebrew word מעט centers on the idea of “few.” First canonically at Genesis 18:4, it enters the text early. The Hebrew Bible uses it across 92 verses — moderately common. Beyond “few” it also covers “littleness”, “a little”, and “fewness” — see its full sense range. Related forms include מעט and מעט. Dig into 92-verse concordance and the renderings breakdown below.
Gloss history
Strong's 1890 vs modern scholarship
About this word
Strong's H4592 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 →
- 92
- distinct verses
- The word appears in 92 distinct verses.
- 28 / 39
- OT books
- The word appears in 28 of 39 Old Testament books.
- #421
- by frequency
- Top 500 most frequent Hebrew words (rank 421 of 8,640 Hebrew words by occurrence).
View all 92 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 92 distinct verses.
- Writings (Ketuvim) 34 verses · 37%
- Prophets (Nevi'im) 33 verses · 36%
- Torah (Pentateuch) 25 verses · 27%
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: Little 30×, Few 14×, Little while 5×
- American Standard Version: Little 25×, Few 10×, Little while 4×
- Berean Standard Bible: Little 29×, Few 13×, Is it not enough 5×
- unfoldingWord Literal Text: Little 46×, Few 14×, Small 4×
King James Version Public Domain
Renders H4592 across 102 tagged occurrences — most commonly:
Plus 45 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 H4592 across 103 tagged occurrences — most commonly:
Plus 51 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 H4592 across 92 tagged occurrences — most commonly:
Plus 30 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 9 further occurrences.
unfoldingWord Literal Text CC BY-SA 4.0
Renders H4592 across 108 tagged occurrences — most commonly:
Plus 34 renderings that appear only once — usually multi-word phrases or single function words the recovered tagging swept in, not distinct renderings.
11 senses and sub-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 11 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.
- a. Gn 30:30 מעט אשׁר היה לך לְפָנַי the little that thou hadst, 47:9 מעט ורעים היו ימי שׁני חיי few and evil, Lv 25:52 Nu 26:54 (cf. 33:54) וְלַמְעַט תמעיט נחלתו and to the small (few) thou shalt make small his inheritance, v 56; 35:8 וּמֵאֵת הַֽמְעַט תמעיטו, Dt 7:7 וכי אתם הַֽמְעַט מכל־העמים ye are the fewest out of all peoples, 1 S 14:6 לְהוֹשִׁיעַ בְּרַב אוֹ בִמְעָ֑ט, Je 42:2 כִּי נִשְׁאַרְנוּ מְעַט מֵהַרְבֵּה we are left as few out of many, Ez 5:3 וְלָקַחְתָּ מִשָּׁם מְעַט בְּמִסְפָּר, Hg 1:6 זְרַעְתֶּם הַרְבֵּה וְהָבֵא מְעָ֑ט (cf. v 9), ψ 8:6 ותחסּרהו מעט מאלהים, 37:16 טוֹב מְעַט לַצַּדִּיק (cf. Pr 15:16; 16:8), 2 Ch 29:34 רַק הַבֹּהֲנִים הָיוּ לִמְעָ֑ט; as pred. Nu 13:18 הַמְעַט הוּא אִם־רָ֑ב, Jos 7:3 כִּי מְעַט הֵמָּה, Jb 10:20; Ru 2:7; Ne 7:4; Is 16:14 וּשְׁאָר מְעַט מִזְעָר.—Ho 8:10 וַיָּחֵלּוּ מְעַט and they begin as littleness (=to be minished) because of, &c. but read prob. (𝔊) וְיֶחְדְּלוּ מְעַט מִמְּשֹׁחַ and they shall cease for a little (d) from anointing, etc. e.g. Genesis 30:30
- b. as subst. with foll. gen., Gn 18:4 מְעַט מַיִם a little of water, 24:17, 43, מְעַט אֹכֶל 43:2; 44:25; 1 S 14:43; 17:28 מְעַט הַצֹּאן הָהֵ֫נָּה lit. the fewness of those sheep, Pr 6:10 +; as gen. to a previous subst., מְתֵי מְעָ֑ט men of fewness †Dt 26:5; 28:62; in appos., †Is 10:7 לְהַכְרִית גּוֹיִם לֹא מְעָ֑ט, Ezr 9:8 מִחְיָה מְעַט, Ne 2:12 וַאֲנָשִׁים מְעַט עִמִּי, Ec 9:4; either gen. or appos., 10:1; Dn 11:34 יֵעָֽזְרוּ עֵזֶר מְעָ֑ט with a help of smallness. e.g. Genesis 18:4
- c. twice declined as an adj., ψ 109:8 יִהְיוּ יָמָיו מְעַטִּים, Ec 5:1 על־כן יהיו דבריך מְעַטִּים. e.g. Psalms 109:8
- d. as adverb. acc., of place, 2 S 16:1 וְדָוִד עֹבֵר מְעַט; of time, Jb 10:20b; of degree, 2 K 10:18 אַחְאָב עָבַד אֶת־הַבַּעַל מְעָ֑ט, Ez 11:16 and have been to them for a sanctuary but little, Zc 1:15; repeated מְעַט מְעַט by little, by little=gradually, Ex 23:30; Dt 7:22. e.g. 2 Samuel 16:1
- e. phrases:—a. with the interr. הֲ, †Gn 30:15 הַֽמְעַט קַחְתֵּךְ אֶת־אִישִׁי וְלָקַחַת was thy taking my husband (too) little? and (wilt thou be) for taking also my son’s love-apples? Nu 16:9–10 הַֽמְעַט מִכֶּם כִּי הִבְדִּיל … וּבִקַּשְׁתֶּם גַּם כְּהֻנָּה is it too little for you that J. hath separated, etc., … and do ye seek, etc.? v 13 הַֽמְעַט כִּי הֶעֱלִיתָנוּ … כִּי תִשְׂתָּרֵר גַּם הִשְׂתָּרֵר, Jos 22:17f. הַֽמְעַט לָנוּ … וְאַתֶּם תָּשׁוּבוּ וגו׳, Is 7:13 הַֽמְעַט מִכֶּם הַלְאוֹת אֲנָשִׁים כִּי תַלְאוּ וגו׳ is wearying men too little for you, that you will weary also my God? Ez 34:18 (as Ew Co AV RV), Jb 15:11; הַֽמְעַט מִמְּךָ תַּנְחוּמוֹת אֵל. But Ez 16:20 (si vera l.) was it (too) little because of thy whoredom? (was that insufficient for thee? Köiii. 406 m). b. עוֹד מְעַט וְ׳, †Ex 17:4 עוֹד מְעַט וּסְקָלֻנִי yet a little, and they will stone me, Je 51:33; Ho 1:4 ψ 37:10; עוֹד מְעַט מִזְעָר וְ׳ †Is 10:25; 29:17; cf. Hg 2:6; Jb 24:24. e.g. Genesis 30:15
- 2. †כִּמְעַט like a little: hence
- a. almost (cf. ὀλίγου), of unrealized action, Gn 26:10 כִּמְעַט שָׁכַב … almost had lain …, ψ 73:2 Qr, 94:17; 119:87 Pr 5:14 (all sq. pf.); Ez 16:47 כִּמְעַט קָט וַתַּשְׁחִתִי מֵהֶן like only(?) a little, and thou hadst done more corruptly than they; Ct 3:4 כִּמְעַט שֶׁעָבַרְתִּי מֵהֶם=hardly had I passed. e.g. Genesis 26:10
- b. with impf., just, 2 S 19:37 כמעט יעבר עבדך just would thy servant pass over; lightly, easily, quickly (cf. διʼ ὀλίγου), ψ 2:12 כִּי יִבְעַר כִּמְעַט אַפּוֹ, 81:15 Jb 32:22. e.g. 2 Samuel 19:37
- c. =shortly, 2 Ch 12:7. e.g. 2 Chronicles 12:7
- d. =little worth, Pr 10:20 ולב רשׁעים במעט. e.g. Proverbs 10:20
- e. pleon. for מְעַט, Is 1:9 (accents) שָׂרִיד כִּמְעָ֑ט a little remnant, ψ 105:12 (=1 Ch 16:19) כִּמְעַט וְגָרִים בָּהּ; כִּמְעַט רֶגַע like the littleness of a moment=for a little moment, Is 26:20; Ezr 9:8. e.g. Isaiah 1:9
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
subst. a little, fewness, a few;—מ׳ abs. and cstr., מְעָ֑ט Is 10:7 +, pl. מְעַטִּים †ψ 109:8 Ec 5:1;—
— Brown-Driver-Briggs (Oxford 1906, public domain), digitized via Sefaria, supplemented by the OpenScriptures HebrewLexicon (CC BY 4.0). See Sources.
Derived from מעט (mâʻaṭ) (H4591) — to diminish.
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.
מָעַט
- to be thin, minute.—Part. pass. מָעוּט, f. מְעוּטָה; pl. מְעוּטִים, מְעוּטִין; מְעוּטוֹת. Y. Pes. V, 32ᵃ bot.; Y. Snh. I, 18ᶜ bot. גסי רוח ומְעוּטֵי תודה big in spirit (haughty) and small in learning (of narrow capacity). Tosef. Ḥall. I, 7; a. e.—Tam. IV, 2 במעוטה at least (Talm. ed. 31ᵃ במעוטן, comment. במיעוטן on the smallest of the tables).
- 1. to diminish, reduce; to do little. Ab. IV, 10 הוי מְמַעֵט בעסק וכ׳ do less business, and busy thyself with the Law. M. Kat. 22ᵃ, v. עֵסֶק. Taan. I, 7 מְמַעֲטִין במשא וכ׳ we must reduce business transactions, building &c. Ib. IV, 6 משנכנס אב ממעטין בשמחה with the beginning of the month of Ab we must reduce rejoicing. Ḥull. 60ᵇ לכי ומַעֲטִי את עצמך go and make thyself smaller (be reduced). Snh. 17ᵃ הואיל ומִיעַטְתֶּם עצמיכם because you made yourselves small (were modest); Num. R. s. 15. Tosef. Erub. IX (VI), 15 מִיעֲטָהּ באבנים וכ׳ if he reduced the size of the gap by means of stones &c. Y. ib. VII, beg. 24ᵇ ממעטין בכלים you may use utensils for reducing the opening. Bab. ib. 77ᵇ ממעט effects the reduction, i.e. puts the two adjoining places in the legal condition of dwellings connected by a gate; a. fr.
- 2. (interpret.) to limit, qualify, exclude from the rule. Shebu. 26ᵃ היה דורש את כל התורה בריבה ומיעט interpreted the entire Law on the principle of ‘It includes and it excludes’, i.e. on the principle that if, in the Biblical text, a specification is preceded and followed by general terms, both an extension (ריבוי) and a limitation (מיעוט) must be found; e. g. ib. (ref. to Lev. V, 4) או נפש … להרע … מי׳ וכ׳ ‘or if a soul swears’, this is a general expression, ‘for bad or for good’, this limits (the sphere of the law to things which are either an advantage or a disadvantage); ‘whatsoever it be &c.’, this is again a generalization; now what does it include? All kinds of words (vows); ומאי מ׳ מ׳ וכ׳ and what does it exclude? It excludes a religious act (the vow of doing a forbidden thing or not doing a commanded thing). Sifra Tsav, ch. XV, Par. 11 אם מִיעַטְתִּים מסמיכה מרובה לא אֲמַעֲטֵם בתנופה וכ׳ if I exclude them (the gentiles) from the privilege of laying hands on the sacrifice, which has a wider sphere of application, must I not exclude them from the privilege of waving &c.?; a. fr.—Part. pass. מְמוּעָט, v. מוּעָט. e.g. Leviticus 5:4
- to do little, less. Ber. 17ᵃ שמא תאמר אני מרבה והוא מַמְעִיט lest you say, I do much good, and he but little; שנינו אחד המרבה ואחד הממעיט וכ׳ we have learned, whether one does much or little (they are equally worthy), provided one directs his heart &c.; Men. XIII, 11; a. fr.
- to be diminished, reduced. Erub. VII, 5 נ׳ התבן מעשרה וכ׳ if the pile of straw has been reduced to less than ten handbreadths. Ib. 54ᵇ; Ab. Zar. 19ᵃ מִתְמַעֵט he will become less (will decline in learning). Arakh. 30ᵇ נ׳ כספו if his value was reduced. Tosef. Sot. XIV, 10 נִתְמַעֲטוּ הימים וכ׳ the days were reduced, and the years shortened. Ib. התחילו הגוים להתרבות וישראל להִתְמעֵט the nations began to grow and the Israelites to be reduced (in rank). Pesik. R. s. 14 נִתְמַעֲטָה ידו he became reduced in fortune. Midr. Till. to Ps. XII, end נפשם מִתְמַעֶטֶת עליהם their soul within them shrinks, i.e. they feel jealous and angry; Yalk. ib. 659; Lev. R. s. 32, beg. מתמענת (corr. acc.). Sifra l. c. נִתְמַעֶטֶת תנופה the sphere of the act of waving is the smaller one; נִתְמַעֲטָה סמיכה the laying on of hands has the smaller sphere; a. fr.—Erub. 80ᵇ מאי נתמעט נתמטמט ‘it was reduced’ (Mish. ib. VII, 7) means, it was reduced to atoms, v. מִטְמֵט.—B. Mets. 71ᵃ נכסיו מִתְמַעֲטִין, v. מוּט h.—Tosef. Mikv. VI (VII), 14 מִתְמַעֲטִין, v. מָעַךְ.
מְעַט I
- Pa. מַעֵט same, to reduce; to exclude. Yoma 74ᵃ למַעוּטֵי מאי … למַ׳ וכ׳ this ‘none but’ is to exclude what (whom)?… It excludes the king; Shebu. 31ᵃ Ms. M. (ed. לאפוקי); a. fr.
- to be reduced; to be excluded. Erub. 79ᵇ דא׳ מאיתמול when its size was reduced the day before; a. e.
מְעַט II
- preced.) a little, little. Ab. I, 15 אמור מ׳ ועשה הרבה promise little and do much. Sabb. 31ᵇ (ref. to Koh. VII, 16) הא מ׳ לירשע but a little wrong one may do?; a. e.—V. מוּעָט. e.g. Ecclesiastes 7:16
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 52 distinct written forms H4592 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 H4592, 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
Compare all same-root words → 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 92 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
- Genesis 18:4
- Exodus 17:4
- Leviticus 25:52
- Numbers 13:18
- Deuteronomy 7:7
- Joshua 7:3
- Judges 4:19
- Ruth 2:7
- 1 Samuel 14:6
- 2 Samuel 12:8
- 1 Kings 17:10
- 2 Kings 10:18
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.
