correction – today’s title is…
Today’s title with content should have been what’s below.
Now you know what tomorrow’s dose will be.
מָאתַיִם, אַלְפַּיִם
Yesterday we saw the Hebrew terms for three hundred and three thousand – שְׁלֹשׁ מְאוֹת and שְׁלֹשֶׁת אֲלָפִים , respectively.
and שְׁלֹשֶׁת אֲלָפִים , respectively.Higher multiples of those numbers follow a pattern:
אַרְבַּע מְאוֹת, אַרְבַּעַת אֲלָפִים – 400, 4000
חֲמֵשׁ מְאוֹת, חֲמֵשֶׁת אֲלָפִים – 500, 5000
and so on.
Going down to the multiple of two, however, we find a different phenomenon – a doubling of the word itself with an ah-yeem ending.
Thus two hundred is מָאתַיִם , and two thousand is אַלְפַּיִם .
, and two thousand is אַלְפַּיִם .For example:
לֹא שָׁמַעְתִּי אֵיזֶה סְכוּם אָמַרְתָּ – מָאתַיִם אוֹ אַלְפַּיִם שְׁקָלִים?
I didn’t hear what amount you (a male) said – two hundred or two thousand shekels?
These words can describe both masculine and feminine nouns. For example:
בָּאוּלָם יוֹשְׁבִים מָאתַיִם גְּבָרִים וּמָאתַיִם נָשִׁים.
In the hall, two hundred men and two hundred women are seated.
The ah-yeem ending appears on many other words that come in pairs, such as עֵינַיִם – eyes, and מַגָּפַיִם – boots.
– eyes, and מַגָּפַיִם – boots.