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

Jehu meaning

יהוא

Source: https://www.abarim-publications.com/Meaning/Jehu.html

🔼The name Jehu: Summary

Meaning
Yah Is He
Etymology
From (1) the name of the Lord: יה (yah), and (2) the third person singular personal pronoun הוא (hu'), he.

🔼The name Jehu in the Bible

There are five men named Jehu in the Bible, two of whom are quite famous. The relatively unknown Jehu's are:

Better known Jehu's are:

  • The prophet Jehu, son of Hanani, who admonishes king Jehoshaphat of Judah for his allegiance to king Ahab of Israel (2 Chronicles 19:2), but still authors his story as recorded in the Book of Kings (2 Chronicles 20:34). Jehu also predicts the doom of king Baasha of Israel and son of Ahijah (1 Kings 16:1). When Baasha's son Elah becomes king, servant Zimri murders him, becomes king himself and proceeds to exterminate the entire house of Baasha (1 Kings 16:12).
    Apparently, Zimri's appalling deeds garnered him proverbial notoriety, and in a striking play of broken symmetry, queen mother Jezebel addresses the other famous Jehu derogatorily as Zimri.
  • A son of Jehoshaphat, son of Nimshi, who God told Elijah to anoint as king over Israel and avenger, in the same breath with which he pronounced Elisha to be the successor of Elijah (1 Kings 19:16, see 2 Kings 9:2).
    Once anointed (by a protégé of Elisha, not by Elijah — 2 Kings 9:1-3), Jehu goes on his foretold rampage, kills king Jehoram of Israel, and dumps his corpse on the field of the previously murdered Naboth of Jezreel (2 Kings 9:24-25). Then Jehu gives chase to the incumbent king Ahaziah of Judah and has him killed too (9:27), proceeds to Jezreel and, after she calls him Zimri, executes Jezebel by having her thrown out of a window (9:30-33). Then he kills the seventy sons of Ahab (10:7), the forty-two sons of Ahaziah (10:14) and all priests of Baal found in Israel (10:21-28).

🔼Etymology of the name Jehu

According to BDB Theological Dictionary, the name Jehu is a contracted form of the name יהוהוא (Jehuhu). This latter version doesn't occur in Scriptures, but something similar happens with the name יהושע (Joshua), which was contracted into ישוע (Jeshua).

Hence, the name Jehu consists of two elements:

1) יה (Yah) = יהו (Yahu) = יו (Yu), which in turn are abbreviated forms of the Tetragrammaton; the name of the Lord: YHWH.

2) The third person singular, independent nominative pronoun הוא (hu'), meaning he, she or it:

Excerpted from: Abarim Publications' Biblical Dictionary
המה

The masculine pronouns הם (hem) and המה (hemma) mean "they." The feminine versions are הנה (henna) and הן (hen). The singular versions (meaning he and she) are הוא (hu) and היא (hi).

The similar verb המה (hama) means to be noisy, and that particularly of a "them". The derived masculine noun המון (hamon) denotes a noisy multitude.

נהה

The verb נהה (naha) means to wail or lament, and is probably onomatopoeic, after the sound of crying. Nouns נהי (nehi), נהיה (nihya), ני (ni) and הי (hi) all describe forms of wailing.

נהם

The verb נהם (naham) describes a muffled groaning. Nouns נהם (naham) and נהמה (nehama) mean a growling.

נאם

The noun נאם (ne'um) describes a labored utterance of a prophet in trance. Denominative verb נאם (na'am), means to utter a prophetic utterance.

🔼Jehu meaning

For a meaning of the name Jehu, NOBSE Study Bible Name List reads Yahweh Is He. Jones' Dictionary of Old Testament Proper Names has The Lord Is He, and BDB Theological Dictionary proposes Yah Is He.