Senses
1. darkness, gloom — Poetic noun denoting deep darkness or gloom, used exclusively in elevated literary contexts. Encompasses thick, impenetrable darkness associated with cosmic or existential dread. Attested in Job 3:6 (darkness seizing a night), Job 10:22 (land of darkness paired with deep shadow), Job 23:17, Job 28:3, Job 30:26, Ps 11:2 (shooting in darkness), Ps 91:6 (pestilence in darkness, opposed to צָהֳרַיִם 'noon'), Isa 29:18 (eyes seeing out of gloom). All multilingual glosses converge on darkness: arb العتمة/ظلمة, deu Dunkel/Finsternis, fra obscurité, hin अंधेरा/अंधकार, kor 칠흙/어둠, spa tiniebla/oscuridad. All auto-split clusters represent the same single lexical meaning with different prepositional or conjunctive prefixes (bare, ב, מ, ו). 9×
AR["الدُّجى","العَتمَةِ","العَتَمَةُ","ظَلامٌ","ظُلْمَةِ","فِي-الظَّلَامِ","وَ-مِنَ-الظُّلْمَةِ"]·ben["অন্ধকার","অন্ধকারে","আর-এসেছে","ও-অন্ধকার-থেকে","ঘন-অন্ধকার","ঘন-অন্ধকারের","সেই-অন্ধকারে"]·DE["Dunkel","Finsternis","[ומאפל]","in-der-Finsternis"]·EN["and-out-of-gloom","darkness","gloom","in-the-darkness","thick-darkness"]·FR["[ומאפל]","dans-obscurité","obscurité"]·heb["אופל","ב-אופל","ו-מ-אופל"]·HI["अंधकार","अंधकार-में","अंधेरा","अंधेरे","और-से-अंधेरे","घोर-अंधकार","घोर-अंधकार-का"]·ID["dalam-kegelapan","dan-dari-kegelapan","kegelapan","kegelapan-pekat"]·IT["[ומאפל]","oscurita'","oscurità"]·jav["ing-pepeteng","lan-saking-peteng","pepeteng","peteng"]·KO["그리고-에서-어둠과","어둠","어둠-속-에서","어둠이","칠흙","칠흙의","칠흙이","침침함이"]·PT["de-escuridão","e-de-escuridão","escuridão","escuridão.","que-anda-na","trevas"]·RU["во-тьме","и-из-мрака","мрак","мрака","тьма","тьме"]·ES["en-oscuridad","las-tinieblas.","oscuridad","tiniebla","tiniebla,","tiniebla.","y-de-oscuridad"]·SW["giza","giza-nene","giza-totoro","katika-giza","la-giza","na-kutoka-giza","weusi"]·TR["karanlık","karanlıkta","ve-karanliktan","zifir","zifiri-karanlık","zıfiri-karanlık"]·urd["اندھیرا","اندھیرے","اندھیرے-میں","اندھیرے-کا","اور-اندھیرے-سے","تاریکی"]
BDB / Lexicon Reference
† אֹ֫פֶל n.m. Jb 3:6 darkness, gloom (only poet.)—א׳ always abs.— 1. darkness, of night ψ 91:6 (opp. צָֽהֳרָֽיִם); deep in the earth, אֶבֶן א׳ Jb 28:3 (‖ חֹשֶׁךְ, צַלְמָוֶת); darkness, gloom of underworld Jb 10:22(×2) (‖ אֶרֶץ חֹשֶׁךְ, א׳ עֵיפָפָה, צַלְמָוֶת); personif. Jb 3:6 that night—let darkness take it יִקָּחֵהוּ א׳; fig. of spiritual darkness Is 29:18 (‖ חֹשֶׁךְ); of secrecy, treachery ψ 11:2. 2. especially fig. of calamity Jb 23:17 (‖ חשׁך q.v.), 30:26 (opp. אוֹר).