צָהֹב ṣāhōb – yellow
Semantic Fields:
Colours
Author(s):
John E. Hartley
First published: 2026-05-20
Citation: John E. Hartley, צָהֹב ṣāhōb – yellow,
Semantics of Ancient Hebrew Database (sahd-online.com), 2026
Introduction
Grammatical type: adjective.
Occurrences: 3x HB (3/0/0); 0x Sir; 1x Qum; 0x Inscr. (Total: 4x).
- Torah: Lev 13:30, 32, 36;
- Qumran: 4Q266 6.1.7.
A.1 In Lev 13:31 where MT is שָׁחֹר LXX has ξανθίζουσα, possibly indicating that its Heb. text read צָהֹב. Gradwohl considers this Heb. lexeme as one of two possible emendations for making the MT intelligible (Gradwohl 1963:52). The other option is to delete אין. These proposed emendations, however, find no support either in Heb. mss or the versions other than the LXX. LXX’s gloss may have resulted from the translator’s effort to provide a more logical reading rather than from having a different Heb. text. Since the MT is intelligible in that the presence of black hair signifies that a person is healthy, there is no need to emend שׁחר.
7. Conclusion
A.1 צָהֹב, a noun the qatul pattern, is a basic colour lexeme for ‘yellow’, including yellow with a reddish tint, i.e., ‘golden, blond’. When it became a basic colour lexeme is hard to determine since there are no attestations of צהב in biblical Heb. other than as a description of the colour of damaged hair in a sore on a person’s skin in Lev 13. In Brenner’s judgement (1982:103), צהב was added to the Heb. colour vocabulary in the early post-exilic period, bringing the Heb. vocabulary to Stage IV in the Berlin-Kay scale. However, if the occurrences of this lexeme in Lev 13 stand in the oldest stratum of that text (cf. Koch 1959, especially pp. 79-83), צהב is attested in Early BHeb. Initially it may have referenced ‘yellow’ in limited syntagmatic relationships, such as with ‘hair’. That is, it was used similarly to English ‘blond’, a term that modifies only a few objects like ‘hair’ and ‘furniture’. In Rabbinic Heb. צהב references luminosity more than hue.
For this entry, see further John E. Hartley, The Semantics of Ancient Hebrew Colour Lexemes (2010), 139-142 (Printed publications).
Bibliography
For the abbreviations see the List of Abbreviations.
Athalya Brenner, Colour Terms in the Old Testament (JSOTSup, 21), Sheffield: JSOT Press.