מִזְרָח

From the study of Psalm 103:12

Range of meaning

'Place of the sun's rising', so 'east'. It comes from zaraḥ, 'to rise, dawn, shine'. Hebrew had other words for east (qedem, 'front', since people oriented themselves facing sunrise) and for west (yam, 'sea', since in Israel the Mediterranean lies west).

Against the English

'East' to a modern reader is a compass direction on a globe. Here it names the point on the horizon where dawn breaks. That is an observed edge of the world, not an abstract line of travel.

Used elsewhere in the period

The pair 'from the rising of the sun to its going in' is a stock biblical expression for the whole earth (Ps 50:1; 113:3; Mal 1:11; Isa 45:6). Mesopotamian and Egyptian texts likewise mark the bounds of the world by sunrise and sunset, often as the limits of a king's rule.

From the study of Isaiah 43:5

Range of meaning

Mizrach is literally 'the place of shining-forth' (from zarach, 'to rise, shine'), meaning sunrise or east. Ma'arav is the place where the sun 'goes in', meaning sunset or west. Both are named from the sun's daily course, not from compass points.

Against the English

'East' and 'west' are correct. They lose the picture of the sun's path from one horizon to the other, which in Hebrew poetry is a way of saying 'everywhere' (Ps 50:1; 113:3; Mal 1:11).

Used elsewhere in the period

The paired 'from sunrise to sunset' means the whole earth (Ps 113:3). Isaiah 45:6 uses the same pair: 'so that people may know, from the rising of the sun and from the west, that there is none besides me.' Verse 6 adds north and south to complete the four directions.

From the study of Psalm 50:1

Range of meaning

Literally "from the rising/shining-forth of the sun to its going-in." Mabo' means entrance or the act of coming in; for the sun, its setting. The phrase names the two horizons and means "everywhere."

Against the English

BSB and NIV: "from where the sun rises to where it sets"; WEB: "from sunrise to sunset" (which a modern reader could take as time, "all day long," rather than space); KJV: "unto the going down thereof"; YLT keeps the picture: "unto its going in."

How it drifted

WEB's "from sunrise to sunset" can sound like a span of time, but here the sense is spatial, from east to west.

Used elsewhere in the period

Same idiom in Ps 113:3 and Mal 1:11 ("from the rising of the sun to its setting my name is great among the nations"), and Isa 45:6. The sun "coming in" to its chamber matches Ps 19:4–6, where the sun leaves its tent like a bridegroom. Zarach, the root of mizrach, is also used of God's glory "dawning" (Deut 33:2; Isa 60:1–2).