noon: the middle of the day, when the sun stands highest and the light is fullest.
TranslatabilityDirectCertaintySettled
At its core the word names the middle of the day, the hour when the sun is directly overhead and the light is at its brightest. In story after story it is simply a time-stamp: a meal served at noon, an army setting out at noon, a shepherd resting his flock at noon.
Because noon is the moment of greatest light, the Bible turns it into a picture. Full daylight becomes an image of things made plain and set right:
a promise to make someone's vindication shine "like the noonday" pictures a cleared name (Psalm 37:6)
a life said to be "brighter than the noonday" pictures unclouded hope (Job 11:17)
gloom that will become "like the noonday" pictures rescue after darkness (Isaiah 58:10)
The same brightness makes the reversals frightening. To grope at noon as though blind, or to watch the sun go down at noon, pictures judgment and confusion striking at the very moment when everything should be clear and safe.
an opening Noah was told to make near the top of the ark, whose exact form (window, roof, or light-shaft) is uncertain.
TranslatabilityUntranslatableCertaintyObscure
This form of the word appears only once, in God's building instructions for the ark, and no one is fully sure what it means. Noah is told to make one for the ark, and the surrounding instructions place it near the top of the ark but describe it only briefly.
Three readings compete. Because the word grows from the same root as "noon" and its idea of light, many take it as an opening that lets light in, a window or skylight (the ordinary Hebrew word for a plain window is חַלּוֹן). Others link it to a related word for "back" and read it as a roof or covering. An older Jewish tradition even imagined a glowing stone that lit the ark from within. English Bibles split the same way, printing "window," "roof," or "light" for this one word.
Because it occurs only here, the question cannot be settled from how the word is used elsewhere. The most a reader can safely say is that the ark had some opening at the top, and that its exact form is a genuine open question.
Gen 6:16*
Disputed
What the singular tsohar in Genesis 6:16 refers to, given that the word occurs only here.
contestedAn opening for light, a window or skylight, connecting the word to the shining root it shares with the word for noon.; BDB, s.v. צֹהַר
contestedA roof or covering, connecting the word to a Semitic term for "back" (Akkadian tseru).; HALOT, s.v. צֹהַר
Related words
The English words used to translate tsohar
“noon”
Comparison data is not available for this English gloss yet.
“midday”
Comparison data is not available for this English gloss yet.
the underlying word is tied to light, which fits an opening better than a solid coveringGen 6:16
Both
both locate the feature at the top of the arkGen 6:16
Only roof
English "roof" pictures a closed top that keeps light out, the opposite of the light-opening reading
How tsohar differs from similar Hebrew words
חַלּוֹןthe ordinary Hebrew word for a window, an opening people look through or lower things from; the ark's opening in Genesis 6:16 is named by a rarer word whose exact form is debated.
overwhelmingly a time word, midday or noon, the brightest and hottest point of the day, a sense a window never carriesGen 43:161Ki 18:27Psa 91:6Amo 8:9
Both
both can name the light opening built into the ark: one word supplies the ark its opening for daylight, the other is the window Noah later opened in that same vesselGen 6:16Gen 8:6
a definite opening in a wall that people look through, are let down through, or are thrown fromJos 2:152Sa 6:162Ki 9:30
אֶשְׁנָבa latticed window opening, the kind someone peers out through; unlike the ark's uncertain opening, its sense as a window is clear.
tsohar in the other biblical languages
μεσημβρίαGreek“noon/south”the Greek word for midday, which also does double duty for the direction "south"; the Hebrew word means only the time of day and never a compass point.
θυρίςGreek“window”the plain Greek word for a window or opening in a wall, the counterpart to the disputed ark-opening sense of this Hebrew word.
What scholars say about tsohar
The everyday form צָהֳרַיִם denotes midday, the culmination of daylight; standard lexica (BDB; HALOT) treat this sense as secure and unproblematic. The root carries a core notion of shining or gleaming, the same root behind יִצְהָר, fresh (glistening) oil, which is why noon, the point of maximal light, is named from it.
The singular צֹהַר in Genesis 6:16 is a hapax legomenon and its referent is genuinely disputed. BDB relates it to the light root and glosses it as a light-opening or window, the traditional reading preserved in older English versions. HALOT notes a possible link to a Semitic term for "back" (Akkadian tseru), which supports the "roof/covering" rendering adopted by many modern translations. Genesis commentators (e.g. Wenham; Sarna) survey both options without resolving them, and a rabbinic tradition (Genesis Rabbah) imagined a luminous stone. The uncertainty is lexical and cannot be resolved from a single occurrence.
Sources
BDB, s.v. צֹהַר / צָהֳרַיִםlexicon
HALOT, s.v. צֹהַרlexicon
Gordon J. Wenham, Genesis 1-15 (Word Biblical Commentary)commentary
Nahum M. Sarna, Genesis (JPS Torah Commentary)commentary