מִפְרָשׂ

# מִפְרָשׂ (Miph.ras): A Rare Hebrew Term for Spreading The Hebrew word מִפְרָשׂ appears only twice in the biblical text, making it one of scripture's rarer vocabulary items. Its basic meaning is "spreading"—referring to the act or state of something being spread out or extended. The word's limited occurrence suggests it describes a specific concept or physical action that the biblical authors needed to express, but one that did not require frequent repetition across different texts. Because this term appears in just two instances, its full semantic range is somewhat constrained. The scarcity of usage data means we cannot determine with certainty all the contexts in which ancient Hebrew speakers might have employed it, or whether it carried specialized theological significance. What we can establish is that it functioned as a concrete descriptive word related to spatial extension or expansion—the basic action of spreading something outward. For readers approaching the Hebrew Bible, מִפְרָשׂ exemplifies how many Old Testament words are known to us through extremely limited textual evidence. This rarity makes determining precise meaning and nuance challenging, and highlights the importance of examining the immediate literary contexts of both occurrences to understand how the biblical authors deployed this particular term.