tsal.ma.vet denotes profound darkness, pictured in places of peril, confinement, and the land associated with death.

The attested use consistently denotes profound darkness: it can describe an unlit land, a threatening setting, or darkness associated with death and confinement. The same noun occurs in descriptions of darkness changed into light, a valley traversed without fear, and prisoners brought out of darkness.

1. Profound darkness in perilous or death-associated settings · dominant

   The singular absolute noun occurs where darkness marks a land from which Job does not return in Job 10:21 and Job 10:22, and where prisoners dwell before being brought out in Psalm 107:10 and Psalm 107:14. In Psalm 23:4, the APB renders the setting as a valley through which the speaker walks; in Job 34:22 it renders a place where evildoers cannot hide as "darkness or deep shadow."

   Job 10:21Job 10:22Psalm 107:10Psalm 107:14Psalm 23:4Job 34:22

In the Anselm Project Bible: The APB variously presents the noun within phrases such as "deep darkness," "the shadow of death," and "deep shadow," and once does not visibly reflect it in Psalm 44:20. Because the APB is a whole-verse translation, these phrases confirm the dark settings of the clauses without fixing a separate English equivalent in every verse.