Hebrew word · H7839

שַׁחֲרוּת

vehashacharut

dark hair

Found only here in the Bible. Two derivations are possible: (1) from shachor, 'black', meaning 'the time of black hair' = youth, the prime of life (the sense in later rabbinic Hebrew, where shacharut means youth); (2) from shachar, 'dawn', meaning 'the dawn of life'.

Appears once in the Hebrew Old Testament. ·

What it means

1) blackness

1a) blackness (of hair indicating youth)

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 Ecclesiastes 11:10

Range of meaning

Found only here in the Bible. Two derivations are possible: (1) from shachor, 'black', meaning 'the time of black hair' = youth, the prime of life (the sense in later rabbinic Hebrew, where shacharut means youth); (2) from shachar, 'dawn', meaning 'the dawn of life'.

Against the English

KJV 'youth', WEB and ESV 'dawn of life', NASB 'prime of life', BSB and NIV 'vigor', YLT 'the age'. Each picks one interpretation of a word whose exact picture is uncertain.

Used elsewhere in the period

Later Hebrew (Mishnah, Talmud) uses shacharut for youth, which supports the 'black hair' derivation. Proverbs 20:29 contrasts the strength of young men with the gray hair (seivah) of the old. Ancient versions guessed: LXX 'folly' (anoia), Vulgate 'pleasure' (voluptas).

Where it appears

Ecclesiastes · 1

  1. Ecclesiastes 11:10 וְהַֽשַּׁחֲר֖וּת and the black hair

    So banish sorrow from your heart, and cast off pain from your body, for youth and vigor are fleeting.

    Here: This word occurs only here in the Bible. Most likely it means 'the time of black hair', the prime of life before the hair turns gray, set against the gray head of 12:5 ('the almond tree blossoms'). Some link it instead to shachar, 'dawn', giving 'the dawn of life'. Either way it is a picture of youth at its peak.

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