or · light

What it means

or (אוֹר) is a Hebrew word of the Bible that means “light”.

Daylight, the light of a lamp or of the heavenly bodies. Figuratively, life, joy or well-being.

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 brightness that comes from the sun, the day or a lamp and lets one see.
2. Life, joy, salvation; the light of God's face.

From Brown-Driver-Briggs (1906)

Word study

Light: that of the day, of the sun or of a lamp; figuratively, life, joy, salvation. BDB: illumination or, concretely, luminary, in every sense (including lightning, happiness…). It comes from אוֹר, “to give light” (H215).

• “Let there be light” Genesis 1:3Genesis 1:4
• “YHWH {is} my light and my salvation” Psalms 27:1
• “A lamp to my feet {is} your word, and a light” Psalms 119:105
• “The people who walked in darkness have seen a great light” Isaiah 9:2
• “A light of the nations” Isaiah 42:6Isaiah 60:1

How we translate it

“Light” 119 times, “lights” 1, “broad daylight” 1. Always “light”; its opposite, חֹשֶׁךְ, is “darkness”.

How it is translated

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

• light ×119
• broad daylight ×1
• lights ×1

Related words

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

Where it appears

• Genesis×6
• Exodus×1
• Judges×2
• 1 Samuel×3
• 2 Samuel×2
• 2 Kings×1
• Nehemiah×1
• Job×32
• Psalms×19
• Proverbs×4
• Ecclesiastes×3
• Isaiah×27
• Jeremiah×5
• Lamentations×1
• Ezekiel×2
• Hosea×1
• Amos×3
• Micah×3
• Habakkuk×2
• Zephaniah×1
• Zechariah×2

• Genesis 1:3

  And Elohim said, “Let there be light,” and there was light.

• Genesis 1:4

  And Elohim saw the light, that it was good; and Elohim separated the light from the darkness.

• 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 1:18

  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.

• Exodus 10:23

  They did not see one another, and no one rose from his place for three days; but all the sons of Israel had light in their dwellings.

• Judges 16:2

  It was told to the Gazites, “Samson has come here.” And they surrounded the place and lay in wait for him all night at the gate of the city, and kept quiet all night, saying, “Until the light of morning; then we will kill him.”

• Judges 19:26

  And the woman came at the approach of morning and fell down at the entrance of the house of the man where her master was, until it was light.

• 1 Samuel 14:36

  Saul said, “Let us go down after the Philistines by night and plunder among them until the light of the morning, and let us not leave a man of them.” They said, “Do all that is good in your eyes.” And the priest said, “Let us draw near here to Elohim.”

• 1 Samuel 25:34

  For indeed, as YHWH lives, the Elohim of Israel, who has kept me back from harming you, if you had not hurried and come to meet me, surely there would not have been left to Nabal, by the light of morning, so much as one who urinates against a wall.”

• 1 Samuel 25:36

  Abigail came to Nabal, and look, he had a feast in his house like the feast of a king. Nabal’s heart was merry within him, and he was very drunk; so she did not tell him anything, small or great, until the light of morning.

• 2 Samuel 17:22

  David got up, and all the people who were with him, and they crossed the Jordan; by the light of morning not even one was missing who had not crossed the Jordan.

• 2 Samuel 23:4

  is like the light of morning when the sun rises, a morning without clouds; from the brightness, from the rain, springs vegetation from the earth.’

• 2 Kings 7:9

  They said to one another, “We are not doing right. This day is a day of good news, and we are keeping silent. If we wait until the light of morning, guilt will find us. Now come, let us go and tell the house of the king.”

• Nehemiah 8:3

  And he read in it before the square that is in front of the Water Gate, from the light until the middle of the day, in front of the men and the women and those who could understand; and the ears of all the people were toward the book of the law.

• Job 3:9

  Let the stars of its twilight be dark; let it hope for light and there be none, and may it not see the eyelids of the dawn,

• Job 3:16

  Or like a stillborn child hidden I would not be, like infants who did not see light.

• Job 3:20

  Why does he give light to the one who suffers, and life to the bitter of soul,

• Job 12:22

  He uncovers deep things out of darkness, and brings out to light the shadow of death.

• Job 12:25

  They grope in darkness and without light, and he makes them wander like a drunkard.

• Job 17:12

  Night they turn into day: ‘Light is near,’ they say, in the face of darkness.

• Job 18:5

  Also the light of the wicked is extinguished, and the spark of his fire does not shine.

• Job 18:6

  The light grows dark in his tent, and his lamp above him is extinguished.

• Job 18:18

  They drive him from light into darkness, and from the world they chase him away.

• Job 22:28

  You will decide a matter, and it will be established for you, and on your ways light will shine.

• Job 24:13

  They are among those who rebel against the light; they do not recognize its ways, and do not remain in its paths.

• Job 24:14

  With the light the murderer rises; he kills the poor and the needy, and in the night he is like the thief.

• Job 24:16

  They dig through houses in the dark; by day they shut themselves in; they do not know the light.

• Job 25:3

  Is there a number to his bands? And upon whom does his light not rise?

• Job 26:10

  A limit he has drawn in a circle on the face of the waters, to the limit of light with darkness.

• Job 28:11

  He bandages the weeping of the rivers, and what is hidden he brings out to the light.

• Job 29:3

  when he made shine his lamp over my head, and by his light I walked through darkness;

• Job 29:24

  When I smiled on them, they did not believe it, and the light of my face they did not cast down.

• Job 30:26

  For I hoped for good, and evil came; and I waited for light, and gloom came.

• Job 31:26

  if I looked at the light when it shone, and the moon moving in splendor,

• Job 33:28

  He has rescued his soul from passing into the pit, and his life will see the light.

• Job 33:30

  to bring back his soul from the pit, to light him up with the light of the living.

• Job 36:30

  Look, he spreads his light over himself, and the roots of the sea he covers.

• Job 36:32

  He covers his palms with light, and commands it to strike the mark.

• Job 37:3

  Under all the heavens he lets it loose, and his light to the edges of the earth.

• Job 37:11

  Also with moisture he loads the cloud; he scatters the cloud of his light.

And 81 more times.