DEEPEST DARKNESS — the word behind 'the shadow of death.' The Masoretes pointed it tsal-mavet, which reads as a compound of tsel (shadow) and mavet (death); most modern lexicons instead re-point it tsalmut, an abstract noun from a root meaning 'be dark' (compare Akkadian salamu), and treat 'shadow of death' as an ancient folk etymology. The difference lies entirely in the vowels, which the consonantal text does not carry, so both readings are old and both are defensible. Counted in the Masoretic text it occurs 18 times — ten in Job, four in Psalms (23:4, 44:19, and twice in 107), two in Jeremiah, one each in Isaiah and Amos. Either way it is the darkest word Hebrew has, and this translation prints the Masoretic pointing because that is the standing rule, not because it is the familiar one. → first discussed at Psalms 23:4