ma.phe.le.yah denotes the thick darkness named in a rhetorical question about whether the LORD was such a land to Israel.

The term denotes the thick darkness of a land in Jeremiah 2:31, where it stands in a rhetorical comparison with a wilderness.

1. Thick darkness of a land · dominant

   In Jeremiah 2:31, the feminine singular absolute noun occurs in the question whether the LORD had been “a land of thick darkness” to Israel; the APB renders the surrounding clause in those terms.

   Jeremiah 2:31

In the Anselm Project Bible: In Jeremiah 2:31, the APB presents the clause as “a land of thick darkness.” That wording confirms the clause’s overall comparison rather than isolating a precise English equivalent for the noun.