Word study

Gloom

6 Hebrew and 2 Greek words behind this English word

The original-language words that the Berean Standard Bible translates with “gloom”. 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 “gloom” 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)

  • אֲפֵלָה ăphêlâhdarkness, gloominess, calamitytranslated this way 4 times of its 10 uses · Strong’s H653Noun  ·  Translated: gloom 3, darkness 2

    Proverbs 4:19 But the way of the wicked is like the darkest gloom; they do not know what makes them stumble.

    Isaiah 59:9 Therefore justice is far from us, and righteousness does not reach us. We hope for light, but there is darkness; for brightness, but we walk in gloom.

    Full study and all 10 verses →
  • צַלְמָוֶת tsalmâvethdeath-shadow, deep shadowtranslated this way 3 times of its 17 uses · Strong’s H6757Noun  ·  Translated: shadow of death 5, darkness 3, gloom 2, deep shadow 2

    Job 3:5 May darkness and gloom reclaim it, and a cloud settle over it; may the blackness of the day overwhelm it.

    Jeremiah 13:16 Give glory to the LORD your God before He brings darkness, before your feet stumble on the dusky mountains. You wait for light, but He turns it into deep gloom and thick darkness.

    Full study and all 16 verses →
  • מָעוּף mâûphid.translated this way 1 time of its 1 use · Strong’s H4588Noun  ·  Translated: gloom 1

    Isaiah 8:22 Then they will look to the earth and see only distress and darkness and the gloom of anguish. And they will be driven into utter darkness.

    Full study and its 1 verse →
  • מוּעָף mûâphgloomtranslated this way 1 time of its 1 use · Strong’s H4155Adjective  ·  Translated: gloom 1

    Isaiah 9:1 Nevertheless, there will be no more gloom for those in distress. In the past He humbled the land of Zebulun and the land of Naphtali, but in the future He will honor the Way of the Sea, beyond the Jordan, Galilee of the nations:

    Full study and its 1 verse →
  • עָרַב ârabbecome evening; grow dark (?)translated this way 1 time of its 3 uses · Strong’s H6150Verb  ·  Translated: close 1, evening 1, turns to gloom 1

    Isaiah 24:11 In the streets they cry out for wine. All joy turns to gloom; rejoicing is exiled from the land.

    Full study and all 3 verses →
  • אָפֵל âphêlgloomytranslated this way 1 time of its 1 use · Strong’s H651Adjective  ·  Translated: even gloom 1

    Amos 5:20 Will not the Day of the LORD be darkness and not light, even gloom with no brightness in it?

    Full study and its 1 verse →

Greek words (New Testament)

How to study a word well
  1. 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.
  2. 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.
  3. Look at how it is translated. A word rendered five different ways has a wider meaning than any one English word can carry.
  4. 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.
  5. See what it keeps company with. The words that appear beside it again and again show how the Bible itself connects ideas.
  6. Then read the dictionaries. They give the considered view of scholars, with their evidence.
  7. 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.