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סָפִר

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H5613 Strong's Hebrew
çâphêr Transliteration
/saw-fare'/ Pronunciation
Usage in the Hebrew Bible 6 appearances

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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.

“scribe” is the headline sense of the Hebrew noun ספר (çâphêr). More than three-quarters of its appearances fall in Ezra. The Hebrew Bible uses it across 6 verses — uncommon. First canonically at Ezra 4:8, it enters the text early. The sections below give every sense, occurrence, and version rendering.

Gloss history

Strong's 1890 vs modern scholarship

Strong's · 1890
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Modern gloss
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Strong's 1890 agrees
Strong's 1890 and current BDB scholarship align on this entry's primary sense — a good signal that the gloss above is unambiguous and stable. Download share card

About this word

Strong's H5613 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 →

6
distinct verses
The word appears in 6 distinct verses.
1 / 39
OT books
The word appears in 1 of 39 Old Testament books.
Ezra 4:8
first appearance
The earliest occurrence is in Ezra 4:8.
Ezra 7:21
last appearance
The latest occurrence is in Ezra 7:21.
#3,040
by frequency
Top 5000 most frequent Hebrew words (rank 3,040 of 8,640 Hebrew words by occurrence).

View all 6 occurrences in the concordance →


Most concentrated in

  • Ezra 6 verses 100%

By section of the Old Testament

  • Pentateuch 0 · 0%
  • Historical 6 · 100%
  • Wisdom 0 · 0%
  • Prophets 0 · 0%

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 6 distinct verses.

  • Writings (Ketuvim) 6 verses · 100%

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: Scribe 6×
  • American Standard Version: Scribe 6×
  • Berean Standard Bible: Scribe 6×, Scribes 2×
  • unfoldingWord Literal Text: Scribe 4×, Scribe of 2×

King James Version Public Domain

Renders H5613 across 6 tagged occurrences — most commonly:

  • “Scribe” 6×

American Standard Version Public Domain

Renders H5613 across 6 tagged occurrences — most commonly:

  • “Scribe” 6×

Berean Standard Bible Public Domain

Renders H5613 across 8 tagged occurrences — most commonly:

  • “Scribe” 6×
  • “Scribes” 2×

unfoldingWord Literal Text CC BY-SA 4.0

Renders H5613 across 6 tagged occurrences — most commonly:

  • “Scribe” 4×
  • “Scribe of” 2×

9 senses and sub-senses in the full BDB

Hebrew verbs can shift meaning by stem (binyan): Qal is the basic action, Niphal is often passive or reflexive, Piel often intensifies or makes it factitive, and Hiphil is typically causative. The senses below are grouped under the stem BDB assigns to each. This entry also uses Pual (the passive of Piel).

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 9 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.

Qal

  • Pf. 3 ms. ס׳ 2 S 24:10, 2 ms. סָפַרְתָּה ψ 56:9, וְסָפַרְתָּ֫ Lv 25:8, etc.; Impf. יִסְפֹּר ψ 87:6 + Jb 38:37 where read prob. יִסְפֹּר (Bu) for MT יְסַפֵּר, יְסְפּוֹר Jb 31:4, וַיִּסְפֹּר 2 Ch 2:1, 16, sf. וַיִּסְפְּרֵם Ezr 1:8; 2 ms. תִּסְפֹּר Jb 39:2, תִּסְפּוֹר 14:16, תִּסְפָּר־ Dt 16:9, etc.; Imv. ms. סְפֹר Gn 15:5; mpl. סִפְרוּ 1 Ch 21:2 ψ 48:13; Inf. cstr. לִסְפֹּר Gn 15:5 + 2 times; Pt. סֹפֵר Is 33:18(×2) (v. also סֹפֵר n. infr.);— e.g. 2 Samuel 24:10
  • 1. count things, to learn their number, c. acc., Gn 15:5(×2) (J) 2 S 24:10 + 10 times (+ acc. cogn. 2 Ch 2:16); acc. om. Gn 41:49 (E); + ל (dat. comm. vel eth.), Lv 15:13, 28; 23:15; 25:8 (all PH), Dt 16:9; Ez 44:26; Ezr 1:8 ψ 87:6 Is 33:18 (abs.), v 18 (but text suspicious, conjj. in Du CheHpt). e.g. Genesis 15:5
  • 2. number = take account of, carefully observe and consider, reckon: צְעָדַי תִּסְפּוֹר Jb 14:16 of my steps thou takest account, so 31:4; v. also 38:37 (cf. supr.); נֹדִי סָפַרְתָּה ψ 56:9 my wandering hast thou reckoned, taken into account (Che reads סִפַּרְתִּי after 𝔊). e.g. Job 14:16

Niphal

  • Impf. 3 ms. יִסָּפֵר Ho 2:1 + 4 times; 3 mpl. יִסָּֽפְרוּ 1 K 8:5; 2 Ch 5:6, וַיִּסָּֽפְרוּ 1 Ch 23:3;— be counted, numbered, usually c. neg., to indicate multitude, לֹא יִסּ׳ מֵרֹב Gn 16:10 (J) it is not to be counted, for multitude, so 32:13 (J), 1 K 3:8 (‖ לֹא יִסָּנֶה), 8:5 (+ id.), 2 Ch 5:6 (+ id.); cf. Ho 2:1 (+ לֹא־יִמַּד), Je 33:22 (‖ לֹא יִמַּד); positively, only וַיִּסָּֽפְרוּ הַלְּוִיִּם 1 Ch 23:3. e.g. Hosea 2:1

Piel

  • Pf. 1 s. סִפַּ֫רְתִּי ψ 119:26, סִפַּ֑רְתִּי v 13; 3 pl. סִפְּרוּ Ju 6:13 + 3 times; Impf. 3 ms. יְסַפֵּר Jb 38:37 +, 1 s. אֲסַפֵּר ψ 22:18 +; cohort. אֲסַפֵּ֑רָה Jb 15:17; 1 pl. וַנְּסַפֶּר־ Ex 10:2, etc.; Imv. סַפֵּר Is 43:26, etc.; Inf. cstr. (לְ)סַפֵּר ψ 50:16 + 5 times; Pt. מְסַפֵּר Ju 7:13; 2 K 8:5; pl. מְסַפְּרִים ψ 19:2; 78:4;—recount, rehearse, declare: e.g. Psalms 119:26
  • 1. recount something (acc.), to (לְ pers.) Ju 6:13; 7:13; Gn 24:66 (J), 1 S 11:5 + 18 times (of rehearsing glorious deeds of י׳ ψ 44:2; 73:28; 78:3, 4; 79:13); c. acc. + בְּ loc. Ez 12:16, elsewhere of rehearsing name or praise of י׳ Ex 9:16 (J) ψ 9:15; 96:3 = 1 Ch 16:24, ψ 102:22 Je 51:10; c. acc. alone ψ 9:2; 19:2; 119:13 (+ בְּ instr.), 145:6 + 8 times ψψ + Is 43:21, all of rehearsing praise of י׳; cf. צְמוּ מִסַּפֵּר ψ 40:6 they are too great to rehearse, c. acc. also Je 23:28, 32; Jb 15:17; 28:27 ψ 119:26; acc. om. Is 43:26, c. לְ pers. Gn 40:8 (E) + 6 times, c. אֶל־ pers. Gn 37:10 (E), c. בְּאָזְנֵי Ex 10:2; c. בְּמוֹ (q.v.) ψ 73:15; c. אֶל־ concerning ψ 2:7, cf. 69:27 (𝔊 𝔖 Ew Ol Gr Bi Che Bae add; in that case read יֹסִ֑פּוּ); c. עַל־ concerning, + לְ pers. Jo 1:3. e.g. Judges 6:13
  • 2. appar., in weakened sense, talk ψ 59:13, 64:6 (c. ל concerning), 73:15 (c. כְּמוֹ). e.g. Psalms 59:13
  • 3. count exactly, accurately, אֲסַפֵּר כָּל־עַצְמוֹתָ֑י ψ 22:18 I can count exactly all my bones (in wasted body).—ψ 40:6 v. sub 1, Jb 38:37 read יִסְפִּר. e.g. Psalms 22:18

Pual

  • be recounted, related, rehearsed: Pf. 3 ms. סֻפַּר לְ Is 52:15; Impf. 3 ms. יְסֻפַּר לְ Jb 37:20 (cl. as subj.), + לְ concerning ψ 22:31; c. בְּ loc. 88:12; abs. יְסֻפָּ֑ר Hb 1:5. e.g. Isaiah 52:15

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

vb. count, Pi. recount, relate (prob. ancient denom. from סֵפֶר; NH = BH; Ethiopic ሰፈረ; measure Di404);—

— Brown-Driver-Briggs (Oxford 1906, public domain), digitized via Sefaria, supplemented by the OpenScriptures HebrewLexicon (CC BY 4.0). See Sources.

Derived from ספר (çᵉphar) (H5609) — book.

Part of speech: Noun Masculine TWOT: 2891b


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.

סָפַר

  • (b. h.) [to cut; to mark,]
  • 1. to write; to count. Y. Kil. VII, end, 31ᵃ יִסְפּוֹר he (who is in possession of property bought from an oppressor, v. אַנָּס) must count (settle with the original owner according to rules, v. גוֹרְדְּיָינִי), opp. יחזיר he must return the property; ib. יִסְפֹּר (or יְסַפֵּר Pi.). Kidd. 30ᵃ שהיו סוֹפְרִים, v. סוֹפֵר. Nidd. 69ᵃ סוֹפַרְתָּן למנין וכ׳ she counts them in with the requisite number of seven days. Ib. 31ᵃ יושב וסוֹפֵר וכ׳ sits and records the copulations &c. Men. 65ᵇ, v. סְפִירָה; a. v. fr.—[Sifré Deut. 33 סופרה; read: סופנה, v. סָפַן.]—Part. pass. סָפוּר, q. v.
  • 2. to cut, shear, v. infra.
    • to be counted. Bekh. 45ᵃ שנִסְפֶּרֶת ע"ג היד when the additional finger is counted (is in a line) with the others; Yalk. Sam. 156.
    • 1. to cut, shear. Sot. 49ᵇ, a. fr. מְסַפֵּר קומי, v. קוֹמִי I. Ib. התירו (לו)לסַפֵּר וכ׳ they allowed him to cut his hair in gentile fashion, because of his connections with royalty. Sifra Aḥăré, Par. 9, ch. XIII תִּסְפּוֹר, v. קוֹמִי I. Tosef. Bets. III, 19 אין מְסַפְּרִין הירק וכ׳ you must not no trim vegetables with the clipper (on the Holy Day) &c.; a. fr.
    • 2. to tell, speak, count. Y. Kil. l. c., v. supra. Gen. R. s. 78 (ref. to אברם in place of אברהם, Neh. IX, 7) סיפור הוא מְסַפֵּר וכ׳ he states a historical fact, saying &c. Y. Ber. IX, beg. 12ᵈ אם בא אדם לסַפֵּר וכ׳ if one were to undertake to count the mighty deeds of the Lord, he would be ruined (ref. to Job XXXVII, 20); המספר בשבחו וכ׳ he who tells the praise of the Lord more than is becoming. Ib. מכאן … אסור לסַפֵּר וכ׳ beyond that (which has been adopted in ritual prayers) one must not tell &c. Arakh. 16ᵃ לעולם אל יְסַפֵּר אדם בטובתו וכ׳ man should not count up his neighbor’s good qualities, for he may be induced to speak of his shortcomings; B. Bath. 164ᵇ. Sot. 42ᵃ מְספְּרֵי לשון הרע gossipers. Snh. 38ᵇ בלשון ארמי סי׳ spoke Aramæan; a. v. fr.—Ib. 52ᵇ סי׳ הימנו if he (the scholar) holds conversation with him. e.g. Nehemiah 9:7
    • to have one’s hair cut. Ab. Zar. II, 2 אין מִסְתַּפְּרִין מהן וכ׳ you must not have your hair cut by them in any place (on account of danger to life). Tosef. ib. III, 5 ישראל המִסְתַּפֵּר וכ׳ if an Israelite has his hair cut by a gentile, he must look into the mirror; Ab. Zar. 29ᵃ; a. fr.

סְפַר

  • 1. to count, mark, write, v. סַפְרָא I. I.
  • 2. to shear, v. infra.
    • to cut, shear, shave. Targ. Job I, 20 (Ms. סְפַר Pe.). Targ. Y. Lev. XIII, 33 (not יַסְפֵּר); ib. XIV, 8, sq. (h. text גלח); a. fr.—Lev. R. s. 28, end יתיב ומְסַפֵּר ליה (Haman) sat down and cut his (Mordecai’s) hair; ib. מן דחסל (מן) מְסַפְּרָא ליה when he had done cutting his hair; a. fr.—Part. pass. מְסַפֵּר. Ib. אית בר נש … ולא מ׳ is there a man who putts the royal crown on his head without having his hair cut?; Esth. R. to VI, 10.

סַפָּר

  • (preced. wds.)
  • 1. (v. סֵפֶר) Bible teacher. Y. Maasr. III, 50ᵈ בית … טובלין לס׳ ולמַשְׁנֶה (not ולא למש׳) school houses for Bible and Talmud make fruits ṭebel for the Bible teacher and for the Talmud teacher. [Perh. to be read: סָפַר Chald. form.]
  • 2. hair-cutter, barber. Sabb. I, 2 לא ישב אדם לפני הס׳ וכ׳ one must not sit down for the hair-cutter near Minḥah time beforesaying the prayer. Shebi. VIII, 5; a. e.—Pl. סַפָּרִים, סַפָּרִין. Kel. XIII, 1 זוג של ס׳ the barbers’ scissors. Sabb. 9ᵇ. v. מַעֲפוֹרֶת; a. e.

סַפָּר ²

  • , hair-cutter. Targ. II Esth. VI, 12.—Lev. R. s. 28, end; Esth. R. to VI, 10. Lev. R. s. 14, end לית ס׳ דמספר לגרמיה no hair-cutter can cut his own hair (i.e. the female sperm begets the male embryo and vice versa); a. e.

סְפָר

  • (סָפַר) [mark, march,] boundary, border district. Yeb. 48ᵇ עיר הסמוכה לס׳ a town near the boundary. Sot. 42ᵃ פעמים מדבר עמו אחת בס׳ וכ׳ the priest addressed the people twice, once on the border line (before entering the enemy’s land) and once before the battle. Tosef. Erub. IV (III), 5 באו … הסמוכות לס׳ if the enemy invades towns near the boundary (of Palestine); Y. ib. IV, 21ᵈ bot.; Bab. ib. 45ᵃ. Ib. ובבל כעיר הסמוכה לס׳ וכ׳ and Babylonia is (as regards the duty of defence) like a town near the boundary, which was interpreted to mean Neharde‘a. Num. R. s. 16 מה ראה לישב לו על הס׳ וכ׳ what reason had he (Amalek) to settle on the border, on the way of the entrance of the Israelites into the land?; a. e.—Pi. סְפָרִים, constr. סִפְרֵי. Y. Ḥall. II, 58ᵇ bot. ס׳ א"י Palestinian districts, ס׳ חוצה לארץ foreign districts (conquered by Israelites).

סְפַר ²

  • constr. סְפַר, same; ס׳ יַמָּא sea-district. Targ. O. Gen. XLIX, 13 (h. text חֹף); a. fr.—Pl. סַפְרַיָּא, constr. סַפְרֵי. Targ. Y. ib.—[Targ. Y. Lev. XIII, 45 ספריא, some ed., v. סָפְדָּא.]

סָפֵר

  • (preced. wds.) = סְפִירָה, counting. Naz. VII, 3 (54ᵃ) ימי סְפֵרוֹ (comment. סְפֵירוֹ; Y. ed. ספורו) the days which the cured leper has to count (Lev. XIV, 8); Y. ib. 56ᶜ bot. ספירו. e.g. Leviticus 14:8

סֵפֶר

  • preced. wds.) letter, document, book. Erub. 15ᵇ; Gitt. 21ᵇ; Succ. 24ᵇ, v. סְפִירָה. Eduy. I, 12, a. fr. ס׳ כתובה the formula of a Kethubah. Y. Sot. IX, end, 24ᶜ משמת ר"א נגנז ס׳ החכמה with the death of R. El. a book of wisdom disappeared; Bab. Sot. 49ᵇ נגנז ס׳ תורה; Tosef. ib. XV, 3 בטל ס׳ תורה. Gen. R. s. 24 סִפְרוֹ של אה"ר the book of Adam (the destinies of humanity); Ex. R. s. 40; Lev. R. s. 15 beg.; a. fr.—Esp. a Biblical book. B. Bath. 15ᵃ ירמיה כתב ספרו וס׳ מלכים וכ׳ Jeremiah wrote his book (the prophecies of Jerem.) and the Book of Kings and the Lamentations. Ib. 14ᵇ משה כתב ספרו וכ׳ Moses wrote his own book, and the Section of Balaam (the chapters on B., Num. XXII, 2—XXIV, 25) and Job; Y. Sot. V, end, 20ᵈ; a. v. fr.—ס׳ תורה (abbrev. ס"ת) (or ס׳ only) the Pentateuch in a scroll. Ab. Zar. 18ᵃ כרכוהו בס"ת וכ׳ they wrapped him up in the scroll &c. Sabb. 116ᵃ ס"ת שנמחק a scroll of the Pentateuch the writing of which is effaced; Yad. III, 5 ס׳ שנמחק; a. v. fr.—Kel. XV, 6, a. e. ס׳ העזרה the Pentateuch kept in the Temple court, v. עֲזָרָה.—ס׳ הוא, ס׳ זעטוטים &c., v. respective determinants.—בֵּית סֵ׳, בֵּית הַסֵּ׳ the school in which the Bible is taught, secondary school, contrad. to בית תלמוד Talmud school. Y. Maasr. III, 50ᵈ, v. סַפָּר 1. Midr. Till. to XCII, 16 שתולים … אלו התינוקות שבבית הס׳ ‘planted in the house of the Lord’ (ib. 14), that means the children at school; a. fr.—Pl. סְפָרִים, constr. סִפְרֵי, סִיפְ׳. Ex. R. s. 41 זריז בכ"ד ס׳ well-versed in the twenty-four books of the Scripture. Sabb. 116ᵃ (ס׳ צדוקים) ס׳ מינים heretical books, v. מִין III. Snh. 68ᵃ שתי … כשני ס׳ תורה וכ׳ my two arms which are like two rolled up scrolls of the Torah, a. v. fr.—Ch. סִפְרָא, constr. סֵפֶר. e.g. Numbers 22:2

סָפַר ²

  • = h. סוֹפֵר,
  • 1. scribe, writer of documents; copyist. Targ. Jer. XXXVI, 20, sq.; a. fr.—Ab. Zar. 9ᵃ, v. בַּצִּירָא, Ib. 10ᵃ, v. דַּוְקָנָא. Ḥull. 64ᵇ, sq. פסיק להו ס׳ וכ׳ the copyist (of the Scriptures) divides them into two words. Y. Succ. II, 53ᵃ top סַפְרָה דגופתא the scribe of Gufta; a. fr.
  • 2. scholar, teacher. Targ. Is. III, 2 (h. text נביא); ib. IX, 14. Targ. O. Gen. XLIX, 10 (h. text מחקק); a. fr.—Gen. R. s. 70, end אית ס׳ דלית וכ׳ is there a teacher that has no pupils?, i.e. I (Laban) learned trickery from you (Jacob).—Esp. Bible teacher. Y. Ḥag. I, 76ᶜ, a. e., v. מַתְנְיָין; a. fr.—ס׳ מתא, v. סוֹפֵר.—Pl. סַפְרַיָּא, סַפְרַיָּיא, סַפְרִין, סַפְרֵי. Targ. Y. I Gen. XLIX, 10. Targ. I Sam. X, 15 (h. text נביאים); a. fr.—Sot. IX, 5 (49ᵃ), v. חַכִּימָא. Midr. Till. to Ps. XCI, 6 מפקיד לס׳ וכ׳ ordered the school teachers to let the children go free (during the summer) from the fourth to the ninth hour of the day; Lam. R. to I, 3; Num. R. s. 12 לסַפְרַיָּה; 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 4 distinct written forms H5613 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
סָֽפְרָ֔/א Particle, Definite Article Ezra 4:8 3
סָפְרָ֖/א Particle, Definite Article Ezra 4:23 1
סָפַ֤ר Noun, Common, Masculine, Singular, Construct Ezra 7:21 1
סָפַ֨ר Noun, Common, Masculine, Singular, Construct Ezra 7:12 1

Septuagint verse parallels

This word appears in 6 verses that also exist in the Greek Old Testament (Septuagint), out of the 6 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.

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Read the OT as the Masoretic Hebrew (MT) or the Greek Septuagint (LXX).

English shown for the Greek Septuagint (in the Hebrew ↔ Greek comparison).

Comparing translations? Open the Compare panel on any verse page to stack up to four side by side.