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# כֹּפֶר

Biblical Hebrew

**the price of a life** — used 16 times in the Hebrew Bible. Below: its meanings with their sources, MACULA's glosses, and 2 verses word for word and in JPS 1917.

## Meaning

### OpenScriptures lexical index

the price of a life [tree →](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/tanakh/1499/lemma_3a_5db_5b9_5bc_5e4_5b6_5e8/#m1)

### Brown–Driver–Briggs 1906

כֹּפֶר: n.m. the price of life, ransom [tree →](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/tanakh/1499/lemma_3a_5db_5b9_5bc_5e4_5b6_5e8/#m2)

**The whole BDB entry:** n.m. the price of a life, a ransom (ποινή, wergeld);—כ׳ Ex 21:30 + 10 times; sf. כָּפְרְךָ Is 43:3; כָּפְרוֹ ψ 49:8;— a price for ransom of a life Jb 33:24; 36:18; כ׳ עַל Ex 21:30 (Covt. code; ‖ פִּדְיֹן נַפְשׁוֹ); כ׳ נפשׁ Pr 13:8; כ׳ לְ ransom for Pr 6:35; 21:18; Nu 35:31, 32 (P); כָּפְרוֹ his ransom ψ 49:8 (‖ פדה); כָּפְרְךָ thy ransom Is 43:3 (‖ תַּחְתֶּיךָ); כֹּ֫פֶר alone 1 S 12:3 Am 5:12. in the ritual of P כ׳ נַפְשׁוֹ Ex 30:12 is a half shekel of the sanctuary paid by each male above twenty years at the census in order that there might be no plague upon them. It was offered to Yahweh, לְכַפֵּר על to atone for them.

Why these entries: BDB: headword, part of speech agrees, 13 of its verses cited, 1 words shared with the glosses (14 candidates); OSHB: headword, part of speech agrees, 2 words shared with the BDB entry, 0 with the glosses (10 candidates)

## Glosses

MACULA's English glosses of the word in the text, with how often each is used: a ransom (5); ransom (3); (of) a ransom (1).

## In the verses

[Proverbs 21:18](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/ketuvim/PRO.21.18/) · [tree →](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/ketuvim/PRO.21.18/#tree)

כֹּ֣פֶר לַצַּדִּ֣יק רָשָׁ֑ע וְתַ֖חַת יְשָׁרִ֣ים בּוֹגֵֽד׃

*Word for word:* \[is\].a.ransom for the.righteous \[person\] a.wicked.\[person\] and in.place.of upright.\[people\] \[one.who\].acts.treacherously

*JPS 1917:* The wicked is a ransom for the righteous; and the faithless cometh in the stead of the upright.

[Proverbs 13:8](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/ketuvim/PRO.13.8/) · [tree →](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/ketuvim/PRO.13.8/#tree)

כֹּ֣פֶר נֶֽפֶשׁ־אִ֣ישׁ עָשְׁר֑וֹ וְ֝רָ֗שׁ לֹא־שָׁמַ֥ע גְּעָרָֽה׃

*Word for word:* \[the\].ransom of.\[the\].life of.a.person wealth \[is\].his and \[one.who.is\].poor not he.hears a.threat

*JPS 1917:* The ransom of a man's life are his riches; but the poor heareth no threatening.

## On Mova

- [This word in the Tanakh dictionary](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/dictionaries/tanakh/w/lemma_3a_5db_5b9_5bc_5e4_5b6_5e8.html) on Mova free.
- [Trees and pragmatics of its meanings](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/tanakh/1499/lemma_3a_5db_5b9_5bc_5e4_5b6_5e8/): every English meaning parsed by Mova, with its dependency tree and frames.

Sources. The words, their counts, glosses and the word-for-word renderings: MACULA Hebrew (the Westminster Leningrad Codex; Clear Bible, CC BY 4.0). Meanings: the OpenScriptures lexical index (CC BY 4.0), Brown–Driver–Briggs 1906 and Jastrow 1903 (public domain, via Sefaria); Targum Onkelos from Sefaria (public domain). Translation: JPS 1917 (public domain, from eBible.org).