Darkness
עֲלָטָהStrong’s H5939alatah (a-la-tah)
Appears in 4 verses of the Old Testament
In short
Alatah is the Hebrew word usually translated “darkness”. It appears in 4 verses of the Old Testament.
“And it came to pass, that, when the sun went down, and it was dark, behold a smoking furnace, and a burning lamp that passed between those pieces.”
Meaning
- Thick darkness
How it's translated
- in the darkness 3
- and darkness 1
Word-by-word English from the STEPBible tagged text.
Where it's used most
- Ezekiel 3
- Genesis 1
2 books in all.
Explore in Scripture
- Ezekiel 12:6In their sight shalt thou bear it upon thy shoulders, and carry it forth in the twilight: thou shalt cover thy face, that thou see not the ground: for I have set thee for a sign unto the house of Israel.
- Ezekiel 12:7And I did so as I was commanded: I brought forth my stuff by day, as stuff for captivity, and in the even I digged through the wall with mine hand; I brought it forth in the twilight, and I bare it upon my shoulder in their sight.
- Ezekiel 12:12And the prince that is among them shall bear upon his shoulder in the twilight, and shall go forth: they shall dig through the wall to carry out thereby: he shall cover his face, that he see not the ground with his eyes.
Hebrew dictionary
עֲלָטָה alatah · darkness
thick darkness
From STEPBible’s Hebrew lexicon (based on Brown-Driver-Briggs).
Webster's 1828 Dictionary
How the English word “darkness” was understood when the King James Version was still the common Bible of English readers.
D'ARKNESS, noun
- Absence of light.“And darkness was on the face of the deep” Genesis 1:2
- Obscurity; want of clearness or perspicuity; that quality or state which renders any thing difficult to be understood; as the darkness of counsels.
- A state of being intellectually clouded; ignorance.“Men loved darkness rather than light” John 3:19
- A private place; secrecy; privacy.“What I tell in darkness that speak ye in light” Matthew 10:27
All definitions
- Infernal gloom; hell; as utter darkness Matthew 22:13
- Great trouble and distress; calamities; perplexities.“A day of clouds and thick darkness Is” Joel 2:2
- Empire of Satan.“Who hath delivered us from the power of darkness” Colossians 1:13
- Opakeness.
Noah Webster, An American Dictionary of the English Language (1828). Verse references are checked against the KJV. Read the full entry.
Verses are from the King James Version. Word meanings come from the original Hebrew, not from any one translation.