H6153 — עֶרֶב (ʻereb)¶

Core Data¶

Strong's: H6153
Original: עֶרֶב
Transliteration: ʻereb
Pronunciation: eh'-reb
Part of Speech: Masculine noun
Root: H6150 עָרַב (ʻârab) — to grow dusky, to become evening
Occurrences: 125 unique verses (132 tokens) in OT
Books: 27
First Occurrence: Gen 1:5 — "And the evening and the morning were the first day"
Hapax Legomenon: No

Lexicon Definition¶

From H6150; dusk — day, even(-ing, tide), night.

The core meaning is the transition period as daylight fades — the onset of darkness. In the Hebrew reckoning, ʻereb marks the beginning of the new day (sunset to sunset), making it the theologically prior half of the day cycle.

Translation Distribution (KJV)¶

Translation	Unique Verses	%
the even / even / at even / in the even	67	54%
the evening / in the evening / at evening	29	23%
eventide / eveningtide	5	4%
and evening / or evening	7	6%
night / at night / the night	4	3%
days	1	1%
Other phrases	12	10%

KJV renders ʻereb almost entirely as "even/evening" (≈97%). The handful of "night" and "days" renderings reflect contextual idiomatic translation.

Distribution by Book¶

Book	Count	Per 100 Verses
Zephaniah	2	3.8
Leviticus	29	3.4
Habakkuk	1	1.8
Ezra	3	1.1
Exodus	12	1.0
Numbers	13	1.0
Genesis	13	0.8
Daniel	3	0.8
Joshua	4	0.6
Judges	4	0.6
Deuteronomy	4	0.4
2 Samuel	3	0.4
Ezekiel	5	0.4
1 Samuel	3	0.4
Psalms	8	0.3
2 Chronicles	4	0.5
Zechariah	1	0.5
Ecclesiastes	1	0.5
Job	2	0.2
1 Chronicles	2	0.2
1 Kings	2	0.2
Esther	1	0.6
Proverbs	1	0.1
Isaiah	1	0.1
Jeremiah	1	0.1
2 Kings	1	0.1
Ruth	1	—

Leviticus dominates by density (3.4/100 vv), driven by purity law rulings. Genesis concentration comes from the creation week formula. Daniel's 3 occurrences include the significant "ʻereb-boqer" pair of Dan 8:14 and 8:26.

Semantic Categories¶

1. The Liturgical Day Frame — "Evening and Morning"¶

The creation days establish ʻereb as the opening of each day cycle (evening precedes morning). - Gen 1:5 — "And the evening and the morning were the first day" - Gen 1:8 — "And the evening and the morning were the second day" - Dan 8:14 — "Unto two thousand and three hundred days (lit. evenings-mornings); then shall the sanctuary be cleansed" - Dan 8:26 — "And the vision of the evening and the morning which was told is true"

2. Ritual Purity Deadline — "Unclean Until the Even"¶

Leviticus and Numbers use ʻereb as the standard endpoint for ritual uncleanness, fixing sunset as the boundary of impurity. - Lev 11:24–25 — "whosoever beareth [ought] of the carcase... shall wash his clothes, and be unclean until the even" - Deut 23:11 — "But it shall be, when evening cometh on, he shall wash himself with water: and when the sun is down, he shall come into the camp again" - Num 19:22 — "whatsoever the unclean person toucheth shall be unclean; and the soul that toucheth it shall be unclean until even"

3. Passover and Appointed Feast Timing¶

The Passover lamb was slain between the evenings (H996 + H6153), fixing ʻereb as the precise moment of the sacrifice. - Exo 12:6 — "the whole assembly of the congregation of Israel shall kill it in the evening" - Num 9:3 — "In the fourteenth day of this month, at even, ye shall keep it in his appointed season" - Deut 16:6 — "there thou shalt sacrifice the passover at even, at the going down of the sun"

4. Morning and Evening Sacrifices (Tamid)¶

The continual burnt offering required a daily ʻereb offering alongside the morning sacrifice. - 2 Kgs 16:15 — "Upon the great altar burn the morning burnt offering, and the evening meat offering" - 1 Chr 16:40 — "To offer burnt offerings unto the LORD upon the altar... morning and evening" - 2 Chr 13:11 — "they burn unto the LORD every morning and every evening burnt sacrifices" - Ezra 9:5 — "And at the evening sacrifice I arose up from my heaviness"

5. Day's End in Narrative¶

ʻEreb marks the close of battle, mourning, or labor — the natural turning point of a day. - Josh 7:6 — "Joshua fell to the earth upon his face before the ark of the LORD until the eventide" - 2 Sam 1:12 — "they mourned, and wept, and fasted until even, for Saul, and for Jonathan" - 1 Kgs 17:6 — "the ravens brought him bread and flesh in the morning, and bread and flesh in the evening" - 1 Sam 30:17 — "And David smote them from the twilight even unto the evening of the next day"

6. Figurative and Poetic Use¶

Poets and prophets use ʻereb for foreboding — "evening wolves" prowl at the dangerous hour; "eveningtide trouble" signals sudden reversal. - Hab 1:8 — "their horsemen are more fierce than the evening wolves" - Zeph 3:3 — "Her princes within her are roaring lions; her judges are evening wolves; they gnaw not the bones till the morrow" - Isa 17:14 — "And behold at eveningtide trouble; and before the morning he is not" - Prov 7:9 — "In the twilight, in the evening, in the black and dark night"

Common Collocations¶

Word	Strong's	Co-occurrences	Typical Pattern
בֹּקֶר (bôqer)	H1242	44x (35%)	"the evening and the morning" — temporal pair marking a full liturgical day
טָמֵא (ṭâmêʼ)	H2930	30x (24%)	"shall be unclean until the even" — Levitical purity endpoint
יוֹם (yôwm)	H3117	27x (22%)	"in the day... at even" — calendar and daily frame
יְהֹוָה (Yᵉhôvâh)	H3068	26x (21%)	temple service commandments and worship contexts
מַיִם (mayim)	H4325	22x (18%)	"shall wash in water... until the even" — purity protocol
בֶּגֶד (beged)	H899	21x (17%)	"he shall wash his clothes... until the even" — garment purification
בּוֹא (bôwʼ)	H935	20x (16%)	"when evening cometh on / when the sun has gone in" — arrival of dusk
כָּבַס (kâbaç)	H3526	19x (15%)	"wash his clothes... unclean until even" — laundering rite
רָחַץ (râchats)	H7364	18x (14%)	"bathe his flesh in water... until the even" — full-body immersion
נָגַע (nâgaʻ)	H5060	17x (14%)	"whosoever toucheth... shall be unclean until the even" — contact trigger

Word Family / Cognates¶

H6150 עָרַב (ʻârab) — root verb: to grow dusky, to become evening (3 occ.)
H6154 עֵרֶב (ʻêreb) — homophone only: woof/weft of a fabric (15 occ.) — unrelated meaning, shares only consonantal spelling

Synonyms¶

H1242 בֹּקֶר (boqer) — morning; the standard paired temporal counterpart in the formula "evening and morning."
H3915 לַיְלָה (laylah) — night; the broader darkness period that follows evening.
H5399 נֶשֶׁף (nesheph) — twilight; an overlapping boundary-time term for dusk or dawn.

Antonyms¶

No antonyms were returned by search_relationships.py for H6153.

Easily Confused Words¶

Word	Strong's	Shared KJV Translation	Key Difference
ὄψιος (ópsios)	G3798	"the even / evening / eventide"	NT Greek word for "late / toward evening" — semantic equivalent but different language and testament
ὀψέ (opsé)	G3796	"at even"	NT adverb: "late / at the close of day" — used once at Matt 28:1
לַיִל (layil)	H3915	occasionally rendered "night"	layil = full night (darkness period); ʻereb = onset of dusk only

Semantic Domains¶

UBS / Relationship Domains¶

[002002002010] Time — the primary field for ʻereb as a temporal boundary marking the close and opening of the daily cycle.
[001002007001] Classes — a broad classifier bucket returned by the tool; much less specific than the core time domain, but retained for completeness.

LXX Mapping¶

Greek Equivalent	Co-occ	PMI Score	Notes
ἑσπέρα (hespéra) G2073	96	33.72	Primary LXX equivalent — evening, used in vast majority of cases
πρωΐ (prōḯ) G4404	34	18.88	Co-occurrence artefact: "morning" pairs with evening in same verses
ἀκάθαρτος (akáthartos) G169	31	19.19	Co-occurrence artefact: "unclean until evening" — not a translation
ἱμάτιον (himátion) G2440	22	14.17	Co-occurrence artefact: garment-washing purity laws

Note: The high PMI of G169, G4404, and G3068 reflects contextual co-occurrence (purity law clusters) rather than lexical translation. G2073 ἑσπέρα is the true semantic equivalent.