1. Joseph (proper name) — The proper name Joseph (יוֹסֵף / יְהוֹסֵף), meaning 'he adds, he increases.' Refers primarily to the patriarch Joseph son of Jacob and Rachel (Gen 30:24ff), but also used metonymically for the tribe/territory of Joseph (the half-tribes of Ephraim and Manasseh) and for other individuals bearing this name throughout Scripture. All 213 occurrences across all four clusters share identical multilingual renderings: Arabic يُوسُف, German Josef, French Joseph, Spanish Yosef/Jose, Hindi योसेफ़, Korean 요셉. Prepositional prefixes (ל to/for) are inflectional, not semantic distinctions. 213×
AR["يُوسُفَ","يُوسُفُ"]·ben["যোষেফ","যোষেফকে","যোষেফের","যোসেফ"]·DE["Josef","Josefs"]·EN["Joseph"]·FR["Joseph"]·heb["יוסף"]·HI["योसेफ","योसेफ-का","योसेफ-ने","योसेफ-से","योसेफ़"]·ID["Yusuf"]·IT["Giuseppe"]·jav["Yusuf"]·KO["요셉과","요셉과-함께","요셉에게","요셉은","요셉을","요셉의","요셉이","요셉이라"]·PT["Yosef"]·RU["Иосиф","Иосифа","Иосифом","Иосифу","с-Иосифа"]·ES["Yosef"]·SW["Yosefa","Yosefu","Yusufu","la-Yusufu","wasujudu"]·TR["Yusuf","Yusuf'a","Yusuf'u","Yusuf'un"]·urd["یوسف","یوسف-نے","یوسف-کا","یوسف-کے"]
Senses
BDB / Lexicon Reference
יוֹסֵף212 and יְהוֹסֵף (†ψ 81:6 v. Ges§ 53, 3, R. 7). n.pr.m. (he adds, increases, v. יוספיה infr.;—on n.pr. loc. in Pal. Yšap’arḁ (Egyptian form, = יוסף אל) v. MeyZAW vi, 8 WMMAsien u. Europa 162)— 1. elder son of Jacob and Rachel; a. as an inividual Gn 30:24 (name expl. v 23 (E) from אָסַף = take away, but v 24 (J) from יָסַף add) + 155 times Gn, chiefly in narrative of JE, also poem 49:22, 26…