Bered

ברד


Genesis 16:14 states that the well in the wilderness of Shur which Hagar named Be'er Lechi Ro'i ("the well of the ox's jawbone") was "situated between Kadesh and Bered" (see also Genesis 16:7).

1 Chronicles 7:20 names Bered as the son of She'utalach (שותלח) - She'utelach in verse 21 - and grandson of Ephrayim, one of the two sons of Yoseph. A most un-Yisra-Eli is She'utalach, with far more letters in its root than Yehudit ever offers; so we can presume it was a non-
Yisra-Eli name and look for its origins elsewhere. None thus far have found any, but I am guessing that an Egyptologist is likely to be the least well-equipped - those working in that sphere claim that the name "may mean" "crashing of rending", whatever that may mean. I have seen no evidence of any kind to support these speculations, but refer you to the link under his name. I also suggest that Chaldean specialists might like to offer an opinion, as roots that hint of both Metusha-El and Metu-Shelach seem to be present here. See my shared link to those two names.

Bered, on the other hand, is most definitely Yehudit, though it is unusual to name one's child "hail", either in the Hitlerian or the Roman sense, or, as intended here, that halfway house between sleet and falling stalagmites. The spelling of the name suggests that in fact it is really BARAD (likewise written ברד but actually a different word, in the way that one may take a bow, or use one on a violin, or wear one as a tie) which means "sprinkled with spots", or plain "spotty". It is used in this sense for sheep in Genesis 31:10, when Ya'akov cons his uncle Lavan by carefully breeding speckled and spotted sheep. The equivalent word in Syriac is used for that spotted cat the leopard, whence Latin pardus, as in Shakespeare's "bearded as the pard" in "As You Like It".





Copyright © 2019 David Prashker
All rights reserved
The Argaman Press

No comments:

Post a Comment