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# אֲפֵלָה

Biblical Hebrew · Strong's H653

**darkness** — used 10 times in the Hebrew Bible. Below: its meanings with their sources, MACULA's glosses, and 2 verses word for word and in JPS 1917.

## Meaning

### OpenScriptures lexical index

darkness [tree →](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/tanakh/1488/653/#m1)

### Brown–Driver–Briggs 1906

אֲפֵלָה: n.f. darkness, gloominess, calamity [tree →](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/tanakh/1488/653/#m2)

**The whole BDB entry:** n.f. darkness, gloominess, calamity—א׳ Ex 10:22 +; אֲפֵלָתְךָ Is 58:10; pl. אֲפֵלוֹת Is 59:9— darkness Dt 28:29 Pr 7:9 (‖ אִישׁוֹן לַיְלָה); of supernatural darkness in Egypt Ex 10:22; of day of י׳ (cf. Am 5:20 sub אָפֵל) Jo 2:2 Zp 1:15 (both ‖ חשׁך, ענן, ערפל) sim. of wickedness Je 23:12 Pr 4:19. fig. of calamity Is 8:22 (‖ חֲשֵׁכָה), 58:10 (‖ חשׁך, opp. צהרים), 59:9 (‖ id., opp. נגהות).

Why these entries: BDB: headword, part of speech agrees, 10 of its verses cited, 1 words shared with the glosses, lists its Strong's number (1 candidates); OSHB: headword, part of speech agrees, 1 words shared with the BDB entry, 1 with the glosses (1 candidates)

## Glosses

MACULA's English glosses of the word in the text, with how often each is used: darkness (5); gloom (3); gloom(s) (1).

## In the verses

[Proverbs 4:19](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/ketuvim/PRO.4.19/) · [tree →](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/ketuvim/PRO.4.19/#tree)

דֶּ֣רֶךְ רְ֭שָׁעִים כָּֽאֲפֵלָ֑ה לֹ֥א יָ֝דְע֗וּ בַּמֶּ֥ה יִכָּשֵֽׁלוּ׃פ

*Word for word:* \[the\].way of.wicked.\[people\] \[is\].like (the) darkness not they.know on what? are.they.stumbling

*JPS 1917:* The way of the wicked is as darkness; they know not at what they stumble.

[Proverbs 7:9](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/ketuvim/PRO.7.9/) · [tree →](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/ketuvim/PRO.7.9/#tree)

בְּנֶֽשֶׁף־בְּעֶ֥רֶב י֑וֹם בְּאִישׁ֥וֹן לַ֝֗יְלָה וַאֲפֵלָֽה׃

*Word for word:* at twilight in.\[the\] evening of.\[the\].day in.\[the\] middle of.\[the\].night and darkness

*JPS 1917:* In the twilight, in the evening of the day, in the blackness of night and the darkness.

## On Mova

- [This word in the Tanakh dictionary](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/dictionaries/tanakh/w/653.html) on Mova free.
- [Trees and pragmatics of its meanings](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/tanakh/1488/653/): every English meaning parsed by Mova, with its dependency tree and frames.

Sources. The words, their counts, glosses and the word-for-word renderings: MACULA Hebrew (the Westminster Leningrad Codex; Clear Bible, CC BY 4.0). Meanings: the OpenScriptures lexical index (CC BY 4.0), Brown–Driver–Briggs 1906 and Jastrow 1903 (public domain, via Sefaria); Targum Onkelos from Sefaria (public domain). Translation: JPS 1917 (public domain, from eBible.org).