ʼăphêlâh — H653

Definition

feminine noun

duskiness, figuratively, misfortune; concrete, concealment

1. darkness, gloominess, calamity
2. wickedness (fig.)

Usually translated as

darkness, gloominess, dark, thick

Origin

feminine of H651

• ʼâphêl (H651)

Greek equivalents

• skoteinós (G4652)

Occurrences

ʼăphêlâh occurs 10 times in the King James.

Distribution of the word across the Bible: Exodus (1), Deuteronomy (1), Proverbs (2), Isaiah (3), Jeremiah (1), Joel (1), Zephaniah (1)

• Exodus 10:22 — And Moses stretched forth his hand toward heaven; and there was a thick (אֲפֵלָ֛ה) darkness in all the land of Egypt three days:
• Deuteronomy 28:29 — And thou shalt grope at noonday, as the blind gropeth in darkness (בָּאֲפֵלָ֔ה), and thou shalt not prosper in thy ways: and thou shalt be only oppressed and spoiled evermore, and no man shall save thee.
• Proverbs 4:19 — The way of the wicked is as darkness (כָּֽאֲפֵלָ֑ה): they know not at what they stumble.
• Proverbs 7:9 — In the twilight, in the evening, in the black and dark (וַאֲפֵלָֽה) night:
• Isaiah 8:22 — And they shall look unto the earth; and behold trouble and darkness, dimness of anguish; and they shall be driven to darkness (וַאֲפֵלָ֖ה).
• Isaiah 58:10 — And if thou draw out thy soul to the hungry, and satisfy the afflicted soul; then shall thy light rise in obscurity, and thy darkness (וַאֲפֵלָתְךָ֖) be as the noonday:
• Isaiah 59:9 — Therefore is judgment far from us, neither doth justice overtake us: we wait for light, but behold obscurity; for brightness, but we walk in darkness (בָּאֲפֵל֥וֹת).
• Jeremiah 23:12 — Wherefore their way shall be unto them as slippery ways in the darkness (בָּֽאֲפֵלָ֔ה): they shall be driven on, and fall therein: for I will bring evil upon them, even the year of their visitation, saith the LORD.
• Joel 2:2 — A day of darkness and of gloominess (וַאֲפֵלָ֗ה), a day of clouds and of thick darkness, as the morning spread upon the mountains: a great people and a strong; there hath not been ever the like, neither shall be any more after it, even to the years of many generations.
• Zephaniah 1:15 — That day is a day of wrath, a day of trouble and distress, a day of wasteness and desolation, a day of darkness and gloominess (וַאֲפֵלָ֔ה), a day of clouds and thick darkness,