Dark

Dark - (Webster's 1828 Dictionary)

D'ARK, a.

1. Destitute of light; obscure. A dark atmosphere is one which prevents vision.

2. Wholly or partially black; having the quality opposite to white; as a dark color or substance.

3. Gloomy; disheartening; having unfavorable prospects; as a dark time in political affairs.

There is in every true woman's heart a spark of

heavenly fire, which beams and blazes in the dark

hour of adversity. Irving.

4. Obscure; not easily understood or explained; as a dark passage in an author; a dark saying.

5. Mysterious; as, the ways of Providence are often dark to human reason.

6. Not enlightened with knowledge; destitute of learning and science; rude; ignorant; as a dark age.

7. Not vivid; partially black. Lev 13

8. Blind.

9. Gloomy; not cheerful; as a dark temper.

10. Obscure; concealed; secret; not understood; as a dark design.

11. Unclean; foul.

12. Opake. But dark and opake are not synonymous. Chalk is opake, but not dark.

13. Keeping designs concealed.

The dark unrelenting Tiberius. Gibbon.

D'ARK, n.

1. Darkness; obscurity; the absence of light. We say we can hear in the dark.

Shall the wonders be known in the dark? Ps.

1xxxviii.

2. Obscurity; secrecy; a state unknown; as, things done in the dark.

3. Obscurity; a state of ignorance; as, we are all in the dark.

D'ARK, v.t.

1. To make dark; to deprive of light; as, close the shutters and darken the room.

2. To obscure; to cloud.

His confidence seldom darkened his foresight.

Bacon.

3. To make black.

The locusts darkened the land. Exo 10.

4. To make dim; to deprive of vision.

Let their eyes be darkened. Rom 11.

5. To render gloomy; as, all joy is darkened. Isa 24.

6. To deprive of intellectual vision; to render ignorant or stupid.

Their foolish heart was darkened. Rom 1.

Having the understanding darkened. Eph 4.

7. To obscure; to perplex; to render less clear or intelligible.

Who is this that darkeneth counsel by words

without knowledge? Job 38.

8. To render less white or clear; to tan; as, a burning sun darkens the complexion.

9. To sully; to make foul.

Darkness - (Easton's Bible Dictionary)

The plague (the ninth) of darkness in Egypt (Ex. 10:21) is described as darkness "which may be felt." It covered "all the land of Egypt," so that "they saw not one another." It did not extend to the land of Goshen (ver. 23).

When Jesus hung upon the cross (Matt. 27:45; Luke 23:44), from the "sixth hour there was darkness over all the land unto the ninth hour."

On Mount Sinai, Moses (Ex. 20:21) "drew near unto the thick darkness where God was." This was the "thick cloud upon the mount" in which Jehovah was when he spake unto Moses there. The Lord dwelt in the cloud upon the mercy-seat (1 Kings 8:12), the cloud of glory. When the psalmist (Ps. 97:2) describes the inscrutable nature of God's workings among the sons of men, he says, "Clouds and darkness are round about him." God dwells in thick darkness.

Darkness (Isa. 13:9, 10; Matt. 24:29) also is a symbol of the judgments that attend on the coming of the Lord. It is a symbol of misery and adversity (Job 18:6; Ps. 107:10; Isa. 8:22; Ezek. 30:18). The "day of darkness" in Joel 2:2, caused by clouds of locusts, is a symbol of the obscurity which overhangs all divine proceedings. "Works of darkness" are impure actions (Eph. 5:11). "Outer darkness" refers to the darkness of the streets in the East, which are never lighted up by any public or private lamps after nightfall, in contrast with the blaze of cheerful light in the house. It is also a symbol of ignorance (Isa. 9:2; 60:2; Matt. 6:23) and of death (Job 10:21; 17:13).

Darkness - (Webster's 1828 Dictionary)

D'ARKNESS, n.

1. Absence of light.

And darkness was on the face of the deep. Gen 1.

2. Obscurity; want of clearness or perspicuity; that quality or state which renders any thing difficult to be understood; as the darkness of counsels.

3. A state of being intellectually clouded; ignorance.

Men loved darkness rather than light. John 3.

4. A private place; secrecy; privacy.

What I tell in darkness, that speak ye in light.

Mat 10.

5. Infernal gloom; hell; as utter darkness. Mat 22.

6. Great trouble and distress; calamities; perplexities.

A day of clouds and thick darkness. Joel 2. Is.

viii.

7. Empire of Satan.

Who hath delivered us from the power of darkness.

Col 1.

8. Opakeness.

Land of darkness, the grave. Job 10.

dark, dark'-nes (choshekh; skotos):

1. Darkness and Light in Palestine:

The day and night, light and darkness, are notable antitheses in Palestine. There the day does not slowly fade away into the night after a period of twilight, but before sunset there is the brightness of day, and when the sun has disappeared everything has changed and night is at hand. From sunset until the darkness of night is less than an hour.

2. Symbolic Uses:

In the Bible the main use of darkness is in contrast to light. Light is the symbol of God's purity, wisdom and glory. Darkness is the opposite. Miraculous occurrence of darkness in the land of Egypt for three days is recorded in Ex 10:21,22, and at the death of Christ (Mt 27:45). See PLAGUE; ECLIPSE.

The figurative uses of darkness are many and various. It is used as a symbol

(a) of moral depravity and its punishment. The wicked walk and work in darkness (Ps 82:5; Pr 2:13; Joh 3:19; Ro 13:12), and their reward is to "sit in darkness" (Ps 107:10) or to be "cast forth into the outer darkness" (Mt 8:12);

(b) of things mysterious or inexplicable (1Ki 8:12; Ps 97:2);

(c) of trouble and affliction (2Sa 22:29; Job 5:14; Pr 20:20; Isa 9:2; compare Ge 15:12);

(d) of punishment (La 3:2; Eze 32:8; Ze 1:15); (e) of death (1Sa 2:9; Job 10:21 f; Ec 11:8); (f) of nothingness (Job 3:4-6); (g) of human ignorance (Job 19:8; 1 Joh 2:11).

"A dark (the Revised Version, margin "squalid") place" (2Pe 1:19) refers especially to the state of things described in 2Pe 2.

Alfred H. Joy