אָדֹם

From the study of Isaiah 63:2

Range of meaning

Red or ruddy, covering the shades from reddish-brown to blood-red. It describes blood-colored water (2 Kgs 3:22), red wine (Prov 23:31, verb form), the red heifer (Num 19:2), red horses (Zech 1:8; 6:2), and Esau's red stew (Gen 25:30). It comes from the same root as dām, 'blood', and is closely tied to ʾădāmâ, 'ground (red earth)'.

Against the English

English 'red' gets the color right. What it cannot carry is the sound. To a Hebrew ear ʾādōm, 'red', sits right next to ʾĕdôm, 'Edom' (v.1), and calls up dām, 'blood'. The questioner's first word after 'why' is in effect 'Edom-colored'.

Used elsewhere in the period

Genesis spells out the pun itself: Esau asks for 'this red stuff, this red' (hāʾādōm hāʾādōm), 'therefore his name was called Edom' (Gen 25:30; compare 25:25, Esau born 'ruddy', ʾadmônî). In 2 Kgs 3:22, in the Edomite wilderness, Moab sees water 'red as blood' (ʾădummîm kaddām). Isaiah 1:18 pairs 'red' with crimson as the color of guilt. Verse 1 also puns on Bozrah, Edom's chief city, which sounds like bāṣîr, 'grape harvest'.

From the study of Numbers 19:2

Range of meaning

Red across a broad span: the red-brown of a newborn's skin (Esau, Gen 25:25), lentil stew (Gen 25:30), wine (Prov 23:31), blood-red (Isa 63:2), reddish horses (Zech 1:8). Biblical colour words cover wide bands and are not precise shades.

Against the English

'Red' is right, but a modern reader may picture fire-engine red. On cattle the colour is chestnut or reddish-brown.

How it drifted

Modern English colour terms are narrower and more saturated than ancient ones.

Used elsewhere in the period

Mishnah Parah 2:5 rules that even two black or white hairs growing from one follicle disqualify the animal, so later practice demanded an entirely red coat. Red materials (crimson yarn, together with cedar and hyssop) are added to the fire in v. 6, as in the leper's cleansing (Lev 14:4). Red wool and cedar also appear in Hittite and Mesopotamian purification rituals.

From the study of Zechariah 1:8

Range of meaning

Red, ruddy, reddish-brown. Used of blood, lentil stew, wine, a red heifer, a ruddy face (1 Sam 16:12) and dyed ram skins. Related to dam ('blood'), 'adamah ('ground') and Edom.

Against the English

'Red' is a fair rendering, but for a horse it means chestnut or bay, a normal coat colour, not a vivid scarlet.

How it drifted

Because of Revelation 6:4 (the red horse whose rider 'takes peace from the earth'), many readers assume a red horse means war or bloodshed.

Used elsewhere in the period

Zech 6:2 (the red horses of the first chariot), Rev 6:4. Later Jewish interpretation (Babylonian Talmud, Sanhedrin 93a) linked the red horse with God's intent to turn the world to blood. That is a later reading, not the plain sense.