צֹ֫הַר

Genesis 6:16 צֹ֣הַר׀ a roof

You are to make a roof for the ark, finish its walls a cubit from the top, place a door in the side of the ark, and build lower, middle, and upper decks.

Genesis 43:16 בַּֽצָּהֳרָֽיִם׃ at <the> noon<s>

When Joseph saw Benjamin with his brothers, he said to the steward of his house, “Take these men to my house. Slaughter an animal and prepare it, for they shall dine with me at noon.”

Here: 'At midday'. The word has a 'double' (dual) form, as some other Hebrew time words do, and comes from a root linked with light. It means the brightest part of the day. Verse 25 shows the brothers getting ready for this hour.

Genesis 43:25 בַּֽצָּהֳרָ֑יִם at <the> noon<s>

Since the brothers had been told that they were going to eat a meal there, they prepared their gift for Joseph’s arrival at noon.

Here: "At noon". This repeats Joseph's own order in 43:16 ("the men will eat with me at noon"). The word has a dual ending (a form normally used for pairs), often understood as the full or doubled light of midday.

Deuteronomy 28:29 בַּֽצָּהֳרַ֗יִם in the noontide<s>

and at noon you will grope about like a blind man in the darkness. You will not prosper in your ways. Day after day you will be oppressed and plundered, with no one to save you.

Here: 'At noon', the time of fullest light. The word has a 'double' ending (-ayim) and is usually understood as the 'double brightness' of midday. The absurdity is the point: groping when the light is strongest.

2 Samuel 4:5 הַֽצָּהֳרָֽיִם׃ <the> noon<s>

Now Rechab and Baanah, the sons of Rimmon the Beerothite, set out and arrived at the house of Ish-bosheth in the heat of the day, while the king was taking his midday nap.

1 Kings 18:26 הַצָּהֳרַ֤יִם the noontide<s>

And they took the bull that was given them, prepared it, and called on the name of Baal from morning until noon, shouting, “O Baal, answer us!” But there was no sound, and no one answered as they leaped around the altar they had made.

Here: The form is literally 'double light', the brightest point of the day. Hours of shouting in the full heat of the sun.

1 Kings 18:27 בַֽצָּהֳרַ֜יִם at the noontide<s>

At noon Elijah began to taunt them, saying, “Shout louder, for he is a god! Perhaps he is deep in thought, or occupied, or on a journey. Perhaps he is sleeping and must be awakened!”

Here: 'At the noon', meaning the peak of the day. It picks up v. 26 ('from morning until noon'): half the day is gone and nothing has happened. The sun is at full strength, but the god of storm and rain has stayed silent.

1 Kings 18:29 הַֽצָּהֳרַ֔יִם the noontide<s>

Midday passed, and they kept on raving until the time of the evening sacrifice. But there was no response; no one answered, no one paid attention.

1 Kings 20:16 בַּֽצָּהֳרָ֑יִם at the noontide<s>

They marched out at noon while Ben-hadad and the 32 kings allied with him were in their tents getting drunk.

2 Kings 4:20 הַֽצָּהֳרַ֖יִם the noontide<s>

After the servant had picked him up and carried him to his mother, the boy sat on her lap until noon, and then he died.

Job 5:14 בַֽצָּהֳרָֽיִם׃ at <the> noon<s>

They encounter darkness by day and grope at noon as in the night.

Job 11:17 וּֽ֭מִצָּהֳרַיִם and more than noon<s>

Your life will be brighter than noonday; its darkness will be like the morning.

Here: Three parts: 'and' + 'from/more than' + 'noon' in a dual form (the Hebrew form for pairs), used for midday, the hour of fullest light. The preposition is comparative: whatever rises will go higher and be brighter than even noon.

Psalm 37:6 כַּֽצָּהֳרָֽיִם׃ like the noontide<s>

He will bring forth your righteousness like the dawn, your justice like the noonday sun.

Here: "Like the noon": the sun at its height, the brightest point of the day, when nothing is hidden and shadows are shortest. The line moves from first light to full noon. The vindication does not just begin; it becomes total and undeniable.

Psalm 55:17 וְ֭צָהֳרַיִם and noon<s>

Morning, noon, and night, I cry out in distress, and He hears my voice.

Here: "Midday", the brightest point of the day. The Hebrew uses a 'dual' form, the form normally used for pairs. Adding noon to the familiar evening-and-morning pair stresses that the lament goes on through the whole day.

Psalm 91:6 צָהֳרָֽיִם׃ noon<s>

nor the pestilence that stalks in the darkness, nor the calamity that destroys at noon.

Here: Hebrew often uses this paired ('dual') ending for times of day. It means the peak of the day, when light and heat are strongest. It answers 'darkness' in the first half of the line: danger comes in full daylight too, not only at night.

Song of Songs 1:7 בַּֽצָּהֳרָ֑יִם at <the> noon<s>

Tell me, O one I love, where do you pasture your sheep? Where do you rest them at midday? Why should I be like a veiled woman beside the flocks of your companions?

Here: 'At the noon.' The word has a 'pair' ending (literally something like 'double brightness'), the regular Hebrew word for midday. Noon is the hot hour when shepherds stop and rest the flock in shade: the one time she could find him still.

Isaiah 16:3 צָהֳרָ֑יִם [the] noon<s>

“Give us counsel; render a decision. Shelter us at noonday with shade as dark as night. Hide the refugees; do not betray the one who flees.

Isaiah 58:10 כַּֽצָּהֳרָֽיִם׃ [will be] like the noon<s>

and if you give yourself to the hungry and satisfy the afflicted soul, then your light will go forth in the darkness, and your night will be like noonday.

Here: 'Like noon.' The Hebrew form is a dual (a form for pairs), roughly 'double brightness': the peak of the day, when light is fullest. Your deepest night becomes your brightest noon.

Isaiah 59:10 בַֽצָּהֳרַ֙יִם֙ at <the> noon<s>

Like the blind, we feel our way along the wall, groping like those without eyes. We stumble at midday as in the twilight; among the vigorous we are like the dead.

Jeremiah 6:4 בַֽצָּהֳרָ֑יִם at <the> noon<s>

‘Prepare for battle against her; rise up, let us attack at noon. Woe to us, for the daylight is fading; the evening shadows grow long.

Jeremiah 15:8 בַּֽצָּהֳרָ֑יִם at <the> noon<s>

I will make their widows more numerous than the sand of the sea. I will bring a destroyer at noon against the mothers of young men. I will suddenly bring upon them anguish and dismay.

Jeremiah 20:16 צָהֳרָֽיִם׃ noon<s>

May that man be like the cities that the LORD overthrew without compassion. May he hear an outcry in the morning and a battle cry at noon,

Amos 8:9 בַּֽצָּהֳרָ֑יִם at <the> noon<s>

And in that day, declares the Lord GOD, I will make the sun go down at noon, and I will darken the earth in the daytime.

Here: "At noon," when the light is strongest and nobody expects evening. The word has a dual ending, perhaps meaning "the double-bright time" or the meeting of the two halves of the day.

Zephaniah 2:4 בַּֽצָּהֳרַ֙יִם֙ at the noontide<s>

For Gaza will be abandoned, and Ashkelon left in ruins. Ashdod will be driven out at noon, and Ekron will be uprooted.

Here: "At the noon," literally a dual form, "the double brightness," meaning the peak of daylight. It suggests a surprise attack in the hot hour when people rested, or a city taken so quickly that it is over by noon.