|
|
|
Etymology •
& Meaning •
Hebrew •
Greek •
Bible •
Names •
|
|
|
Meaning and etymology of the name Becher
|
|
|
| |
Becher 
There are two men named Becher in the Bible. The first Becher we meet is a son of Benjamin, the youngest son of Jacob and Rachel and patriarch of one of the twelve tribes of Israel (Genesis 46:21). The other Becher is a son of Ephraim, son of Joseph and full brother of Benjamin (Numbers 26:35).
The name Becher comes from the root verb (bakar):
The verb (bakar) occurs in many Semitic languages, and it means something like to rise early or do something early. In Ezekiel 47:12 it's used in the sense of bearing fruits early or bearing fruits newly. Deuteronomy 21:16 prohibits "first-borning" someone, which is, assigning the predicate first-born to a favorite but not first born son. Leviticus 27:26, similarly, speaks of a first-born among animals. Jeremiah 4:31 tells of a "first-bearer"; which is a woman who is giving birth for the first time.
This root yields the following derivatives:
The masculine noun (bekor), meaning firstborn or eldest son. This noun occurs over a hundred times in the Bible. Scholars aren't sure whether this noun came from the verb or the verb from the noun.
The feminine noun (bikra), is the common feminine form of the previous word, but it somehow became specifically attached to the young of a camel (Jeremiah 2:23, Isaiah 60:6). This phenomenon also occurs in the cognate languages.
The feminine noun (bekora), meaning the right of the first born (Genesis 25:32).
The feminine noun (bekira), meaning (female) first born (Genesis 19:31, 1 Samuel 14:49).
The masculine noun (bikkurim), which appears as a proper plural but is treated as a singular word, meaning first fruits (Leviticus 2:14, Ezekiel 44:30). The feast called yom habikkurim is the Day Of Firstfruits, or Pentecost (Numbers 28:26).
The feminine noun (bikkura), meaning the first ripe fig, or early fig; a delicacy (Micah 7:1, Isaiah 28:4).
The name Becher doesn't occur as a proper noun, but taken from the verb it would mean something like Rise Early or Born First. But both BDB Theological Dictionary and NOBS Study Bible Name List seem to assume that Becher is a masculinization of the feminine noun , denoting the young of a camel, and read Young Camel. Alfred Jones (Dictionary of Old Testament Proper Names) sticks to the verb and proposes First Born.
Other names from the root bakar are
Becorath,
Bichri and
Bocheru.
|
|
|
•Look for baby names
•Augment your Hebrew language study
•Deepen your knowledge of the Bible
•Enrich your cruise to or travel holiday in Israel
|
|