H3650 H3650
deep gloom, darkness
This rare plural form denotes intense darkness or deep gloom. It appears in Job 3:5, where Job curses the day of his birth and calls for darkness, shadow of death, clouds, and 'the blackness of day' to terrify it. The plural may be intensive, suggesting not ordinary darkness but the deepest possible gloom. Some scholars suggest reading it with slightly different vowels, but the meaning remains essentially the same—this is darkness at its most oppressive. The word appears in Job's most despairing speech, where he wishes the day of his birth could be erased from existence.
Senses
1. sense 1 — An intensive plural denoting the deepest darkness or gloom that could overwhelm a day. The Spanish 'amarguras' (bitterness) represents a different interpretation, possibly connecting to a root for bitterness rather than darkness, while French and German leave it untranslated, acknowledging textual difficulty. The context in Job 3 calls for every form of darkness and terror to claim the day of his birth—this term represents the culminating, most comprehensive darkness imaginable, beyond ordinary night, involving cosmic dread. 1×
AR["كَمُراراتِ"]·ben["দিনের-তিক্ততাগুলি"]·DE["[כמרירי]"]·EN["like-the-bitterness-of"]·FR["כמרירי"]·heb["כ-מרירי"]·HI["कड़वाहटों-की-तरह"]·ID["seperti-kepahitan"]·IT["like-il-bitterness-di"]·jav["kados-pait-paitipun"]·KO["같이-쓴-것들이"]·PT["como-amarguras-de"]·RU["черноты"]·ES["como-amarguras-de"]·SW["uchungu-wa"]·TR["acılıkları"]·urd["تلخیاں"]
Related Senses
H3808 1. simple negation (not) (4839×)G1722 1. locative: in, within (2442×)H1004b 1. house, dwelling, building (2015×)G3756 1. not (negation particle) (1635×)H4480a 1. source or separation (1198×)H5892b 1. city, town (1093×)G1519 1. direction: into, to, toward (1061×)H3427 1. Qal: to dwell, inhabit (937×)G1537 1. from, out of (source/origin) (886×)H8034 1. Name (designation / identifier) (856×)G3361 1. subjective negation (not) (834×)G1909 1. on, upon (spatial surface) (757×)H0369 1. existential negation: there is not (738×)H5869a 1. in the eyes/sight of (evaluative) (734×)H5650 1. Servant, attendant, subject (723×)H0408 1. prohibitive negation do-not (712×)G2443 1. so that, in order that (purpose/result) (665×)G0575 1. from (649×)G1223 1. through, by means of (582×)H3541 1. thus, so, in this manner (569×)
BDB / Lexicon Reference
† [כִּמְרִיר] n.m. darkness, gloominess(?) pl. intens. cstr. כִּמְרִירֵי יוֹם Jb 3:5 the deep gloom of day (‖ חֹשֶׁךְ, צלמות, עֲנָנָה);—read כַּמ׳, v. Di Sta§ 231.