The name means "black-skinned", but also has an unfortunate subsidiary meaning of "dirty"; TheBibleNet is not responsible for the racial attitudes of our ancient ancestors, though in fact it was originally a term used for dirty clothing, or for the darkening of the sky at night, and not for people.
Genesis 25:13 names him as a son of Yishma-El.
Song of Songs 1:5: describes the lover as being "black as the tents of Kedar"; this is usually reckoned to mean that Kedar was a Bedouin tribe, as theirs were the only black tents. However it was probably safer to treat the lover, if not the tent, as being Chamite (negroid).
Isaiah 42:11 and 60:7, Jeremiah 49:28, all make reference to Kedar, and in a manner that presumes Arabia.
The Rabbinical writings however use Lashon Kedar (לשון קדר) to mean Arabic, and Kedar (קדר) to stand for the Arab people as a whole.
Kidron (קדרון) is the name of the stream that flows into the Dead Sea through Yeru-Shala'im, passing through a valley of the same name at the foot of the Mount of Olives. It presumably took its name from the fact that the ancients tended to use it as a sewer.
Copyright © 2019 David Prashker
All rights reserved
The Argaman Press
No comments:
Post a Comment