layil · night

What it means

layil (לַיִל) is a Hebrew word of the Bible that means “night”.

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. The dark time between evening and morning, made for resting or keeping watch.

From Brown-Driver-Briggs (1906)

Word study

Night.

• Night, separated from day Genesis 1:5Genesis 1:14
• “Forty days and forty nights” Genesis 7:4
• The night of the going out from Egypt; midnight Exodus 12:29Exodus 12:31
• “By day and by night”: always Exodus 13:21Psalms 1:2

How we translate it

“Night” 195 times, “nights” 18, “tonight” 13, “midnight” 7. חֲצִי הַלַּיְלָה, “the half of the night”, is translated “midnight”.

How it is translated

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

• night ×195
• nights ×18
• tonight ×13
• midnight ×7

Related words

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

Where it appears

• Genesis×25
• Exodus×18
• Leviticus×2
• Numbers×9
• Deuteronomy×9
• Joshua×7
• Judges×12
• Ruth×4
• 1 Samuel×14
• 2 Samuel×8
• 1 Kings×6
• 2 Kings×5
• 1 Chronicles×2
• 2 Chronicles×5
• Nehemiah×9
• Esther×2
• Job×17
• Psalms×28
• Proverbs×3
• Ecclesiastes×2
• Song of Songs×3
• Isaiah×18
• Jeremiah×12
• Lamentations×3
• Hosea×2
• Amos×1
• Obadiah×1
• Jonah×3
• Micah×1
• Zechariah×2

• Genesis 1:5

  And Elohim called the light “Day,” and the darkness he called “Night.” And there was evening and there was morning, one day.

• Genesis 1:14

  And Elohim said, “Let there be lights in the vault of the heavens to separate the day from the night, and let them be for signs and for appointed times and for days and years;

• Genesis 1:16

  And Elohim made the two great lights: the greater light to rule the day, and the lesser light to rule the night, and the stars.

• Genesis 1:18

  and to rule over the day and over the night, and to separate the light from the darkness. And Elohim saw that it was good.

• Genesis 7:4

  For in seven more days I will send rain on the earth forty days and forty nights, and I will wipe out all that exists, which I have made, from the face of the ground.”

• Genesis 7:12

  And the rain was on the earth forty days and forty nights.

• Genesis 8:22

  While all the days of the earth remain, seedtime and harvest, cold and heat, summer and winter, day and night will not cease.”

• Genesis 14:15

  He divided his forces against them by night, he and his servants, and defeated them and pursued them as far as Hobah, which is north of Damascus.

• Genesis 19:5

  They called to Lot and said to him, “Where are the men who came to you tonight? Bring them out to us, so that we may know them.”

• Genesis 19:33

  So they made their father drink wine that night; and the older went in and lay with her father, and he did not know when she lay down or when she rose.

• Genesis 19:34

  The next day the older said to the younger, “Look, I lay last night with my father; let us make him drink wine tonight also, and you go in and lie with him, so that we may preserve offspring from our father.”

• Genesis 19:35

  So they made their father drink wine that night also, and the younger got up and lay with him, and he did not know when she lay down or when she rose.

• Genesis 20:3

  But Elohim came to Abimelech in a dream by night and said to him, “Look, you are a dead man because of the woman whom you have taken, for she is married to a husband.”

• Genesis 26:24

  YHWH appeared to him that night and said, “I am the Elohim of Abraham your father. Do not be afraid, for I am with you, and I will bless you and multiply your offspring because of Abraham my servant.”

• Genesis 30:15

  She said to her, “Is it a small thing that you have taken my husband? Would you take my son’s mandrakes too?” Rachel said, “Then he will lie with you tonight in exchange for the mandrakes of your son.”

• Genesis 30:16

  Jacob came from the field in the evening, and Leah went out to meet him and said, “To me you must come, for I have surely hired you with the mandrakes of my son.” So he lay with her that night.

• Genesis 31:24

  But Elohim came to Laban the Aramean in a dream by night and said to him, “Be careful not to speak with Jacob either good or bad.”

• Genesis 31:39

  What was torn by beasts I did not bring to you; I bore the loss of it; from my hand you required it, whether stolen by day or stolen by night.

• Genesis 31:40

  This is how I was: by day the heat consumed me, and the frost by night, and my sleep fled from my eyes.

• Genesis 32:13

  He spent the night there that night, and he took from what had come into his hand a gift for Esau his brother:

• Genesis 32:21

  So the gift passed on ahead of him, while he spent the night that night in the camp.

• Genesis 32:22

  He rose that night and took his two wives, his two slave women, and his eleven children, and crossed the ford of the Jabbok.

• Genesis 40:5

  And the two of them dreamed a dream, each his own dream, in one night, each according to the interpretation of his dream: the cupbearer and the baker who belonged to the king of Egypt, who were confined in the prison.

• Genesis 41:11

  We dreamed a dream in one night, I and he; each according to the interpretation of his dream we dreamed.

• Genesis 46:2

  Elohim spoke to Israel in visions of the night and said, “Jacob, Jacob!” And he said, “Here I am.”

• Exodus 10:13

  So Moses stretched out his staff over the land of Egypt, and YHWH drove an east wind over the land all that day and all the night; when it was morning, the east wind had brought the locusts.

• Exodus 11:4

  Moses said, “Thus says YHWH: ‘About midnight I will go out through the midst of Egypt,

• Exodus 12:8

  They shall eat the meat that night, roasted in fire, and unleavened bread; with bitter herbs they shall eat it.

• Exodus 12:12

  I will pass through the land of Egypt this night and strike every firstborn in the land of Egypt, both people and animals; and against all the gods of Egypt I will execute judgments. I am YHWH.

• Exodus 12:29

  At midnight YHWH struck every firstborn in the land of Egypt, from the firstborn of Pharaoh who sat on his throne to the firstborn of the captive who was in the dungeon, and every firstborn of the livestock.

• Exodus 12:30

  Pharaoh rose up in the night, he and all his servants and all Egypt; and there was a great outcry in Egypt, for there was no house where there was not one dead.

• Exodus 12:31

  He called Moses and Aaron by night and said, “Get up, go out from among my people, both you and the sons of Israel; go, serve YHWH as you have said.

• Exodus 12:42

  It was a night of watching for YHWH, to bring them out of the land of Egypt; this night is for YHWH a night of watching for all the sons of Israel throughout their generations.

• Exodus 13:21

  YHWH went before them by day in a pillar of cloud to lead them along the way, and by night in a pillar of fire to give light to them, so that they could travel by day and by night.

• Exodus 13:22

  The pillar of cloud by day and the pillar of fire by night did not depart from before the people.

• Exodus 14:20

  and it came between the camp of the Egyptians and the camp of Israel. And there was the cloud and the darkness, and it lit up the night; and the one did not come near the other all night.

• Exodus 14:21

  Moses stretched out his hand over the sea, and YHWH drove back the sea by a strong east wind all night and made the sea dry land, and the waters were split.

• Exodus 24:18

  Moses entered the midst of the cloud and went up onto the mountain; and Moses was on the mountain forty days and forty nights.

• Exodus 34:28

  And he was there with YHWH forty days and forty nights; bread he did not eat, and water he did not drink. And he wrote on the tablets the words of the covenant, the ten words.

• Exodus 40:38

  For the cloud of YHWH was on the dwelling by day, and fire was in it by night, before the eyes of all the house of Israel, in all their journeys.

And 193 more times.