Meaning of "Israel"
Posted: Sun Mar 03, 2019 10:58 pm
Meaning of “Israel”
This post discusses three possible west Semitic meanings of “Israel”: (i) Ugaritic; (ii) Patriarchal Hebrew; (iii) modern scholarly Biblical Hebrew.
The five Hebrew letters transliterated by KJV as “Israel” are ישראל. As we will see in this post, these Hebrew letters, and their proper division, can be alternatively viewed as being either Y- SR - ’L or, per the Ugaritic meaning, YŠR - ’L / yšr-il.
(Although not discussed in this post, a third possible division of these Hebrew letters is YŠ - R - ’L. For example, at Ugarit a maryannu [usually a Hurrian charioteer] has the name yšr’il [Meindert Dijkstra, at p. 60 of “The Land of Canaan in the Late Bronze Age” (2017)]; in my opinion, such name might possibly be yš - r’ - il. Going back to an earlier era, the name Iš-ra-il is found at Ebla; however, the meaning [and division] of this Eblaite name from the end of the 3rd millennium BCE is unclear, as is the question of whether it is truly a direct forerunner of the Biblical name “Israel”. But I digress.)
At Ugarit, in the Ugaritic name yšr-il the initial yod / Y is an integral part of the verbal root, rather than being a verbal prefix, with the verb being yšr. By contrast, in the Patriarchal and scholarly Hebrew meanings, the verb in question is viewed as being SRH, where the final -H drops out when Y- as a verbal prefix is added. The other difference is that at Ugarit, the sibilant is a shin, whereas in the conventional Hebrew understandings the verb is a sin. (Although these are two separate phonemes, nevertheless in unpointed alphabetical Hebrew writing there is no difference between shin and sin, and accordingly shin should be considered as possibly being part of the intended meaning of “Israel”.)
1. Ugaritic Meaning of “Israel”
At Ugarit, the following name is attested (in Ugaritic): yšr-il. If this Ugaritic name were to be written in unpointed Hebrew text, the spelling would be identical to the Hebrew spelling of “Israel” (since shin is not distinguished in Hebrew writing from sin).
The Ugaritic verb yšr (quite similar to the same verb in Hebrew, as discussed below) means “to be upright, to be lawful”. Thus the Ugaritic name yšr-il means (in Ugaritic): “God [is] Upright” or “God [is] Lawful”. This is a typical Late Bronze Age name of a noble man, where the name praises a deity. Note that the Ugaritic meaning is not blasphemous from a Hebrew perspective (since Hebrews and Jews, along with most all other peoples in the ancient Near East for that matter, would presumably agree that the divine is “upright” and “lawful”). Accordingly, it is possible that this west Semitic / Ugaritic meaning of “Israel” is an intended secondary meaning of “Israel”.
Hebrew has the same common word: yšr / YŠR / ישר, having a somewhat similar meaning: “to please, to be straight, right”. The Hebrew verb YŠR appears 27 times in the Bible, e.g. Psalms 5: 8; 119: 128. So absent the Patriarchal Hebrew explanation that is set forth at Genesis 32: 28 (quoted below), which relies on an otherwise unknown Hebrew verb (as discussed below) [unlike the well-known Hebrew verb yšr / YŠR / ישר], a Hebrew audience might well have thought that the main, if not sole, meaning of the name “Israel” is its Ugaritic meaning above.
In the context of the Patriarchal narratives, the focus on God being “upright” and “lawful” and “straight” and “right” might be intended to reassure the Hebrews that God will surely honor His divine promises to the Hebrew Patriarchs: progeny, and the land of Canaan. Since the Ugaritic meaning of “Israel” works so nicely, we should perhaps seriously consider whether this Ugaritic meaning was an intended secondary meaning of the name “Israel”.
2. Patriarchal Hebrew Meaning of “Israel”
Genesis 32: 8 conceptualizes the name “Israel” as being Y- SR - ’L. In context, the underlying Hebrew verb here is viewed as being an otherwise unknown (as discussed below) Hebrew verb SRH (with a sin), with Y- being a verbal prefix. Based primarily on the fact that SR is the extremely well-known Hebrew common n-o-u-n which has as its most common meaning “prince”, in context the mysterious Hebrew verb SRH is thought to mean one or more of the following: “to be a prince”, or “to have the power of a prince”, or “to fight or struggle as a prince”, or “to prevail as a prince”, or “to prevail as a prince (having the power of a prince and having fought as a prince)”. Take your pick, because SRH as a Hebrew verb appears only here at
Genesis 32: 28, and in the parallel passage at Hosiah 12: 3 (where the context is identical).
The KJV translation of Genesis 32: 28 sets forth the Patriarchal Hebrew meaning of this name as: “a prince hast thou power with God”. However, in the context of Jacob having just then wrestled with God, the implied full meaning of the name “Israel” in Patriarchal Hebrew could be viewed as being:
“a prince who, having successfully struggled with God, hast thou power with God”.
That is truly a beautiful meaning for both Hebrew Patriarch #3 individually, and for all of his progeny (Hebrews and Jews). The Hebrews and Jews have, like Jacob, certainly “struggled”, yet just as surely, have “power with God”.
B-u-t:
Is SRH really a Hebrew verb? It only appears twice in the Bible, here at Genesis 32: 8, where its meaning can be divined (more or less) by the context, and at Hosiah 12: 3, which is merely a parallel passage having the identical context. Did an early Hebrew author effectively create SRH as a Hebrew verb, since outside of this one context, SRH never appears elsewhere in the Bible?
There is no srh in Ugaritic with this meaning. srh in Ugaritic is a teen numeral.
By contrast, SR is an extremely well-known Hebrew common noun, meaning “prince, captain, chief, ruler, leader”, etc., and occurs 421 times in 368 Bible verses. Scholars tell us that SR derives from the Hebrew verb SRR, but SRR as a verb appears in only 4 Bible verses. Moreover, whereas SR as a noun has a broad range of meanings, SRR as a verb has the extremely narrow sole meaning of “to rule as a prince”. (As a secondary meaning of the name “Israel”, based on the storyline of the Patriarchal narratives, Robert Alter [cited below] approvingly cites Rashi, who viewed the Hebrew verb SRR [e.g. Isaiah 32: 1] as being the underlying verb in question for this name, which per Alter supposedly has the meaning of “lordliness”, but which in fact means “to rule as a prince”, possibly implying: “having the high-class manner of a ruling prince”.)
SRR is somewhat suspicious as a Hebrew verb (seeming to derive from the noun SR, rather than vice versa as scholars would have it), and SRH is highly suspicious as a Hebrew verb; both of these verbs occur but rarely in the Hebrew Bible, whereas the Hebrew common noun SR is ubiquitous throughout the Bible. What seems to be happening at Genesis 32: 8 is that the Biblical author is starting with the extremely well-known Hebrew common noun SR, and then creatively f-or-c-i-n-g this Hebrew common noun to be used as a verb, resulting in a forced meaning for “Israel”. Whereas the Ugaritic meaning of yšr-il is totally natural and unremarkable on all levels, the Patriarchal Hebrew meaning of Y- SR - ’L is the opposite: it is both forced and awesome. This is the hallmark of a creative genius Hebrew author.
3. Modern Scholarly Hebrew Meaning of “Israel”
Today’s university scholars take the odd view that the person who wrote down the supposed meanings of the divinely-changed names “Abraham”, “Sarah” and “Israel” in Genesis allegedly had no idea what he was talking about, so that the Biblical explanations of these three divinely-changed names are erroneous. This is part and parcel of the peculiar scholarly view that an early set of authors of the Patriarchal narratives was utterly incapable of creating any names at all, but, rather, passively copied down pre-existing names, and then a later set of authors of the Patriarchal narratives allegedly made erroneous guesses as to what the meanings of these divinely-changed names might be.
Many university scholars ignore both the text of Genesis 32: 28 and its context, and contend that the name “Israel” actually means (contra the Biblical explanation of this name): “God rules/judges/struggles”. For example, here is how leading Biblical scholar Robert Alter puts it (at p. 182 of “Genesis”):
“[The Biblical author] etymologizes the name Yisra-el, Israel, as ‘he strives with God’[, but] an educated guess about the original sense of the name [‘Israel’] would be: ‘God will rule’ or perhaps, ‘God will prevail’.”
But how can modern university scholars possibly know what the Hebrew verb SRH “really” means, outside of the narrow context of Genesis 32: 28? There in fact is no Hebrew verb SRH, except that the early Hebrew author of the Patriarchal narratives has taken the well-known Hebrew common noun SR and f-o-r-c-e-d it to be used as a verb. It is my own opinion that the early Hebrew author of the Patriarchal narratives c-r-e-a-t-e-d the name “Israel”, which though having definite similarities to the contemporary Ugaritic man’s name yšr-il, nevertheless is a new name. I further assert that this newly-created Patriarchal name “Israel” has e-x-a-c-t-l-y the meaning (in west Semitic) that is set forth for this name at Genesis 32: 28.
University scholars claim that the author of Genesis 32: 28 allegedly “misunderstood” the pre-existing name “Israel”, but I see the name “Israel” as not existing until it was created by the early Hebrew author of the Patriarchal narratives.
All university scholars insist that the name “Israel” long pre-dates the composition of the Patriarchal narratives. But it doesn’t. Moreover, most university scholars think that, umpteen centuries later, a Jewish author in mid-1st millennium BCE Jerusalem, in composing Genesis 32: 28, guessed, and guessed wrong, as to the “real” meaning of the name “Israel”. Au contraire: (i) an early tent-dwelling Hebrew composed Genesis 32: 28 in the mid-14th century BCE; (ii) the name “Israel” did not exist until it was created by the author of Genesis 32: 28; and (iii) shock of shocks, the name “Israel” means (in west Semitic) e-x-a-c-t-l-y what Genesis 32: 28 says it means: “a prince who, having successfully struggled with God, hast thou power with God”.
Jim Stinehart
This post discusses three possible west Semitic meanings of “Israel”: (i) Ugaritic; (ii) Patriarchal Hebrew; (iii) modern scholarly Biblical Hebrew.
The five Hebrew letters transliterated by KJV as “Israel” are ישראל. As we will see in this post, these Hebrew letters, and their proper division, can be alternatively viewed as being either Y- SR - ’L or, per the Ugaritic meaning, YŠR - ’L / yšr-il.
(Although not discussed in this post, a third possible division of these Hebrew letters is YŠ - R - ’L. For example, at Ugarit a maryannu [usually a Hurrian charioteer] has the name yšr’il [Meindert Dijkstra, at p. 60 of “The Land of Canaan in the Late Bronze Age” (2017)]; in my opinion, such name might possibly be yš - r’ - il. Going back to an earlier era, the name Iš-ra-il is found at Ebla; however, the meaning [and division] of this Eblaite name from the end of the 3rd millennium BCE is unclear, as is the question of whether it is truly a direct forerunner of the Biblical name “Israel”. But I digress.)
At Ugarit, in the Ugaritic name yšr-il the initial yod / Y is an integral part of the verbal root, rather than being a verbal prefix, with the verb being yšr. By contrast, in the Patriarchal and scholarly Hebrew meanings, the verb in question is viewed as being SRH, where the final -H drops out when Y- as a verbal prefix is added. The other difference is that at Ugarit, the sibilant is a shin, whereas in the conventional Hebrew understandings the verb is a sin. (Although these are two separate phonemes, nevertheless in unpointed alphabetical Hebrew writing there is no difference between shin and sin, and accordingly shin should be considered as possibly being part of the intended meaning of “Israel”.)
1. Ugaritic Meaning of “Israel”
At Ugarit, the following name is attested (in Ugaritic): yšr-il. If this Ugaritic name were to be written in unpointed Hebrew text, the spelling would be identical to the Hebrew spelling of “Israel” (since shin is not distinguished in Hebrew writing from sin).
The Ugaritic verb yšr (quite similar to the same verb in Hebrew, as discussed below) means “to be upright, to be lawful”. Thus the Ugaritic name yšr-il means (in Ugaritic): “God [is] Upright” or “God [is] Lawful”. This is a typical Late Bronze Age name of a noble man, where the name praises a deity. Note that the Ugaritic meaning is not blasphemous from a Hebrew perspective (since Hebrews and Jews, along with most all other peoples in the ancient Near East for that matter, would presumably agree that the divine is “upright” and “lawful”). Accordingly, it is possible that this west Semitic / Ugaritic meaning of “Israel” is an intended secondary meaning of “Israel”.
Hebrew has the same common word: yšr / YŠR / ישר, having a somewhat similar meaning: “to please, to be straight, right”. The Hebrew verb YŠR appears 27 times in the Bible, e.g. Psalms 5: 8; 119: 128. So absent the Patriarchal Hebrew explanation that is set forth at Genesis 32: 28 (quoted below), which relies on an otherwise unknown Hebrew verb (as discussed below) [unlike the well-known Hebrew verb yšr / YŠR / ישר], a Hebrew audience might well have thought that the main, if not sole, meaning of the name “Israel” is its Ugaritic meaning above.
In the context of the Patriarchal narratives, the focus on God being “upright” and “lawful” and “straight” and “right” might be intended to reassure the Hebrews that God will surely honor His divine promises to the Hebrew Patriarchs: progeny, and the land of Canaan. Since the Ugaritic meaning of “Israel” works so nicely, we should perhaps seriously consider whether this Ugaritic meaning was an intended secondary meaning of the name “Israel”.
2. Patriarchal Hebrew Meaning of “Israel”
Genesis 32: 8 conceptualizes the name “Israel” as being Y- SR - ’L. In context, the underlying Hebrew verb here is viewed as being an otherwise unknown (as discussed below) Hebrew verb SRH (with a sin), with Y- being a verbal prefix. Based primarily on the fact that SR is the extremely well-known Hebrew common n-o-u-n which has as its most common meaning “prince”, in context the mysterious Hebrew verb SRH is thought to mean one or more of the following: “to be a prince”, or “to have the power of a prince”, or “to fight or struggle as a prince”, or “to prevail as a prince”, or “to prevail as a prince (having the power of a prince and having fought as a prince)”. Take your pick, because SRH as a Hebrew verb appears only here at
Genesis 32: 28, and in the parallel passage at Hosiah 12: 3 (where the context is identical).
The KJV translation of Genesis 32: 28 sets forth the Patriarchal Hebrew meaning of this name as: “a prince hast thou power with God”. However, in the context of Jacob having just then wrestled with God, the implied full meaning of the name “Israel” in Patriarchal Hebrew could be viewed as being:
“a prince who, having successfully struggled with God, hast thou power with God”.
That is truly a beautiful meaning for both Hebrew Patriarch #3 individually, and for all of his progeny (Hebrews and Jews). The Hebrews and Jews have, like Jacob, certainly “struggled”, yet just as surely, have “power with God”.
B-u-t:
Is SRH really a Hebrew verb? It only appears twice in the Bible, here at Genesis 32: 8, where its meaning can be divined (more or less) by the context, and at Hosiah 12: 3, which is merely a parallel passage having the identical context. Did an early Hebrew author effectively create SRH as a Hebrew verb, since outside of this one context, SRH never appears elsewhere in the Bible?
There is no srh in Ugaritic with this meaning. srh in Ugaritic is a teen numeral.
By contrast, SR is an extremely well-known Hebrew common noun, meaning “prince, captain, chief, ruler, leader”, etc., and occurs 421 times in 368 Bible verses. Scholars tell us that SR derives from the Hebrew verb SRR, but SRR as a verb appears in only 4 Bible verses. Moreover, whereas SR as a noun has a broad range of meanings, SRR as a verb has the extremely narrow sole meaning of “to rule as a prince”. (As a secondary meaning of the name “Israel”, based on the storyline of the Patriarchal narratives, Robert Alter [cited below] approvingly cites Rashi, who viewed the Hebrew verb SRR [e.g. Isaiah 32: 1] as being the underlying verb in question for this name, which per Alter supposedly has the meaning of “lordliness”, but which in fact means “to rule as a prince”, possibly implying: “having the high-class manner of a ruling prince”.)
SRR is somewhat suspicious as a Hebrew verb (seeming to derive from the noun SR, rather than vice versa as scholars would have it), and SRH is highly suspicious as a Hebrew verb; both of these verbs occur but rarely in the Hebrew Bible, whereas the Hebrew common noun SR is ubiquitous throughout the Bible. What seems to be happening at Genesis 32: 8 is that the Biblical author is starting with the extremely well-known Hebrew common noun SR, and then creatively f-or-c-i-n-g this Hebrew common noun to be used as a verb, resulting in a forced meaning for “Israel”. Whereas the Ugaritic meaning of yšr-il is totally natural and unremarkable on all levels, the Patriarchal Hebrew meaning of Y- SR - ’L is the opposite: it is both forced and awesome. This is the hallmark of a creative genius Hebrew author.
3. Modern Scholarly Hebrew Meaning of “Israel”
Today’s university scholars take the odd view that the person who wrote down the supposed meanings of the divinely-changed names “Abraham”, “Sarah” and “Israel” in Genesis allegedly had no idea what he was talking about, so that the Biblical explanations of these three divinely-changed names are erroneous. This is part and parcel of the peculiar scholarly view that an early set of authors of the Patriarchal narratives was utterly incapable of creating any names at all, but, rather, passively copied down pre-existing names, and then a later set of authors of the Patriarchal narratives allegedly made erroneous guesses as to what the meanings of these divinely-changed names might be.
Many university scholars ignore both the text of Genesis 32: 28 and its context, and contend that the name “Israel” actually means (contra the Biblical explanation of this name): “God rules/judges/struggles”. For example, here is how leading Biblical scholar Robert Alter puts it (at p. 182 of “Genesis”):
“[The Biblical author] etymologizes the name Yisra-el, Israel, as ‘he strives with God’[, but] an educated guess about the original sense of the name [‘Israel’] would be: ‘God will rule’ or perhaps, ‘God will prevail’.”
But how can modern university scholars possibly know what the Hebrew verb SRH “really” means, outside of the narrow context of Genesis 32: 28? There in fact is no Hebrew verb SRH, except that the early Hebrew author of the Patriarchal narratives has taken the well-known Hebrew common noun SR and f-o-r-c-e-d it to be used as a verb. It is my own opinion that the early Hebrew author of the Patriarchal narratives c-r-e-a-t-e-d the name “Israel”, which though having definite similarities to the contemporary Ugaritic man’s name yšr-il, nevertheless is a new name. I further assert that this newly-created Patriarchal name “Israel” has e-x-a-c-t-l-y the meaning (in west Semitic) that is set forth for this name at Genesis 32: 28.
University scholars claim that the author of Genesis 32: 28 allegedly “misunderstood” the pre-existing name “Israel”, but I see the name “Israel” as not existing until it was created by the early Hebrew author of the Patriarchal narratives.
All university scholars insist that the name “Israel” long pre-dates the composition of the Patriarchal narratives. But it doesn’t. Moreover, most university scholars think that, umpteen centuries later, a Jewish author in mid-1st millennium BCE Jerusalem, in composing Genesis 32: 28, guessed, and guessed wrong, as to the “real” meaning of the name “Israel”. Au contraire: (i) an early tent-dwelling Hebrew composed Genesis 32: 28 in the mid-14th century BCE; (ii) the name “Israel” did not exist until it was created by the author of Genesis 32: 28; and (iii) shock of shocks, the name “Israel” means (in west Semitic) e-x-a-c-t-l-y what Genesis 32: 28 says it means: “a prince who, having successfully struggled with God, hast thou power with God”.
Jim Stinehart