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Meaning, origin and etymology of the name Menahem


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Menahem Menahem

Menahem killed king Shallum of Israel a month after his own coup against king Zechariah the son of Jeroboam, and took the throne. A town called Tiphshah refused to open to him and king Menahem destroyed it and its inhabitants. His especially brutal treatment of pregnant women shows that he was not a very nice guy.

The name Menahem probably comes from the root naham (naham 1344), which means either sorrow, repentance or comfort, depending on the context - see Nahum for an extensive treatment of this root.
The mem is sometimes prefixed to a word without essentially altering the meaning, sometimes to create an agent who acts out the verb: He Who Makes Sorrow; He Who Causes To Regret.
Perhaps it has to do with ma (me 1149), what or mi (mi 1189), who.

Other words of interest are: min (man 1210), what or who; min (min 1212), from, out of, more than; min (men 1215a), portion.
mnh (mnh 1214) is the assumed root of minha (minha 1214a), meat offering, gift, sacrifice.
ham (ham 674a) means father-in-law; ham (ham 677a, b) means hot or warm.

Playing with any combination of the elements above, Menahem could mean Comfort, Comforter, Hot Portion, or Who Is Your Father-In-Law?



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