🔼The name Ye'or (Nile): Summary
- Meaning
- It Will Shine, River Of Light
- Etymology
- From the verb אור ('or), to be or give light; to shine.
🔼The name Ye'or (Nile) in the Bible
The Nile is the river of Egypt. The Hebrew word by which this river is known is Ye'or, which is a transliteration of the Egyptian word 'iotr, simply meaning watercourse (Genesis 41:1, Exodus 1:22, Isaiah 19:7).
🔼Etymology of Ye'or, the Hebrew word for Nile
The name Ye'or may have been so readily assimilated because it bears a strong resembling to the verb אור ('or) meaning to be light or to shine:
אור
The verb אור ('or) means to be light or to give light; to shine. This verb's primary derivative is the expectable noun אור ('or), meaning light. The 'metaphor' that relates light to wisdom may not be a metaphor, or at least not to the ancients. In our article on the verb נהר (nahar), meaning both to flow and to shine, we show that the ancients had a surprisingly solid grasp of Relativity Theory.
This parallel between the word יאר and the Hebrew word for light is not that far-fetched. The Hebrew word for river is נהר (nahar I), and the identical verb נהר (nahar II) means to light or burn like a lamp.
🔼Ye'or (Nile) meaning
To a Hebrew audience, the river Nile was known as the River Of Light or The River That Will Shine.