🔼The name Avith: Summary
- Meaning
- Ruins, Iniquities
- Etymology
- From the verb עוה ('awa), to bend or twist.
🔼The name Avith in the Bible
The name Avith occurs twice in the Bible, first in Genesis 36:35 and then in the exact same verse in 1 Chronicles 1:46, except that in Chronicles this name is spelled as עיות, which would transliterate into something like Ayoth.
Avith (or Ayoth) was the name of the city of Hadad, son of Bedad, who succeeded king Husham of Edom.
🔼Etymology of the name Avith
The name Avith comes from the verb עוה ('awa), meaning to distort:
עוה
The verb עוה ('awa) means to bend or twist, usually with a bottom line or ruin or perversion. Noun עון ('awon) means iniquity or guilt. Verb עוה ('awa) means to commit iniquity of do wrong. Nouns עוה ('awwa), עי ('i) and מעי (me'i) mean distortion or ruin. Plural noun עועים ('iw'im) means a distorting or warping.
There are two ways to interpret this name. It may be a singular word; an old spelling of the noun עוה ('awa), meaning distortion or ruin (favored by NOBSE Study Bible Name List). And it may also be a regular plural of that same noun (favored by Alfred Jones — Dictionary of Old Testament Proper Names).
🔼Avith meaning
And so, for a meaning of the name Avith, NOBSE Study Bible Name List reads Ruin, and Jones' Dictionary of Old Testament Proper Names has Ruins. BDB Theological Dictionary doesn't translate our name but confirms it stems from the verb עוה ('awa).
Note that the form עוית occurs once in the proper narrative of the Bible in Daniel 4:27, where the main translations translate it with Iniquities.