Aramaic word · H5094

נְהִירוּ

nahiru

illumination

Light, and by extension illumination or enlightenment. It is related to nəhôrā ("light", 2:22) and the Hebrew nəhārâ ("daylight").

A Biblical Aramaic word, from the parts of the Old Testament written in Aramaic. Why Aramaic?

Appears 3 times in 3 verses of the Aramaic of the Old Testament. · Updated October 23, 2026

What it means

illumination, insight

Aramaic of na.har (נָהַר "to shine" H5102B)

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: Light, and by extension illumination or enlightenment. It is related to nəhôrā ("light", 2:22) and the Hebrew nəhārâ ("daylight").
Against the English: KJV, WEB and YLT have "light". NASB has "illumination". BSB and NIV have "insight", which keeps the sense but loses the image of light.
How it drifted: Modern readers often hear "light" as moral purity or holiness. Here it means intellectual and revelatory clarity.
Used elsewhere in the period: The word appears only in Daniel 5:11, 14. Its partner noun appears in 2:22: "he knows what is in the darkness, and light dwells with him". That verse is set in exactly this context of revealing mysteries.

Range of meaning: Light, brightness. From a root meaning 'to shine, beam' (compare Hebrew nahar in Ps 34:5, 'they looked to him and were radiant'). In Daniel 5:11 and 14 the related form nahiru describes Daniel's 'illumination', meaning his insight, alongside understanding and wisdom.
Against the English: All versions say 'light'. NLT's 'surrounded by light' moves the image toward God's visible brightness and loses the sense of light as the means of seeing and knowing.
Used elsewhere in the period: Daniel 5:11, 14 (light = insight); Ps 36:9 ('in your light we see light'); Ps 104:2 (God wrapped in light). Later echoes include 1 Tim 6:16 ('dwelling in unapproachable light') and James 1:17 ('Father of lights').

Range of meaning: An abstract noun from the root n-h-r, 'to shine, give light' (compare Hebrew nāhar, 'to be radiant', Ps 34:5; Isa 60:5; and Aramaic nəhôrāʾ, 'light', which 'dwells with' God in Dan 2:22). It means illumination: the light of understanding that makes obscure things visible.
Against the English: KJV, WEB, YLT and ESV: 'light'. NASB: 'illumination'. NIV and BSB use 'insight'. 'Light' keeps the image but sounds vague. 'Insight' is clear but loses the picture of light.
Used elsewhere in the period: In the Bible it occurs only in Dan 5:11 and 5:14. The related noun in 2:22 is the key background: 'He reveals deep and hidden things; he knows what is in the darkness, and light dwells with him.' This is Daniel's own prayer.

Daniel · 3

Daniel 2:22 וּנְהוֹרָ֖א and light the

He reveals the deep and hidden things; He knows what lies in darkness, and light dwells with Him.

Here: 'And the light'. It stands opposite 'the darkness' as its pair. Elsewhere in Daniel the related word means mental illumination or insight (5:11, 14), so it carries the sense of the clarity that makes knowing possible.
Daniel 5:11 נַהִיר֧וּ illumination

There is a man in your kingdom who has the spirit of the holy gods in him. In the days of your father he was found to have insight, intelligence, and wisdom like that of the gods. Your father, King Nebuchadnezzar, appointed him chief of the magicians, enchanters, astrologers, and diviners. Your own father, the king,

Here: Literally 'lightedness', from a root meaning to shine. It is the ability to bring hidden things into the light. The picture fits the dark night of the feast and the lamp by which the hand wrote (5:5).
Daniel 5:14 וְנַהִיר֧וּ and illumination

I have heard that the spirit of the gods is in you, and that you have insight, intelligence, and extraordinary wisdom.

Here: "Illumination": the ability to bring hidden things into the light. It echoes Daniel's praise in 2:22 that "light dwells with" God, who "reveals deep and hidden things."

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