🔼The name Haziel: Summary
- Meaning
- Vision Of God
- Etymology
- From (1) the verb חזה (haza), to see or have [a] vision, and (2) the word אל ('el), God.
🔼The name Haziel in the Bible
The name Haziel occurs only once in the Bible. He is one of three sons of Shimei, who is one of two sons of Gershon, who is one of three sons of Levi, who is one of twelve sons of Jacob, also known as Israel (1 Chronicles 23:9).
🔼Etymology of the name Haziel
The name Haziel consists of two (or rather: three) elements, the final one being אל (El), either the prominent Canaanite deity whose name became applied to the God of Israel, or the common abbreviation of Elohim, the genus God:
אל אלה
In names אל ('el) usually refers to אלהים ('elohim), that is Elohim, or God, also known as אלה ('eloah). In English, the words 'God' and 'god' exclusively refer to the deity but in Hebrew the words אל ('l) and אלה ('lh) are far more common and may express approach and negation, acts of wailing and pointing, and may even mean oak or terebinth.
The first part of our name comes from the verb חזה (haza I), meaning to look or see:
חזה
The verb חזה (haza) means to see or behold. Noun חזה (hozeh) means seer or visionary. Nouns חזות (hazot), חזות (hazut), חזיון (hizzayon) and מחזה (mahazeh) mean vision, anything between the mere act of seeing to experiencing a prophetic apparition. The noun מחזה (meheza) literally describes a place or instrument of vision and is the word for window.
It may be that the verb חזה (haza) originated in the idea of being or looking forward, which would explain the noun חזה (hazeh), which describes the breast of an animal. It may also be that this noun derives from a second verb חזה (haza), to be in front.
The letter י (yod) that ties the two primary elements together creates a possessive form out of the חז-part, meaning either "my sight" or "sight of".
🔼Haziel meaning
For a meaning of the name Haziel, NOBSE Study Bible Name List decides to omit the central yod and reads God Sees. Jones' Dictionary of Old Testament Proper Names proposes Vision Of God or Seen Of God. BDB Theological Dictionary has Vision Of El.