Hebrew word · H219

אוֹרָה

'orah

light

The plural of ʾorah, 'light' (Ps 139:12; Esth 8:16). In 2 Kgs 4:39 a similar word means edible plants or herbs.

Appears 4 times in 4 verses of the Hebrew Old Testament. · Updated October 22, 2026

What it means

1) light

2) light of joy and happiness (fig.)

Abridged from Brown, Driver and Briggs, A Hebrew and English Lexicon of the Old Testament (1906), via STEPBible.org (CC BY 4.0).

Range of meaning: The plural of ʾorah, 'light' (Ps 139:12; Esth 8:16). In 2 Kgs 4:39 a similar word means edible plants or herbs.
Against the English: KJV, WEB and YLT have 'herbs'. BSB, NIV and NASB have 'morning/dawn'. ESV has 'light'. All are defensible, but each gives a different picture.
How it drifted: This is not drift but a real ambiguity in the word. 'Herbs' comes from 2 Kgs 4:39 and medieval Jewish interpretation. 'Light' follows the ordinary meaning of the word.
Used elsewhere in the period: The Vulgate has ros lucis, 'dew of light'. The Greek takes it differently: 'the dew from you is healing to them'.

Range of meaning: Light, daylight. As an image in Hebrew, light stands for life, safety, prosperity, rescue and favor; darkness stands for distress, danger and death. The feminine form אוֹרָה is very rare and is probably a late form, of the kind common in the Aramaic of the Persian period.
Against the English: KJV, ESV, NASB, WEB, YLT and BSB keep "light." NIV turns the image into an emotion ("happiness"); the Latin Vulgate expands it to "a new light seemed to rise." Keeping "light" keeps the picture of dawn after night. Turning it into "happiness" loses the picture but gives the sense correctly.
How it drifted: Modern religious readers often hear "light" as spiritual enlightenment, revelation or God's presence. In Esther's plain sense it is the light of relief and good fortune. The later Jewish reading of light as Torah (Talmud, Megillah 16b) is an added layer, not the surface meaning.
Used elsewhere in the period: Psalm 139:12 ("darkness and light are alike") is the only other use of this form. The ordinary masculine אוֹר carries the same metaphor: Psalm 97:11, "light is sown for the righteous, and gladness (simchah) for the upright of heart", the same pairing as here. See also Job 22:28; Psalm 27:1; Isaiah 9:2 ("the people walking in darkness have seen a great light"); Proverbs 13:9. Light meaning the king's favor appears in Proverbs 16:15: "in the light of the king's face is life."

2 Kings · 1

2 Kings 4:39 אֹרֹת֒ herbs

One of them went out to the field to gather herbs, and he found a wild vine from which he gathered as many wild gourds as his garment could hold. Then he came back and cut them up into the pot of stew, though no one knew what they were.

Esther · 1

Esther 8:16 אוֹרָ֖ה light

For the Jews it was a time of light and gladness, of joy and honor.

Here: A rare feminine form of the usual word for light (found elsewhere only in Psalm 139:12). Here it is a picture of rescue, safety and good fortune after darkness, the opposite of the gloom of chapter 4. It is not about spiritual insight or knowledge.

Psalms · 1

Psalm 139:12 כָּאוֹרָֽה׃ as the light

even the darkness is not dark to You, but the night shines like the day, for darkness is as light to You.

Isaiah · 1

Isaiah 26:19 אוֹרֹת֙ lights

Your dead will live; their bodies will rise. Awake and sing, you who dwell in the dust! For your dew is like the dew of the morning, and the earth will bring forth her dead.

Here: 'Lights.' Most likely the light of dawn, when dew glitters; possibly 'green plants' (as in 2 Kgs 4:39). Either way it is dew tied to new life.

Word data: STEPBible.org (CC BY 4.0), main text only.