TheBibleNet

Yakshan

יקשן

Genesis 25:2 names him as the second son of Av-Raham and Keturah, the ancestor of the Sabataeans and Dedanites of the Yemen.

The name means "fowler" and presumably relates to falconry, still the royal sport in the Yemen to this day.

Given the Sheen-Tav (ת-ש) interchange between Yehudit and Aramaic, might this in fact be Yaktan by variation?

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Yachtse-El

יחצאל

Genesis 46:24 names him as the eldest son of Naphtali; his siblings were Guni (גוני), Yetser (יצר) and Shilem (שלם).

Written with a central Yud (יחציאל) in 1 Chronicles 7:13.

cf Numbers 26:48.

Gesenius gives the meaning as "whom El allots", but this needs some explaining. The root is Nachats (נחץ) = "to urge" or "press". That root appears in a two-letter form as Chets (חץ) = "an arrow" in 1 Samuel 20:20 et al, but in a three-letter form as Chatsats (חצץ), still meaning "an arrow", in Psalm 77:18. But there is also Chatsah (חצה) = "to divide", and this is presumably the source of Gesenius' definition. And then, to make it more complex, Chatsah is also used for small stones, specifically what we would call gravel (Proverbs 20:17, Lamentations 3:16), presumably because small stones were once large stones which became divided.

The town, or shrine, of Chatsatson-Tamar takes its name from this meaning: the division, or pruning of the palm. I am unable to explain how the same root and meanings lead to the Chatsotsra (חֲצוֹצְרָה), the trumpet used for military and civilian purposes, as opposed to the shofar which was used for religious purposes (cf Numbers 10:2).

Either way, as we try to work out which deity, which jewel, and which constellation was associated with each of the tribes, we can look to the original biliteral root for guidance, and recognise the constellation Sagittarius - the archer - rearing its head where it belongs, in the tribe of Naphtali.

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Yachin

יכין

Genesis 46:10: the fourth son of Shim'on (Simeon), his siblings were Yemu-El (ימואל), Yamin (ימין), Ohad (אהד), Tsochar (צחר) and Sha'ul (שאול), the latter described as being "the son of a Kena'ani (Canaanitish) woman". However 1 Chronicles 4:24 names him Yariv (יריב) and not Yachin; it also has Nemu-El (נמואל) for Yemu-El, omits Ohad, and has Zerach (זרח) for Tsochar; thus giving Shim'on only four sons; see under Tsochar for the astrological inferences of all this.

cf Numbers 26:12 for the tribe out of Yachin.

The name means "whom the god strengthens", or "founds".

The alternative name, Yariv, is taken by Gesenius to mean "an adversary", from the root Riv (ריב); he is correct about the root, but his explanation is unhelpfully imprecise; Riv means "to contend" or "to quarrel" or "to engage in strife", which allows us to think of Yitschak quarreling over the wells of Esek and Sitnah in Genesis 26:20/21, but... and this is why Gesenius makes the leap, because Sitnah is an early form of what, but much later, would become ha-Satan, not yet the fully-fledged Devil of Christianity, but the "adversary" who wagers with Elohim against Iyov (Job).

If Yariv is correct for this son, then compare also Psalm 35:1, Jeremiah 18:19 and Isaiah 49:25.

1 Chronicles 11:46 mentions Yerivai (יריבי) as one of the "thirty mighty men" who formed King David's bodyguard; interestingly Yerivai was a son of El-Na'am (אלנעם) and Yitmah (יתמה), both Beney Mo-Av (Mo'abites); interesting because El-Na'am is a compound of El (אל) and Na'am (נעם), Na'am being Naomi, Ruth's mother-in-law - and Ruth herself was a Mo'abitess.

Why is this significant? Because, as noted above, Yariv is a substitution for Yachin, and Yachin, when not being the fourth son of Shim'on, is the "brother" of Bo'az, who was the husband of Rut (Ruth); which is to say that Yachin, along with Bo'az (בעז), were the twin pillars of the porch of Shelomoh's (Solomon's) Temple (1 Kings 7:21 - the link to the Jewish Virtual library given above says 2 Kings 7:21, but that is a typing error). These links cannot be simply coincidence.

The pillars play an important role in Freemasonry, but as I am not a Freemason and that world is a temple of secrecy whose pillars an outsider cannot spread open let alone pull down, you will have to investigate this subject for yourself.

Much the same is true of the Tarot - the illustration at the top of this page shows "The Philosopher's Compass" from the Tarotdon pack - and in fact I suspect the same Gnostic origins may lie at the source of both. Again I have provided a starting-link, and you are welcome to follow this palm-line or constellatory-chain or branch of the Cabbalistic Tree of Life for yourself; it is beyond the scope of TheBibleNet.

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Ya'lam

יעלם

Genesis 36:5: a son of Esav (Esau), his brothers were Ye'ush (יְעוּשׁ) - though this is questioned; the Yehudit appears to give Ye'ish (יעיש) - and Korach (קֹרַח).

The name means "whom Yah hides".

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Eli-Phaz

אליפז

Genesis 36:4 and 10 ff - a son of Esav by Adah.

Job 2:11 et al - one of those who argued with Iyov (Job).

The name means "to whom El is strength", and sounds very much the right name, figuratively as well as literally, for the arguments that Eli-Phaz put to Iyov in that story. Given that Iyov came from Uts (ע֖וּץ) - which was an Edomite colony in the northern Arabian desert, and Iyov's principal discourser is here claimed as a son of the Edomite Esav, we have further evidence that the Book of Job was not Yisra-Eli at all, but yet another of those fragments of Edomite culture borrowed but never returned; though in fact the Edomite version was itself most likely a borrowing, possibly from an Egyptian "lamentations" source, much more probably from Bavel (Babylonia).

Uts is also the name of one of the sons of Nachor and Milkah (Genesis 22:20/23), the others being "Buz his brother, and Kemu-El the father of Aram, Kesed, Chazo, and Pildash, and Yidlaph, and Betu-El." The last of these, Betu-El, will father Lavan (Laban) and Rivkah (Rebecca), who will become Ya'akov's mother and father-in-law, and all of whom are based in Padan Aram, adding still further weight to the Book of Job being of non-Yisra-Eli origins, but also perhaps giving us a cultural route for its entry.

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El-Da'ah

אלדעה

Genesis 25:4 names him as a son of Midyan, one of Av-Raham's sons by Keturah.

The name means "whom El knows", from Yada (ידע) = "to know"

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Uts (Uz)

Map of the biblical Land of Ausitis

עוץ

Usually, but incorrectly, rendered as Uz in English.

Genesis 10:23 names him as the eldest son of Aram; his siblings were Chul (חול), Geter (גתר) and Mash (מש).

Genesis 22:21 changes this, or perhaps gives it its antecedents, naming Uts as the first-born son of Nachor (נחור), Av-Ram's brother. In this version his siblings were Buz (בוז), Kemu-El (קמואל) the father of Aram (ארם), Kesed (כשד), Chazo (חזו), Pildash (פלדש), Yidlaph (ידלף) and Betu-El (בתואל), the father of Rivkah (Rebecca) who would later marry Yitschak (Isaac).

Genesis 36:28 gives the Edomite version of this genealogy, which is somewhat different again. Uts is now the first-born son of Dishan (previously one of his brothers); his only sibling is Aran (ארן), almost certainly a dialect spelling of Aram (ארם).

What is clear is that these are not people but tribes, and that the family relationships denote political hegemony.

Uts also appears as the land from which Iyov came (Job 1:1), which allows us to recognise that as a Babylonian rather than a Yisra-Eli tale.

He - or rather it - is also mentioned in Jeremiah 25:20 and Lamentations 4:21; both references seeming to confirm that Uts is Ausitis, a region and tribe in the northern Arabian desert between Kena'an, Edom and the Euphrates; they were almost certainly Edomites.

The name hardly reappears in history at all, unlike many biblical names; but cf a delightful little book by Bruce Chatwin bearing the name (though he spells it Utz). It has absolutely nothing to do with Job, or the Bible, or the land of Ausitis; I mention it only because of the coincidence of the name.

Uts means "soft and sandy earth", though Judges 19:30 and Isaiah 8:10 both use a verb Uts (עוץ) to mean "to consult", possibly a variant of Ya'ats (יעץ) - cf 2 Samuel 16:23 and 17:11, 1 Kings 1:12, Ezra 7:28 and many others, all of them suggesting that "the land of Uts" is rather more metaphorical than literal, in the same manner as Kayin (Cain) being exiled in "the land of Nod", from LENADNED = = "to wander". Uts is thus "the land of counselling", which is precisely what every character in the tale does, driving Iyov completely nuts with all of their wise, sound but ultimately useless advice.

At least one Catholic translations renders the name as Hus, for reasons that are not given, but deducible as being based on Saint Jerome's translation of the Greek Septuagint into the Vulgate. Error then vindicating error, it wrongly assumes that Uzah must also be a variation of Uts (Christian translations, as noted many times, regularly regard the Yieudit Tsade (צ) as though it were a Zayin (ז), and render "ts" as "z".

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