Genesis 36:11 names him as a son of Eli-Phaz.
1 Chronicles 1:36 gives his name as Tsephi (צפי).
The name is taken to mean "watchtower", and connected with Mitspeh, the shrine that functioned as both a terrestrial watchtower and an observation tower for the heavens; but this is too vague.
The root Tsaphah (צפה) means "to shine" or "to be bright", which does not at first appear to have anything to do with "watchtowers", though 1 Samuel 14:16, 2 Samuel 13:34 and 18:24 all use it in this sense (Tsophim - צֹּפִים - "watchmen", definitely in the sense of soldiery). Jeremiah 6:17 uses it metaphorically to mean a prophet in the sense of a man to whom the future is revealed by vision; but the metaphor only works because the word Tsophim is understood to mean "watchmen". Likewise Ezekiel 3:17, Isaiah 21:6 (Ha Metsapeh on this occasion - הַֽמְצַפֶּ֔ה - but still with the same meaning), Micah 7:4 (Metsapeycha - מְצַפֶּיךָ) and Habakkuk 2:1; and in Proverbs 15:3 and 31:27 it has the specific sense of "making accurate observations".
The prophetic link may also occur because the first Prophet of Yisra-El, Shemu-El (Samuel), came from Ramatayim Tsophim (1 Samuel 1).
The prophetic link may also occur because the first Prophet of Yisra-El, Shemu-El (Samuel), came from Ramatayim Tsophim (1 Samuel 1).
A Tsopheh (צופה) can thus be read equally as a "security guard" and a person who makes detailed observations in the daily world, and also the ancient name for an astronomer; with the watchtower serving equally as military look-out, and as the point of observation of the constellations from where exact accounts of the movements of the stars were recorded. What else "shines" or "is bright", but the stars at night or the sun by day?
And then there is the "hill of wisdom" in Yeru-Shala'im, which isn't actually called the Hill of Wisdom in modern Ivrit or Biblical Yehudit, but Har ha Tsophim, "Mount Lookout". "Hill of Wisdom" might translate into Greek as Mount Scopus, because skops in Greek is the owl, and the wise owl was the bird of the goddess of wisdom, Athena; but actually it is called Mount Scopus in English because scopus in Greek means "watcher" (as in telescope, microscope etc); and as it happens now to house the Hebrew University, it probably should be called "The Hill of Wisdom" in Ivrit too, only that would be Har Chochmah, and as such a lovely contrast to the neighbouring "Hill of Evil Counsel"
And then there is the "hill of wisdom" in Yeru-Shala'im, which isn't actually called the Hill of Wisdom in modern Ivrit or Biblical Yehudit, but Har ha Tsophim, "Mount Lookout". "Hill of Wisdom" might translate into Greek as Mount Scopus, because skops in Greek is the owl, and the wise owl was the bird of the goddess of wisdom, Athena; but actually it is called Mount Scopus in English because scopus in Greek means "watcher" (as in telescope, microscope etc); and as it happens now to house the Hebrew University, it probably should be called "The Hill of Wisdom" in Ivrit too, only that would be Har Chochmah, and as such a lovely contrast to the neighbouring "Hill of Evil Counsel"
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