H6289 H6289
A disputed term possibly meaning paleness, glow, or blackness; the meaning is very uncertain
This is one of the most uncertain words in the Hebrew Bible. It appears in Joel 2:6 and Nahum 2:10 in the phrase 'all faces gather...' but what they gather is hotly debated. Traditional options include: gather blackness (grow dark with fear), gather paleness (turn pale), or gather a glow (flush with dread). Ancient versions and modern scholars disagree significantly. The root connection is unclear—possibly related to 'beauty/glory,' to a cooking pot (hence blackness), or to some other semantic field entirely.
Senses
1. sense 1 — A masculine noun of extremely uncertain meaning, occurring in contexts describing faces responding to terror. The multilingual glosses reflect interpretive divergence: 'palidez' (paleness), 'beauté' (beauty/glow). Thesaurus and Wellhausen suggested 'gather glow' (faces flush with fear); others prefer 'gather paleness' (grow pale). The phrase describes a visible facial change in response to approaching judgment, but whether darkening, paling, or flushing remains unresolved. Lexicographers acknowledge this as one of Hebrew's most difficult words. 2×
AR["شُحوبًا", "شُحُوبًا"]·ben["ফ্যাকাশেভাব", "ফ্যাকাসে"]·DE["[פארור]"]·EN["paleness"]·FR["beauté"]·heb["פארוּר", "פארור"]·HI["पीलापन", "पीलापन।"]·ID["kepucatan."]·IT["[פארור]"]·jav["pucet"]·KO["창백함-을"]·PT["palidez"]·RU["бледность"]·ES["palidez"]·SW["wekundu", "weusi"]·TR["solgunluk"]·urd["زردی"]
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
† פָּארוּר n.[m.] meaning dub.; only קִבְּצוּ פ׳ Na 2:11 Jo 2:6; Thes, all faces gather a glow (glow with dread, from assumed √ פאר), so We Now; AE Hi al. gather in (their) beauty (√ I. פאר; grow pale); Vrss AV gather blackness (from פָּרוּר a pot!), v. Dr; all very uncertain.