TR: layil → nyx (Night)¶
The Chain¶
Hebrew OT LXX (Greek OT) Greek NT
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לַיִל (layil) → νύξ (nyx) → νύξ (nyx)
H3915, 223x LXX co-occ: 189x 62x in NT
"night" primary equivalent "night"
OT Usage (Hebrew)¶
| Strong's | Word | Occurrences | Primary Meaning |
|---|---|---|---|
| H3915 | לַיִל (layil) | 223 | night — the darkness period |
Key OT passages: - Gen 1:5 — "And God called the light Day, and the darkness he called Night." - Exo 13:21 — "by night in a pillar of fire, to give them light" - Josh 1:8 — "thou shalt meditate therein day and night" - Psalm 19:2 — "night unto night sheweth knowledge"
Library: H3915-layil.md
LXX Bridge¶
| Hebrew | Greek Translation | Co-occ | PMI | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| layil (H3915) | νύξ (G3571) | 189 | 34.83 | Primary — near one-to-one |
| layil (H3915) | ἡμέρα (G2250) | 88 | 11.11 | In "day and night" pairs |
| layil (H3915) | σκότος (G4655) | 11 | 9.25 | Figurative "darkness" rendering |
Reverse (what Hebrew words map to nyx):
| Hebrew Source | Strong's | Co-occ | PMI | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| layil | H3915 | 189 | 34.83 | Dominant source — near exclusive |
| yowmam | H3119 | 36 | 23.13 | In "by day...by night" merisms |
| leyleya | H3916 | 4 | 10.41 | Aramaic cognate of layil |
| boqer | H1242 | 17 | 9.67 | "morning" in night-to-morning transitions |
| choshek | H2822 | 8 | 7.74 | "darkness" — semantic overlap |
Semantic shift in translation: Minimal. The layil → nyx mapping is one of the most stable in the LXX. Both words carry the same literal sense (the dark period of the 24-hour cycle) and the same figurative extensions (adversity, moral darkness, judgment). The NT inherits this stability.
NT Usage (Greek)¶
| Strong's | Word | Occurrences | Primary Meaning |
|---|---|---|---|
| G3571 | νύξ (nyx) | 62 | night — literal and figurative |
Key NT passages: - Mat 2:14 — "he took the young child and his mother by night, and departed into Egypt" - Luk 2:8 — "shepherds abiding in the field, keeping watch over their flock by night" - Jhn 3:2 — "The same came to Jesus by night" - Act 5:19 — "the angel of the Lord by night opened the prison doors" - Rom 13:12 — "The night is far spent, the day is at hand" - 1 Thes 5:5 — "We are not of the night, nor of darkness" - Rev 21:25 — "there shall be no night there"
Library: TODO(need G3571 study)
Continuity and Shifts¶
What stays the same across testaments: - The day/night merism for totality continues: OT "day and night" (Josh 1:8, Ps 1:2) → NT "night and day" (1 Thes 2:9, 3:10, 2 Tim 1:3, Rev 4:8, 7:15, 12:10, 20:10) - Night as the setting for divine encounter: OT dreams/visions (Gen 46:2, Job 33:15) → NT angelic visits (Acts 5:19, 16:9, 27:23) - Night as cover for covert action: OT military movements (Josh 8:3, 2 Ki 25:4) → NT escape/flight (Mat 2:14, Acts 17:10)
What shifts: - The NT develops a stronger figurative/ethical use of night as moral darkness. Paul's "the night is far spent, the day is at hand" (Rom 13:12) and "ye are not of the night" (1 Thes 5:5) extend the OT prophetic metaphor (Isa 21:11-12, Micah 3:6) into sustained ethical exhortation. - Revelation's eschatological reversal — "there shall be no night there" (Rev 21:25, 22:5) — echoes and consummates the creation pattern of Gen 1:5 where God first named the night. What began in Genesis ends in Revelation with night's abolition.
Generated from: gather_trace_data.py H3915 Last updated: 2026-05-12