צַלְמָוֶת
tsalmâveth · H6757 · Hebrew · 18 occurrences
Meanings
-
deep darkness
Literally: shadow of death, only found in poetry; hence: state in which there is a total absence of light, resulting in a state in which no one can readily see, and colors and shapes can no longer to distinguished; loved by the wicked only; associated with hardship, ignorance, fear, death, and oblivion
ExamplesJeremiah 2:6 “They did not say, ‘Where is the LORD Who brought us up out of the land of Egypt, Who led us through the wilderness, Through a land of deserts and of pits, Through a land of drought and of deep darkness, Through a land that no one crossed And where no person lived?’
Jeremiah 13:16 Give glory to the LORD your God Before He brings darkness And before your feet stumble On the mountains in the dark, And while you are hoping for light He makes it into gloom, And turns it into thick darkness.
Amos 5:8 He who made the Pleiades and Orion, And changes deep darkness into morning, Who also darkens day into night, Who calls for the waters of the sea And pours them out on the surface of the earth, The LORD is His name.
How it’s used In 6 roles
Every occurrence, grouped by the words it is grammatically related to.
the word studied the word it goes with
What it doesIt is the subject
1 occurrences in 1 groups
- גָּאַלto redeem, to act as kinsman-redeemer 1
What is done to itIt is the object
2 occurrences in 2 groups
- הָפַךְto turn, to change, to overturn 1
- יָצָאto go out 1
What it is said to bePredicate
2 occurrences in 2 groups
- אַיִןthere is no, not 1
- עַפְעַףeyelids 1
What is said to be itIt is the predicate
1 occurrences in 1 groups
- בֹּקֶרmorning 1
After prepositionsPrepositional phrases
3 occurrences in 3 groups
- מִןfrom 2
- בin/on/with 2
- לto/for 2
In phrases “… of it”It is the genitive
9 occurrences in 7 groups
- אֶרֶץland, earth, ground 3
- בַּלָּהָהterror 1
- גַּיְאvalley 1
- יָשַׁבto dwell, to live, to sit 1
- אֹפֶלdeep darkness 1
- אֶבֶןstone 1
When two words share a role, as in “Paul and Barnabas said”, the verse appears under each, so a section’s counts can add up to more than the number of occurrences.
MACULA Greek Linguistic Datasets, available at https://github.com/Clear-Bible/macula-greek/, licensed CC BY 4.0; MACULA Hebrew Linguistic Datasets © 2022-2024 by Biblica, Inc., CC BY 4.0. Westminster Leningrad Codex (tanach.us). OpenScriptures Hebrew Bible morphology (hb.openscriptures.org), CC BY 4.0.
Near synonyms 1 word
- חֹשֶׁךְ chôshek · H2822 · darkness
- The pairing is genuine Hebrew near-synonymy: both denote darkness/obscurity in overlapping but distinct registers (חֹשֶׁךְ (chôshek, H2822) is general darkness; צַלְמָוֶת (tsalmâveth, H6757) is intensified/poetic 'deep shadow/gloom'). They are distinct lexemes that can substitute in poetic contexts describing deep darkness.
In the other Testament 2 words
- σκιά skiá · G4639 · shade, shadow
- Greek σκιά renders Hebrew צַלְמָוֶת in LXX contexts where the Hebrew compound conveys deep darkness or mortal peril through its 'shadow of death' imagery; σκιά captures the 'shadow/darkness' semantic core though without the morphological death-component explicit in the Hebrew form.
- θάνατος thánatos · G2288 · to die, death, plague
- Greek θάνατος (death) serves as the standard rendering of Hebrew צַלְמָוֶת (shadow of death), capturing the death-semantic core while typically dropping the shadowy/darkness imagery component of the Hebrew compound metaphor.
Semantic domains 1 entry
Word family 5 words
Words formed from the same root. They share a form, not always a meaning.
Brown-Driver-Briggs Hebrew Lexicon H6757. tsalmaveth צַלְמָ֫וֶת noun [masculine] death-shadow, deep shadow, in poetry…
צַלְמָ֫וֶת noun [masculine] death-shadow, deep shadow, in poetry (probably = צֵל + ᵐ5 מָוֶת,. (usually) σκιὰ θανάτου, compare ᵑ9 ᵑ6, so Thes SchwLeben n. d. Tode, 194, see especially NöZAW xvii (1897), 183 ff.; Ew Br and most modern (after older commentaries) read צַלְמוּת darkness, deep darkness, compare Arabic IV, Assyrian [ƒalâmu], Ethiopic be black, dark); **compare darkness; WeKl. Proph. ed. 3, 81 would read feminine plural צְלָמוֺת, like Qor 2:16; 2:18; and frequently. — death-shadow, often || לַיְלָה חשֶׁךְ, etc., and opposed to אוֺר בֹּקֶר,.
1 = deep shadow, darkness (compare אֵל אַרְזֵי אֵל, הַרְרֵי): Amo 5:8; Job 3:5; Job 12:22; Job 24:17a Job 28:3; Job 34:22; of eyes heavy with weeping Job 16:16; צ ׳בַּלְהוֺתJob 24:17b terrors of the darkness.
2 figurative
a. of distress Jer 13:16; Psa 107:10; Psa 107:14; צ ׳אֶרֶץ Isa 9:1.
b. of extreme danger Jer 2:6; Psa 23:4; Psa 44:20.
3 characterizing world of the dead, וצ חשֶׁךְ ׳אֶרֶץ Job 10:21, צ אֹפֶל ׳כְּמוֺ Job 10:22 (text dubious, see Bu Du); צ ׳וְשַׁעֲרֵי Job 38:17 (ᵐ5 πυλωροὶ δὲ ᾅδου; || שַׁעֲרֵימָֿ֑וֶת).
Brown, Driver and Briggs, A Hebrew and English Lexicon of the Old Testament (1906), public domain
Topical studies with this word 1 entry
Meanings adapted from the UBS Dictionary of the Greek New Testament, © United Bible Societies, CC BY-SA 4.0 and the UBS Dictionary of Biblical Hebrew (from the Semantic Dictionary of Biblical Hebrew), © United Bible Societies, CC BY-SA 4.0; MACULA Greek Linguistic Datasets, available at https://github.com/Clear-Bible/macula-greek/, licensed CC BY 4.0; MACULA Hebrew Linguistic Datasets © 2022-2024 by Biblica, Inc., CC BY 4.0. Westminster Leningrad Codex (tanach.us). OpenScriptures Hebrew Bible morphology (hb.openscriptures.org), CC BY 4.0.
Sources
eRhema lexical overview, based on the UBS Dictionary of Biblical Hebrew and the UBS Dictionary of the Greek New Testament (© United Bible Societies, CC BY-SA 4.0) and Macula Hebrew and Greek (Clear Bible, CC BY 4.0); released under CC BY-SA 4.0
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