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Discover the meanings of thousands of Biblical names in Abarim Publications' Biblical Name Vault: Shalmai

Shalmai meaning

Shalmai in Biblical Hebrew
שלמי
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Source: https://www.abarim-publications.com/Meaning/Shalmai.html

🔼The name Shalmai: Summary

Meaning
Yah Envelops
Yah Is Recompenser, Peace Offering Of The Lord
Etymology
From (1) the verb שמל (slm), to envelop (2) יה (yah), the name of the Lord.
From (1) the verb שלם (shalem), to be or make whole or complete, and (2) יה (yah), the name of the Lord.
Related names
• Via שמל (slm): Salma, Salmon, Salmone, Samlah
• Via שלם (shalem): Abishalom, Absalom, Bishlam, Islam, Jerusalem, Meshelemiah, Meshillemith, Meshillemoth, Meshullam, Meshullemeth, Muslim, Salamis, Salem, Salim, Salome, Shallum, Shallun, Shalmaneser, Shelemiah, Shelomi, Shelomith, Shelumiel, Shulammite, Solomon, YHWH-shalom
• Via יה (yah): See the 'browse by form' menu for a long list of yah-names.

🔼The name Shalmai in the Bible

There's only one man named Shalmai in the Bible. Both Ezra and Nehemiah mention him as the head of a family of Nethinim (temple servants) of which an untold number of members returned from the Babylonian exile (Ezra 2:46, Nehemiah 7:48).

🔼Etymology of the name Shalmai

It's not clear where the name Shalmai comes from. The Masoretes pointed this name as if it came from the verb שמל (sml), meaning to envelop:

Excerpted from: Abarim Publications' Biblical Dictionary
שמל

The unused verb שמל (samal) probably meant to enclose or envelop (it does so in related languages). Noun שמלה (simla) describes an outer mantle or robe. This noun, curiously, also occurs in the form שלמה (salma), which has the two inner letters reversed and rather obviously resembles the familiar root שלם (shalem), meaning wholeness or peacefulness.

— See the full Dictionary article —

But before the Masoretes did their pointing (and Shalmai was spelled the same as the non-existing name Salmai, or even the existing name Shelomi — all these pronunciations and transliterations are of course guesses as we have no sound recording from Biblical times), our name would have looked like it came from the cluster of words that also gave us the familiar noun שלום (shalom), meaning peace:

Excerpted from: Abarim Publications' Biblical Dictionary
שלם

The verb שלם (shalem) means to be or make whole or complete, and is also used to describe a righteous recompense or proper restitution (whether positive or not). The familiar noun שלום (shalom) means wholeness, completeness or peace.

Other derivatives are: noun שלם (shelem), peace offering; verb שלם (shalam), to be in a covenant of peace; adjective שלם (shalem), perfect, whole, complete, safe; noun שלם (shillem), recompense; nouns שלמן (shalmon), שלום (shillum), שלם (shillum) and שלמה (shilluma), reward or proper recompense.

— See the full Dictionary article —

The letter י (yod) upon which our name ends, may either create an adjective (peace-like), a possessive form (my peace), or may be a remnant of יה (Yah), which is short for יהוה, which is the name YHWH, or Yahweh.

🔼Shalmai meaning

For a meaning of the name Shalmai, both NOBSE Study Bible Name List and Jones' Dictionary of Old Testament Proper Names take the core of it from the peace-root שלם (shalem), and ascribe the final י (yod) to a remnant of the name of the Lord. NOBSE, however, takes the meaning of recompensation for the core, and reads Yahweh Is Recompenser. Jones sticks with peace, but feels free to associate our name to an offering: Peace Offering Of The Lord. BDB Theological Dictionary does not offer an interpretation of this name and does not list it under any particular root.