שָׁלֹשׁ
three
Full lexicon entry — Brown-Driver-Briggs (BDB)
From Brown-Driver-Briggs (BDB)
Where this word appears
See every Absolute-state word in the Hebrew Bible →
Grammar key — what these labels mean
Part of speech
- Adjective
- A word that describes or qualifies a noun.
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
- Feminine
- Grammatically feminine.
- Masculine
- Grammatically masculine.
Number
- Singular
- One.
27 verses where H7969 appears in the Absolute state in the Book of Numbers. Filtered view — show all forms. 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
- Numbers 1:23 וּ/שְׁלֹ֥שׁ conj + Adjective Cardinal number fs those who were numbered of them, of the tribe of Simeon, were fifty-nine thousand three hundred.
- Numbers 1:43 שְׁלֹשָׁ֧ה adj Cardinal number ms those who were numbered of them, of the tribe of Naphtali, were fifty-three thousand four hundred.
- Numbers 2:13 וּ/שְׁלֹ֥שׁ conj + Adjective Cardinal number fs His division, and those who were numbered of them, were fifty-nine thousand three hundred.
- Numbers 2:30 שְׁלֹשָׁ֧ה adj Cardinal number ms His division, and those who were numbered of them, were fifty-three thousand four hundred.
- Numbers 3:43 שְׁלֹשָׁ֥ה adj Cardinal number ms All the firstborn males according to the number of names, from a month old and upward, of those who were numbered of them, were twenty-two thousand two hundred seventy-three.
- Numbers 3:46 הַ/שְּׁלֹשָׁ֔ה ptcl def.art + Adjective Cardinal number ms For the redemption of the two hundred seventy-three of the firstborn of the children of Israel, who exceed the number of the Levites,
- Numbers 3:50 וּ/שְׁלֹ֥שׁ conj + Adjective Cardinal number fs from the firstborn of the children of Israel he took the money, one thousand three hundred sixty-five shekels, after the shekel of the sanctuary:
- Numbers 15:9 שְׁלֹשָׁ֣ה adj Cardinal number ms then shall he offer with the bull a meal-offering of three tenth parts [of an ephah] of fine flour mixed with half a hin of oil:
- Numbers 22:28 שָׁלֹ֥שׁ adj Cardinal number fs Yahweh opened the mouth of the donkey, and she said to Balaam, What have I done to you, that you have struck me these three times?
- Numbers 22:32 שָׁל֣וֹשׁ adj Cardinal number fs The angel of Yahweh said to him, Why have you struck your donkey these three times? behold, I am come forth for an adversary, because your way is perverse before me:
- Numbers 22:33 שָׁלֹ֣שׁ adj Cardinal number fs and the donkey saw me, and turned aside before me these three times: unless she had turned aside from me, surely now I had even slain you, and saved her alive.
- Numbers 24:10 שָׁלֹ֥שׁ adj Cardinal number fs Balak's anger was kindled against Balaam, and he struck his hands together; and Balak said to Balaam, I called you to curse my enemies, and, behold, you have altogether blessed them these three times.
- Numbers 26:7 שְׁלֹשָׁ֤ה adj Cardinal number ms These are the families of the Reubenites; and those who were numbered of them were forty-three thousand seven hundred thirty.
- Numbers 26:25 וּ/שְׁלֹ֥שׁ conj + Adjective Cardinal number fs These are the families of Issachar according to those who were numbered of them, sixty-four thousand three hundred.
- Numbers 26:47 שְׁלֹשָׁ֧ה adj Cardinal number ms These are the families of the sons of Asher according to those who were numbered of them, fifty-three thousand and four hundred.
- Numbers 26:62 שְׁלֹשָׁ֤ה adj Cardinal number ms Those who were numbered of them were twenty-three thousand, every male from a month old and upward: for they were not numbered among the children of Israel, because there was no inheritance given them among the children of Israel.
- Numbers 28:12 וּ/שְׁלֹשָׁ֣ה conj + Adjective Cardinal number ms and three tenth parts [of an ephah] of fine flour for a meal-offering, mixed with oil, for each bull; and two tenth parts of fine flour for a meal-offering, mixed with oil, for the one ram;
- Numbers 28:20 שְׁלֹשָׁ֨ה adj Cardinal number ms and their meal-offering, fine flour mixed with oil: three tenth parts shall you offer for a bull, and two tenth parts for the ram;
- Numbers 28:28 שְׁלֹשָׁ֤ה adj Cardinal number ms and their meal-offering, fine flour mixed with oil, three tenth parts for each bull, two tenth parts for the one ram,
- Numbers 29:3 שְׁלֹשָׁ֤ה adj Cardinal number ms and their meal-offering, fine flour mixed with oil, three tenth parts for the bull, two tenth parts for the ram,
- Numbers 29:9 שְׁלֹשָׁ֤ה adj Cardinal number ms and their meal-offering, fine flour mixed with oil, three tenth parts for the bull, two tenth parts for the one ram,
- Numbers 29:13 שְׁלֹשָׁ֥ה adj Cardinal number ms and you shall offer a burnt offering, an offering made by fire, of a sweet savor to Yahweh; thirteen young bulls, two rams, fourteen he-lambs a year old; they shall be without blemish;
- Numbers 29:14 שְׁלֹשָׁ֨ה לִ/שְׁלֹשָׁ֤ה adj Cardinal number ms prep + Adjective Cardinal number ms and their meal-offering, fine flour mixed with oil, three tenth parts for every bull of the thirteen bulls, two tenth parts for each ram of the two rams,
- Numbers 31:36 שְׁלֹשׁ adj Cardinal number fs The half, which was the portion of those who went out to war, was in number three hundred thirty-seven thousand five hundred sheep:
- Numbers 31:43 שְׁלֹשׁ adj Cardinal number fs (now the congregation's half was three hundred thirty-seven thousand five hundred sheep,
- Numbers 33:39 שָׁלֹ֧שׁ adj Cardinal number fs Aaron was one hundred twenty-three years old when he died in Mount Hor.
- Numbers 35:14 שְׁלֹ֣שׁ שְׁלֹ֣שׁ adj Cardinal number fs adj Cardinal number fs You shall give three cities beyond the Jordan, and three cities shall you give in the land of Canaan; they shall be cities of refuge.
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 noun שלוש centers on the idea of “three.” Debuting at Genesis 5:22, it then recurs through the corpus. It appears 381 verses across 25 books of the Hebrew Bible, among its common vocabulary. It shares a root with שלושים, שליש and שלישי. For the data behind this summary, explore the sense tree and the renderings breakdown below.
Gloss history
Strong's 1890 vs modern scholarship
About this word
Strong's H7969 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 →
- 381
- distinct verses
- The word appears in 381 distinct verses.
- 25 / 39
- OT books
- The word appears in 25 of 39 Old Testament books.
- #114
- by frequency
- Top 250 most frequent Hebrew words (rank 114 of 8,640 Hebrew words by occurrence).
View all 381 occurrences in the concordance →
Most concentrated in
- 1 Chronicles 35 verses 9%
- Numbers 33 verses 9%
- Genesis 27 verses 7%
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 381 distinct verses.
- Prophets (Nevi'im) 153 verses · 40%
- Writings (Ketuvim) 128 verses · 34%
- Torah (Pentateuch) 100 verses · 26%
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: Three 288×, Were three 11×, Thirteenth 10×
- American Standard Version: Three 269×, Thirteenth 9×, Thirteen 8×
- Berean Standard Bible: Three 223×, Third 10×, Thirteenth 10×
- unfoldingWord Literal Text: Three 228×, Were 31×, And 11×
King James Version Public Domain
Renders H7969 across 424 tagged occurrences — most commonly:
Plus other, less common renderings. Plus 43 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 6 further occurrences.
American Standard Version Public Domain
Renders H7969 across 424 tagged occurrences — most commonly:
Plus other, less common renderings. Plus 57 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 H7969 across 343 tagged occurrences — most commonly:
Plus other, less common renderings. Plus 33 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 86 further occurrences.
unfoldingWord Literal Text CC BY-SA 4.0
Renders H7969 across 369 tagged occurrences — most commonly:
Plus other, less common renderings. Plus 27 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 79 further occurrences.
Senses in BDB
The 1 sense BDB distinguishes for this word, in lexicon order (not ranked by frequency or importance). The full entry — with sub-senses — is in the Lexicon Entry tab.
- three, triad
Word origin
Origin: a primitive number
Forms in the corpus
The 122 distinct written forms H7969 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.
The 60 most common forms are shown; 62 rarer forms follow in the full concordance.
Same root — word family
Other BDB entries built from the same root as H7969, 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.
Derived from this word
- שלושים shᵉlôwshîym H7970 thirty
- שליש shâlîysh H7991 officer
- שלישי shᵉlîyshîy H7992 third
- תלת tᵉlâth H8532 three
Compare all same-root words → Showing 4 of 5 — not the complete family. They share a root, not necessarily a meaning.
Septuagint verse parallels
This word appears in 360 verses that also exist in the Greek Old Testament (Septuagint), out of the 381 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 5:22
- Exodus 2:2
- Leviticus 12:4
- Numbers 1:23
- Deuteronomy 4:41
- Joshua 1:11
- Judges 1:20
- 1 Samuel 1:24
- 2 Samuel 2:18
- 1 Kings 2:11
- 2 Kings 2:17
- 1 Chronicles 2:3
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.
