

Shemeber meaning


Source: http://www.abarim-publications.com/Meaning/Shemeber.html

🔼The name Shemeber in the Bible

The name Shemeber occurs only once in the Bible. King Shemeber of Zeboiim was one of the five Canaanite kings who fought against the Assyrian kings Chedorlaomer and Amraphel and two of their royal buddies in the War of Four Against Five Kings (Genesis 14:2).

How Shemeber came to his demise isn't told, but his coalition was defeated and his colleague kings of Sodom and Gomorrah drowned in the tar pits in the valley of Siddim (Genesis 14:10). His town of Zeboiim was later destroyed along with Sodom and Gomorrah (Deuteronomy 29:23, Hosea 11:8).

🔼Etymology of the name Shemeber

The name Shemeber appears to consist of two elements, and the first one appears to be the noun שם (shem), meaning name:

The second part of our name seems to be derived of the root אבר ('br), roughly meaning to be strong:

🔼Shemeber meaning

The name Shemeber appears to be a phrase much alike שם יהוה (shem yhwh), meaning Name Of YHWH (as it appears, for instance in Genesis 4:26), except that instead of referring to YHWH, this name refers to Abir, which is a lesser known divine name.

The name Abir is commonly spelled with a י (yod-vowel), which didn't exist until the time of Solomon and it's perfectly possible that the source of this particular story was written long before that. Should we want to paraphrase this Name Of Abir it would probably have to be something like Renown Of The Protector.

But instead of referring to Abir, this name could obviously also simply refer to the human quality of being strong and protecting, and mean Known For Being Strong.

For a meaning of the Shemeber, NOBSE Study Bible Name List comes up with a painfully aloof Splendor Of Heroism. Jones' Dictionary of Old Testament Proper Names has an evenly uninspired Name Of Wing. BDB Theological Dictionary does not interpret this name but does list it under שם (shem), meaning name.