Ziw (זִו, H2099) means brightness, radiance, splendor and designates the second month of the Hebrew calendar — corresponding roughly to late April through May, also later called Iyyar. The word appears in 1 Kings 6:1,37 in connection with the building of Solomon's Temple. This month was the season of the late spring harvest, when the rains had ceased and the land basked in clear, brilliant light — hence its name, 'brightness.'
The fact that Solomon began constructing the Temple in the second month, in the 'month of brightness' (1 Kings 6:1), is theologically rich. Construction of the dwelling place of God begins in the season of radiance — as if creation itself was calibrated to herald the building of the place where God's glory (kabod) would dwell. The Temple was meant to be a house of brightness — a place where the divine light radiated outward to a watching world. John's Gospel opens with Jesus as 'the light of all mankind' (John 1:4), and Revelation 21:23 declares of the New Jerusalem: 'The city does not need the sun or the moon to shine on it, for the glory of God gives it light.' Ziw connects the agricultural calendar, the Temple theology, and the eschatological hope of God's radiant presence fully dwelling among His people.