רִבֵּעַ
rib.be.a
fourth
Lexicon Entry
Lexicon data from STEPBible TIPNR, Tyndale House, Cambridge. Licensed under CC BY 4.0.
What Original Readers Understood
Supported# The Hebrew Word רִבֵּעַ (ribbeaʿ): "Fourth" The Hebrew word רִבֵּעַ functions as an ordinal numeral, designating the fourth position in a sequence. With only four documented occurrences in the biblical text, this word represents a specialized numerical term used when authors needed to identify or rank items, events, or periods specifically as the fourth in order. The limited frequency of this word's appearance suggests it was employed in contexts where the fourth element held particular significance—whether marking the fourth day, the fourth generation, the fourth offering, or another enumerated series. Rather than being a common counting word, its sparse distribution indicates it served functional, specific purposes in biblical narrative and instruction where precision about sequential placement mattered for the text's meaning or legal requirements.
Source data & methodology
Occurrences in Scripture
4 total occurrences across the text
you shall not bow yourself down to them, nor serve them, for I, Yahweh your God, am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children, on the third and on the fourth generation of those who hate me,
Exodus 34:7keeping loving kindness for thousands, forgiving iniquity and disobedience and sin; and who will by no means clear the guilty, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children, and on the children’s children, on the third and on the fourth generation.”
Numbers 14:18‘Yahweh is slow to anger, and abundant in loving kindness, forgiving iniquity and disobedience; and he will by no means clear the guilty, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children, on the third and on the fourth generation.’
Deuteronomy 5:9You shall not bow yourself down to them, nor serve them; for I, Yahweh your God, am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children and on the third and on the fourth generation of those who hate me;