This employment of a definite number as the approximate equivalent of an indefinite sum is found also in the following instances :—
(8) *Two’ replaces the indefinite expression ‘a few’ (Germ. ‘ein paar’=‘ einige’), Nu 93, Hos 6%, Dt 32%, 1 S 11} (cf. the Arab. ‘not two were of 8 different opinion’), 1 K 177, Mt 14” 18"; ef. the principle ‘the smallest number that can indicate plurality is two’ (A. Berliner, Beitrdge zur Heb. Gramm. aus Talmud u. Midrasch, p. 42: 027 pys Ὁ"); and it is not altogether without ground that Dathe says in Glassii Philologia Sacra, i. p. 1257, ‘duplum stat (Is 40” 617, Jer 16", Zec 913, Rev 18°) pro multo, vel eo quod plus satis est.’
(y) ‘Three’ is a still more frequent expression for a small total, ef. Gn 3038. 4010. 12 4217, Ex 23 318 58 851 10% 15% (cf. ‘the third,’ 19"), Lv 19%, Jos 1" Q16- 22,2 § 2418 1 K 125, 2 K 115 1318 (205), Is 161¢ 208, Jon 117, Est 416, Dn 15, 1 Ch 2113, Sir 25%, The origin of this use of ‘three’ is not far to seek. Observation of nature and history supplied not a few examples of objects and events made up of three main parts: e.g. root, trunk, and corona of a tree; head, trunk, and legs of a body; source, stream, and embouchure of a river; the right, the left, and the middle portion of an article; heaven, earth, and She’6l (Ex 904}} Dt 5°, Ps 139* etc.) ; morning, noon, and evening; the beginning, the middle, and the end of a process.
(6) The number ‘seven’ is not infrequently employed in an exact sense, as in the case of the seven days of the week (Gn 2?, Ex 20%), or of a wedding-feast (Jg 14°17; To 11 ὁ yduos.. . ἑπτὰ ἡμέρας), for such a feast is called ‘the week’ (Gn 2977-29) or ‘the king’s week’ (Wetzstein, Zeitschr. f. Ethnologie, vy. 287 ff.), and a γάμος ἡμερῶν δέκα τεσσάρων (To 8”) is an exception. It is not to be doubted that the exact number ‘ seven’ is meant also in the following p: es: ‘seven priests’ Jos 6*; ‘seven locks’ Jg 164* 9; 1S 108119 13%, 2S 218, 1 K 18%, Ezk 3", Zec 3%, Pr 91 (cf. 2 Ch 21"); the ‘seven princes of Persia and Media’ Est 1" (con- firmed by Justi, Gesch. des alten Persiens, p. 61). But elsewhere ‘seven’ is merely a round expression for a moderately large number: Gn 416 74 3155 33* (or are we to suppose that Jacob counted exactly the number of times he bowed ?; cf. ‘seven and seven times fell I at the feet of my lord the king’ (Tel el-Amarna letters in KIB v. 38 3948 40° 428 ete. 179°]), Ex 7%, Lv 268 (so taken also by Dillmann-Ryssel, Εα- 1, 1897, ad loc.) 3" 35, Dt 287-, Jg 167, 1S 25,2 9418. 2K 4% (‘the child sneezed until seven times’) 81, Is 41 (‘seven women shall take hold of one man’) 11° 30%, Jer 15, Ezk 39% 12, Pg 128 7912 11916, Pr 6%" (cf. v.%>, Ex 2188 291-8) 2416 9616-2 Job 218 519, Ru 44, Dn 3),
NUMBER
1Ch 21}, Sir 75 9011 [Eng. 33] 32" (-- 3512) 3719 =v.18) 405, To 35 615 7% 1915 2 Mac 7}, 4 Mac 15, Ὁ 12 187 227 Mk 16%, Lk 174, Ac 19; ‘the seventh heaven’ in Ascension of Isaiah ix. 1; ‘seven visions’ 4 Ezr 3-14; ‘seven days God spoke with Moses in the thorn-bush’ (Seder ‘olam rabba, ch. 5). This characteristic of the number ‘seven’ is shared by its half (Dn 9570 127, Lk 455, Ja 5", Rev 11? ete.) and its double (Gn 465 [2], Lv 12°, Nu 291%, 1 Καὶ 8%, To 8:9, Mt 117), for, at least in this last passage, δεκατέσσαρες is not used in its exact sense. is employment of ‘ seven’ is pretty accurately interpreted in the words of Adrianos (Εἰσαγωγὴ els τὰς θείας γραφάς (cf. Kénig’s Linleitung, 1. 520), § 85): “τὸν ἑπτὰ ἀριθμὸν ἐπὶ πλεονασμοῦ λέγει (ἡ γραφή) εἴτ᾽ οὖν ἐπὶ τελείου ἀριθμοῦ. Moreover, the origin of this usage is not difficult to discover. The regular recurrence of the seven days of the week, which again was a reflexion of the phases of the moon (cf. Philo, Leg. Allegor. i. 4: τροπαὶ σελήνης ἑβδομάσι γίνονται), impressed ‘seven’ so deeply on the human mind that one fixed upon this number almost involuntarily when one desired to indicate a sum of moderate size. The use of ‘seven’ lay all the readier to hand the more clearly this number shone forth from the ‘seven’ stars of Arcturus (Job 9° 3833 ‘with his sons’), which frequently supplied the place of the compass to the shepherd and the traveller. Further, an acquaintance with the Pleiades (72.7 Am 5%, Job 9° 38) and the planets (cf. Schrader, KAT? 18 ff.) may have favoured the use of the number ‘seven.’ But there is no ground for the words of Augustine (de Civitate Dei, xi. 31), ‘totus impar primus numerus ternarius est, totus par quaternarius ; ex quibus duobus septenarius constat. Ideo pro universo sepe ponitur.’ (ε) The number ‘seventy’ also bears not in- uently an approximate sense. The following series of ges appear to the present writer to exhibit this characteristic of ‘seventy’ upon an ascending scale : Gn 467, Ex 15, Dt 1053; Ex 241-9, Nua 116, Ezk 8", Lk 101; Ex 157, Nu 33, Jg 17 8” 9% 4. 18. 24. δ6 1915 9S 2415 2 K 101]; Ps 90! (Solon, ap. Herod. i. 32, says: és ἑβδομήκοντα ἔτεα οὖρον τῆς ζόης ἀνθρώπῳ προτίθημι), Is 23%, Jer 25" 29", Zec 12 75, Dn 93: 4%; ἑβδομήκοντα (Jth 13), and in the same way we must explain the reading ‘170 thousand’ (7?) in opposition to ‘120 thousand’ (2°) ; ‘and he slew seventy relations’ (Zinjirli, Pan. 1. 3) ; ef. the seventy days of the Egyptian mourning (Gn 50°) or their aeemar erod. ii. 86, 88). The same round character belongs to the ex- pressions ‘seventy and sevenfold’ (Gn 433), and ‘seventy times seven’ (Mt 18”); cf. ‘seven thou- sand’ (1 Καὶ 1918, Ro 114, Rev 1113, Mésha’ inser. 1. 16). (ὃ ‘Twelve’ is used in an approximate sense, when exactly ‘twelve wells of water’ are men- tioned along with ‘seventy palm trees’ (Ex 15%), This employment of ‘twelve’ might be readily enough suggested by the number of the months (1 K 47, 1 Ch 27') and the twelve stations (mazzaléth or mazzaréth) of the zodiac, 2 K 23°, Job 38" (Arab. al-mand4zilu, ‘stationes lune’). Philo remarks on the ‘twelve wells of Elim’ (Ex 15%): τέλειος δ᾽ ἀριθμὸς ὁ δώδεκα, μάρτυς δὲ ὁ ζωδιακὸς ἐν οὐρανῷ κύκλος, τοσούτοις κατηστερισμένος φωσφόροις ἄστροις. Μάρτυς καὶ ἡ ἡλίου περίοδος" μησὶ γὰρ δώδεκα τὸν ἑαυτοῦ περα- τοῖ κύκλον, ἰσαρίθμους τε τοῖς ἐνιαυτοῦ μησὶ τὰς ἡμέρας καὶ τὰς νυκτὸς ὥρας ἄγουσιν ἄνθρωποι (de Profugis, ὃ 33). Compare the twelve discharges of water (Apoc. Bar chs. 53-68: ‘aque duodecime lucidw quas vidisti,’ etc.) ; the twelve socles on the tombstone of Cyrus at Persepolis (Justi, Altpers. Gesch. p. 46) ; the ‘duodecim tabule legum’; ‘twelve men’ (Tel el-Amarna letters, é.c. 81°) ; and the modern ‘dozen.’ (n) That ‘forty’ serves as a round number may be gathered from such facts as the following: