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לַ֫יְלָה

night

‘night’ is one of 3 main senses fuller range ↓

H3915 Strong's Hebrew
layil Transliteration
/lah'-yil/ Pronunciation
Usage in the Hebrew Bible 235 appearances

Compare with another word →

About this entry

At a glance — auto-summarized from this page’s data, not written by a person. Every figure links to its source below. This summary describes the numbers; it doesn’t interpret them.

The Hebrew noun ליל centers on the idea of “night.” First canonically at Genesis 1:5, it enters the text early. It turns up in 223 verses across 30 books, a common footprint. Its meaning spans more than one sense — see its full sense range. It clusters with לול, ללאה and לילית under a shared root. For the data behind this summary, explore the sense tree and the renderings breakdown below.

Gloss history

Strong's 1890 vs modern scholarship

Strong's · 1890
night
Modern gloss
night
Strong's 1890 agrees
Strong's 1890 and current BDB scholarship align on this entry's primary sense — a good signal that the gloss above is unambiguous and stable. Download share card

About this word

Strong's H3915 catalogs a Hebrew word from the Hebrew Old Testament.

These counts are not copied from any lexicon or concordance. They are computed here, from the morphology-tagged Hebrew Old Testament. What Lemma adds →

223
distinct verses
The word appears in 223 distinct verses.
30 / 39
OT books
The word appears in 30 of 39 Old Testament books.
Genesis 1:5
first appearance
The earliest occurrence is in Genesis 1:5.
Zechariah 14:7
last appearance
The latest occurrence is in Zechariah 14:7.
#200
by frequency
Top 250 most frequent Hebrew words (rank 200 of 8,640 Hebrew words by occurrence).

View all 223 occurrences in the concordance →


Most concentrated in

By section of the Old Testament

  • Pentateuch 60 · 27%
  • Historical 72 · 32%
  • Wisdom 52 · 23%
  • Prophets 39 · 17%

By traditional corpus

Conventional, traditional groupings — biblical authorship is debated, so this is a traditional corpus grouping, not an authorship claim. Each share is this word’s portion of its verses in that division of the Hebrew canon. Each figure is a share of the word’s 223 distinct verses.

  • Prophets (Nevi'im) 86 verses · 39%
  • Writings (Ketuvim) 77 verses · 35%
  • Torah (Pentateuch) 60 verses · 27%

How translations render this word

Counts come from each version’s own published word-to-Strong’s tagging or interlinear alignment — an approximate guide to how each version renders this word, not a word-level alignment the data otherwise carries. Because each total is that version’s own tagged count, the per-version totals vary from one another and need not match the appearance or distinct-verse counts above. These counts may also differ from a printed concordance because Lemma counts each distinctly tagged rendering and does not collapse phrase taggings into a single head-word total. This is a fixed set of word-tagged versions (KJV, ASV, BSB, ULT) and does not change with the reading translation you choose elsewhere. Each version’s license is shown beside its name below (and on Sources).

  • King James Version: Night 155×, Nights 14×, All night 7×
  • American Standard Version: Night 138×, Nights 14×, All the night 9×
  • Berean Standard Bible: Night 173×, Nights 14×, Tonight 9×
  • unfoldingWord Literal Text: Night 181×, Nights 16×, Tonight 14×

King James Version Public Domain

Renders H3915 across 224 tagged occurrences — most commonly:

  • “Night” 155×
  • “Nights” 14×
  • “All night” 7×
  • “All the night” 7×
  • “All that night” 5×
  • “Came to pass the same night” 3×
  • “Came to pass that night” 2×
  • “Night season” 2×
  • “Same night” 2×
  • “Thee in the night” 2×
  • “Thee this night” 2×

Plus 23 renderings that appear only once — usually multi-word phrases or single function words the recovered tagging swept in, not distinct renderings. Not rendered by a distinct English word in 9 further occurrences.

American Standard Version Public Domain

Renders H3915 across 222 tagged occurrences — most commonly:

  • “Night” 138×
  • “Nights” 14×
  • “All the night” 9×
  • “All night” 6×
  • “Came to pass the same night” 4×
  • “To-night” 3×
  • “All that night” 2×
  • “Every night” 2×
  • “He rose up by night” 2×
  • “Thee” 2×
  • “Thee in the night” 2×
  • “Thee this night” 2×

Plus other, less common renderings. Plus 34 renderings that appear only once — usually multi-word phrases or single function words the recovered tagging swept in, not distinct renderings.

Berean Standard Bible Public Domain

Renders H3915 across 221 tagged occurrences — most commonly:

  • “Night” 173×
  • “Nights” 14×
  • “Tonight” 9×
  • “During the night” 5×
  • “Or night” 5×

Plus 15 renderings that appear only once — usually multi-word phrases or single function words the recovered tagging swept in, not distinct renderings. Not rendered by a distinct English word in 12 further occurrences.

unfoldingWord Literal Text CC BY-SA 4.0

Renders H3915 across 255 tagged occurrences — most commonly:

  • “Night” 181×
  • “Nights” 16×
  • “Tonight” 14×
  • “During” 8×
  • “And” 6×
  • “In” 6×
  • “Night of” 4×
  • “On” 4×
  • “The” 3×
  • “During the night” 2×
  • “For” 2×

Plus 9 renderings that appear only once — usually multi-word phrases or single function words the recovered tagging swept in, not distinct renderings.


Senses in the full BDB

What do BDB’s symbols mean?

BDB uses these scholarly abbreviations:

Symbol Meaning
𝔊 the Septuagint (the ancient Greek translation, LXX)
𝔙 the Vulgate (the Latin translation)
𝔖 the Syriac version (the Peshitta)
𝔗 the Targum (the Aramaic translation)
ψ the Psalms
√ root (the underlying root or stem)
‖ parallel passage (a synonymous or contrasted parallel)
† the dagger: every passage where the word occurs is cited

The 2 senses and sub-senses the full Brown-Driver-Briggs lexicon distinguishes for this word, in lexicon order (not ranked by frequency), with BDB’s own verbatim wording and sub-sense lettering. Shown in Hebrew script with BDB’s own scholarly abbreviations. The condensed entry is in the Lexicon Entry tab. See also the Forms in the corpus table below.

  • 1. lit. night, opp. day, Gn 8:22 (J), Dt 1:33 + very often (v. יוֹם); alternation of day and night divinely ordained Gn 1:5 (P), Je 33:20(×2), 25 +; מִיּוֹם עַד־ל׳ Is 38:12, 13 i.e. within one whole day; as close of day, עַד־ל׳ 2 Ch 35:14; as time of sacred חָג (לֵיל) Is 30:29; of suffering and weeping לֵילוֹת עָמָל Jb 7:3, cf. ψ 6:7; 77:3 etc.; of pious desires, prayer, praise, meditation, etc. (sometimes ‖ by day) Is 26:9 Jb 35:10 ψ 1:2; 22:3; 42:9; 77:7; 88:2; 92:3; 119:5(×2), cf. 16:7; 17:3; of night-service in Temple 134:1; of sudden assault, or destruction, Is 15:1 Je 6:5 Ob 5 Jb 27:20; 34:20, 25; 36:20; divided into watches ψ 90:4; לֵיל שִׁמֻּרִים Ex 12:42 v. sub שׁמר; c. num., denoting duration of time, †forty days and forty nights Gn 7:4, 12 Ex 24:18; 34:28 Dt 9:9, 11, 18, 25; 10:10 1 K 19:8; three days and three nights (שְׁלשָׁה לֵילוֹת) 1 S 30:12 Jon 2:1; seven days and seven nights (שִׁבְעַת לֵילוֹת) Jb 2:13†; חֲלוֹם הַלּ׳ †Gn 20:3; 31:24 (both E), 1 K 3:5; מַרְאֹת הַלּ׳ Gn 46:2 (E); חֶזְיוֹן ל׳ Jb 20:8; 33:15, חֶזְיֹנוֹת ל׳ 4:13, חֲלוֹם חֲזוֹן ל׳ Is 29:7 (cf. Mi 3:6 infr.)†; בִּן־ל׳ Jon 4:10(×2) v. בֵּן 8. p. 121 b. Chiefly in adverb. phr.:—בַּחֲצִי הַלּ׳ at midnight Ex 12:29 + (v. חֲצִי, חָצוֹת p. 345 b), cf. בְּתוֹךְ הַלּ׳ †1 K 3:20, בְּאִישׁוֹן ל׳ Pr 7:9†; בַּלּ׳ הַזֶּה Ex 12:8, 12 on this night (P; the night of which one is speaking); בַּלּ׳ הַהוּא on that night Gn 19:35 (J) + often, (P only Nu 14:1); בַּל׳ הוּא Gn 19:33; 30:16; so הַלּ׳ alone †1 S 14:34, but del. 𝔊 We Kit, cf. Dr; Klo Bu read ליהוה; הַלּ׳ to-night †Gn 19:5, 34; 30:15 (all J), Nu 22:8, 19 (E), Jos 2:2; 4:3 (both JE), 2 S 17:1, 16; 19:8 Ru 1:12; 3:2, 13, opp. מָחָר to-morrow 1 S 19:11; הַלּ׳ = this night just past, last night 1 S 15:16 Zc 1:8; כָּל־הַלּ׳ all night Ho 7:6 (opp. בֹּקֶר), Ex 14:20, 21 (J), Nu 11:32 Jos 10:9 (both JE), Ju 16:2(×2); 19:25 1 S 15:11; 31:12 2 S 2:29, 32; 4:7; opp. כל־היום ההוא (of continuous action) 1 S 19:24; 28:20 Is 62:6, opp. יומם ψ 78:14; בְּכָל־ל׳ ψ 6:7 every night (prob.); cf. כָּל־הַלֵּילוֹת Is 21:8 all the nights (opp. יוֹמָם)†; especially לַיְלָה by night Nu 22:20 (E) Jos 8:3 (JE), Dt 16:1 Nu 9:16 (P) + 51 times; of these Gn 14:15 and Ex 13:21, 22 (J) + 25 times opp. יוֹמָם, covering all the time; otherwise Ju 6:27 (opp. יוֹמָם); לַיְלָה וָיוֹם night and day 1 K 8:29 Is 27:3 Est 4:16; less often לֵילוֹת ψ 16:7; הַלּ׳ by night †2 K 25:4 (ל׳ in ‖ Je 52:7), Zc 1:8 Ne 4:16 (opp. הַיּוֹם)†; בַּלּ׳ id., Je 6:5 + 18 times (chfly late; often opp. בַּיּוֹם, יוֹמָם, etc.); בַּלֵּילוֹת †ψ 92:3 (opp. בַּבֹּקֶר), 134:1 Ct 3:1, 8; בְּלַיְלָה Ne 9:19 (opp. בְּיוֹמָם); בְּלֵיל Is 15:1(×2); כַּל׳ as at night Jb 5:14 (opp. צָהֳרָ֑יִם)†. e.g. Genesis 8:22
  • 2. fig. שִׁיתִי כַּלַיִל צִלֵּךְ Is 16:3 sim. of shadow of Zion as protection; more often in gloomy sense, of avenging calamity without divine guidance or comfort לַיְלָה מֵחָזוֹן Mi 3:6; personal distress Jb 35:10; judgment perhaps also Jb 36:20 (Ew De Di Da; night of death Bu; ‘unintelligible’ Siegf); מַה־מִּלַּיְלָה מַה־מִּלֵּיל Is 21:11 i. e. what hour of the night of calamity is it? cf. v 12 (opp. בֹּקֶר). e.g. Isaiah 16:3

Senses from the full Brown-Driver-Briggs lexicon (Brown, Driver, Briggs; Oxford 1906 — public domain), digitized via Sefaria, supplemented by the OpenScriptures HebrewLexicon (CC BY 4.0). Full attribution on Sources.


Word origin

n.m. Gn 40:5 night (NH id.; MI15 (ב)ללה; Aramaic לֵילָא, ܠܻܠܝܳܐ, ܠܶܠܝܳܐ; Arabic لَيْلٌ, لَيْلَةٌ; Ethiopic ሌሊት all = night; Assyrian lîlâtu, evening DlHWB; meaning of √ dubious; form probably לילי, and ending ָה radical, and not ה loc., NöM 127 DlProl. 128 Ges§ 90, 2. c. R. Köi. p. 57, R. 1);—abs. לַ֫יְלָה Gn 19:33 + 214 times + 2 times Qr (v. infr.); לָ֑יְלָה Gn 1:5 + 3 times; לַ֫יִל Is 16:3 + Pr 31:18 La 2:19 Kt (Qr לַיְלָה); לֵיל Is 15:1(×2); 21:11; cstr. לֵיל Ex 12:42 Is 30:29; pl. abs. לֵילוֹת 1 S 30:12 + 4 times; cstr. id., Is 21:8 + 5 times;—

— Brown-Driver-Briggs (Oxford 1906, public domain), digitized via Sefaria, supplemented by the OpenScriptures HebrewLexicon (CC BY 4.0). See Sources.

Derived from לול (lûwl) (H3883) — staircase.

Part of speech: Noun Masculine TWOT: 1111


Jastrow Dictionary

A second Hebrew/Aramaic lexicon for comparison, covering Aramaic and post-biblical (Talmudic, Targumic, Midrashic) usage that the biblical-Hebrew BDB does not. Matched by lemma rather than by Strong’s number, so a lemma may carry more than one Jastrow headword (shown separately below), and the entries cover usage well beyond the Bible.

ליל

  • , Tosef. B. Bath. I, 4, read: לוּל.

לֵיל

  • , Targ. Y. II, Deut. XXXII, 10 = יְלֵיל, v. יְלָלָא

לַיִל

  • (b. h.)
  • 1. night, evening; darkness; metaph. suffering, misery. Cant. R. to II, 17 לֵילָן של מלכיות the misery (of exile) under the governments; לילן של מצוים the sufferings in Egypt; v. פִּיחָה. Y. Taan. I, 64ᵃ top, v. בֹּקֶר. Ber. 3ᵃ ג׳ משמרות הוי הל׳ the night is divided into three watches. Zeb. V, 3 ליום וָלַ׳ וכ׳ the same day and the night following to midnight. Snh. 96ᵃ שנעשה עמו מעשה ל׳ Ms. M. (v. Rabb. D. S. a. l.) night-work was done for him (the stars helping, v. Jud. V, 20); a. v. fr.—Pl. לֵילוֹת, constr. לֵילֵי (also used as a sing.: night-time, v. next w.). Ber. I, 5 בַּלֵּ׳ at night (in the night prayer). Taan. 23ᵃ בל׳ רביעיות ובל׳ שבתות (not רביעית) in the nights of Wednesdays and Sabbaths. Sifra B’ḥuck. ch. I מל׳ שבת לל׳ שבת every Sabbath night; Lev. R. s. 35 בל׳ שבתות. Pes. 71ᵃ ל׳ יו"ט האחרון the night of the last (eighth) day of the festival; Succ. 48ᵃ; a. fr. e.g. Judges 5:20
  • 2. pr. n. Laylah (ref. to Job III, 3), name of the angel of night and of conception. (ref. to Job III, 3), name of the angel of night and of conception. Snh. 96ᵃ. Nidd. 16ᵇ e.g. Job 3:3

A Dictionary of the Targumim, the Talmud Babli and Yerushalmi, and the Midrashic Literature (Marcus Jastrow; London, Luzac, 1903) — Public Domain. Digitized via Sefaria. Digitized via Sefaria. Full attribution on Sources.


Forms in the corpus

The 82 distinct written forms H3915 takes in the Hebrew Bible, most frequent first — each parse links to that state’s occurrences in the concordance. Hebrew forms include their vowel points and cantillation, so a single lemma takes many written forms.

Form Parsing Example Uses
לָ֑יְלָה Noun, Common, Masculine, Singular, Absolute Deuteronomy 9:11 21
בַּ/לַּ֣יְלָה Noun, Common, Masculine, Singular, Absolute Esther 6:1 14
הַ/לָּ֑יְלָה Noun, Common, Masculine, Singular, Absolute Exodus 10:13 12
לַ֗יְלָה Noun, Common, Masculine, Singular, Absolute Deuteronomy 1:33 12
לָֽיְלָה Noun, Common, Masculine, Singular, Absolute Deuteronomy 16:1 12
לַ֔יְלָה Noun, Common, Masculine, Singular, Absolute Deuteronomy 9:9 11
הַ/לַּ֔יְלָה Noun, Common, Masculine, Singular, Absolute Exodus 11:4 9
הַ/לַּ֨יְלָה֙ Noun, Common, Masculine, Singular, Absolute Hosea 7:6 7
הַ/לָּֽיְלָה Noun, Common, Masculine, Singular, Absolute Exodus 14:20 7
וָ/לַ֔יְלָה Noun, Common, Masculine, Singular, Absolute 2 Chronicles 6:20 7
בַּ/לַּ֥יְלָה Noun, Common, Masculine, Singular, Absolute Genesis 30:16 6
הַ/לַּ֗יְלָה Noun, Common, Masculine, Singular, Absolute Exodus 12:29 6
לַ֣יְלָה Noun, Common, Masculine, Singular, Absolute Amos 5:8 5
וָ/לַ֖יְלָה Noun, Common, Masculine, Singular, Absolute Genesis 8:22 4
לַ֖יְלָה Noun, Common, Masculine, Singular, Absolute Exodus 40:38 4
לַ֥יְלָה Noun, Common, Masculine, Singular, Absolute Isaiah 27:3 4
בַ/לַּ֣יְלָה Noun, Common, Masculine, Singular, Absolute Proverbs 31:18 3
בַּ/לָּ֑יְלָה Noun, Common, Masculine, Singular, Absolute Genesis 31:40 3
בַּ/לָּֽיְלָה Noun, Common, Masculine, Singular, Absolute Jeremiah 36:30 3
הַ/לַּ֖יְלָה Noun, Common, Masculine, Singular, Absolute Deuteronomy 9:25 3
הַ/לַּ֛יְלָה Noun, Common, Masculine, Singular, Absolute Isaiah 62:6 3
וָ/לָ֑יְלָה Noun, Common, Masculine, Singular, Absolute 1 Kings 8:59 3
לַ֝֗יְלָה Noun, Common, Masculine, Singular, Absolute Job 27:20 3
לַ֤יְלָה Noun, Common, Masculine, Singular, Absolute Isaiah 34:10 3
ב/ליל Noun, Common, Masculine, Singular, Absolute Lamentations 2:19 2
בַּ/לֵּילֽוֹת Noun, Common, Masculine, Plural, Absolute Psalms 92:2 2
בַּ/לַּ֖יְלָה Noun, Common, Masculine, Singular, Absolute Ecclesiastes 2:23 2
הַ/לַּ֜יְלָה Noun, Common, Masculine, Singular, Absolute 1 Kings 3:20 2
הַ/לַּ֣יְלָה Noun, Common, Masculine, Singular, Absolute 2 Samuel 2:29 2
הַ/לַּיְלָה֒ Noun, Common, Masculine, Singular, Absolute 1 Samuel 31:12 2
וְ֝/לַ֗יְלָה Noun, Common, Masculine, Singular, Absolute Psalms 22:2 2
וָ/לָֽיְלָה Noun, Common, Masculine, Singular, Absolute Exodus 13:21 2
וּ/בַ/לַּ֔יְלָה Noun, Common, Masculine, Singular, Absolute Ecclesiastes 8:16 2
לֵילֽוֹת Noun, Common, Masculine, Plural, Absolute 1 Samuel 30:12 2
לַ֭יְלָה Noun, Common, Masculine, Singular, Absolute Job 17:12 2
לַיְלָה֒ Noun, Common, Masculine, Singular, Absolute 1 Samuel 26:7 2
בַ/לַּ֗יְלָה Noun, Common, Masculine, Singular, Absolute Lamentations 2:19 1
בַ/לָּ֔יְלָה Noun, Common, Masculine, Singular, Absolute Jeremiah 6:5 1
בַ/לָּֽיְלָה Noun, Common, Masculine, Singular, Absolute Psalms 90:4 1
בְּ/לֵ֛יל Noun, Common, Masculine, Singular, Construct Isaiah 15:1 1
בְּ/לֵ֞יל Noun, Common, Masculine, Singular, Construct Isaiah 15:1 1
בְּ/לַ֣יְלָה Noun, Common, Masculine, Singular, Absolute Genesis 40:5 1
בְּ/לַ֥יְלָה Noun, Common, Masculine, Singular, Absolute Genesis 41:11 1
בְּ/לַ֨יְלָה֙ Noun, Common, Masculine, Singular, Absolute Nehemiah 9:19 1
בַּ/לֵּיל֔וֹת Noun, Common, Masculine, Plural, Absolute Song of Solomon 3:1 1
בַּ/לֵּילּֽוֹת Noun, Common, Masculine, Plural, Absolute Song of Solomon 3:8 1
בַּ/לַּ֔יְלָה Noun, Common, Masculine, Singular, Absolute Isaiah 26:9 1
בַּ/לַּ֗יְלָה Noun, Common, Masculine, Singular, Absolute Lamentations 1:2 1
בַּ/לַּ֧יְלָה Noun, Common, Masculine, Singular, Absolute Genesis 19:35 1
בַּ/לַּֽיְלָה Noun, Common, Masculine, Singular, Absolute Genesis 32:21 1
בַּ֫/לָּ֥יְלָה Noun, Common, Masculine, Singular, Absolute Psalms 77:6 1
הַ/לֵּילֽוֹת Noun, Common, Masculine, Plural, Absolute Isaiah 21:8 1
הַ/לַּ֕יְלָה Noun, Common, Masculine, Singular, Absolute Joshua 10:9 1
הַ/לַּ֤יְלָה Noun, Common, Masculine, Singular, Absolute Exodus 12:42 1
הַ/לַּ֥יְלָה Noun, Common, Masculine, Singular, Absolute Job 3:6 1
הַ֝/לַּ֗יְלָה Noun, Common, Masculine, Singular, Absolute Psalms 78:14 1
וְ/הַ/לַּ֥יְלָה Noun, Common, Masculine, Singular, Absolute Job 3:3 1
וְ/לֵיל֥וֹת Noun, Common, Masculine, Plural, Construct Job 7:3 1
וְ/לַ֖יְלָה Noun, Common, Masculine, Singular, Absolute Nehemiah 6:10 1
וְ/לַ֛יְלָה Noun, Common, Masculine, Singular, Absolute Exodus 13:21 1

The 60 most common forms are shown; 22 rarer forms follow in the full concordance.


Same root — word family

Other BDB entries built from the same root as H3915, grouped by Strong’s listed origin. These share a root / origin per the lexicon — not necessarily a shared meaning. Each links to that word’s own entry.

Derives from

Shares the same root

Proper names from this root

People and places named from this root — a name, not an additional meaning of the word.

Compare all same-root words → 1 of the same-root words is a proper name (a person or place). They share a root, not necessarily a meaning.


Septuagint verse parallels

This word appears in 204 verses that also exist in the Greek Old Testament (Septuagint), out of the 223 Hebrew verses it occurs in. You can read those verses in Greek by switching the Old Testament edition to the Septuagint.

Read these verses in the Septuagint

This is a verse-level parallel only — the same verses exist in both the Hebrew and Greek Old Testaments. No word-level Hebrew↔Greek correspondence is claimed: the data carries no such alignment, so no Greek word is shown as this Hebrew word’s translation. Coverage is not total — the Septuagint omits the deuterocanon and renumbers the Psalms, so some Hebrew verses have no direct Greek parallel.

Reading settings

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