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shebanq

שׁחר šāḥar – to grow black

Semantic Fields: Colours   
Author(s): John E. Hartley
First published: 2026-05-20
Citation: John E. Hartley, שׁחר šāḥar – to grow black,
               Semantics of Ancient Hebrew Database (sahd-online.com), 2026

Introduction

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

  • Ketubim: Job 30:30;
  • Sira: 25:17C.

7. Conclusion

A.1 The hiph. of שׁחר describes the producing of a colour ranging from ‘dark brown to black’. Its sole attested use in the Heb. Scriptures is to describe the darkening of the skin of a very ill person. Cognates suggest that the range of senses for the verb שׁחר are ‘become a dark brown or blackish colour, be charred, be blackened, and become sooty’. In Sir the expression ‘a face’s becoming dark’ is an idiom for ‘being shamed’.

For this entry, see further John E. Hartley, The Semantics of Ancient Hebrew Colour Lexemes (2010), 66-68 (Printed publications).

Semantics of Ancient Hebrew Database