to diminish
ma.at describes making an allotted amount smaller or becoming few in number or extent.
The verb most often marks reducing what is given, allotted, gathered, or possessed; it also describes persons, livestock, resources, or a number becoming few or diminished. The supplied forms occur both in instructions that set a smaller share and in statements or petitions concerning decline.
Senses in use
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Reduce an amount, share, or possession · dominant
Hiphil forms occur in directions that assign a lesser amount: in Numbers 26:54 the APB renders the instruction to reduce an inheritance for the few, and in Numbers 35:8 it similarly sets cities given in proportion to inheritance. The same form is used for a smaller contribution in Exodus 30:15 and for limiting the number of vessels in 2 Kings 4:3.
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Become or be made few · common
Qal forms describe a number or group declining: Isaiah 21:17 concerns the remaining number of Kedar's warriors, while Psalm 107:39 says people were diminished and brought low. In Jeremiah 29:6 the jussive stands opposite multiplying, and Ecclesiastes 12:3 places the form in the clause about grinders being few.
In the Anselm Project Bible: Across the cited clauses, the APB uses expressions such as “diminish,” “less,” “few,” and “decrease.” Because the APB is a whole-verse translation, these renderings confirm the clauses' contrast between greater and lesser quantity without fixing a separate English equivalent in every occurrence.