קַדְרוּת qadrūt – darkness
Semantic Fields:
Colours
Author(s):
John E. Hartley
First published: 2026-05-20
Citation: John E. Hartley, קַדְרוּת qadrūt – darkness,
Semantics of Ancient Hebrew Database (sahd-online.com), 2026
Introduction
Grammatical type: noun.
Occurrences: 1x HB (0/1/0); 0x Sir; 1x Qum; 0x Inscr. (Total: 2x).
- Nebiim: Isa 50:3;
- Qumran: 1QH 13.31.
A.1 In Ezek 26:16 Dalman and BHS recommend emending MT חרדות, ‘trembling’, to קדרות (ASP, vol. 5, p. 214; accepted by Fohrer 1955:151, though he deletes v. 1aβ-b). קדרות, then, describes the princes of Tyre as putting on dark clothing to mourn the downfall of their magnificent city based on the view that a technical use of קדרות stands for the wearing of dark, unkempt clothing. Neither Cooke nor Zimmerli accept this emendation due to the lack of textual evidence and the fact that the collocation לבשׁ שׁממה, which is similar to הלבישׁ חרדות, is used metaphorically for utter despair in Ezek 7:27 (Cooke 1936:292; Zimmerli 1969:610).
7. Conclusion
A.1 קדרות stands for ‘darkness’, particularly the darkness that comes over the earth when heavy, dark clouds fill the sky. It also references ‘dark clothing’ that is worn as an expression of mourning and despondency.
For this entry, see further John E. Hartley, The Semantics of Ancient Hebrew Colour Lexemes (2010), 53-55 (Printed publications).
Bibliography
For the abbreviations see the List of Abbreviations.