🔼The name Heber: Summary
- Meaning
- Associate, Companion
- Etymology
- From the verb חבר (habar), to join.
🔼The name Heber in the Bible
There are four Hebers in the Bible:
- A son of Beriah, son of Asher, son of Jacob with Zilpah (Genesis 46:17). The progeny of this Heber became known as the חברי, the Heberites (Numbers 26:45)
- A Kenite descendant of the cousin of Moses and husband of Jael, who killed Sisera (Judges 4:24).
- A descendant of Judah (1 Chronicles 4:18).
- A Benjaminite (1 Chronicles 8:17).
Luke mentions a Heber in the genealogy of Christ (3:35) but this is an odd English transliteration of the Greek transliteration (Εβερ) of the Hebrew name Eber.
🔼Etymology of the name Heber
The name Heber comes from the verb חבר (habar), meaning to join:
חבר
The verb חבר (habar) means to bind, join or team up. Nouns חבר (heber) and חברה (hebra) mean company or association. Adjective or noun חבר (haber) means united or associate. Noun חבר (habbar), meaning business associate.
Noun חברת (haberet) literally means that what is joined (curtains, one's wife). Noun מחברת (mahberet) means a thing joined or place of joining. Noun מחברה (mehabbera) describes a binder or clamp.
Nouns חבורה (habbura), חברה (habbura or habra) and חברברה (habarbura) mean stripe or mark. How these words express binding isn't immediately clear, but perhaps the most ancient symbols arose from people claiming items and locations for themselves or their tribes.
🔼Heber meaning
For a meaning of the name Heber, NOBSE Study Bible Name List reads Associate. Jones' Dictionary of Old Testament Proper Names proposes Fellowship.