Occurrences in the Bible
The English word "black" appears 18 times in 18 King James translation verses. Related words such as "blackness" (6 times), "blackish" (once) and "blacker" (once) also are in Scripture, making for 26 total appearances in 26 verses.
There are more Hebrew and Greek words translated as "black" or its related words than any other color! This color is derived from at least eleven Hebrew Old Testament and three Greek New Testament words!
The most common word from which this color is derived is the Hebrew shachor (Strong's Concordance #H7838) with six uses. Next is qadar (#H6937) which is translated four times as "black" and once as "blackish."
I am black (shachor), but comely, O ye daughters of Jerusalem, as the tents of Kedar, as the curtains of Solomon.
My brethren have dealt deceitfully as a brook, and as the stream of brooks they pass away; which are blackish (qadar) by reason of the ice, and wherein the snow is hid (Job 6:15 - 16, KJV).
In the New Testament, black is derived twice from melas (#G3189), with "blackness" translated from both gnophos (#G1105 in Hebrews 12:18) and zophos (#G2217 in Jude 1:13).
Background
Black has an HTML hex code of #000000. The color does not have a wavelength as it is perceived when light is absent or when all visible wavelengths are absorbed (nothing is reflected back).
Black pigments have been derived from carbon sources like charcoal, burnt vines or bones, or grinding manganese oxide.
Symbol of Mourning
The color black is often used as a symbol of mourning.
For thus has the Lord said, "The whole land shall be desolate, yet I will not make a full end.
"The earth shall mourn for this, and the heavens above shall be black because I have spoken, I have purposed it, and will not repent, nor will I turn back from it." (Jeremiah 4:27 - 28).
The harvest is past, the summer is ended, and we are not saved. For the hurt of the daughter of my people am I hurt; I am black; astonishment hath taken hold on me. (Jeremiah 8:20 - 21, KJV).
Judah mourneth, and the gates thereof languish; they are black unto the ground; and the cry of Jerusalem is gone up. (Jeremiah 14:2, KJV).
Color of Punishment
Black is sometimes used in the Bible to delineate punishment that comes as a consequence of unrepentant sin.
Blow ye the trumpet in Zion, and sound an alarm in my holy mountain: let all the inhabitants of the land tremble: for the day of the Lord cometh, for it is nigh at hand . . .
Before their face the people shall be much pained: all faces shall gather blackness (Hebrew parur, Strong's #H6289). (Joel 2:1, 6, KJV).
The prophetic black horse of Revelation 6 symbolizes famine and suffering. It will be unleashed on the entire world, in the end time, as a precursor to the dreaded Day of the Lord when God's wrath against sin is manifested.
And when He opened the third seal, I heard the third living creature say, "Come and see." And I looked, and behold, there was a black horse; and the one sitting on it had a balance in his hand.
And I heard a voice in the midst of the four living creatures say, "A measure of wheat for a silver coin, and three measures of barley for a silver coin: and see that you do not damage the oil and the wine." (Revelation 6:5 - 6).
Fate of Demons
The book of Jude indicates that unrepentant demonic spirits will someday be judged and that some will be thrown into a spiritual prison. Their punishment will the colored black.
And the angels which kept not their first estate, but left their own habitation, he hath reserved in everlasting chains under darkness unto the judgment of the great day . . .
Raging waves of the sea, foaming out their own shame; wandering stars, to whom is reserved the blackness (Greek zophos, Strong's #G2217) of darkness for ever. (Jude 1:6, 13, KJV, see also 2Peter 2:4).
Suffering and Skin Color
Black is sometimes used to describe one of the consequences of disease or famine. It is also used to designate the skin color of someone who is healthy.
My skin is black and falling from me, and my bones are burning with heat. (Job 30:30).
Our skin was black like an oven because of the terrible famine. (Lamentations 5:10, KJV).
I am black, but comely, O ye daughters of Jerusalem, as the tents of Kedar, as the curtains of Solomon.
Look not upon me, because I am black, because the sun hath looked upon me: my mother's children were angry with me; they made me the keeper of the vineyards; but mine own vineyard have I not kept. (Song of Solomon 1:5 - 6, KJV).
More Info on Black
Lucifer's name means "morning star," "light bearer," or "shining one" (Strong's #H1966). When he chose to sin (and not repent) he turned the light within himself (God's truth) to perfect blackness (deception and lies). He became the first being in history to turn himself spiritually dark and is the "father" of all those who do so after him.
You are of your father the devil, and the lusts of your father you desire to practice. He was a murderer from the beginning, and has not stood in the truth because there is no truth in him. Whenever he speaks a lie, he is speaking from his own self; for he is a liar, and the father of it. (John 8:44).
The Bible is clear in its condemnation of occult practices such as witchcraft, fortune telling (soothsaying), consulting the dead through mediums (channeling), sorcery, astrology and alike (Deuteronomy 18, Leviticus 19:31, 20, Acts 19:18 - 19 and so on). These practices are collectively known as black magic.