🔼The name Hezron: Summary
- Meaning
- Enclosure, Cluster, Village
- Etymology
- From the verb חצר (hasar), to begin to cluster.
🔼The name Hezron in the Bible
There are two men and one town named Hezron in the Bible. The town named Hezron was situated somewhere in the south of the territory allotted to the tribe of Judah (Joshua 15:3). The name Hezron also occurs in Joshua 15:25, but it's not clear whether the text speaks of one town named Kerioth-hezron (Yes, say NAS, NIV, ASV and Darby), or two towns, one name Kerioth and one named Hezron (Yes, say KJV, JSP, and Young).
The men named Hezron are:
- One of the sons of Reuben (Genesis 46:9, 1 Chronicles 5:3), whose progeny became known as the חצרוני (Hezronites) of Reuben (Numbers 26:6). Note that in this latter reference, the name Hezron is spelled חצרן.
- A son of Perez, son of Judah and Tamar, who became the patriarch of the Hezronites (חצרוני) of Judah (Numbers 26:21). A little known fact is that Hezron also became the ancestor of Jesse and David, who were, therefore Judaic Hezronites (Ruth 4:18-22). Hezron's son Caleb would found Bethlehem (1 Chronicles 2:18). And since he is an ancestor of Christ, he is also mentioned in the Greek New Testament (spelled Εσρωμ, Esrom; Matthew 1:3, Luke 3:33)
🔼Etymology of the name Hezron
The name Hezron possibly comes from the noun חצר (haser), meaning court or enclosure:
חצר
The verb חצר (hasar) relates to the first visual manifestations of a gathering or emergence of some sort: to begin to cluster or gather or emerge.
The noun חציר (hasir) means grass, which is the first plant to sprout after, say, a fire. Noun חציר (hasir) means leek (a bigger version of grass) and חצצרה (hasosra) means trumpet, i.e. the perhaps leek-like instrument with which a gathering of humans is instigated.
The noun חצר (haser) denotes a hamlet or settlement or loose, rudimentary federation; the initial beginning of what some day might become a village or even a city. Noun חצר (haser) refers to an enclosure in the architectural sense, or even a court in the sense of it being a place where people loosely gather.
The waw-nun couple upon which our name ends usually has the function of personalizing or localizing the idea of the root.
🔼Hezron meaning
For a meaning of the name Hezron, NOBSE Study Bible Name List reads Enclosure. Jones' Dictionary of Old Testament Proper Names quotes Gesenius and read Enclosed or Surrounded By A Wall. BDB Theological Dictionary does not interpret Hezron but does list it under the noun חצר (haser), meaning Village.