הַדָּם
had.dam
piece
Lexicon Entry
Lexicon data from STEPBible TIPNR, Tyndale House, Cambridge. Licensed under CC BY 4.0.
What Original Readers Understood
Supported# Analysis of Hebrew הַדָּם (H1917) Based on the lexical data provided, H1917 is a Hebrew noun appearing only twice in the biblical text with the meaning "piece." The rarity of this term—occurring in just two instances—limits our ability to establish a comprehensive semantic range, yet its presence in the canon warrants attention. The word's definition as "piece" suggests it functions as a partitive noun, referring to a discrete portion or segment of something larger. Without access to the specific biblical passages where it appears, we cannot determine whether it typically modifies material objects (such as cloth or bread), abstract concepts, or other categories. The dual occurrence makes it impossible to establish whether the meaning remained consistent across both usages or if contextual variations produced different applications. The minimal frequency of this term distinguishes it sharply from more common Hebrew vocabulary for division or separation. Its limited attestation suggests it may have been either archaic, specialized, or regionally bound, or perhaps simply less favored than competing terminology for expressing the concept of a portion. For biblical interpretation, such rare terms warrant careful attention to their specific contexts, as their infrequent use sometimes carries particular semantic weight or marks distinctive textual sources.
Source data & methodology
Occurrences in Scripture
2 total occurrences across the text
The king answered the Chaldeans, “The thing has gone from me. If you don’t make known to me the dream and its interpretation, you will be cut in pieces, and your houses will be made a dunghill.
Daniel 3:29Therefore I make a decree, that every people, nation, and language, which speak anything evil against the God of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, shall be cut in pieces, and their houses shall be made a dunghill; because there is no other god who is able to deliver like this.”