צָהֹב

# צָהֹב (tsahov): The Hebrew Word for Yellow The Hebrew word *tsahov* (צָהֹב) carries the straightforward meaning of "yellow" in biblical Hebrew. With only three recorded occurrences in the biblical text, this term represents a relatively uncommon color designation in Scripture, suggesting that yellow held limited descriptive importance in the religious and literary contexts preserved in the Hebrew Bible. The rarity of this word—appearing just three times across the entire biblical corpus—indicates that yellow was not a color frequently selected for theological symbolism, ritual description, or literary imagery in ancient Hebrew texts. This contrasts sharply with other color terms that appear with much greater frequency. The limited usage suggests that when biblical writers did employ *tsahov*, they were likely making specific, deliberate color observations rather than using yellow as a conventional symbolic or metaphorical reference. Without access to the specific contexts of those three occurrences, we can note only that the word functioned as a basic color descriptor when biblical authors needed to identify or characterize something as yellow in appearance.