Hebrew word · H3991
מַאְפֵּלְיָה
ma'peleyah
darkness
Found only here. It is built on the root ʾ-p-l, 'darkness, gloom' (compare ʾōpel, 'gloom', and ʾăpēlāh, 'thick darkness'). BDB and HALOT both give 'deep darkness'.
Appears once in the Hebrew Old Testament.
What it means
deep darkness, 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
From the study of Jeremiah 2:31
- Range of meaning
Found only here. It is built on the root ʾ-p-l, 'darkness, gloom' (compare ʾōpel, 'gloom', and ʾăpēlāh, 'thick darkness'). The ending -yāh is usually explained as the short form of the divine name used to mean 'the ultimate', as in šalheḇeṯyāh, 'a flame of Yah' = a blazing flame (Song 8:6), or as a simple abstract ending. BDB and HALOT both give 'deep darkness'.
- Against the English
KJV has plain 'darkness'. BSB 'dense darkness' and WEB/ESV 'thick darkness' try to capture the intensive ending. No English version reproduces the possible echo of God's name inside the word.
- Used elsewhere in the period
Its partner in Jer 2:6 is ṣalmāweṯ, 'deep shadow / death-dark', in the same description of the wilderness. Jerome's Latin rendered the word 'terra serotina', apparently 'a land that ripens late', taking the root in the sense of 'late' crops (as in Exod 9:32). The Septuagint has something like 'a land made barren'.
Similar words
Where it appears
Jeremiah · 1
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Jeremiah 2:31 מַאְפֵּ֖לְיָ֑ה darkness
You people of this generation, consider the word of the LORD: “Have I been a wilderness to Israel or a land of dense darkness? Why do My people say, ‘We are free to roam; we will come to You no more’?
Here: A word found only here in the Bible. It comes from the root ʾ-p-l, 'dark' (darkness like gloom or night), and ends in -yah, which may be the divine name used to mean 'the utmost', so 'Yah-darkness', pitch darkness. It echoes the 'land of deep darkness' in the wilderness of 2:6.
Word data: STEPBible.org (CC BY 4.0), main text only.