quantity
eleven
אחד עשר · אחת עשרה · עשתי עשר · עשתי עשרה
Bottom line
Both mean eleven, and both stand in the opening pesukim of Devarim: "eleven (achad asar) days from Chorev... in the eleventh (ashtei asar) month" (Devarim 1:2-3). Render achad asar eleven and ashtei asar eleventh where the context allows, because the working distinction is that achad asar is eleven as a number of its own and ashtei asar is eleven as an outgrowth of ten. The tell that settles most cases: ashtei asar never takes the definite article, and every other number does.
At a glance
| Hebrew | translit | English | what sets it apart |
|---|---|---|---|
| אחד עשר | achad asar | eleven | an independent number; takes ha- (Rabbi Meir Mintzberg) |
| עשתי עשר | ashtei asar | eleventh | eleven as a swelling of ten; never takes ha- (Rabbi Meir Mintzberg) |
| עשתי | ashtei | the disputed element | "upon twelve" (Ibn Janach), "born of ten" (Ibn Ezra), "bloated" (Mintzberg), or unknown (Radak) |
Counting the feminine forms there are four words: achad asar and achat esreh, ashtei asar and ashtei esreh. Ashtei asar and ashtei esreh appear nineteen times in Tanach, achad asar and achat esreh thirteen.
Where the authorities disagree
What ashtei means.
- Upon twelve. Rabbi Yonah Ibn Janach: ashtei asar contracts al, "upon," with shteim asar, twelve, eleven being the number that sits just under twelve and so is reckoned from it.
- Born of ten. Ibn Ezra disagrees on two counts. First on sense: au contraire, twelve is "on top" of eleven and not the reverse. Second on form: on Ibn Janach's account the masculine should be ashnei asar, since the masculine twelve is shnei asar/shneim asar and not shteim esreh, yet there is no such term, only ashtei asar and ashtei esreh, which the column says casts a shadow of doubt over the proposal. Ibn Ezra's own reading takes ashtei as a cognate of ashtanosav, "his plans" (Tehillim 146:4): just as plans are born out of one's thoughts, eleven is born out of ten, so ashtei asar literally means that which is born out of ten. He admits that a great secret lies behind the connection of ten to eleven, and does not elaborate.
- A bloated ten. Rabbi Meir Mintzberg: eshes denotes an overly distended body (Rashi to Shir HaShirim 5:14 and Yirmiyahu 5:28; Yoma 34b; Menachos 28a), so ashtei asar is a swollen ten.
- Unknown. Radak rejects both Ibn Janach and Ibn Ezra and concludes that the derivation is beyond us.
The Bottom line does not rest on any of these, since all four agree on the number. It does note that Ibn Janach ties eleven to twelve and Ibn Ezra ties it to ten, which the column says may have interesting implications for Jewish numerology, and which matters for a derashah on the number and not for a translation. Mintzberg's reading has the advantage of explaining the grammar, and the Bottom line follows him and the Rokeach on usage.
When each form is used. Peirush HaRokeach, in what the column calls a somewhat cryptic explanation: where eleven is invoked with all the numbers before it included, the text says achad asar; where only the eleventh member of a set is meant and the rest are disregarded, it says ashtei asar. The column is not quite sure what he means, but suggests that perhaps he is drawing the distinction between the ordinal eleventh (ashtei asar) and the numeral eleven (achad asar), on the model of rishon against echad and revi'i against arba.
In support of that suggestion the column notes that archaeologists found the word ashtei meaning "first" in Ugaritic, in a funerary inscription concerning Niqmaddu, king of Ugarit; linguists hold Ugaritic and Hebrew to be somewhat similar languages, both Semitic, so the parallel is not irrelevant. Nevertheless, the column concedes that if one tries to apply this approach to every case in Tanach, it simply does not pan out.
Rabbi Meir Mintzberg reaches the same place from the grammar: ashtei asar never carries the definite article ha-, though every other number does, achad asar and achat esreh among them, because on his reading it names no number with standing of its own, only ten carried one further. The column adds that this might actually be what the Rokeach intended by an independent against a dependent eleven.
Distinctions
achad asar (אחד עשר) / achat esreh (אחת עשרה)
Literally "one ten," built transparently from echad. Eleven counted as a number: eleven days from Chorev (Devarim 1:2), where the days before it are counted too. Takes the definite article normally.
ashtei asar (עשתי עשר) / ashtei esreh (עשתי עשרה)
The opaque form, and the more common one in Tanach. Used of the eleventh month (Devarim 1:3), the eleventh in a series where the others are not in view. Never prefixed with ha-.
Rendering guidance
- Default: אחד עשר = "eleven," עשתי עשר = "eleventh," and check the context before overriding, since the correlation is strong but the article concedes it does not hold everywhere.
- Trap: English "eleven" will absorb both, and in Devarim 1:2-3 that is exactly the loss, since the two forms stand two pesukim apart and the shift is the only signal the text gives. Render the first "eleven days" and the second "the eleventh month," and the Hebrew's own distinction comes through in English without a note.
- Where a derashah turns on ashtei, do not translate the element at all; give the Hebrew and the reading being used, since Ibn Janach's "upon twelve" and Ibn Ezra's "born of ten" point in opposite directions and the choice is the derashah.
- In a list of ordinals, keep ashtei asar in the ordinal series ("the tenth, the eleventh, the twelfth") rather than letting it fall back to a cardinal.
Sources
Rabbi Reuven Chaim Klein, "The Number Eleven," What's in a Word?, Ohr Somayach, 9 Av 5778 (2018-07-21): https://articles.ohr.edu/articles/the-number-eleven; raw text in sources/whats-in-a-word/raw/7864-the-number-eleven.md. Primary loci cited: Devarim 1:1-3; Tehillim 146:4; Shir HaShirim 5:14 with Rashi; Yirmiyahu 5:28 with Rashi; Yoma 34b; Menachos 28a; Ibn Janach, Ibn Ezra, and Radak on ashtei asar; Peirush HaRokeach. The Ugaritic parallel from the Niqmaddu inscription is reported here as the article reports it, together with the article's own concession that it does not account for every pasuk.