Skip to content

יָרוֹק yārōq – green(s)

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

Introduction

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

  • Ketubim: Job 39:8;
  • Qumran: 4Q422 3.11 (4QparGenEx 3.11).

7. Conclusion

A.1 In its single occurrence in BHeb. and in 4Q422 3.11 ירוק is used substantively for ‘greens, vegetation’, similarly in Rabbinic Heb. Certainly it references green vegetation, but it would also be used for vegetation that has turned yellowish brown.1 Kellermann states that ‘im Heb. der Schwerpunkt auf der Kennzeichnung des Grünens in der Pflanzenwelt liegt’ (Kellermann 1982:949). In Semitic languages the root ירק covers a range of colour from ‘green’ to ‘yellow’. The colour referent for this lexeme depends on the kind of vegetation, the amount of water it has received, and the season of the year.

For this entry, see further John E. Hartley, The Semantics of Ancient Hebrew Colour Lexemes (2010), 127-130 (Printed publications).

Bibliography

For the abbreviations see the List of Abbreviations.

Kellermann 1982
Saunders & van Brakel 1997

  1. Anthropologists have found that several languages, including Indo-European languages, have a lexeme for ‘yellow/green’; cf. Saunders and van Brakel 1997:174b-175a. ↩

Semantics of Ancient Hebrew Database