Word study
Daylight
5 Hebrew and 3 Greek words behind this English word
The original-language words that the Berean Standard Bible translates with “daylight”. English often uses one word where Hebrew or Greek has several, each with its own shade of meaning. Under each word are verses where it is translated this way; choose the word itself for its full study: every verse, how else it is translated, the forms it takes and what the dictionaries say.
At a glance
How often each original word is translated “daylight” or one of its forms.
Compare the Hebrew words side by side Compare the Greek words side by side
Hebrew and Aramaic words (Old Testament)
- יוֹם yômdaytranslated this way 3 times of its 2,013 uses · Strong’s H3117Noun · Translated: day 1,009, days 524, today 141, time 72Full study and all 1,744 verses →
Genesis 29:7 “Look,” said Jacob, “it is still broad daylight; it is not yet time to gather the livestock. Water the sheep and take them back to pasture.”
- אוֹר ôrlighttranslated this way 3 times of its 119 uses · Strong’s H216Noun · Translated: light 86, lightning 5, dawn 3, daylight 3Full study and all 108 verses →
Job 3:9 May its morning stars grow dark; may it wait in vain for daylight; may it not see the breaking of dawn.
Job 3:16 Or why was I not hidden like a stillborn child, like an infant who never sees daylight?
- שֶׁמֶשׁ shemeshsuntranslated this way 2 times of its 108 uses · Strong’s H8121Noun · Translated: sun 88, time the sun 3, sunset 3, broad daylight 2Full study and all 101 verses →
Numbers 25:4 Then the LORD said to Moses, “Take all the leaders of the people and execute them in broad daylight before the LORD, so that His fierce anger may turn away from Israel.”
2 Samuel 12:12 You have acted in secret, but I will do this thing in broad daylight before all Israel.’”
- אִשָּׁה ishshâhwoman, wife, femaletranslated this way 1 time of its 711 uses · Strong’s H802Noun · Translated: wife 251, woman 172, wives 92, women 88Full study and all 638 verses →
2 Samuel 12:11 This is what the LORD says: ‘I will raise up adversity against you from your own house. Before your very eyes I will take your wives and give them to another, and he will lie with them in broad daylight.
- יוֹמָם yômâmdaytime, by daytranslated this way 1 time of its 51 uses · Strong’s H3119Adverb · Translated: day 48, daytime 1, broad daylight 1, daily 1Full study and all 50 verses →
Ezekiel 12:3 Therefore, son of man, pack your bags for exile. In broad daylight, set out from your place and go to another as they watch. Perhaps they will understand, though they are a rebellious house.
Greek words (New Testament)
- ἡμέρα hēméraa daytranslated this way 5 times of its 368 uses · Strong’s G2250Noun · Translated: day 186, days 131, time 19, daily 7Full study and all 353 verses →
Luke 6:13 When daylight came, He called His disciples to Him and chose twelve of them, whom He also designated as apostles:
John 11:9 Jesus answered, “Are there not twelve hours of daylight? If anyone walks in the daytime, he will not stumble, because he sees by the light of this world.
- φῶς phōslight, a source of lighttranslated this way 2 times of its 71 uses · Strong’s G5457Noun · Translated: light 63, daylight 2, fire 1, firelight 1Full study and all 60 verses →
Matthew 10:27 What I tell you in the dark, speak in the daylight; what is whispered in your ear, proclaim from the housetops.
Luke 12:3 What you have spoken in the dark will be heard in the daylight, and what you have whispered in the inner rooms will be proclaimed from the housetops.
- γίνομαι gínomaiI come into being, am borntranslated this way 1 time of its 544 uses · Strong’s G1096Verb · Translated: become 58, came 42, became 34, happened 28Full study and all 515 verses →
Acts 23:12 When daylight came, the Jews formed a conspiracy and bound themselves with an oath not to eat or drink until they had killed Paul.
How to study a word well
- Start from the verse, not the dictionary. Find which Hebrew or Greek word stands in the verse you are studying. One English word often translates several different original words.
- Read every place the word is used. A word means what its writers used it to mean. The list of verses and the count by book show its range, and who uses it most.
- Look at how it is translated. A word rendered five different ways has a wider meaning than any one English word can carry.
- Notice the form. A command is not a statement, and a passive verb is something done to the subject. The form in your verse is part of the meaning.
- See what it keeps company with. The words that appear beside it again and again show how the Bible itself connects ideas.
- Then read the dictionaries. They give the considered view of scholars, with their evidence.
- Come back to the verse. Context decides. A word does not carry every one of its meanings into every verse, and where a word came from does not settle what it means in a sentence written centuries later.
Scripture text and translation counts: Berean Standard Bible. Full entry: Brown, Driver and Briggs, A Hebrew and English Lexicon of the Old Testament (1906, public domain), in the digital edition Brown-Driver-Briggs Enhanced by unfoldingWord (Joel Ruark, J. de Joode), based on data by Eliran Wong and Stephen Ku; its additions are used under CC BY 4.0. Strong’s Hebrew Dictionary: Open Scriptures Hebrew Bible Project, CC BY 4.0. Hebrew-to-English verse numbering: original work of the Open Scriptures Hebrew Bible available at https://github.com/openscriptures/morphhb, CC BY 4.0. We reformatted the data, linked the references to this site’s Bible text and left out words in other scripts that the source holds only as images. These are historical reference works; an entry gives its authors’ view, and a word’s meaning in any verse depends on how it is used there.