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shebanq

חוּר ḥūr – white

Semantic Fields: Colours   
Author(s): John E. Hartley
First published: 2026-05-20
Citation: John E. Hartley, חוּר ḥūr – white,
               Semantics of Ancient Hebrew Database (sahd-online.com), 2026

Introduction

Grammatical type: noun masculine.
Occurrences: 2x HB (0/0/2); 0x Sir; 1x Qum; 0x Inscr. (Total: 3x).

  • Ketubim: Est 1:6; 8:15;
  • Qumran: 4Q405 23.2.9.

7. Conclusion

A.1 The focal colour of the root חור, a root that is well-attested in several West Semitic languages, is ‘white’. Its presence in BHeb., though infrequent, is solidly attested, for it appears in several forms, namely verb, noun, and adjective. In the attested uses of חור in LBHeb., it conveys ‘brilliant white’, especially in its standing for high quality white fabrics that symbolized royalty. In 4Q405 this lexeme captures the colour visible at the appearing of the spirits of colour that attend the divine king. Brenner holds that חור was among the basic stock ancient Sem. colour lexemes available to Heb. speakers along with לבן (Brenner 1982:133). חור was used in the earliest period of Heb. Then, it appears to have fallen out of use, reentering the stock vocabulary in the post-exilic period, possibly under the influence of Aram. (Brenner 1982:133).

For this entry, see further John E. Hartley, The Semantics of Ancient Hebrew Colour Lexemes (2010), 83-87 (Printed publications).

Bibliography

For the abbreviations see the List of Abbreviations.

Brenner 1982
Athalya Brenner, Colour Terms in the Old Testament (JSOTSup, 21), Sheffield: JSOT Press.
Semantics of Ancient Hebrew Database