Hebrew word · H6757

צַלְמָ֫וֶת

tzalmavet

shadow

Deep, thick, menacing darkness: the blackness of a dungeon, of a mine shaft, of night before dawn, of the wilderness, and of the realm of the dead. The traditional vowels in the Hebrew text treat it as a compound of ṣēl ('shadow') + māwet ('death'), so 'death-shadow'. Many modern lexicons (e.g.

Appears 18 times in 17 verses of the Hebrew Old Testament. ·

What it means

1) death-shadow, deep shadow, deep darkness, shadow of death

1a) death-shadow

1b) death-shadow, deep shadow, darkness

1c) death-shadow (of distress, extreme danger) (fig)

1d) death-shadow (of place of the dead) (fig)

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 Psalm 23:4

Range of meaning

Deep, thick, menacing darkness: the blackness of a dungeon, of a mine shaft, of night before dawn, of the wilderness, and of the realm of the dead. The traditional vowels in the Hebrew text treat it as a compound of ṣēl ('shadow') + māwet ('death'), so 'death-shadow'. Many modern lexicons (e.g. HALOT) derive it instead from a root ṣ-l-m 'to be dark' (compare Akkadian ṣalāmu 'to be black', Arabic ẓalima 'to be dark'), originally ṣalmût, 'darkness'.

Against the English

KJV, ESV, NASB, BSB, WEB: 'shadow of death'. NIV (2011), NRSV, CSB, NLT: 'darkest valley'. NJPS: 'deepest darkness'. YLT: 'death-shade'. 'Shadow of death' keeps the death-overtone but can sound as if the verse is only about dying. 'Darkest valley' keeps the darkness but drops the sound of death.

How it drifted

The KJV phrase became a fixed idiom tied to funerals and deathbeds. English readers then narrowed the image to 'the moment of death', when the word covers any deadly-dark place a living person walks through.

Used elsewhere in the period

About 18 occurrences, 10 of them in Job. It describes prisoners 'sitting in darkness and ṣalmāwet' (Ps 107:10, 14), the depths miners dig through (Job 28:3), night that God turns into morning (Amos 5:8), the people 'walking in darkness… in a land of ṣalmāwet' who see a great light (Isa 9:1 [Eng 9:2]), and the wilderness of the exodus as 'a land of drought and ṣalmāwet' (Jer 2:6). It is also linked directly with death: 'the gates of death… the gates of ṣalmāwet' (Job 38:17; also Job 10:21–22). The Septuagint consistently renders it skia thanatou, 'shadow of death', so the 'death' reading is very old.

From the study of Isaiah 9:2

Range of meaning

The deepest darkness: the blackness of a mine shaft (Job 28:3), of the night that God turns into morning (Amos 5:8), of the trackless desert (Jer 2:6), of a dungeon (Ps 107:10, 14), of the underworld (Job 10:21–22; 38:17, "the gates of ṣalmāwet" alongside "the gates of death"). It is often paired with ḥōšek, "darkness." It occurs about 18 times, mostly in Job and the Psalms.

Against the English

KJV, BSB and WEB keep the traditional "shadow of death", and YLT has "death-shade." ESV and NIV have "deep darkness." The traditional rendering suggests mortal danger or death closing in. The more likely sense is pitch-black darkness. For ancient hearers that darkness probably carried the feel of death, but it was not a picture of death throwing a shadow.

How it drifted

The Hebrew vowels (added centuries after Isaiah) treat the word as a compound, ṣēl ("shadow") + māwet ("death"). The Greek Septuagint already translated it skia thanatou, "shadow of death," and the Latin Vulgate followed with umbra mortis. So "shadow of death" is very old. However, many modern scholars think the original word was ṣalmût, "darkness." Its root is attested in related languages: Akkadian ṣalāmu "to be black," Arabic ẓalima "to be dark." On this view the word was later re-heard, or deliberately played on, as "death-shadow."

Used elsewhere in the period

Its use for an ordinary night (Amos 5:8) and for the depths of a mine (Job 28:3) fits "deep darkness" better than "death's shadow". Its pairing with the gates of death and the underworld (Job 38:17; 10:21–22) shows why the death association felt natural. Psalm 107:10 is the closest parallel to our verse: "those who sat in darkness and ṣalmāwet, prisoners in misery and iron." See D. Winton Thomas, JSS 7 (1962), for the "deep darkness" case, and James Barr's caution that by biblical times speakers may already have heard "death" in it.

From the study of Psalm 107:10

Range of meaning

About 18 occurrences, ten of them in Job. It means profound, impenetrable darkness. It is used for the underworld ('land of darkness and ṣalmāwet', Job 10:21–22; 'gates of death… gates of ṣalmāwet', Job 38:17), for the blackness before dawn that God turns into morning (Amos 5:8), for a dark valley (Ps 23:4), for a trackless wilderness (Jer 2:6), and for the gloom of distress and judgment (Jer 13:16; Isa 9:2).

Against the English

KJV, BSB, WEB and ESV keep the traditional 'shadow of death'. NIV, NLT and many others give 'utter darkness', 'deepest gloom' and the like. YLT's 'death-shade' copies the structure of the traditional split.

How it drifted

The traditional reading divides the word into ṣēl ('shadow') + māwet ('death'), and the Masoretic vowels support that. The Greek Septuagint (skia thanatou) and the Latin Vulgate (umbra mortis) both translated it that way, and the KJV followed them. In modern English, 'the shadow of death' suggests being near the moment of dying, or death 'looming' over someone. The Hebrew picture is mainly about darkness, a grave-like blackness, and not about the act of dying.

Used elsewhere in the period

Septuagint skia thanatou throughout. The New Testament takes up this Greek phrasing: Luke 1:79 and Matt 4:16 (quoting Isa 9:2) speak of those 'sitting in darkness and the shadow of death', which is very close to Ps 107:10. Many scholars connect the word to a Semitic root ṣ-l-m meaning 'be dark' (Akkadian ṣalāmu 'to be black'; Arabic ẓalima 'to be dark'), which would make it an abstract noun *ṣalmût, 'darkness', later re-vowelled as 'shadow of death'. D. Winton Thomas argued for keeping 'death' but reading it as an intensifier, 'deathly (= extreme) darkness'.

Where it appears

Job · 10

  1. Job 3:5 וְ֭צַלְמָוֶת and deep darkness

    May darkness and gloom reclaim it, and a cloud settle over it; may the blackness of the day overwhelm it.

    Here: 'And deep darkness', the strongest Hebrew word for pitch-black gloom. The traditional vowels make it sound like 'death-shadow', so the word carries a hint of the grave whichever way its origin is explained.

  2. Job 10:21 וְצַלְמָֽוֶת׃ and deep darkness

    before I go—never to return—to a land of darkness and gloom,

    Here: It intensifies the previous word: the deepest, densest dark. The Hebrew ear also heard *ṣēl* 'shadow' + *māwet* 'death' in it, so in a verse about the land of the dead, 'death-dark' sounds through.

  3. Job 10:22 צַ֭לְמָוֶת deep darkness

    to a land of utter darkness, of deep shadow and disorder, where even the light is like darkness.”

    Here: The deepest darkness. The Masoretic vowels make it sound like 'shadow' + 'death', and in a verse about the realm of the dead both senses come through. See the study below.

  4. Job 12:22 צַלְמָֽוֶת׃ deep darkness

    He reveals the deep things of darkness and brings deep shadows into light.

    Here: The blackest kind of darkness. In Job the word is tied to the realm of the dead (10:21–22; 38:17). The way the scribes pointed the word makes it read as 'shadow' plus 'death'. Many scholars think it comes instead from a root meaning 'be dark'. Either way it is the darkest gloom there is, and God hauls even that out into the light.

  5. Job 16:16 צַלְמָֽוֶת׃ deep darkness

    My face is red with weeping, and deep shadows ring my eyes;

  6. Job 24:17 צַלְמָ֑וֶת צַלְמָֽוֶת׃ deep darkness

    For to them, deep darkness is their morning; surely they are friends with the terrors of darkness!

  7. Job 28:3 וְצַלְמָֽוֶת׃ and deep darkness

    Man puts an end to the darkness; he probes the farthest recesses for ore in deepest darkness.

  8. Job 34:22 צַלְמָ֑וֶת [is] deep darkness

    There is no darkness or deep shadow where the workers of iniquity can hide.

    Here: The deepest, thickest dark. The Hebrew spelling makes it sound like "shadow (ṣēl) of death (māwet)", so it carries an echo of the grave. Here it is the climax of the pair: not even the blackest gloom gives cover.

  9. Job 38:17 צַלְמָ֣וֶת deep darkness

    Have the gates of death been revealed to you? Have you seen the gates of the shadow of death?

Psalms · 4

  1. Psalm 23:4 צַלְמָ֡וֶת deep darkness

    Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil, for You are with me; Your rod and Your staff, they comfort me.

    Here: Pitch-black, menacing darkness, heard with the sound of 'death' (māwet) in it. Whether the word is built from 'shadow' + 'death' or is a separate word for 'darkness' is debated (see studies). Either way it names darkness of the deadliest kind.

  2. Psalm 44:19 בְצַלְמָֽוֶת׃ with deep darkness

    But You have crushed us in the lair of jackals; You have covered us with deepest darkness.

    Here: "With deep darkness". This is the thickest darkness, the kind associated with the realm of the dead. Whatever its exact origin (see the studies), the word places them at the edge of the grave.

  3. Psalm 107:10 וְצַלְמָ֑וֶת and deep darkness

    Some sat in darkness and in the shadow of death, prisoners in affliction and chains,

    Here: It strengthens the word before it: the deepest, deadliest darkness, a darkness with no light in it at all. Whether the word contains 'death' (mavet) is debated. Either way the picture is total blackness, the kind that feels like the grave, and not the moment of dying.

  4. Psalm 107:14 וְצַלְמָ֑וֶת and deep darkness

    He brought them out of darkness and the shadow of death and broke away their chains.

    Here: "And deathly darkness." It makes the first word stronger: not just dark, but the deepest, death-like dark. The tradition hears it as "shadow of death" and many scholars as "pitch darkness". Either way the line pictures the prisoners as already halfway into the grave.

Isaiah · 1

  1. Isaiah 9:2 צַלְמָ֔וֶת deep darkness

    The people walking in darkness have seen a great light; on those living in the land of the shadow of death, a light has dawned.

    Here: The strongest word for darkness in Hebrew: pitch-black, deathly gloom. It is the darkness of dungeons, mine shafts and the underworld. As the word is pointed in the Hebrew text, it sounds like "death-shadow", and many think it really means just "deep darkness." Either way, it describes the region at its lowest point.

Jeremiah · 2

  1. Jeremiah 2:6 וְצַלְמָ֔וֶת and deep darkness

    They did not ask, ‘Where is the LORD who brought us up from the land of Egypt, who led us through the wilderness, through a land of deserts and pits, a land of drought and darkness, a land where no one travels and no one lives?’

    Here: Total, frightening darkness. The traditional vowels make it 'shadow of death', which may be an old play on the word. Either way it describes a place where life cannot be sustained and terror closes in. It alliterates with tsiyyah (ts…ts).

  2. Jeremiah 13:16 לְצַלְמָ֔וֶת into deep darkness

    Give glory to the LORD your God before He brings darkness, before your feet stumble on the dusky mountains. You wait for light, but He turns it into deep gloom and thick darkness.

    Here: The blackest darkness Hebrew can name, the word made famous by Psalm 23:4. As vocalized it sounds like 'shadow of death'. Whatever its origin, here it means pitch-black, deathly darkness.

Amos · 1

  1. Amos 5:8 צַלְמָ֔וֶת deep darkness

    He who made the Pleiades and Orion, who turns darkness into dawn and darkens day into night, who summons the waters of the sea and pours them over the face of the earth—the LORD is His name—

    Here: The thickest, most oppressive darkness, here the black of night that God turns into dawn. The traditional spelling hears 'shadow' + 'death' in it, giving a menacing overtone.

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