🔼The name Chezib: Summary
- Meaning
- Deceitful, Lying
- Etymology
- From the verb כזב (kazab), to lie.
🔼The name Chezib in the Bible
The name Chezib occurs just one time in the Bible, although it may be a variant spelling of the names Achzib and Cozeba. In Genesis 38:5 we read how Judah acquired a Canaanite woman, who subsequently bore him Er, Onan and Shelah. And all this happened in a place called Chezib.
🔼Etymology of the name Chezib
The name Chezib comes from the verb כזב (kazab), meaning to lie:
כזב
The verb כזב (kazab) means to lie or fail. When it's applied to a stream, the stream is dry. Noun כזב (kazab) means a lie or deception. Adjective אכזב ('akzab) means deceptive or disappointing.
We can't be sure why anyone would want to call a place Lie, but Alfred Jones (Dictionary of Old Testament Proper Names) suggests that "it was probably so called from its deficiency of water". How or where Alfred Jones obtained his certainty is also impossible to trace, but his statement is conjecture.
🔼Chezib meaning
For a meaning of the name Chezib, NOBSE Study Bible Name List proposes Deceitful and Jones' Dictionary of Old Testament Proper Names says Lying. BDB Theological Dictionary lists Chezib under the root כזב but doesn't offer an interpretation.