International Standard Bible Encyclopedia
ECLIPSEe-klips'.
See ASTRONOMY.
Easton's Bible Dictionary
Of the sun alluded to in
Amos 8:9;
Micah 3:6;
Zechariah 14:6;
Joel 2:10. Eclipses were regarded as tokens of God's anger (
Joel 3:15;
Job 9:7). The darkness at the crucifixion has been ascribed to an eclipse (
Matthew 27:45); but on the other hand it is argued that the great intensity of darkness caused by an eclipse never lasts for more than six minutes, and this darkness lasted for three hours. Moreover, at the time of the Passover the moon was full, and therefore there could not be an eclipse of the sun, which is caused by an interposition of the moon between the sun and the earth.
Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary
1. (
n.) An obstruction of the light of the sun, moon, or other luminous body, by the intervention of some other body, either between it and the eye, or between the luminous body and that illuminated by it. A lunar eclipse is caused by the moon passing through the earth's shadow; a solar eclipse, by the moon coming between the sun and the observer. A satellite is eclipsed by entering the shadow of its primary. The obscuration of a planet or star by the moon or a planet, though of the nature of an eclipse, is called an occultation. The eclipse of a small portion of the sun by Mercury or Venus is called a transit of the planet.
2. (n.) The loss, usually temporary or partial, of light, brilliancy, luster, honor, consciousness, etc.; obscuration; gloom; darkness.
3. (v. t.) To cause the obscuration of; to darken or hide; -- said of a heavenly body; as, the moon eclipses the sun.
4. (v. t.) To obscure, darken, or extinguish the beauty, luster, honor, etc., of; to sully; to cloud; to throw into the shade by surpassing.
5. (v. i.) To suffer an eclipse.
Strong's Hebrew
3650. kimrir -- darkness, gloominess... blackness. Redupl. From kamar; obscuration (as if from shrinkage of light, ie An
eclipse (only in plural) -- blackness. see HEBREW kamar. << 3649, 3650.
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