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lavan

לָבָן

HebrewH3836white

Appears 29 times · tap a cell to see the verses

Gen 30:35Gen 30:37 (2×)Gen 49:12Exo 16:31Lev 13:3Lev 13:4 (2×)Lev 13:10 (2×)Lev 13:13Lev 13:16Lev 13:17Lev 13:19 (2×)Lev 13:20Lev 13:21Lev 13:24 (2×)Lev 13:25Lev 13:26Lev 13:38Lev 13:39Lev 13:43Ecc 9:8Zec 1:8Zec 6:3Zec 6:6
Word studylah-VAHNadjective

What lavan means

white: the pale, bright color of milk, snow, or bleached wool

TranslatabilityDirectCertaintySettled

This is the ordinary color word for white. It describes everyday white things: the bare white of peeled poplar wood, the manna that lay white on the ground, teeth gleaming white from milk, and the clean white clothing of a festive person.

Its heaviest use is in the laws about skin disease (Leviticus 13), where a priest inspects for hair that has turned white and for pale, whitish patches on the skin. Here the word is a plain clinical marker used to tell one condition from another, with no good or bad meaning attached to it.

The same word colors the horses in Zechariah's night visions, where white stands alongside red and other colors to mark out different riders. Across all of these settings the sense does not change: the word simply means white.

Gen 30:35Gen 30:37 (2×)Gen 49:12Exo 16:31Lev 13:3Lev 13:4 (2×)Lev 13:10 (2×)Lev 13:13Lev 13:16Lev 13:17Lev 13:19 (2×)Lev 13:20

What scholars say about lavan

The standard lexica (BDB, HALOT, DCH) agree that לָבָן denotes the color white. It belongs to a productive root that yields terms for whiteness (the verb לבן, the noun for the moon לְבָנָה, and the word for frankincense לְבֹנָה), all trading on the notion of pale brightness. The adjective clusters most densely in the diagnostic vocabulary of Leviticus 13, where it and its feminine and plural forms describe the whitening of hair and the pallor of skin patches. Studies of Hebrew color terminology (Brenner) treat it as the basic, unmarked term for white, distinct from צַח, which foregrounds dazzle rather than hue.

Sources

  • HALOT, s.v. לָבָןlexicon
  • BDB, s.v. לָבָןlexicon
  • DCH, s.v. לָבָןlexicon
  • Athalya Brenner, Colour Terms in the Old Testament (JSOT Press, 1982)monograph

All attested forms of לָבָן

m s absolute

לָבָן, לָּבָן

Gen 30:35, Exo 16:31, Lev 13:3, Lev 13:4, Lev 13:10, Lev 13:13, Lev 13:16, Lev 13:17

f s absolute

לְבָנָה

Lev 13:4, Lev 13:10, Lev 13:19, Lev 13:19, Lev 13:24, Lev 13:24, Lev 13:43

m p absolute

לְבָנִים, לְּבָנִים

Ecc 9:8, Zec 1:8, Zec 6:3, Zec 6:6

f p absolute

לְבָנֹת, לְבָנוֹת

Lev 13:38, Lev 13:39, Gen 30:37

m s construct

לְבֶן

Gen 49:12