🔼The name Cheluhi: Summary
- Meaning
- Annihilated, Ended
- Etymology
- From the verb כלה (kala), to complete or end.
🔼The name Cheluhi in the Bible
The name Cheluhi (or as some translations have it: Chelluh) occurs only one time in the Bible. He is listed among the sons of Bani who divorced their foreign wives during the purge of Ezra (Ezra 10:35).
🔼Etymology of the name Cheluhi
The name Cheluhi appears to derive from the verb כלה (kala), meaning to complete or 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.
The letter י (yod) upon which our name ends, may either create an adjective (end-like), a possessive form (my end), or may be a remnant of יה (Yah) = יהו (Yahu) = יו (Yu), which in turn are abbreviated forms of the Tetragrammaton יהוה, YHWH, or Yahweh.
🔼Cheluhi meaning
For a meaning of the name Cheluhi, NOBSE Study Bible Name List reads Robust for entirely untraceable reasons. Perhaps NOBSE draws from some other language (or erroneously from the Hebrew verb כלח, meaning firm or rugged strength; see the name Calah), but to a Hebrew audience, our name Cheluhi would not have meant Robust.
Jones' Dictionary of Old Testament Proper Names derives our name from כלה (kala) and takes the final י (yod) to be a remnant of יהוה. And thus Jones reads Consumed Of The Lord. BDB Theological Dictionary does not interpret our name but does confirm that it might come from כלה (kala).