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Meaning and etymology of the name Ahishahar




Ahishahar Ahishahar


The beautiful name Ahishahar occurs only once in the Bible. He is mentioned as one of the sons of Bilhan, son of Jediael, son of Benjamin (1 Chronicles 7:10).

The name Ahishahar consists of two elements. The first part comes from the word ah (ah), meaning brother or close associate. The post-fixed letter yod makes it possessive: my brother, of brother of.

The second part of the name Ahishahar comes from the root group shahar (shahar I & II), a group with two members, which meanings curiously seems to be each other's opposites:

The verb shahar (shahar I) means to be black (Job 30:30). Derived nouns are shehor (shehor), meaning blackness (Lamentations 4:8); shahor (shahor), meaning black (Song of Solomon 5:11); shaharut (shaharut), meaning blackness of hair (perhaps literally: dawn of youth, relating it to shahar II): and sheharhor, meaning blackish (Song 1:10).

What the unused root shahar (shahar II) may have meant can't be known, but all its derivatives have to do with dawn: The noun shahar (shahar) means dawn. Dawn rises (Genesis 19:15), it has wings (Psalm 139:9), and it has eyelids (Job 3:9). The dawn even has a son (Isaiah 14:12 - some traditional translations have transliterated the Latin interpretation and arrived at the "name" Lucifer); taken by many to refer to satan but that seems without fundament. There was even a god named Shahar, which is referred to in ancient texts, and some scholars insist that this deity shows up in the Bible's most troubling dawn-texts. But that remains conjecture.
The verb shahar (shahar) probably originally meant to look for dawn, which is figurative for to seek either early in the day - at dawn; at first light; at first opportunity - or diligently or earnestly. Most often the object of this earnest seeking is God (Job 8:5, Psalm 63:1, Isaiah 26:9).

For a meaning of the name Ahishahar, NOBS Study Bible Name List reads Brother Of Dawn. Jones' Dictionary of Old Testament Proper Names has Brother Of The Dawn / Morning, and BDB Theological Dictionary has Brother Of (The) Dawn.

Related names are Ashhur, Shaharaim, Shehariah and Shihor.




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