Strong's Number: H8121
Original Word: shemesh
Usage Notes: "sun; Shamshu (?); sunshield; battlement." Cognates of this word occur in Ugaritic (s-p-s), Akkadian, Aramaic, Phoenician, and Arabic. It appears 134 times in biblical Hebrew and in all periods.
This word means "sun": "And when the sun was going down, a deep sleep fell upon Abram …" (Gen 15:12, the first occurrence of the word). The "wings of the sun" are probably its rays (Mal 4:2). The "sun" and especially its regularity supported by divine sovereignty (Gen 8:22) figures the security of God's allies: "So let all thine enemies perish, O Lord: but let them that love him be as the sun when he goeth forth in his might" (Judg 5:31). God can also make the "sun" stand still when He wishes (Josh 10:12-13) or darken as an indication of His judgment upon His enemies and salvation for His people (Joel 1:2-32). The "sun" and all the heavenly bodies were created by God (Gen 1:16) and are summoned to praise Him (Psa 148:3). The Canaanites and other people worshiped the "sun" as a god, and this paganism appeared among Israelites in times of spiritual decline (Deut 4:19). in 2Ki 23:5 perhaps one could translate: "Those who burned incense to Shamshu" (cf. v. 2Kings 23:11). Perhaps passages like Psa 148:3 are allusions to the sun god (although this is questionable).
Shemesh is used in phrases indicating direction. The east is "the rising of the sun": "And they journeyed from Oboth,… toward the sunrising" (Num 21:11). The west is "the setting of the sun": "Are they not on the other side of Jordan, by the way where the sun goeth down …?" (Deut 11:30). In Psa 84:11 the word represents a sun-shaped shield: "For the Lord God is a sun and shield…."
Shemesh may be a structural term: "And I will make thy windows [nasb, "battlements"] of agates, and thy gates of carbuncles …" (Isa 54:12).
There are a few noteworthy phrases related to shemesh. To be "before the sun" or "before the eyes of the sun" is to be openly exposed; "Take all the heads of the people, and hang them up before the Lord against the sun [nasb, "in broad daylight"]…" (Num 25:4). To "See the sun" is "to live": "… Like the untimely birth of a woman, that they may not See the sun" (Psa 58:8). Something "under the sun" is life lived on the earth apart from God in contrast to life lived on earth with a proper relationship with God (Eccl 1:3).
