The hebrew used in Joshua 7:4

Question

Ok, so in Joshua 7:4 it says this: NIV - **So about three thousand went up; but they were routed by the men of Ai,** In the original Hebrew text, it is: וַיַּעֲלוּ מִן-הָעָם שָׁמָּה, **כִּשְׁלֹשֶׁת** אֲלָפִים אִישׁ; וַיָּנֻסוּ, לִפְנֵי אַנְשֵׁי הָעָי. Now, that highlighted word - Kisloset - does it mean APPROXIMATELY three (thousand)?

Answer 1

The above answers are right on... But to answer one part of the question that I feel was left unanswered. The whole phrase "about three-thousand" is made up of the word כשלושת as well as the following word in the verse "אלפים" (the Hebrew word for "thousands") So כשלושת just means "about three..."

Answer 2

Yes, when you add כ before a number, it means "about" or "approximately."

Answer 3

Hello. About the word "ki-shloshet" (כִּשְׁלֹ֥שֶׁת) in your question: As a reference, see:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kaph#Significance_of_kaph_in_Hebrew ;

The letter kaph, "as a prefix it [means] 'as' or 'like'..."

The next part of the word, "shloshet" is the word "three" (שָׁלוֹשׁ) in masculine gender (שְׁלוֹשָׁה) as a paired compound with "thousands", so it has the compound structure suffix -ת.

Thus the translation "about three thousand" in English.

Hope that is helpful. Let me know if you any other questions!