H1331 — בְּתוּלִים (bᵉthûwlîym)¶

Core Data¶

Strong's: H1331
Original: בְּתוּלִים
Transliteration: bᵉthûwlîym
Pronunciation: beth-oo-leem'
Part of Speech: Feminine noun (plural; abstract/collective)
Root: Masculine plural of the same root underlying H1330 (בְּתוּלָה, bᵉthûwlâh — "virgin")
Occurrences: 10 tokens in 9 verses
First Occurrence: Lev 21:13 — "And he shall take a wife in her virginity."
Hapax Legomenon: No

Lexicon Definition¶

Masculine plural of the same as [H1330]; (collectively and abstractly) virginity; by implication and concretely, the tokens of it: — maid, virginity.

The plural form is morphologically intensive/abstract (like nᵉʻûrîm "youth" from naʻar): it names the state of virginity, and by metonymy the physical evidences of that state (the bloodied garment of Deut 22:15-17).

Translation Distribution (KJV)¶

Translation	Verses	%
virginity (various forms)	7	78%
a maid	2	22%

All renderings fall within a single semantic field: the condition of sexual inexperience or the tangible proof thereof.

Distribution by Book¶

Book	Count	Per 100 Verses
Deuteronomy	4	0.4
Judges	2	0.3
Ezekiel	2	0.2
Leviticus	1	0.1

Concentrated in Deut 22 (four of nine occurrences, the legal case on a defamed bride) and in Ezek 23 (a prophetic oracle using sexual imagery). Absent from the Pentateuch outside Lev 21 and Deut 22, and from all Wisdom and later Prophetic books except Ezekiel.

Semantic Categories¶

1. Abstract state of virginity (a woman's unmarried, sexually inexperienced condition)¶

Lev 21:13 — "And he shall take a wife in her virginity." (priestly marriage qualification)
Ezek 23:3 — "there were their breasts pressed, and there they bruised the teats of their virginity."
Ezek 23:8 — "in her youth they lay with her, and they bruised the breasts of her virginity."

2. Tokens / physical evidence of virginity (bloodied cloth after consummation)¶

Deut 22:15 — "the father... and her mother, take and bring forth the tokens of the damsel's virginity unto the elders."
Deut 22:17 — "These are the tokens of my daughter's virginity. And they shall spread the cloth before the elders of the city."
Deut 22:20 — "But if this thing be true, and the tokens of virginity be not found for the damsel."

3. "A maid" — the person characterized by this state (metonymy)¶

Deut 22:14 — "I took this woman, and when I came to her, I found her not a maid."
Deut 22:17 — "I found not thy daughter a maid."

4. Personal / lamented virginity (the state mourned when life is cut short before marriage)¶

Judges 11:37 — "let me alone two months, that I may go up and down upon the mountains, and bewail my virginity."
Judges 11:38 — "and bewailed her virginity upon the mountains."

Common Collocations¶

Word	Strong's	Co-occurrences	Typical Pattern
אָמַר ('âmar — to say)	H559	4x (44%)	Speech framing the legal/narrative accusation or vow
דָּבָר (dâbâr — word/thing)	H1697	4x (44%)	"this thing / matter" of the legal dispute (Deut 22)
לֹא (lôʼ — not)	H3808	4x (44%)	Negation: "not found a maid," "not be found"
לָקַח (lâqach — take)	H3947	3x (33%)	"take a wife in her virginity" (Lev 21), "I took this woman"
מָצָא (mâtsâʼ — find)	H4672	3x (33%)	"I found her not a maid," "tokens be not found" — forensic finding
אָב ('âb — father)	H1	2x (22%)	Father brings forth the tokens / hears the vow
אִשָּׁה ('ishshâh — woman/wife)	H802	2x (22%)	"I took this woman" — marital context
בָּכָה (bâkâh — weep)	H1058	2x (22%)	Jephthah's daughter "bewailing" her virginity
דַּד (dad — breast)	H1717	2x (22%)	Ezek 23 — breasts "of her virginity"
הַר (har — mountain)	H2022	2x (22%)	Judg 11 — mourning "upon the mountains"
חֹדֶשׁ (chôdesh — month)	H2320	2x (22%)	"two months" of mourning
נָעוּר (nâʻûwr — youth)	H5271	2x (22%)	Ezek 23 — "in her youth" parallel to bᵉthûwlîym
נַעֲרָה (naʻărâh — damsel)	H5291	2x (22%)	Deut 22 — "the damsel's virginity"
מִצְרַיִם (Mitsrayim — Egypt)	H4714	2x (22%)	Ezek 23 — virginity lost "in Egypt"

Typical syntactic frame: construct noun phrase — bᵉthûwlê + suffix ("her / my / their virginity"), or ʼôth hab-bᵉthûwlîym ("tokens of the virginity").

Word Family / Cognates¶

H1330 בְּתוּלָה (bᵉthûwlâh) — the concrete counterpart: "a virgin, a maid." 50 OT uses. H1331 is the abstract state; H1330 is the person.

Synonyms¶

No synonyms returned by search_relationships.py for H1331.

Antonyms¶

No antonyms returned by search_relationships.py for H1331.

Easily Confused Words¶

Word	Strong's	Shared Translation	Key Difference
בְּתוּלָה (bᵉthûwlâh)	H1330	"a maid" / virgin	H1330 names the woman (count noun); H1331 names her state or physical tokens (abstract plural). Deut 22 uses both side by side.
נַעֲרָה (naʻărâh)	H5291	"damsel" / young woman	H5291 = young woman of marriageable age (social stage); H1331 = her sexual status
עַלְמָה (ʻalmâh)	H5959	young woman / maid	H5959 emphasizes nubile youth (Isa 7:14); H1331 focuses on untouched state
נְעוּרִים (nᵉʻûrîm)	H5271	"youth" / early life	H5271 = years of youth (parallels H1331 in Ezek 23); H1331 specifies sexual inviolacy within that period
παρθενία (parthenía)	G3932	"virginity" (NT/LXX)	Greek counterpart; appears once in NT (Luke 2:36) describing Anna's pre-widowhood years

Semantic Domains¶

UBS / Relationship Domains¶

[001002007] People — search_relationships.py places bᵉthûwlîym in the people/personhood field, fitting the way the abstract noun remains anchored to the status of a particular young woman.
[002004002007] Know — the same tool also groups it in the "Know" domain, which fits Deut 22's forensic "found / not found" virginity language and the state that is publicly recognized or contested.

LXX Mapping¶

The Hebrew-Greek alignment data below (PMI-ranked) reflects the Greek verse-level vocabulary in the verses where H1331 occurs — not a direct lexical equivalent. The standard LXX lexeme for H1331 is παρθενία (parthenía, G3932) and, in Deut 22, παρθένια (neuter plural, the "tokens of virginity").

Greek (verse co-occurrence)	Strong's	Co-occ	Notes
εὑρίσκω (heuriskō)	G2147	3	"found / not found" — from the Deut 22 forensic scenes
λόγος (logos)	G3056	3	Renders דָּבָר in the "this matter / speech against her" frame
λαμβάνω (lambanō)	G2983	3	Renders לָקַח — "take a wife in her virginity"

Direct lexical equivalent (from standard LXX readings not captured by the PMI table): - παρθενία / παρθένια (G3932) — "virginity" / "tokens of virginity," the normal LXX rendering in Lev 21:13; Deut 22:14-20; Judg 11:37-38; Ezek 23:3, 8.