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This substantive is used chiefly as an adverb.
)
means “for nought”: “And
Laban said unto Jacob, Because thou art my brother, shouldest thou therefore serve me
for nought? tell me, what shall thy wages be?” (Gen. 29:15—the first occurrence). The
word means “in vain,” or “for no purpose”: “Surely in vain the net is spread in the sight
of any bird” (Prov. 1:17). Finally,
means “for no cause”: “… Wherefore then
wilt thou sin against innocent blood, to slay David without a cause?” (1 Sam. 19:5).
The verb
and the noun
are related to this word.
TO NUMBER, COUNT
A. Verb.
(
!
, 5608), “to number, count, proclaim, declare.” The relationship of this
verb to similar verbs in other languages is greatly debated, but it does occur in Ugaritic,
Ethiopic, and Old South Arabic. Attested in all periods of biblical Hebrew, it appears
about 110 times.
In the basic verbal form this verb signifies “to number or count.” This meaning is in
its first biblical appearance, Gen. 15:5: “Look now toward heaven, and tell the stars, if
thou be able to number them.…” Here the counting is a process which has no completion
in view. In Lev. 15:13 the emphasis is on a completed task: “And when [the man with the
discharge becomes cleansed]; then he shall number to himself seven days for his
cleansing, and wash his clothes, and bathe his flesh.…” Another nuance of this usage is
“to count up” or “to take a census”: “And David’s heart smote him after that he had
numbered the people” (2 Sam. 24:10). The verb is also used of assigning persons to
particular jobs: “And Solomon told out threescore and ten thousand men to bear burdens
…” (2 Chron. 2:2). Another special use appears in Ezra 1:8, where
means “to
count out according to a list” as the recipient listens: “Even those [the temple furnishings]
did Cyrus king of Persia bring forth by the hand of Mithredath the treasurer, and
numbered them unto Sheshbazzar, the prince of Judah.” In Ps. 56:8 the word signifies
“taking account of,” or being aware and concerned about each detail of: “Thou tellest my
wanderings.…” This verb can also mean “to measure,” in the sense of what one does
with grain: “And Joseph gathered corn as the sand of the sea, very much, until he left
numbering; for it was without number” (Gen. 41:49). Finally, the verb
can
represent recording something in writing, or enumerating. So, “the Lord shall count,
when he writeth up the people, that this man was born there” (Ps. 87:6).
In about 90 instances this verb appears in an intensive form. For the most part the
verb in this form means “to recount,” to orally list in detail. The one exception to this
significance is Job 38:37: “Who can number the clouds in wisdom? Or who can stay the
bottles of heaven …?” In every other instance the verb signifies a vocal statement (listing
or enumeration) of a series of given facts. In Gen. 24:66 Eliezer, Abraham’s servant,
“told Isaac all things that he had done”; he gave him a summarized but complete account
of his activities. Thus Isaac knew who Rebekah was, and why she was there, so he took
her to be his wife. In a similar but somewhat different sense Jacob “told Laban” who he
was, that he was from the same family (Gen. 29:13). In this case the word represents
something other than a report; it represents an account of Jacob’s genealogy and perhaps
of the events of his parents’ lives. This emphasis on accurate recounting is especially
prominent in Num. 13:27, where the spies report back to Moses concerning what they