arafel · thick darkness

What it means

arafel (עֲרָפֶל) is a Hebrew word of the Bible that means “thick darkness”.

Thick, dark cloud; deep darkness.

How to say it

Approximate pronunciation. Vowels sound as in Spanish (a as in father, e as in bed, i as in machine, o as in note, u as in rule); the syllable in bold is stressed. The voice is your device's.

Its senses in the Bible

1. A dark heavy mass of vapor, where God hides himself.

From Brown-Driver-Briggs (1906)

How it is translated

The words this translation uses for it, most frequent first.

• thick cloud ×12
• dense cloud ×2
• thick darkness ×1

Related words

Words of the same family, by Strong’s numbering.

Where it appears

• Exodus×1
• Deuteronomy×2
• 2 Samuel×1
• 1 Kings×1
• 2 Chronicles×1
• Job×2
• Psalms×2
• Isaiah×1
• Jeremiah×1
• Ezekiel×1
• Joel×1
• Zephaniah×1

• Exodus 20:21

  The people stood far off, while Moses drew near to the dense cloud where Elohim was.

• Deuteronomy 4:11

  You came near and stood at the foot of the mountain, and the mountain was burning with fire to the heart of the heavens: darkness, cloud, and thick cloud.

• Deuteronomy 5:22

  These words YHWH spoke to all your assembly on the mountain from the midst of the fire, the cloud, and the thick cloud, with a loud voice, and he did not add more. And he wrote them on two tablets of stone and gave them to me.

• 2 Samuel 22:10

  He bent the heavens and came down, and thick cloud was under his feet.

• 1 Kings 8:12

  Then Solomon said, “YHWH has said that he would dwell in the thick cloud.

• 2 Chronicles 6:1

  Then Solomon said, “YHWH has said that he would dwell in the thick cloud.

• Job 22:13

  And you say, ‘What does El know? Through the thick cloud can he judge?

• Job 38:9

  when I made the cloud its garment and thick cloud its swaddling band,

• Psalms 18:9

  He bent the heavens and came down, and thick cloud was under his feet.

• Psalms 97:2

  Cloud and thick cloud surround him; righteousness and justice are the base of his throne.

• Isaiah 60:2

  For look, darkness will cover the earth, and thick cloud the peoples; but upon you YHWH will rise, and his glory will be seen upon you.

• Jeremiah 13:16

  Give to YHWH your Elohim glory before he brings darkness, and before your feet stumble on the mountains of twilight, and you wait for light, and he turns it into the shadow of death, makes it into dense cloud.

• Ezekiel 34:12

  As a shepherd looks after his herd on the day he is among his scattered sheep, so I will look after my sheep, and I will deliver them from all the places where they were scattered on a day of cloud and thick cloud.

• Joel 2:2

  a day of darkness and gloom, a day of cloud and thick darkness; like the dawn spread over the mountains, a people great and mighty; its like has never been from of old, and after it there will not be again, to the years of generation after generation.

• Zephaniah 1:15

  A day of wrath is that day, a day of distress and straits, a day of devastation and desolation, a day of darkness and gloom, a day of cloud and thick cloud,