Hebrew word · H5105
נְהָרָה
neharah
light
"Light, daylight". It appears only here in the Hebrew Bible. It is closely related to the Aramaic nəhôr / nəhîrû "light" (Dan 2:22) and the Hebrew verb nāhar "to beam, be radiant" (Isa 60:5; Ps 34:5).
Appears once in the Hebrew Old Testament. ·
What it means
light, daylight
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
"Light, daylight". It appears only here in the Hebrew Bible. It is closely related to the Aramaic nəhôr / nəhîrû "light" (Dan 2:22) and the Hebrew verb nāhar "to beam, be radiant" (Isa 60:5; Ps 34:5).
- Against the English
"Light" (KJV, WEB, YLT, ESV, NIV); BSB's "light" in the main text matches the contextual gloss "daylight". "Daylight" is the more precise picture. The verse is about the brightness that makes a stretch of time a day.
- Used elsewhere in the period
Its Aramaic flavour is one of many Aramaic-like words in Job's poetry. They add to the book's foreign, eastern colouring and may hint at its date or region, though that is debated.
Where it appears
Job · 1
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Job 3:4 נְהָרָֽה׃ daylight
If only that day had turned to darkness! May God above disregard it; may no light shine upon it.
Here: A word found only here in the Hebrew Bible, closely related to the common Aramaic word for light. It means daylight, the brightness that makes a day a day. If you take it away, the day stops existing as a day.
Word data: STEPBible.org (CC BY 4.0), main text only.