Hebrew word · H3650
כִּמְרִיר
kimrirei
darkness
Used only here. Usually derived from a root k-m-r, 'to be black, gloomy, or hot'. Syriac kmar, 'to be dark, sad', and the related Syriac noun for gloom point this way. That gives 'blackenings' or 'darkenings', meaning things that darken the day.
Appears once in the Hebrew Old Testament. ·
What it means
blackness, gloominess, darkness
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
- Range of meaning
Used only here. Usually derived from a root k-m-r, 'to be black, gloomy, or hot'. Syriac kmar, 'to be dark, sad', and the related Syriac noun for gloom point this way. That gives 'blackenings' or 'darkenings', meaning things that darken the day.
- Against the English
KJV/ESV/NASB 'the blackness of the day'; WEB 'all that makes the day black'; BSB 'the blackness of the day'; YLT 'as the most bitter of days' (reading kə- 'like' + mərîrê 'bitternesses').
- Used elsewhere in the period
Vulgate: involvatur amaritudine, 'let it be wrapped in bitterness', the 'bitterness' reading. Aramaic Targum tradition also has bitterness. BDB, HALOT and most modern commentators favour 'darkenings', often explained as eclipses or other sudden darkness at midday (compare Amos 8:9: 'I will make the sun go down at noon').
Where it appears
Job · 1
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Job 3:5 כִּֽמְרִ֥ירֵי [the] darkness<es> of
May darkness and gloom reclaim it, and a cloud settle over it; may the blackness of the day overwhelm it.
Here: Used only here. Most likely 'the blackenings of', meaning whatever turns daytime black: an eclipse, a storm, a dust-darkened sky. An old alternative reads it as 'like the bitternesses of'.
Word data: STEPBible.org (CC BY 4.0), main text only.