🔼The name Chilion: Summary
- Meaning
- Coming To An End, Man Of Finality
- Etymology
- From the verb כלה (kala), to come to an end.
🔼The name Chilion in the Bible
There's only one Chilion in the Bible, and he features in the harrowing story of Naomi and Ruth (Ruth 1:2).
Because of a local famine, Naomi and Elimelech of Bethlehem and their two sons Mahlon and Chilion move to Moab. Soon, however, Elimelech dies and Naomi is left with her two sons. Mahlon marries Ruth and Chilion marries Orpah, both Moabite women, and they live in Moab for about ten years. Then Mahlon and Chilion too pass away.
Word reaches Naomi that food has returned to Israel, and she decides to return home. She instructs her daughters-in-law to go back to their own parents; Chilion's widow Orpah complies but Mahlon's widow Ruth doesn't. She chooses to emigrate to Naomi's country, where she meets and marries Boaz of Bethlehem. Ruth and Boaz become the ancestors of David and finally Jesus the Nazarene, while Orpah quietly exits the Biblical stage and is heard from no more.
🔼Etymology of the name Chilion
The name Chilion is not very cheerful. It's spelled the same way as and pronounced slightly different from the noun כליון (killayon), meaning failing or annihilation, derived from the verb כלה (kala), meaning to come to an end:
כלל
The root כלל (kll) deals with limits, and particularly the limit on growth or progression. This limit may be incurred by interment or incarceration, but it may also mark the asymptotic quality of perfection or completion.
Verb כלא (kala') means to shut in or shut up. Nouns כלא (kele'), כלוא (klw') and כליא (keli) mean imprisonment. Noun מכלה (mikla), means enclosure or fold. Verb כול (kul) means to contain or cause to contain.
Verb כלה (kala) denotes the bringing to a completion of some process, and that usually but not always in a negative sense. Noun כלה (kala) mostly describes complete destruction or complete annihilation. Adjective כלה (kaleh) describes a failing with desire and noun כליון (killayon) means either a failing or pining of the eyes or annihilation. Noun מכלה (mikla) means completeness (and is identical to the word meaning enclosure or fold). The noun תכלה (tikla) means perfection. Noun תכלית (taklit) means end or completeness. The very common noun כלי (keli) describes any kind of article that (possibly) took a while to make but is now finished, or a vessel that was designed to hold some finished product; a holding pot.
Verb כלל (kalal) means to complete or make perfect. The very common noun כל (kol) means all or the whole. Adjective כליל (kalil) means entire or whole. Nouns מכלול (miklol) and מכלל (miklal) mean perfection. Noun מכלל (maklul) describes something made perfect.
The noun כלה (kalla) means bride or daughter-in-law, and noun כלולה (kelula) means espousal, which obviously reflects the Bible's expectation that humanity's ultimate perfection makes her a Bride to the Creator.
🔼Chilion meaning
For a meaning of the name Chilion, NOBSE Study Bible Name List reads Wasting Away and Jones' Dictionary of Old Testament Proper Names proposes Pining, Consuming. BDB Theological Dictionary does not interpret our name.