Aramaic word · H8238
שְׁפַרְפָּר
bishparpara'
dawn
Dawn, daybreak: the first faint light before the sun is fully up. The doubled form (š-p-r-p-r) is the kind of word Aramaic uses for flickering or growing light. The exact origin is not certain.
A Biblical Aramaic word, from the parts of the Old Testament written in Aramaic. Why Aramaic?
Appears once in the Aramaic of the Old Testament. ·
What it means
dawn, early morning
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
Dawn, daybreak: the first faint light before the sun is fully up. The doubled form (š-p-r-p-r) is the kind of word Aramaic uses for flickering or growing light. It is usually linked to a root meaning 'be bright, be fair' (compare Hebrew šāpar, 'be pleasing, fair', and šipʾrā, 'brightness', in Job 26:13). The exact origin is not certain.
- Against the English
KJV and WEB 'very early in the morning' captures the timing but loses the picture of first light. BSB and NIV 'at the first light of dawn' are closer. ESV has 'at break of day'.
- Used elsewhere in the period
It appears only here in the Hebrew Bible. Later Aramaic dialects keep it: Jewish Aramaic in the Targums and Talmud, and Syriac (šaparpārā), all meaning dawn (per HALOT, Aramaic section). That confirms the sense.
Where it appears
Daniel · 1
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Daniel 6:19 בִּשְׁפַּרְפָּרָ֖א at <the> dawn
At the first light of dawn, the king got up and hurried to the den of lions.
Here: 'At the dawn'. This word appears only here in the Bible. It means the very first glimmer of morning, before full daylight. Its doubled sound (shpar-par) gives it a vivid, poetic feel.
Word data: STEPBible.org (CC BY 4.0), main text only.