Hebrew Numbers and Numerals

Hebrew writes numbers two ways: with letters, the way Hebrew Bibles number chapters and verses, and with number words like שבעה (seven) inside the text itself. Here is how to read both.

Every letter is also a number

Before Arabic digits, Hebrew used its own alphabet for numbers. The first nine letters are the ones, the next nine are the tens, and the last four are the hundreds:

The five final letters (ך ם ן ף ץ) usually keep the same value as their regular forms, so ך is 20 just like כ. (Some later systems give them the values 500 to 900, but you won't need that to read Bible references.)

Building bigger numbers

Numbers are written from the largest value to the smallest, right to left, and the values are simply added together:

Reading chapter and verse references

Hebrew Bibles and commentaries number chapters and verses with letters. A reference is book, then chapter, then verse:

• תהילים כג:א = Psalm 23:1, “The LORD is my shepherd”
• בראשית יב:א = Genesis 12:1, God's call to Abram
• תהילים קיט:קה = Psalm 119:105, “Thy word is a lamp unto my feet”

Every verse in the LamediYah app shows its Hebrew reference in this form. Watch for one difference: in many psalms the Hebrew counts the title as verse 1, so the Hebrew verse number can be one higher than in English Bibles. “It is a good thing to give thanks unto the LORD” is Psalm 92:1 in English but תהילים צב:ב in Hebrew.

Geresh and gershayim

Outside of chapter-and-verse references, a mark shows that letters are being used as a number. A single letter takes a geresh (א׳ = 1), and longer numbers take gershayim before the last letter (קכ״א = 121). You'll see this on Hebrew calendar dates: the year 5787 is written תשפ״ז (400 + 300 + 80 + 7, with the thousands left off).

Number words in the Bible

Inside the text itself, Biblical Hebrew spells numbers out as words. From three to ten there is a famous twist: the form ending in ה goes with masculine nouns, and the shorter form goes with feminine ones, the opposite of what you might expect.

These are the Biblical spellings. Modern Hebrew often adds a ו, writing שלושה and שמונה.

Tens, hundreds and a thousand

Most tens are just the plural of the ones: שלש (three) becomes שלשים (thirty). Twenty is the exception, the plural of עשר (ten).

Numbers you already know

• יום אחד “one day” (Genesis 1:5)
• ארבעים יום וארבעים לילה “forty days and forty nights” (Genesis 7:4)
• שבטי ישראל שנים עשר “the twelve tribes of Israel” (Genesis 49:28)
• עשרת הדברים “the ten commandments,” literally “the ten words” (Deuteronomy 4:13)

Typing numbers in Hebrew

Digits are the easy part: on a Hebrew keyboard the number keys type the same 0 to 9 as in English, and they read left to right even inside a right-to-left line. To type a Hebrew numeral, you type its letters. For the geresh, most people use an ordinary apostrophe, which on the Hebrew layout sits on the W key, and a double quote mark for gershayim.