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Biblical names

The animals of the Tanakh — 162 words, every animal the twenty-four books name, from the donkey of Bereshit 12 to the legendary creatures of Iyov and the Psalms. Each was enumerated from our own lexicon layer and read against the corpus: the count on a row is the count its door opens, the first appearance is the word's own, and where the tradition discusses what a word names, the row says so instead of inventing certainty.

A spelling is not a word: rachel the ewe and Rachel the matriarch share their letters, and only the ewe is counted here — the rows count the word's own lexicon entry, and where one entry bundles a creature with something else, the row counts the creature's verses alone and its note tells you.

27 of 162 words — of the offering species, across every group

Where the Torah names a kind, it rules the name: the kinds Devarim permits and the birds Vayikra prohibits are ruled by name, certain even where what the name names is discussed. The rest are ruled the way the Torah rules them — beasts by the signs of Vayikra 11, birds by that enumeration and by the tradition a bird has to carry, since the Torah gave signs for beasts and none for birds. Where the tradition itself discusses a status the row says so, and the legendary and collective rows carry no ruling at all. The offering mark stands on the korban species — the herd, the flock, the turtledove and the dove.

Land animals

23 words — the beasts of field, flock and wilderness — every four-footed creature the books name

Land animalעֲגָלָהHeifer
Gematria108

×14 in Tanakh Kosher Offering species First appearance:

The eglah — the heifer of the broken-necked atonement of Devarim 21, of Avraham's covenant between the pieces. The same letters also write agalah, a wagon; that is a different word with its own entry, not counted here.

See all 14 places it stands →
Land animalאַיִלRam
Gematria41

×184 in Tanakh Kosher Offering species First appearance:

The ayil — the ram caught in the thicket at the Akeidah, the ram of ordination, of the guilt offering. The lexicon carries chiefs, doorposts and mighty trees under the same entry, and those places are counted in this number; the ram is most of them. The same letters, under another entry, are the stag.

See all 184 places it stands →
Land animalעֹזGoat
Gematria77

×75 in Tanakh Kosher Offering species First appearance:

The ez, the she-goat — Rivkah's two kids, the goat-hair of the Mishkan's curtains. The Aramaic spelling of Ezra's offerings is counted with this row.

See all 75 places it stands →
Land animalכִּבְשָׂהEwe lamb
Gematria327

×8 in Tanakh Kosher Offering species First appearance:

The kivsah — the seven ewe lambs of Avraham's oath at Be'er Sheva, and the one little ewe lamb of Natan's parable to David.

See all 8 places it stands →
Land animalשֶׂהOne of the flock (seh)
Gematria305

×47 in Tanakh Kosher Offering species First appearance:

The seh — a head of the flock, sheep or goat alike: the Pesach lamb is a seh, and Yeshayahu's figure is led like one to the slaughter. Where is the seh for the offering, Yitzchak asks.

See all 47 places it stands →
Land animalגֶּֽדִיKid
Gematria17

×16 in Tanakh Kosher Offering species First appearance:

The gedi — the kid of Rivkah's dish and of Yehudah's pledge, and of the thrice-written 'you shall not boil a kid in its mother's milk.'

See all 16 places it stands →
Land animalשְׂעִירHe-goat (sa'ir)
Gematria580

×59 in Tanakh Kosher Offering species First appearance:

The sa'ir, the shaggy he-goat — the sin-offering goat, the two goats of Yom Kippur, the kid whose blood stained Yosef's coat. In Yeshayahu's desolations the same word is the se'irim that dance among the ruins, whose sense the tradition discusses; and the same letters write Se'ir the land, a separate entry not counted here.

See all 59 places it stands →
Land animalכֶשֶׂבSheep (kesev)
Gematria322

×14 in Tanakh Kosher Offering species First appearance:

The kesev — the Torah's own transposed spelling of keves, standing in Vayikra beside it; its feminine kisbah is counted with this row. A genuinely distinct written form, so it stands as its own row.

See all 14 places it stands →
Land animalתָיִשׁHe-goat (tayish)
Gematria710

×4 in Tanakh Kosher Offering species First appearance:

The tayish — the he-goats of Yaakov's gift to Esav, of Mishlei's stately walkers.

See all 4 places it stands →
Land animalעתודHe-goat (attud)
Gematria480

×29 in Tanakh Kosher Offering species First appearance:

The attud — the he-goats of the flock, and in the prophets a standing figure for the leaders of the people; both senses are this one word and both are counted.

See all 29 places it stands →
Land animalכֹּרFattened lamb
Gematria220

×16 in Tanakh Kosher Offering species First appearance:

The kar, the pasture-fattened lamb — the tribute Moav sent, the fat ones of Bashan. The lexicon bundles meadows, saddle-cushions and the battering-ram under the same entry, and those places are in this number; the row says so rather than pretending otherwise.

See all 16 places it stands →
Land animalרָחֵלEwe
Gematria238

×4 in Tanakh Kosher Offering species First appearance:

The rachel, the mother ewe — silent before her shearers in Yeshayahu 53. Rachel the matriarch bears this word as her name; she is her own lexicon entry, counted on the names lists, not here.

See all 4 places it stands →
Land animalשׁוֹרOx
Gematria506

×79 in Tanakh Kosher Offering species First appearance:

The shor — the ox of the ox and the donkey, of the goring ox of Mishpatim, firstborn of Yosef's blessing. One beast, counted head by head; the herd as a whole is bakar, among the collective terms.

See all 79 places it stands →
Land animalפַּרBull
Gematria280

×133 in Tanakh Kosher Offering species First appearance:

The par, the young bull of the altar — the offering of the anointed kohen, of the congregation, of the day of atonement.

See all 133 places it stands →
Land animalפָרָהCow
Gematria285

×26 in Tanakh Kosher Offering species First appearance:

The parah — Pharaoh's seven cows of the dream, the red cow of Chukat whose ashes purify, and the nursing cows that carried the Ark home.

See all 26 places it stands →
Land animalכֶּֽבֶשׂLamb
Gematria322

×107 in Tanakh Kosher Offering species First appearance:

The keves — the lamb of the daily offering, morning and evening, and of Pesach. The most-offered animal in the Torah.

See all 107 places it stands →
Land animalעֵגֶלCalf
Gematria103

×35 in Tanakh Kosher Offering species First appearance:

The egel — the calf of the golden calf, and of Yeravam's two at Beit-El and Dan; also simply the young of the herd, frisking in the prophets' figures.

See all 35 places it stands →
Land animalשֵׂעִֽירָהShe-goat (se'irah)
Gematria585

×2 in Tanakh Kosher Offering species First appearance:

The se'irat izim, the female goat of the individual's sin offering in Vayikra 4.

See all 2 places it stands →
Land animalטְלֵהSuckling lamb
Gematria44

×3 in Tanakh Kosher Offering species First appearance:

The taleh — the nursing lamb Shmuel offered at Mitzpah, the lambs gathered in the shepherd's arm in Yeshayahu 40:11, the lamb grazing with the wolf in Yeshayahu 65.

See all 3 places it stands →
Land animalגדיהFemale kid
Gematria22

×1 in Tanakh Kosher Offering species First appearance:

The gediyah — once, in Shir HaShirim 1:8: 'graze your kids by the shepherds' dwellings.'

See the one place it stands →
Land animalתורBullock (Aramaic)
Gematria606

×7 in Tanakh Kosher Offering species First appearance:

The tor — the bullock of the Aramaic chapters, offered in Ezra and eaten as grass-fare by Nevuchadnetzar in Daniel. The same letters in the Hebrew chapters are the turtledove, which has its own row among the birds.

See all 7 places it stands →
Land animalצְפִירHe-goat (tzafir)
Gematria380

×7 in Tanakh Kosher Offering species First appearance:

The tzafir — the he-goat of Daniel 8's vision that comes from the west, and of the offerings in Ezra and Divrei HaYamim; the Aramaic spelling is counted with this row.

See all 7 places it stands →
Land animalאָמַרLamb (Aramaic)
Gematria241

×3 in Tanakh Kosher Offering species First appearance:

The immar — the lamb of the Aramaic chapters of Ezra, counted for the offerings of the returned exiles. The bare letters are everywhere else the Hebrew verb 'said'; that is a different word entirely.

See all 3 places it stands →

Birds & winged creatures

2 words — the birds of the sky, the twenty of the kosher lists among them, and the winged things the Torah counts with them

BirdיוֹנָהDove
Gematria71

×33 in Tanakh Kosher Offering species First appearance:

The yonah — Noach's messenger with the olive leaf, the offering of the poor, the beloved's eyes in Shir HaShirim. Yonah the prophet bears the word as his name; he is his own entry, on the names lists.

See all 33 places it stands →
BirdתורTurtledove
Gematria606

×14 in Tanakh Kosher Offering species First appearance:

The tor — paired with the young dove in the offerings from Avraham's covenant onward; its voice is heard in the land in Shir HaShirim. The same letters in the Aramaic chapters are the bullock, counted on its own row.

See all 14 places it stands →

Collective terms

2 words — the words that name animals as kinds — beast, flock, herd, fowl, swarm — counted here so no reader finds them missing

Collective termצֹאןFlock (tzon)
Gematria141

×276 in Tanakh Offering species First appearance:

The tzon — sheep and goats together, the flock of the shepherds from Hevel onward, and the standing figure for Israel: 'and you, My flock.' The rarer spelling tzoneh of the Psalms is counted with this row.

See all 276 places it stands →
Collective termבָּקָרHerd (bakar)
Gematria302

×183 in Tanakh Offering species First appearance:

The bakar — the ox-kind as a herd, always beside the tzon in the count of wealth and offerings. The same letters write boker, morning, under a different entry; only the herd is counted here.

See all 183 places it stands →

Where these come from. The candidates were enumerated from the Hebrew lexicon our index carries — every entry whose definition names an animal sense — then each was verified against the corpus itself: its spelling, its count, its first stand. The gematria is computed by the same engine that runs every search, and the count on each row is the number of verses its door opens — the same walk, counted once. Deliberately absent: words that are only ever epithets (the אבירים of the Psalms), the scapegoat's destination עזאזל (the goat itself is the שעיר), and Yeshayahu 2:20's moles, which the ketiv writes across two words and are left to their verse.