Biblical Names And Meanings

"There are many biblical words and concepts that cannot be brought into English well, which is one reason learning the Bible sometimes requires the study of materials outside the Bible itself.

Among the things that cannot be easily brought into English are: puns, idioms, and times when the original word had more than one meaning and both are applicable. This happens regularly with names, because many biblical names had meanings that are important to the story.

People reading the original language see both the name and the meaning at the same time.

“Job” means “attacked,” and so people reading the Hebrew text knew that the book of Job was
the book of the attacked one.

“Abraham” is “father of a multitude,” and he is exactly that.

“Deborah” means “bee,” and she certainly stung the Canaanites (Judges 4 and 5).

“Delilah” means “pining away” or “wasting away,” which is exactly what happened to Samson under her influence.

Gideon revealed his aspiration to rule Israel when he named his son “Abimelech,” meaning, “My father is king.”