Le'umim

לאמים


Genesis 25:3 names the Ashurim and Letushim and Le'umim as the three sons of Dedan, grandsons therefore of Yakshan, who was one of the many sons fathered by Av-Raham on Keturah. 

This, however, is highly problematic - all the sons of Av-Raham with Keturah are problematic. Firstly, because Av-Raham was older than Sarah, and Sarah was 127 when she died (Genesis 23:1), so all these boys (not a girl among them) produced with Keturah over the next several decades would have been young enough to have been his next-century-grand-children. And secondly, even more significantly because they allow us to see Av-Raham as the god, rather than a man, and these as his "worshippers" rather than his biological offspring - all of these named sons turn out to be the tribes of Arabia and Mesopotamia, including that first-named Ashurim, the Assyrians.

The root is La'om (לאם), from which the word "nation" - self-explanatory, after my last paragraph.

It is assumed that the Le'umim were a group of nations from Arabia, lumped together under this common generic description. However there is also an astrological link. The root La'om actually means "a gathering together", which in the sense of people thus comes to mean "nation". Astrologically the Le'umim are the constellations themselves.

We need to distinguish between "Le'umim" and "Goyim" for "nations"; the former is the correct name; the latter has become a pejorative expression...

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