Bible Encyclopedia: Blackness

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International Standard Bible Encyclopedia

BLACKNESS

(kimririm, "obscurations"; qadhruth, "darkness"; gnophos, "darkness" zophos "blackness"): Terms rarely used but of special significance in picturing the fearful gloom and blackness of moral darkness and calamity. Job, cursing, the day of his birth, wishes that it, a dies ater ("dead black day"), might be swallowed up in darkness (Job 3:5). Because of Israel's spiritual infidelity Yahweh clothes the heavens with the blackness of sackcloth (Isaiah 50:3), the figure being that of the inky blackness of ominous, terrifying thunder clouds. The fearful judgment against sin under the old dispensation is illustrated by the appalling blackness that enveloped smoking, burning, quaking Sinai at the giving of the law (Hebrews 12:18; compare Exodus 19:16-19; Exodus 20:18). The horror of darkness culminates in the impenetrable blackness of the under-world, the eternal abode of fallen angels and riotously immoral and ungodly men (Jude 1:13; see also Jude 1:6 and 2 Peter 2:4, 17). Human language is here too feeble to picture the m oral gloom and rayless night of the lost: "Pits (the King James Version "chains") of darkness" (compare the ninth plague of Egypt, "darkness which may be felt" (Exodus 10:21)). Wicked men are "wandering stars," comets that disappear in "blackness of darkness. reserved for ever." In art this figurative language has found majestic and awe-inspiring expression in Dore's illustrations of Dante's Purgatory and Milton's Paradise Lost.

Dwight M. Pratt

Greek

2217. zophos -- deep gloom
... blackness, darkness, mist. Akin to the base of nephos; gloom (as shrouding
like a cloud) -- blackness, darkness, mist. see GREEK nephos. ...
//strongsnumbers.com/greek2/2217.htm - 7k

1105. gnophos -- darkness, gloom
... Word Origin from dnophos (darkness) Definition darkness, gloom NASB Word Usage darkness
(1). blackness. Akin to nephos; gloom (as of a storm) -- blackness. ...
//strongsnumbers.com/greek2/1105.htm - 6k

Strong's Hebrew

7839. shacharuth -- blackness
... 7838, 7839. shacharuth. 7840 . blackness. Transliteration: shacharuth
Phonetic Spelling: (shakh-ar-ooth') Short Definition: life. ...
/hebrew/7839.htm - 6k

7815. shechor -- blackness
... 7814, 7815. shechor. 7816 . blackness. Transliteration: shechor Phonetic
Spelling: (shekh-ore') Short Definition: soot. Word Origin ...
/hebrew/7815.htm - 6k

6940. qadruth -- darkness, gloom
... 6939, 6940. qadruth. 6941 . darkness, gloom. Transliteration: qadruth Phonetic
Spelling: (kad-rooth') Short Definition: blackness. ... blackness. ...
/hebrew/6940.htm - 6k

3650. kimrir -- darkness, gloominess
... 3649, 3650. kimrir. 3651 . darkness, gloominess. Transliteration: kimrir Phonetic
Spelling: (kim-reer') Short Definition: blackness. ... blackness. Redupl. ...
/hebrew/3650.htm - 6k

6289. parur -- perhaps beauty
... blackness. From pa'ar; properly, illuminated, ie A glow; as noun, a flush (of anxiety) --
blackness. see HEBREW pa'ar. 6288, 6289. parur. 6290 . ...
/hebrew/6289.htm - 6k

Library

Hebrews xii. 18-24
... Hebrews xii. 18-24. Hebrews xii.18-24 "For ye are not come unto a fire [3422] that
might be touched and that burned, and unto blackness, and darkness, and ...
/.../homily xxxii hebrews xii 18-24.htm

The Wordless Book
... is something about this in the text, for the person who used this prayer said,
"Wash me," so he was black and needed to be washed; and the blackness was of ...
/.../spurgeon/spurgeons sermons volume 57 1911/the wordless book.htm

Look not Upon Me Because I am Dark-Colored, Because the Sun Hath ...
... have I not kept. Why is it that the betrothed asks that they will not look
upon her in her blackness? Because the soul, entering ...
//christianbookshelf.org/guyon/song of songs of solomon/5 look not upon me.htm

I am Black, but Comely, O Ye Daughters of Jerusalem, as the Tents ...
... that she is black. What is this thy blackness, O thou incomparable maiden?
(we say to her;) tell us, we pray thee. I am black, she ...
//christianbookshelf.org/guyon/song of songs of solomon/4 i am black but.htm

Whether all Sorrow is Contrary to all Pleasure?
... Because, just as whiteness and blackness are contrary species of color, so pleasure
and sorrow are contrary species of the soul's passions. ...
/.../aquinas/summa theologica/whether all sorrow is contrary.htm

The Life of Mr. Andrew Melvil.
... into ward, he would not be released, unless it should be to bring him to the scaffold,
that the decree of the council was altered, and Blackness was appointed ...
/.../howie/biographia scoticana scots worthies/the life of mr andrew.htm

The King --Continued.
... It is like some distant thunder-cloud which grows on the horizon into ominous blackness,
and seems to be filling its ashen-coloured depths with store of ...
//christianbookshelf.org/maclaren/the life of david/x the kingcontinued.htm

Sin and Grace
... but death came by sin and after death comes judgment, and, to the ungodly, the doom
that never can be desired, the eternal wrath whose blackness the wildest ...
/.../spurgeon/spurgeons sermons volume 54 1908/sin and grace.htm

The Death of Christ for his People
... heart, so vile and so deceitful. I thought that then I had seen the exceeding
blackness of my sin. Alas! I had not seen enough of ...
/.../spurgeon/spurgeons sermons volume 46 1900/the death of christ for.htm

Of the Law and a Christian
... 2. When he gave it the first time, it was with thunderings and lightnings, with
blackness and darkness, with flame and smoke, and a tearing sound of the trumpet ...
//christianbookshelf.org/bunyan/miscellaneous pieces/of the law and a.htm

Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary

(n.) The quality or state of being black; black color; atrociousness or enormity in wickedness.

Thesaurus

Blackness (13 Occurrences)
... (n.) The quality or state of being black; black color; atrociousness or enormity
in wickedness. Int. Standard Bible Encyclopedia. BLACKNESS. ...
/b/blackness.htm - 12k

Black (52 Occurrences)
... regard one with black looks. 5. (adv.) Sullenly; threateningly; maliciously;
so as to produce blackness. 6. (n.) That which is destitute ...
/b/black.htm - 24k

Nether (19 Occurrences)
... 2 Peter 2:17 These are wells without water, clouds driven by a storm; for whom
the blackness of darkness has been reserved forever. (See RSV). ...
/n/nether.htm - 12k

Reserved (28 Occurrences)
... 2 Peter 2:17 These are wells without water, clouds driven by a storm; for
whom the blackness of darkness has been reserved forever. ...
/r/reserved.htm - 15k

Blackest (5 Occurrences)
... Blackest (5 Occurrences). 2 Peter 2:17 These are wells without water, clouds driven
by a storm; for whom the blackness of darkness has been reserved forever. ...
/b/blackest.htm - 7k

Storm (62 Occurrences)
... (WEY). Hebrews 12:18 For you have not come to a mountain that might be touched,
and that burned with fire, and to blackness, darkness, storm, (WEB WEY NIV). ...
/s/storm.htm - 25k

Darkness (177 Occurrences)
... 13). Noah Webster's Dictionary. 1. (n.) The absence of light; blackness;
obscurity; gloom. 2. (n.) A state of privacy; secrecy. 3 ...
/d/darkness.htm - 41k

Forever (426 Occurrences)
... Amen. (WEB NAS). 2 Peter 2:17 These are wells without water, clouds driven by a
storm; for whom the blackness of darkness has been reserved forever. (WEB). ...
/f/forever.htm - 36k

Vilifying (1 Occurrence)
... Vilifying (1 Occurrence). Proverbs 20:20 Whoso is vilifying his father and his mother,
Extinguished is his lamp in blackness of darkness. (YLT). ...
/v/vilifying.htm - 6k

Out-places (22 Occurrences)
... (YLT). Lamentations 4:8 Darker than blackness hath been their visage, They have
not been known in out-places, Cleaved hath their skin unto their bone, It hath ...
/o/out-places.htm - 13k

Bible Concordance

Blackness (13 Occurrences)

Hebrews 12:18 For you have not come to a mountain that might be touched, and that burned with fire, and to blackness, darkness, storm,
(WEB KJV ASV WBS YLT)

2 Peter 2:17 These are wells without water, clouds driven by a storm; for whom the blackness of darkness has been reserved forever.
(WEB ASV)

Jude 1:13 wild waves of the sea, foaming out their own shame; wandering stars, for whom the blackness of darkness has been reserved forever.
(WEB KJV ASV WBS)

Job 3:5 Let darkness and the shadow of death stain it; let a cloud dwell upon it; let the blackness of the day terrify it.
(KJV WBS NAS RSV NIV)

Proverbs 7:9 in the twilight, in the evening of the day, in the blackness of night and the darkness.
(DBY JPS YLT)

Proverbs 20:20 Whoever curses his father or his mother, his lamp shall be put out in blackness of darkness.
(WEB ASV YLT)

Isaiah 50:3 I clothe the heavens with blackness, and I make sackcloth their covering."
(WEB KJV JPS ASV DBY WBS YLT NAS RSV)

Lamentations 4:8 Their visage is darker than blackness, they are not known in the streets; their skin cleaveth to their bones, it is withered, it is become like a stick.
(DBY YLT)

Joel 2:2 a day of darkness and gloominess, a day of clouds and thick darkness, as the dawn spread upon the mountains; a great people and a strong; there hath not been ever the like, neither shall be any more after them, even to the years of many generations.
(See JPS RSV NIV)

Joel 2:6 Before their face the people shall be much pained: all faces shall gather blackness.
(KJV JPS WBS)

Amos 5:8 Go for help to him who makes Orion and the Pleiades, by whom the deep dark is turned into morning, who makes the day black with night; whose voice goes out to the waters of the sea, sending them out over the face of the earth: the Lord is his name;
(See NIV)

Nahum 2:10 She is empty, and void, and waste: and the heart melteth, and the knees smite together, and much pain is in all loins, and the faces of them all gather blackness.
(KJV JPS WBS)

Zephaniah 1:15 That day is a day of wrath, a day of distress and anguish, a day of trouble and ruin, a day of darkness and gloom, a day of clouds and blackness,
(WEB NIV)

Subtopics

Blackness

Blackness: Blackness of Darkness

Blackness: Figurative

Related Terms

Black (52 Occurrences)

Nether (19 Occurrences)

Reserved (28 Occurrences)

Blackest (5 Occurrences)

Storm (62 Occurrences)

Darkness (177 Occurrences)

Forever (426 Occurrences)