StrongerBible

yare'aḥ

יָרֵחַ

HebrewH3394“moon”

Appears 27 times · tap a cell to see the verses

Gen 37:9Deu 4:19Deu 17:3Jos 10:12Jos 10:132Ki 23:5Job 25:5Job 31:26Psa 8:3(4)Psa 72:5Psa 72:7Psa 89:37(38)Psa 104:19Psa 121:6Psa 136:9Psa 148:3Ecc 12:2Isa 13:10Isa 60:19Isa 60:20Jer 8:2Jol 2:31(3:4)
Root family
Word studyyah-RAY-akhnoun

What yare'aḥ means

the moon: the light that rules the night sky

TranslatabilityDirectCertaintySettled

This is the ordinary Hebrew word for the moon, the bright body that lights the night. In the Bible the moon is never a god. It is one of the lamps God hung in the sky, set there to mark off seasons and to govern the darkness, and it does exactly what it was made to do.

Because it keeps such faithful, unbroken time, the moon becomes a natural picture of things that last: a promise or a throne is said to endure "as long as the moon." And because everyone watched it, its failure is dreaded. When the prophets picture God stepping in to judge, one of their favorite images is the moon going dark or turning the color of blood, the dependable light suddenly gone.

The same faithful lamp was also the great temptation. The nations around Israel worshiped the moon, and Israelites were repeatedly warned not to bow to it. So the one word quietly carries both a warning and a comfort: the thing your neighbors called a god is only a light, and the God who made it keeps it burning on schedule.

Gen 37:9Deu 4:19Deu 17:3Jos 10:12Jos 10:132Ki 23:5Job 25:5Job 31:26Psa 8:3(4)Psa 72:5Psa 72:7Psa 89:37(38)

What scholars say about yare'aḥ

The lexica (HALOT, BDB, DCH) are unanimous that yareach denotes the moon as a celestial body; there is no dispute about its sense. The noun is cognate with the West Semitic lunar deity (Ugaritic yrḫ, the moon-god Yarikh), and much of the scholarly literature (TDOT, and commentary on Deuteronomy and 2 Kings) reads the Hebrew Bible's treatment of the moon as a deliberate polemic against the astral cults of the ancient Near East: the moon is reduced to a created luminary appointed for calendar and light (Genesis 1; Psalm 104:19), while veneration of it is legislated against (Deuteronomy 4:19; 17:3) and condemned in the reforming and prophetic literature (2 Kings 23:5; Jeremiah 8:2; Job 31:26). The word must be distinguished from the homographic yerach (H3391, "month") and from chodesh ("new moon, month").

Sources

  • HALOT, s.v. יָרֵחַlexicon
  • BDB, s.v. יָרֵחַlexicon
  • G. Sauer, "יָרֵחַ," in TDOTtheological-dictionary

AI-generated word study · claude-opus-4-8

All attested forms of יָרֵחַ

m s absolute

יָרֵחַ, יָּרֵחַ

Jos 10:12, Jos 10:13, Job 25:5, Job 31:26, Psa 8:3, Psa 72:5, Psa 72:7, Psa 89:37

m s construct

וִירֵחֵךְ

Isa 60:20