DAWN, DAWNING. DAWN, THE (שַׁ֫חַר, H8840, dawn, morning ἀνατολή, G424, Luke 1:78) שַׁ֫חַר, H8840, is ordinarily tr. “morning” in the KJV or “dayspring” (Job 38:12). The RSV alternates between “dawn” and “morning.” That it should be rendered “dawn” is evident from passages such as Judges 19:25, “As the dawn began to break,” and Job 3:9, “the eyelids of the morning.” The light of dawn can be a symbol for truthfulness and discernment (Isa 8:19, 20).

נָֽשֶׁף, tr. “dawn” in Job 7:4 and Psalm 119:147, is more precisely “twilight” denoting the faint light at either dawn or sunrise. In Luke 1:78 “the dawn from heaven” (AG p. 62) is a fig. reference to the coming of Messiah.