Hebrew word · H2821

חָשַׁךְ

chashakh

to darken

To be or become dark. It is used of the sun, the day or the land growing dark (Exod 10:15; Isa 13:10; Amos 8:9). It is also used of eyes growing dim (Lam 5:17; Eccl 12:3) and, figuratively, of being in distress or obscurity.

Appears 17 times in 17 verses of the Hebrew Old Testament. ·

What it means

1) to be or become dark, grow dim, be darkened, be black, be hidden

1a) (Qal)

1a1) to be or grow dark

1a2) to have a dark colour

1a3) to grow dim

1b) (Hiphil)

1b1) to make dark, cause to be dark

1b2) to hide, conceal

1b3) to obscure, confuse (fig.)

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

In depth

From the study of Psalm 69:23

Range of meaning

To be or become dark. It is used of the sun, the day or the land growing dark (Exod 10:15; Isa 13:10; Amos 8:9). It is also used of eyes growing dim (Lam 5:17; Eccl 12:3) and, figuratively, of being in distress or obscurity.

Against the English

'Be darkened' (KJV, BSB, WEB) is accurate. Because Paul uses this verse in Romans 11, English readers often hear it at once as 'spiritual blindness.' In the psalm, the first sense is physical: the eyes lose their light.

How it drifted

Christian readers usually meet this line through Romans 11:10, where Paul applies it to Israel being hardened. That later use shapes how the psalm is heard.

Used elsewhere in the period

Lamentations 5:17: 'for these things our eyes have grown dim (chashkhu).' The cause there is grief and famine. Ecclesiastes 12:3: 'those who look through the windows grow dim,' a picture of old age. The opposite image is eyes that 'brighten' (Jonathan after eating honey, 1 Sam 14:27, 29; 'light up my eyes,' Ps 13:3), meaning strength restored. The Septuagint uses skotisthētōsan, 'let them be darkened.'

From the study of Lamentations 4:8

Range of meaning

To be or grow dark. It is used of the heavens and the sun (Isa 13:10; Amos 5:20 uses the related noun), the land under darkness (Exod 10:15), eyes dimmed by weeping or age (Lam 5:17; Ps 69:23), and understanding darkened (Ps 69:23 in context, Eccl 12:2–3). It often comes with judgment and mourning.

Against the English

BSB, KJV and the others turn it into a comparison: "is blacker than." That is fine. But it loses the sense of a process: the faces have gone dark. YLT's "darker… hath been" keeps the verb's sense better.

Used elsewhere in the period

Common in prophetic pictures of judgment, where darkening is a sign of the Day of the LORD. The same verb comes back in Lam 5:17: "for these things our eyes have grown dark." The chapter opens with a related idea, "How the gold has grown dim!" (4:1, using a different verb, yūʿam). So v. 8 carries on the chapter's picture of shining things losing their shine.

From the study of Isaiah 13:10

Range of meaning

'To be dark, grow dark'. Used of the sky (Amos 5:18–20 makes the Day of the LORD 'darkness, not light'), of a land (Exod 10:15), and of eyes growing dim (Lam 5:17; Ps 69:23). The noun choshekh is the darkness of Gen 1:2 before God spoke light.

Against the English

English puts it in the future ('will be darkened'), which matches the overall sense. But the Hebrew verb form is completed action, 'has gone dark'. YLT alone keeps this: 'Darkened hath been the sun'.

Used elsewhere in the period

Darkness is standard Day-of-the-LORD language: Amos 5:18–20; 8:9 ('I will make the sun go down at noon'); Joel 2:2, 10, 31; 3:15 (Heb 4:15); Zeph 1:15; Ezek 32:7–8. In Mesopotamian omen texts (the Enuma Anu Enlil series), darkening of the sun or moon was read as a sign of disaster for the king and the land.

Similar words

Where it appears

Exodus · 1

  1. Exodus 10:15 וַתֶּחְשַׁ֣ךְ and it grew dark

    They covered the face of all the land until it was black, and they consumed all the plants on the ground and all the fruit on the trees that the hail had left behind. Nothing green was left on any tree or plant in all the land of Egypt.

Job · 3

  1. Job 3:9 יֶחְשְׁכוּ֮ let them grow dark

    May its morning stars grow dark; may it wait in vain for daylight; may it not see the breaking of dawn.

  2. Job 18:6 חָשַׁ֣ךְ it grows dark

    The light in his tent grows dark, and the lamp beside him goes out.

  3. Job 38:2 מַחְשִׁ֖יךְ [is] making dark

    “Who is this who obscures My counsel by words without knowledge?

    Here: A causative participle: 'one who is making dark.' It describes ongoing action, so Job is pictured as someone who keeps spreading darkness, not someone who made one slip. The darkness image picks up Job's curse in chapter 3, where he called for darkness to swallow the day he was born.

Psalms · 3

  1. Psalm 69:23 תֶּחְשַׁ֣כְנָה may they grow dim

    May their eyes be darkened so they cannot see, and their backs be bent forever.

    Here: A wish: 'may they go dark.' The verb is used for daylight failing and for eyes going dim from weakness, grief or old age. The first picture here is a body losing its strength, not mainly a punishment of the mind.

  2. Psalm 105:28 וַיַּחְשִׁ֑ךְ and he made dark

    He sent darkness, and it became dark—yet they defied His words.

  3. Psalm 139:12 יַחְשִׁ֪יךְ it is [too] dark

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

Ecclesiastes · 2

  1. Ecclesiastes 12:2 תֶחְשַׁ֤ךְ it will become dark

    before the light of the sun, moon, and stars is darkened, and the clouds return after the rain,

  2. Ecclesiastes 12:3 וְחָשְׁכ֥וּ and they will grow dim

    on the day the keepers of the house tremble and the strong men stoop, when those grinding cease because they are few and those watching through windows see dimly,

Isaiah · 2

  1. Isaiah 5:30 חָשַׁ֖ךְ it has become dark

    In that day they will roar over it, like the roaring of the sea. If one looks over the land, he will see darkness and distress; even the light will be obscured by clouds.

    Here: 'Has gone dark'. The prophet uses a past-tense form for a future event, as if it has already happened. The verb is from the same root as 'darkness' above, so the darkness spreads until it swallows the light.

  2. Isaiah 13:10 חָשַׁ֤ךְ it will be dark

    For the stars of heaven and their constellations will not give their light. The rising sun will be darkened, and the moon will not give its light.

    Here: A completed-action verb, 'has gone dark', inside a future prophecy. The prophet sees the event as already done. The word calls up the darkness of Egypt's plague (Exod 10:15) and the darkness before creation (Gen 1:2).

Jeremiah · 1

  1. Jeremiah 13:16 יַחְשִׁ֔ךְ he will bring darkness

    Give glory to the LORD your God before He brings darkness, before your feet stumble on the dusky mountains. You wait for light, but He turns it into deep gloom and thick darkness.

    Here: 'He makes it dark', with YHWH as the most natural subject, as in Amos 5:8. It can also be read impersonally: 'before it grows dark'. Either way, night is about to fall on Judah.

Lamentations · 2

  1. Lamentations 4:8 חָשַׁ֤ךְ it is dark

    But now their appearance is blacker than soot; they are not recognized in the streets. Their skin has shriveled on their bones; it has become as dry as a stick.

    Here: "Has grown dark." The verb is used of a sun or sky going dark, or eyes growing dim (Lam 5:17). Here it is used of human faces. The tense describes a change already complete: their looks have become dark and stay dark. Its letter ḥet opens this verse in the poem's alphabetical sequence.

  2. Lamentations 5:17 חָשְׁכ֥וּ they have grown dim

    Because of this, our hearts are faint; because of these, our eyes grow dim—

    Here: 'Have grown dark', a completed state. Eyes that go dark are eyes worn out by weeping, hunger and exhaustion. In Hebrew idiom bright eyes mean strength and life, so darkened eyes mean that life is ebbing away.

Amos · 2

  1. Amos 5:8 הֶחְשִׁ֑יךְ he makes dark

    He who made the Pleiades and Orion, who turns darkness into dawn and darkens day into night, who summons the waters of the sea and pours them over the face of the earth—the LORD is His name—

    Here: 'He darkens.' The verb switches from participles to a completed-action form, stating something God does as a settled fact, whether nightly or in eclipse and storm.

  2. Amos 8:9 וְהַחֲשַׁכְתִּ֥י and I will make dark

    And in that day, declares the Lord GOD, I will make the sun go down at noon, and I will darken the earth in the daytime.

    Here: "I will bring darkness." Again God is the one who acts. The same verb describes God sending darkness on Egypt (Ps 105:28), so the line echoes the Exodus plague.

Micah · 1

  1. Micah 3:6 וְחָשְׁכָ֥ה and it will grow dark

    Therefore night will come over you without visions, and darkness without divination. The sun will set on these prophets, and the daylight will turn black over them.

    Here: A verb with no stated subject: "it will turn dark." Darkness creeps over them. Ancient versions read the same letters as the noun "darkness", which matches "night".

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