🔼The name Ader: Summary
- Meaning
- Flock
- Etymology
- From the verb עדר (adar), to lack or fail, or rather the noun עדר (eder), a flock or herd.
🔼The name Ader in the Bible
The name Ader is spelled identical to the name Eder but (according to the Masoretes) was pronounced slightly different. The difference is so small, though, that most modern translations don't even list different names and read Eder for all.
Most traditional translations, however, list Ader among the sons of Beriah of Benjamin, a family-head living in Aijalon, who chased off the indigenous population of the Philistine city of Gath, where Goliath was from (1 Chronicles 8:15).
🔼Etymology of the name Ader
The name Ader comes from the verb-group עדר (adar):
עדר
The verb עדר (adar) means to lack or fail (or loiter in Arabic). Its odd derivative, the noun עדר (eder), describes a flock or herd — perhaps because a flock proverbially wanders after the shepherd and its members are prone to be picked off by predators.
This verb, or an identical second one, may also mean to hoe: to drag forth a tool and pick off weeds. Noun מעדר (ma'der) means a hoe.
A third verb עדר (adar) is the Aramaic equivalent of the Hebrew verb עזר (azar), to help.
🔼Ader meaning
It's not obvious which of the verbs yields our name but most of the commentators go with the verb that means to lack, fail or loiter.
For a meaning of the name Ader, Jones' Dictionary of Old Testament Proper Names reads Flock. BDB Theological Dictionary doesn't translate our name but refers to a cognate Arabic root meaning Loitering or Lagging. NOBSE Study Bible Name List doesn't list Ader separately but lists four Eders and translates this name with A Flock.