Want to remove ads? Support Godless Engineer

שְׁנַ֫יִם

two

‘two’ is one of 5 main senses fuller range ↓

H8147 Strong's Hebrew
shᵉnayim Transliteration
/shen-ah'-yim/ Pronunciation
Usage in the Hebrew Bible 768 appearances

Compare with another word →

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, שנים (shᵉnayim) means “two.” Not a single-sense word: explore its full sense range. Spanning 645 verses in 31 books, it ranks among the most common words of the Hebrew Bible. It first appears in Genesis 1:16. Sharing its root, it stands alongside שני, תנין and תרין. Each statement above links to its evidence; the full detail follows below.

Gloss history

Strong's 1890 vs modern scholarship

Strong's · 1890
both
Modern gloss
two
Strong's 1890 sometimes compressed multiple senses — or homonymous roots — under one number, and used 19th-century English phrasing that no longer carries the same connotation. The modern gloss reflects current BDB scholarship; open the Lexicon Entry tab for the full sense breakdown. Download share card

About this word

Strong's H8147 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 →

645
distinct verses
The word appears in 645 distinct verses.
31 / 39
OT books
The word appears in 31 of 39 Old Testament books.
Genesis 1:16
first appearance
The earliest occurrence is in Genesis 1:16.
Zechariah 13:8
last appearance
The latest occurrence is in Zechariah 13:8.
#63
by frequency
Top 100 most frequent Hebrew words (rank 63 of 8,640 Hebrew words by occurrence).

View all 645 occurrences in the concordance →


Most concentrated in

By section of the Old Testament

  • Pentateuch 256 · 40%
  • Historical 299 · 46%
  • Wisdom 22 · 3%
  • Prophets 68 · 11%

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 645 distinct verses.

  • Torah (Pentateuch) 256 verses · 40%
  • Prophets (Nevi'im) 240 verses · 37%
  • Writings (Ketuvim) 149 verses · 23%

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: Two 430×, Both 54×, Twelve 51×
  • American Standard Version: Two 396×, Twelve 70×, Both 47×
  • Berean Standard Bible: Two 342×, Twelve 57×, Both 48×
  • unfoldingWord Literal Text: Two 393×, Two of them 51×, Two of 39×

King James Version Public Domain

Renders H8147 across 754 tagged occurrences — most commonly:

  • “Two” 430×
  • “Both” 54×
  • “Twelve” 51×
  • “Were twelve” 28×
  • “Twelfth” 11×
  • “Had two” 10×
  • “Or two” 8×
  • “Second” 8×
  • “Were two” 8×
  • “They two” 6×
  • “Under two” 6×
  • “Thee two” 5×

Plus other, less common renderings. Plus 86 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 15 further occurrences.

American Standard Version Public Domain

Renders H8147 across 749 tagged occurrences — most commonly:

  • “Two” 396×
  • “Twelve” 70×
  • “Both” 47×
  • “Twelfth” 11×
  • “Had two” 10×
  • “Or two” 9×
  • “Second” 8×
  • “Thereof” 8×
  • “Were two” 8×
  • “They two” 6×
  • “Both of them” 5×
  • “Twain” 5×

Plus other, less common renderings. Plus 112 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 H8147 across 603 tagged occurrences — most commonly:

  • “Two” 342×
  • “Twelve” 57×
  • “Both” 48×
  • “Twelfth” 19×
  • “Second” 11×
  • “Double” 7×
  • “Two-tenths” 7×
  • “Had two” 6×
  • “And” 5×
  • “Two of them” 4×
  • “Two-tenths of an ephah” 4×
  • “Both of them” 3×

Plus other, less common renderings. Plus 53 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 159 further occurrences.

unfoldingWord Literal Text CC BY-SA 4.0

Renders H8147 across 706 tagged occurrences — most commonly:

  • “Two” 393×
  • “Two of them” 51×
  • “Two of” 39×
  • “Were” 38×
  • “And” 37×
  • “Twelfth” 11×
  • “Twelve” 10×
  • “For” 9×
  • “Both” 7×
  • “Both of them” 7×
  • “Second” 6×
  • “Double” 5×

Plus other, less common renderings. Plus 36 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 120 further occurrences.


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.

  • 1. no other num.:
    • a. usually cstr. before n.pl. (צְמִידִים) שְׁנֵי Gn 24:22 + 194 times + 2 S 23:20 ‖ 1 Ch 11:22 (ins. בְּנֵי 𝔊 Th mod., otherwise RSSem. i. 469, 2nd ed., 488); (נָשִׁים) שְׁתֵּי Gn 4:19 + 132 times, 1 S 10:4 ins. כִּכְּרוֹת Klo HPS Bu Now; Lv 16:21 read du. יָדָיו Qr, + Ju 16:28 (v. supr.) + שְׁתֵּי־אֵלֶּה Is 47:9 both these thing; before n.sg., שְׁנֵי Ex 16:22 (Ges§ 134e); sf. שְׁנֵיהֶם the two of them Gn 2:25 + 62 times, + Pr 24:22 (> their years 𝔖 𝔗 De al.; prob. crpt., v. Toy), שְׁנֵינוּ Gn 31:37 + 2 times, שְׁנֵיכֶם †Gn 27:45; שְׁתֵּיהֶם (msf.! Ges§ 135 o) †Ru 1:19; 4:11, יהֶן—ֵ †1 S 25:43; Ez 23:13. e.g. Genesis 24:22
    • b. abs. (1) שְׁנַ֫יִם (90 times), before n.pl. Ju 11:37 + 26 times; after n.pl. 2 S 1:1; Ex 29:1 + 21 times (usually P Chr), n.sg. (coll.) Gn 46:27 Nu 7:17 + 11 times Nu 17; n. om. Gn 7:2; 44:27 + 26 times; שׁ׳ שׁ׳ distrib. Gn 7:9 +; לִשׁ׳ cut in two †2 K 3:25; Je 34:18; = double amount †Ex 22:3, 6, 8 (E); פִּי שׁ׳ †Dt 21:17 two-thirds, + בְּרוּחֲךָ †2 K 2:9 in (of) thy spirit, + בָּהּ †Zc 13:8; (2) שְׁתַּ֫יִם (55 times), bef. n.pl.; 1 K 3:16 + 16 times; after n.pl. (usually P and late) 2 Ch 24:3 + 9 times; n. om., = two things †Is 51:19 Jb 13:20 Pr 30:7; שְׁתַּיִם = twice †2 K 6:10 Jb 40:5 ψ 62:12 (or as Pr 30:7), בִּשׁ׳ Jb 33:14 either so, or in two ways RVm (v. De); as ordin. בִּשְׁנַת שְׁתַּיִם לְ 1 K 15:25 + 9 times, etc.; (3) as round number, שְׁנַיִם עֵצִים 1 K 17:12 a few sticks (Germ. ‘ein paar’), cf. 2 K 9:32 Is 17:6; שְׁתַּיִם שָׁלשׁ Am 4:8, פַּעַם וּשְׁתָּ֑יִם Ne 13:20, cf. Je 3:14 אֶחָד מֵעִיר וּשְׁנַיִם מִמִּשְׁפָחָה = a small no.; Ezr 10:13 not for one or two days (but for many), 2 K 6:10. e.g. Judges 11:37
  • 2. twelve: c. n.m. שְׁנֵים עָשָׂר Gn 42:13 + 87 times, לִשְׁנֵי עָשָׂר Ex 28:21 + 4 times; c. n.f. שְׁתֵּים עֶשְׂרֵה Ex 24:4 + 34 times, שְׁתֵּי עֶשְׂרֵה †Ez 32:1, 17; 33:21; before n.pl. Gn 17:20; Ex 15:27 +; after n.pl. Nu 7:84(×2) +; before n.sg. Ex 28:21 +, Gn 14:4 (12 year) +, etc.; as ord., בְּיוֹם שְׁנֵים עָשָׂר יוֹם Nu 7:78, בִּשְׁתֵּי עֶשְׂרֵה שָׁנָה Ez 32:1 +, etc. e.g. Genesis 42:13
  • 3. with large num.: 10 (etc.) + 2, 2 S 8:5; Ju 10:3 + 56 times; 2 + 10 (etc.) Nu 1:35 (P), 2 Ch 22:2 + 18 times (Köii. 1, 215 ff. Ges§ 97 f.); 200 + 2 + 30, 1 K 20:15; 50 + 2 as ord. 2 K 15:27 + 2 times; cf. 2 + 20, 1 Ch 24:17. e.g. 2 Samuel 8:5

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

(PhilipiZMG xlix (1895), 202 Ges§ 97b note)768 n.m. et f.du. two (NH id.; Ph. אשנם (and שני second), Pun. שנם Lzb380; Arabic اِثنَانِ; Sab. תֿני HomChr 47, Aramaic תְּרֵין, ܬܪܶܝܢ (תִּנְיָנָא, ܬܶܢܝܳܢܳܐ second); Nab. תרין, Palm. f. תרתן, תרתיא, Lzb388; Assyrian šinâ; on etym v. √, and especially PhilippiZMG xxxii (1878), 21–98);—m. (c. n.m.) שְׁנַיִם Am 3:3 +; cstr. שְׁנֵי Is 7:16 +, sf. שְׁנֵיהֶם Gn 2:25 +, etc.; f. (c. n.f.) שְׁתַּיִם Am 4:8 +; cstr. שְׁתֵּי Gn 4:19, וּשְׁתֵּי Is 7:21 +, etc., מִשְּׁתֵֿי Ju 16:28 (v. GFM); sfs. v. infr. (2 + 10 = 12, v. infr.); Hex chiefly P:—two:

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

Derived from שני (shênîy) (H8145) — second.

Part of speech: Noun TWOT: 2421a


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.

שָׁנִי

  • (b. h.) scarlet; תולעת ש׳, v. תֹּולֵעָה.—Pl. שָׁנִים. Sabb. 89ᵇ (ref. to Is. I, 18) כשנים כשני מיבעי ליה וכ׳ kasshanim? it ought to read kasshani (as scarlet) &c.; Yalk. Is. 256; a. e., v. שָׁנָה II. e.g. Isaiah 1:18

שְׁנַיִם

  • (b. h.) two. Ber. 8ᵃ ש׳ מקרא ואחד תרגום reading the Scriptural portion of the week twice, and the Targum once. Ib. שיעור ש׳ פתחים a distance of two gates. Zeb. V, 4, v. מַתָּנָה. Sabb. I, 1 ש׳ שהן ארבע two ways of transfer from place to place, which become four (by rabbinical addition). Ib. שְׁנֵיהֶם פטורין both of them are free. Snh. V, 3 בש׳ בחדש on the second day of the month. Ib. בש׳ שעות in the second hour of the day. Men. III, 3. Ib. 6; a. v. fr.—שְׁנֵים עָשָׂר, שְׁתֵּים עֶשְׂרֵה twelve. Nidd. 69ᵇ. Ab. Zar. 3ᵇ; 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 182 distinct written forms H8147 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
שְׁתֵּ֣י Adjective, Cardinal number, Feminine, Dual, Construct Daniel 8:7 46
שְׁנֵ֣י Adjective, Cardinal number, Masculine, Dual, Construct Deuteronomy 19:15 37
שְׁנֵ֥ים Adjective, Cardinal number, Masculine, Dual, Absolute Genesis 35:22 35
שְׁנֵ֥י Adjective, Cardinal number, Masculine, Dual, Construct Exodus 16:22 26
וּ/שְׁנָֽיִם Adjective, Cardinal number, Masculine, Dual, Absolute Ezra 2:3 23
שְׁנֵֽי Adjective, Cardinal number, Masculine, Dual, Construct Deuteronomy 10:1 18
שְׁנֵים Adjective, Cardinal number, Masculine, Dual, Absolute Esther 3:7 17
שְׁתֵּ֥י Adjective, Cardinal number, Feminine, Dual, Construct Amos 3:12 16
שְׁנֵ֖י Adjective, Cardinal number, Masculine, Dual, Construct Deuteronomy 4:13 15
שְׁנַ֥יִם Adjective, Cardinal number, Masculine, Dual, Absolute Daniel 12:5 15
שְׁנֵ֤י Adjective, Cardinal number, Masculine, Dual, Construct Esther 9:27 14
שְׁנֵי֙ Adjective, Cardinal number, Masculine, Dual, Construct Deuteronomy 3:8 14
שְׁנֵי/הֶ֣ם Adjective, Cardinal number, Masculine, Dual, Construct Numbers 7:13 13
שְׁנֵ֨י Adjective, Cardinal number, Masculine, Dual, Construct Exodus 25:35 12
שְׁנֵי/הֶֽם Adjective, Cardinal number, Masculine, Dual, Construct Deuteronomy 23:18 12
שְׁנַ֖יִם Adjective, Cardinal number, Masculine, Dual, Absolute Amos 3:3 12
שְׁנַיִם֒ Adjective, Cardinal number, Masculine, Dual, Absolute Numbers 7:17 12
שְׁתֵּי֙ Adjective, Cardinal number, Feminine, Dual, Construct Exodus 28:23 12
שְׁנַ֧יִם Adjective, Cardinal number, Masculine, Dual, Absolute Genesis 6:19 10
שְׁתֵּ֥ים Adjective, Cardinal number, Feminine, Dual, Absolute Exodus 15:27 10
וּ/שְׁנֵ֣י Adjective, Cardinal number, Masculine, Dual, Construct Exodus 26:21 9
שְׁנֵי/הֶ֖ם Adjective, Cardinal number, Masculine, Dual, Construct Esther 2:23 9
שְׁנָ֑יִם Adjective, Cardinal number, Masculine, Dual, Absolute Genesis 46:27 9
וּ/שְׁנַ֥יִם Adjective, Cardinal number, Masculine, Dual, Absolute Ezekiel 40:39 8
וּ/שְׁנַ֨יִם֙ Adjective, Cardinal number, Masculine, Dual, Absolute 1 Chronicles 7:7 8
שְׁנֵ֣ים Adjective, Cardinal number, Masculine, Dual, Absolute Deuteronomy 1:23 8
שְׁנַ֣יִם Adjective, Cardinal number, Masculine, Dual, Absolute Deuteronomy 17:6 8
שְׁתֵּים Adjective, Cardinal number, Feminine, Dual, Absolute 1 Kings 7:15 8
וּ/שְׁתֵּ֣י Adjective, Cardinal number, Feminine, Dual, Construct Exodus 25:12 7
וּ/שְׁנֵ֤י Adjective, Cardinal number, Masculine, Dual, Construct Exodus 26:23 6
לִ/שְׁנֵ֥י Adjective, Cardinal number, Masculine, Dual, Construct Exodus 26:24 6
לִ/שְׁתֵּ֣י Adjective, Cardinal number, Feminine, Dual, Construct Exodus 26:19 6
שְׁנֵי/הֶ֑ם Adjective, Cardinal number, Masculine, Dual, Construct Exodus 22:9 6
שְׁנֵי/הֶ֔ם Adjective, Cardinal number, Masculine, Dual, Construct Deuteronomy 22:22 6
שְׁנַ֔יִם Adjective, Cardinal number, Masculine, Dual, Absolute Deuteronomy 21:17 6
שְׁתַּ֔יִם Adjective, Cardinal number, Feminine, Dual, Absolute 1 Kings 7:41 6
שְׁתַּ֤יִם Adjective, Cardinal number, Feminine, Dual, Absolute Ezekiel 1:23 6
וּ/שְׁנֵ֥י Adjective, Cardinal number, Masculine, Dual, Construct Deuteronomy 10:3 5
וּ/שְׁנֵ֧י Adjective, Cardinal number, Masculine, Dual, Construct Exodus 26:19 5
וּ/שְׁתֵּ֥י Adjective, Cardinal number, Feminine, Dual, Construct Ezekiel 41:24 5
וּ/שְׁתַּ֖יִם Adjective, Cardinal number, Feminine, Dual, Absolute 1 Kings 14:20 5
וּ/שְׁתַּ֨יִם֙ Adjective, Cardinal number, Feminine, Dual, Absolute 2 Chronicles 21:20 5
שְׁתֵּ֣ים Adjective, Cardinal number, Feminine, Dual, Absolute Esther 3:7 5
שְׁתֵּ֤י Adjective, Cardinal number, Feminine, Dual, Construct Exodus 28:25 5
שְׁתַּ֖יִם Adjective, Cardinal number, Feminine, Dual, Absolute Haggai 1:15 5
וּ/שְׁנֵ֥ים Adjective, Cardinal number, Masculine, Dual, Absolute Ezra 2:6 4
וּ/שְׁנֵים Adjective, Cardinal number, Masculine, Dual, Absolute 1 Kings 4:26 4
וּ/שְׁנַ֖יִם Adjective, Cardinal number, Masculine, Dual, Absolute Deuteronomy 32:30 4
וּ/שְׁתֵּ֤י Adjective, Cardinal number, Feminine, Dual, Construct Exodus 28:14 4
לִ/שְׁתֵּ֥י Adjective, Cardinal number, Feminine, Dual, Construct Exodus 26:19 4
שְׁ֚תַּיִם Adjective, Cardinal number, Feminine, Dual, Absolute Ezekiel 1:11 4
שְׁנֵי/הֶ֛ם Adjective, Cardinal number, Masculine, Dual, Construct 1 Samuel 9:26 4
שְׁנַ֤יִם Adjective, Cardinal number, Masculine, Dual, Absolute Ezekiel 40:39 4
שְׁנַ֨יִם Adjective, Cardinal number, Masculine, Dual, Absolute Genesis 7:9 4
שְׁתֵּ֖י Adjective, Cardinal number, Feminine, Dual, Construct Exodus 28:9 4
שְׁתֵּ֤ים Adjective, Cardinal number, Feminine, Dual, Absolute Ezekiel 43:16 4
שְׁתַּ֣יִם Adjective, Cardinal number, Feminine, Dual, Absolute Ezekiel 23:2 4
בִּ/שְׁנֵ֤ים Adjective, Cardinal number, Masculine, Dual, Absolute Ezra 8:31 3
בִּ/שְׁתֵּ֣י Adjective, Cardinal number, Feminine, Dual, Construct Ezekiel 32:1 3
וּ/שְׁנַ֣יִם Adjective, Cardinal number, Masculine, Dual, Absolute 1 Kings 10:19 3

The 60 most common forms are shown; 122 rarer forms follow in the full concordance.


Same root — word family

Other BDB entries built from the same root as H8147, 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

Derived from this word

Compare all same-root words → They share a root, not necessarily a meaning.


Septuagint verse parallels

This word appears in 611 verses that also exist in the Greek Old Testament (Septuagint), out of the 645 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.

Reading settings

Reading text

Shown beneath each verse's original-language words.

Old Testament
Old Testament edition

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.