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

Sheariah meaning

שעריה

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

🔼The name Sheariah: Summary

Meaning
Reckoned By Yah, Gate Of Yah
Etymology
From (1) the root שער (s'r), which expresses intense negative emotion and the experience of violence, and (2) יה (yah), the shortened name of the Lord.

🔼The name Sheariah in the Bible

The name Sheariah occurs twice in the Bible but in the exact same context. Sheariah is one of the six sons of Azel of Benjamin according to 1 Chronicles 8:38 and 9:44. No further details about this man are known.

🔼Etymology of the name Sheariah

The name Sheariah consists of two elements, the final one being יה (Yah), which is an abbreviated form of the Tetragrammaton יהוה, YHWH, or Yahweh.

The first part of the name Sheariah (which the Masoretes decided to endow with a שׁ, shin with the dot to the right) comes from any of the roots שער:

Excerpted from: Abarim Publications' Biblical Dictionary
שער

The general root שער (s'r) appears to primarily express intense negative emotion or the experience of violence. Curiously, it also yields words that have to do with hair.

Noun שער (se'ar) means hair or hairdo, and noun שערה (sa'ara) denotes a single hair. The derived denominative verb שער (sa'ar) would literally mean to be hairy or "hairish" but in fact is solely used to mean to be very afraid. Taking the liberty to back-engineer this verb yields the observation that a single hair would have to be associated with a single fear, a full head of hair with lots of concerns, and a bald pate with either a stoic mastery or else a blissfully empty head.

Noun שער (sa'r), means horror. Adjective שעיר (sa'ir) means hairy. Noun שעיר (sa'ir) denotes a he-goat (a bristly guy or a fear guy?) and its feminine counterpart שעירה (sa'ira) means she-goat. Noun שערה (se'ora) means barley, the bearded grain.

Verb שער (sa'ar) means to sweep or whirl away, usually in relation to a storm wind. Nouns שער (sa'ar) and its feminine counterpart שערה (se'ara) mean storm. These words also occur in an alternative spelling, namely as the verb סער (sa'ar), to storm, and nouns סער (sa'ar) and סערה (seara), storm.

In the Middle Ages, scholars began to add dots and points to the Scriptures. All previous words they equipped with a dot on the left tooth of the letter ש, hence שׂ (sin), whereas the following words were spelled with a dot to the right, hence שׁ (shin). To the original authors and the first thousand years of their readers, this difference did not exist.

Verb שער (sha'ar) exists in other languages with the meaning of to break, tear through or split, which obviously repeats the general theme of the experience of violence. The adjective שער (sho'ar) means horrid or disgusting, and nouns שערורה (sha'arura), שערוריה (sha'aruriya) and שעררית (sha'arurit) denote horror or horrible things.

Much more neutral are the nouns שער (sha'ar), gate, and שער (sho'er), gatekeeper or porter. These words suggests that the ancients associated a hair emerging from skin to traffic emerging from a city gate, like words flowing from an overfilled heart. This in turn suggests that when a grieving person pulls his or her hair out, he or she becomes silent with grief.

The verb שער (sha'ar) is also used to mean to calculate or reckon, obviously with an emphasis on the verbal conveyance of something internally experienced. Noun שער (sha'ar) is also used to mean "fold" in the sense of "a hundred fold."

🔼Sheariah meaning

Both NOBSE Study Bible Name List and Jones' Dictionary of Old Testament Proper Names derive Sheariah from root שׁער (sha'ar II), meaning to calculate or reckon. Hence, for a meaning of the name Sheariah, NOBSE reads Yahweh Has Esteemed and Jones has the rather curious Estimated Of The Lord.

BDB Theological Dictionary on the other hand doesn't offer an interpretation of the name Sheariah but lists it under שׁער (sh'r I). Following BDB's hint would lead to a meaning of Gate Of Yah.