Jerahmeel

The name Jerahmeel (Hebrew יְרַחְמְאֵל, Yəraḥməʾēl; Greek ιραμεηλ) appears several times in the Tanakh. It means "He will obtain mercy of God",^[1] "God pities",^[2] "May God have compassion",^[3] "May God pity",^[4] or "Moon from God".^[5]

Bearers of the name

There are probably three distinct persons of that name in the Tanakh.^[1][2][3] In order of their lifetimes they are:

1. a son of Hezron and great-grandson of Judah, as given in the extended genealogies in 1 Chronicles 2:9, 2:25–26 and 2:42.
2. a son of Kish, one of the Levites appointed by David to administer the temple worship, as described in 1 Chronicles 24:29.
3. a son of the king,^[6] sent with others by Jehoiakim to arrest Baruch the scribe and Jeremiah the prophet, as given in Jeremiah 36:26. An old bulla with the inscription "Jerahmeel the king's son" has been found and considered authentic.^[7]

The Jerahmeelites

The Jerahmeelites were a people, presumably descended from Jerahmeel number 1 above, living in the Negev, who David, while in service with the Philistines, claimed to have attacked (1 Samuel 27:10), but with whom he was really on friendly terms^[4] (1 Samuel 30:29).

Cheyne developed a theory that made the Jerahmeelites into a significant part of the history of Israel,^[2] but most subsequent scholars have dismissed his ideas as fanciful.^[8]

An archangel

In some deuterocanonical and apocryphal writings, there are references to an archangel variously called Jeremiel, Eremiel, Remiel, etc. See the article Jerahmeel (archangel).

Chronicles of Jerahmeel

The Chronicles of Jerahmeel is a medieval document ascribed to the 12th century Jewish historian Jerahmeel ben Solomon, and is unrelated to any of the above.

References

1. Alfred Jones, Dictionary of Old Testament Proper Names 1856, republished Kregel Publications 1990
2. , Rev. T. K. Cheyne; J. Sutherland Black. "Jerahmeel" (PDF). Encyclopædia Biblica. pp. columns 2363–2366.
3. Stenning, J. F. (1902). "Jerahmeel". In James Hastings (ed.). A Dictionary of the Bible.
4. Cook, Stanley Arthur (1911). "Jerahmeel" . In Chisholm, Hugh (ed.). Encyclopædia Britannica. Vol. 15 (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. p. 322.
5. Danby & Segal, A Concise English-Hebrew Dictionary, The Dvir Publishing Co. Tel Aviv, 1962, page 93
6. or, according to the interpretation of the King James version, a son of Hammelech
7. Avigad, Nachman. Baruch the Scribe and Yerahme'el the King’s Son. Israel Exploration Journal (IEJ) 28:52. 1978
8.  This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Singer, Isidore; et al., eds. (1901–1906). "Jerahmeel". The Jewish Encyclopedia. New York: Funk & Wagnalls.