🔼The name Merom: Summary
- Meaning
- Height
- Place Of Bitterness
- Etymology
- From the noun מרום (marum), height, from the verb רום (rum), to be high.
- From the verb מרר (marar), to be bitter.
🔼The name Merom in the Bible
The name Merom occurs twice in the Bible, namely Joshua 11:5 and 11:7, where Merom is listed as the place (waters even) where a coalition of Canaanite kings gathered their vast armies to fight Israel under Joshua. The subsequent defeat of the Canaanite coalition marked the conclusion of the Canaanite campaign.
🔼Etymology of the name Merom
The name Merom is spelled the same but pronounced slightly different as the noun מרום (marom), height, from the verb רום (rum), to be high:
רום
The verb רום (rum) means to be high or high up in either a physical, social or even attitudinal sense, and may also refer to the apex in a natural process: the being ripe and ready-for-harvest of fruits. Subsequently, our verb may imply a state beyond ripe (higher than ripe, overripe), which thus refers to rotting and being maggot riddled. This means that to the ancients, higher did not simply mean better, and an arrogant political status that was higher than it should be equaled rot and worms (Acts 12:23).
Derived nouns, such as רום (rum) and related forms such as רמה (rama), describe height or pride. Noun רמות (ramut) describes some high thing and מרום (marum) a heigh place. The noun ארמון ('armon) refers to a society's apex: a citadel or palace. The noun ראם (re'em) describes the wild ox, which was named possibly for the same reason why we moderns call a rising market a "bull" market. The similar verb ראם (ra'am) means to rise.
The important noun רמון (rimmon) means pomegranate and the pomegranate became the symbol for harvest-ready fruit (see our full dictionary article for more on this). Overripe items might suffer the noun רמה (rimma), worm or maggot, or the verb רמם (ramam), to be wormy.
Another possible source of our name is via the verb מרר (marar), to be bitter. Note that the Adultery Test described in Numbers 5:11-31 involved "bitter waters" (see this further discussed in our article on Maranatha), and that the conclusion of the Canaanite campaign at the waters of Merom is alluded to in Revelation 20:9, "And they came up on the broad plain of the earth and surrounded the camp of the saints and the beloved city, and fire came down from heaven and devoured them.":
מרר
The verb מרר (marar) means to be strong or bitter and can be used to describe tastes and smells, and hard or difficult situations. Most definitively, this word occurs in the test of adultery (Numbers 5:18-27), where a suspected woman is made to drink "bitter waters". If she was innocent, her husband's suspicions would be lifted, and she would conceive. This obviously ties into the nativity story.
Adjectives מר (mar) and מרירי (meriri) mean bitter. Nouns מרור (maror) and מרורה (merora) refer to any bitter thing, the former specifically to a certain bitter herb, and the latter to gall or poison.
Noun מררה (merera) also means gal. Nouns מרה (morra), מרה (mora), מרירות (merirut), ממר (memer), ממרור (mamror) and תמרור (tamrur) mean bitterness. The latter noun is spelled identical to the noun תמרור (tamrur), meaning marker or sign post, from the root תמר (tamar), meaning to be stiff or erect.
And speaking of such, the nouns מר (mor) and מור (mor) mean myrrh, a bitter and fragrant spice that was originally used to mark the tabernacle, but which came to be used to proclaim, olfactorily, the consummation of marriage. Hence, despite its links to words that mostly describe hardship, myrrh oil was known as the "oil of joy."
Verb מרה (mara) means to be contentious or rebellious, particularly against God. Noun מרי (meri) means rebellion.
The verb מור (mor) means to change. Perhaps the connection between the previous is coincidental but perhaps these words are indeed linked, as change is often reaction to bitterness or opposition. The noun תמורה (temura) means exchange.
🔼Merom meaning
For a meaning of the name Merom, NOBSE Study Bible Name List reads High Place and Jones' Dictionary of Old Testament Proper Names has A High Place. BDB Theological Dictionary offers no interpretation and also does not list our name under רום (rum), but rather alphabetically under מ (mem).
But if we take our name from any of the derivations of the verb מרר (marar), to be bitter, it would mean Place Of Bitterness or Place Of The Bitter Stuff. In that sense, it would associate to the Adultery Test, which only had two outcomes: either the woman's body would be destroyed or she would conceive. The nativity story tells of course of this latter outcome, and celebrates the innocence of Mary and her subsequent conceiving of the Logos, who in turn wins the victory at Armageddon.