THICK DARKNESS — heavy cloud, gloom; not ordinary night (that is laylah) but darkness with weight in it. ⚠ Exodus 20:17 ends the Sinai narrative with the people standing at a distance while Moses approaches the araphel WHERE GOD WAS. The chapter's last movement is toward darkness, not toward light — and 1 Kings 8:12 says outright that Jehovah 'said he would dwell in the araphel'. → first discussed at Exod 20:17