B-Hebrew: The Biblical Hebrew Forum

Who Is Eliphaz? Why Is YP : יפ in His Name?

Per Genesis 36: 4, Eliphaz is the ill-fated firstborn son of Esau, who in turn was the ill-fated firstborn son of Isaac. The name “Eliphaz” is spelled: ’LYPZ : אליפז. The root of this name may be an archaic 2-letter root, YP : יפ. If so, then the west Semitic analysis of the name “Eliphaz” may well be: ’L - YP - Z : אל - יפ - ז.

Since Eliphaz is the ill-fated firstborn son of an ill-fated firstborn son, we might expect the name “Eliphaz” to have negative connotations. [This is contra the conventional view, under which the name “Eliphaz” is traditionally analyzed, such as by Gesenius, as having a truly glorious, positive Hebrew meaning, “To Whom God Is Strength”, with PZ allegedly being the root of this name.] Focusing on the ill-fated firstborn son motif, one wonders if there may be a linguistic connection to Nebajoth, who not only is the firstborn son of Abraham’s ill-fated firstborn son Ishmael [as such having a similar status to Eliphaz], but also whose sister became the third wife of Eliphaz’s father Esau. Do the names “Eliphaz” and “Nebajoth” have the s-a-m-e basic meaning? Does the name “Eliphaz” in particular have terribly negative overtones? All of that would seem logical, but does an historical linguistic analysis bear it out? Why is YP : יפ in the name “Eliphaz”?

The name “Nebajoth”, which at Genesis 25: 13 is spelled NBYT, may mean “Shine”, implying “God Shines”. nbt is a well-attested Semitic root that means “to shine”: nabata in Assyrian, and naba.tu in Akkadian; in Amorite, nbt means either “to shine” or “to look”. The related Hebrew common word, NB+, has only the latter meaning [“to look”, as at Isaiah 5: 30, which is a rare case in Hebrew where the initial nun/N does not assimilate and drop out]. The archaic Semitic meaning of nbt is “to shine”, and that may well be intentionally suggested by the otherwise mysterious name NBYT.

Does “Eliphaz” likewise mean “God Shines”? “Eliphaz” may be ’L - YP - Z : אל - יפ - ז, where ’L means “God”, and YP means “shines”. YP is the archaic 2-letter root of the Hebrew words YP‘, YPH and YPY, with the Hebrew verb YP‘ meaning “to shine”. [In Hebrew c-o-m-m-o-n words in the Bible, such as at Deuteronomy 33: 2, the initial yod/Y in the Hebrew verb YP‘ meaning “shine” invariably assimilates and drops out. Biblical Hebrew common words generally reflect the normative grammar that prevailed in King Josiah’s Jerusalem in the late 7th century BCE, whereas it is well-known that proper names, by sharp contrast, often retain much earlier, “archaic” elements. In particular, in Bronze Age proper names, such as “Eliphaz” at Genesis 36: 4 and ia-pa-xi at Amarna Letter EA 298: 4 (which latter name Richard Hess at p. 84 of “Amarna Personal Names” analyzes as being based on the west Semitic root yp‘ meaning “shine”), that initial yod/Y may well be present, with the root of those names being YP.] Finally, the final zayin/Z in the name “Eliphaz”, though looking for all the world like a foreign suffix, could be viewed on a Hebrew-only analysis as being short for ‘Z, meaning “strength”. If so, then the name “Eliphaz” : ’L - YP - Z : אל - יפ - ז has as its Hebrew meaning “God Shines in Strength”, as such having basically the same meaning as NBYT.

So each of these two Biblical firstborn sons [Nebajoth and Eliphaz] of the ill-fated firstborn son of a Patriarch has a name that basically means “God Shines”. Neat!

However, such names of ill-fated firstborn sons in the Patriarchal narratives should have negative overtones. But what’s negative about a name like “Eliphaz”, whose root is YP? Well, consider first that the root of the name of the first Hebrews’ greatest historical nemesis [in Year 13] is YP. Did the early Hebrew author of the Patriarchal narratives deliberately portray ill-fated Esau’s firstborn son Eliphaz as having basically the same name as the name of the first Hebrews’ greatest historical nemesis?

Before dismissing all of the above as allegedly being merely a long string of “coincidences”, consider now that each of Eliphaz, and the first Hebrews’ greatest historical nemesis, share the following four key features:

(1) Each of their names is based on the 2-letter root YP.

(2) Each of them is a firstborn son, who is not a Hebrew.

(3) Each of them had a native west Semitic-speaking father, and a mother who, by contrast, was a XTY, that is, a non-Semitic native speaker. [That particular multi-lingual heritage was commonplace in Canaan for only about one generation, effectively ending very shortly after Year 13.]

(4) In each case, the man’s XTY mother chose his name precisely because YP also works in her language. Of critical importance here is the key fact that the XTY meaning of YP is utterly blasphemous from a Hebrew point of view.

What, you were expecting that Esau’s firstborn son Eliphaz [who was not a God-fearing Hebrew] would have a benign, respectful Hebrew name? Not. No way. That’s just not possible in the Patriarchal narratives, where each and every firstborn son gets the shaft and properly so. Moreover, the name “Eliphaz” is closely associated with the XTY, XWY, XRY non-Semitic people in chapter 36 of Genesis [whose presence was routine in Canaan historically only for one generation, ending about Year 13]; non-Hebrew blasphemy lurks there.

In fact, we will come to see that most of the main themes throughout the Patriarchal narratives, a-n-d the historical underpinning of the Patriarchal narratives as well, are embodied in that one single name: “Eliphaz”. Just think YP : יפ as the root of the XTY-tinged name of an ill-fated firstborn son [Eliphaz] of an ill-fated firstborn son [Esau] of a Patriarch [Isaac, who of course was a younger son of the prior Patriarch, Abraham, who himself also was a younger son], and you will see the mesmerizing, attested history of the Patriarchal Age unfold before your very eyes in analyzing the name “Eliphaz” : ’L - YP - Z : אל - יפ - ז.

Jim Stinehart
Evanston, Illinois

Should the name “Eliphaz” have negative overtones? As noted in my prior post, per Genesis 36: 4 Eliphaz is the ill-fated firstborn son of Esau, who in turn was the ill-fated firstborn son of Isaac. And in the Patriarchal narratives, firstborn sons invariably get the shaft, and properly so.

Later books in the Bible, and the Midrash as well, quickly picked up on the fact that just as every other firstborn son in the Patriarchal narratives does not do well, that factor should also apply to Eliphaz. Per Genesis 36: 12, Eliphaz had an illegitimate son (that is, a son by a concubine) named Amalek: “And Timna was concubine to Eliphaz Esau's son; and she bare to Eliphaz Amalek: these were the sons of Adah Esau's wife.” The Book of Exodus sees Amalek’s descendants, the Amalekites, as being a longlasting enemy of the Israelites: “…the LORD hath sworn that the LORD will have war with Amalek from generation to generation.” Exodus 17: 16. Numbers, Deuteronomy, Judges, and I and II Samuel all contain similar diatribes against the Amalekites, with Amalek being the son (by a concubine) of ill-fated Eliphaz.

The only other Eliphaz in the Bible is at Job 42: 7, where [as noted in more detail below] such other Eliphaz is not a Hebrew and is not properly God-fearing.

The Midrash is even more direct, aptly ad-libbing an apocryphal story showing that Eliphaz himself was evil:

“The Midrash relates that when Jacob escaped from Esau and fled to his uncle Laban in Haran, Esau sent Eliphaz to pursue and kill Jacob, his uncle, who was his Rabbi also. When they met, Jacob implored Eliphaz not to kill him, but Eliphaz challenged that he had his father's instructions to fulfill. Jacob gave everything he had with him to Eliphaz and said, ‘Take what I have, for a poor man is counted as dead’. Eliphaz was satisfied and left his uncle and rabbi poor, but still alive. (Rashi….)”. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eliphaz

Accordingly, it is highly unlikely that the conventional view can be right, in seeing “Eliphaz” as allegedly being a wonderful Hebrew name with nothing but positive connotations. After all, Eliphaz is the ill-fated firstborn son of Isaac’s ill-fated firstborn son Esau, with Esau not having been allowed to remain within the Covenant; Eilphaz is not a self-respecting Hebrew.

Note in this regard that the other Eliphaz in the Bible is not a Hebrew either, but rather, per Job 42: 7 and Genesis 36: 11, is a non-Hebrew descendant of Eliphaz’s non-Hebrew firstborn son Teman. Although Eliphaz is intelligent in the Book of Job, Eliphaz is portrayed as being clueless in honoring YHWH properly, as we read in the last chapter of Job:

“[T]he LORD said to Eliphaz the Temanite, My wrath is kindled against thee…: for ye have not spoken of me the thing that is right, as my servant Job hath. …[Y]e have not spoken of me the thing which is right, like my servant Job.” Job 42: 7-8

Surely the name “Eliphaz” must have negative overtones. This thread is investigating how a linguistic analysis of the name “Eliphaz”, whose root I see as being YP, shows that Esau’s firstborn son Eliphaz in fact went over to the dark side, where historically YP has a truly blasphemous non-Semitic meaning that will cause all of us to shudder.

The Midrash may have freely ad-libbed a fanciful, negative story about Eliphaz, but the Midrash was more historically accurate in that regard than scholars have to date realized.

Jim Stinehart
Evanston, Illinois

It is my view that the root of the name “Eliphaz” : ’LYPZ :אליפז is YP. As such, this name can be broken down into the following three segments, with the middle segment, YP, being the root of this name: ’L - YP - Z.

In a prior post we noted that on a Hebrew-only analysis of the name “Eliphaz”, YP means “to shine”. With ’L meaning “God” in Hebrew, and the final zayin/Z possibly being short for the Hebrew word ‘Z, meaning “strength”, the Hebrew-only meaning of ’L - YP - Z is “God Shines in Strength”.

But Eliphaz’s mother not only was not a Hebrew, she was not even a native west Semitic speaker. So we shouldn’t stop with a Hebrew-only analysis of this name.

The name “Eliphaz” is found in chapter 36 of Genesis. In giving us detailed information about Esau’s relatives, including the wife of Esau who is Eliphaz’s mother, chapter 36 of Genesis often refers to Hurrians: either as XRY, which literally means “Hurrian”, or XTY or XWY, both of which in effect mean “Hurrian”. For example, XW is the Hebrew spelling of the name of the chief Hurrian goddess, Xeva/Heba [as in the name “IR-Heba” of the Hurrian princeling ruler of Jerusalem in the Amarna Age]; adding the -Y standard Hebrew suffix meaning “people” then makes XW -Y in Biblical Hebrew mean “the Xeva people”, that is, the Hurrians.

Both Esau’s first wife [Eliphaz’s mother], and her father, are said at Genesis 36: 2 to be XTY. XTY is the expected Hebrew spelling of the well-attested Hurrian personal name xu-ti-ia [also spelled xu-di-ia in Hurrian, with xu-di being the Hurrian root of both forms of the Hurrian name of Eliphaz’s Hurrian mother], meaning “Praise Teshup”. Note that on the Hurrian side, Hebrew yod/Y renders the Hurrian true vowel A, here in the form of -ia; this can alternatively be rendered alphabetically as -a-a or -a or -ya, with the applicable cuneiform sign being IA [which cuneiform sign IA could also render yod/Y as an alphabetical Hebrew consonant], with the common denominator in Hurrian names being that each of these endings is a slight variant on the Hurrian true vowel A, rendered by Hebrew yod/Y in alphabetical Biblical Hebrew. The final yod/Y, however, once again does double duty here, and also means “people” as a standard Hebrew ending. So the XTY are the “Praise Teshup people”, that is, the historical Hurrians.

One of the most prominent characteristics of Hurrian women [like Esau’s first wife/Eliphaz’s mother] who married non-Hurrian husbands [like Esau] is that historically, the Hurrian wife decided what name a child, especially their firstborn son, would have, and the name would always have special meaning in Hurrian to her. [Such name might or might not also have a meaning in her husband’s native language as well.] So for example when the victorious Hittites brought home Hurrian war brides after demolishing the Hurrian state of MDYN/MDN/Mitanni in the Great Syrian War [a few years after the “Year 13” referenced at Genesis 14: 4], suddenly Hurrian names sprang up all over Hittite-land, in the well-known “Hurrianization of the Hittites”. Accordingly, since we know that Eliphaz’s mother was an ethnic Hurrian [XTY], the name “Eliphaz” will be certain to have a Hurrian meaning [even though it also has a Hebrew meaning as well, as previously noted].

Both in Hurrian and in Hebrew, YP is the root of the name “Eliphaz”. What does YP mean in XTY/XWY/XRY/Hurrian?

YP is the expected Biblical Hebrew rendering of the Hurrian word a-a-pi, which means a “sacrificial pit for summoning the underworld gods”. Sara E. Kimball, “Hittite Historical Phonology” (1999), p. 65. See also George C. Heider, “The Cult of Molek: A Reassessment” (1985), p. 249, which deals with Leviticus 20: 6 in particular: “Hittite/Hurrian a-a-pi (a pit connecting one with the underworld)”. Please note that the Hebrew rendering of the Hurrian word a-a-pi would be YP, where Hebrew yod/Y is consistently used throughout the Patriarchal narratives to render the Hurrian true vowel A [as in the name “Jebusites”, etc.], including in the form [noted above] of a-a. The two cuneiform signs IA-PA as the root of the name ia-pa-xi at Amarna Letter EA 298: 4 have the following three key characteristics: (i) they render the Hurrian word a-a-pi [meaning “a sacrificial pit for summoning Hurrian gods from the underworld”]; (ii) they render the YP root of the Hebrew word YP‘ [meaning “to shine”]; and (iii) in b-o-t-h cases the expected alphabetical Biblical Hebrew spelling is YP. Thus YP, as the root of the Biblical name “Eliphaz” : ’L - YP - Z : אליפז, is a natural bi-lingual pun: a-a-pi vs. YP‘. Remember that historical Yapaxu's parents were like Eliphaz's parents: a native west Semitic-speaking father and a Hurrian mother. So it makes sense that both "Yapaxu" and "Eliphaz" make good sense in both west Semitic and Hurrian, with each having as its root YP.

The Hurrian concept of a-a-pi is blasphemous from a Hebrew perspective. How could Esau allow his Hurrian wife to give Esau’s firstborn son a name that blasphemously features the Hurrian word YP : a-a-pi, meaning “a sacrificial pit for summoning Hurrian gods from the underworld”? We begin to see that “Eliphaz” is an apt, but very negative [from a Hebrew perspective], name for the ill-fated firstborn son of Isaac’s ill-fated firstborn son Esau.

While the final zayin/Z in this name is a bit mysterious on a Hebrew-only analysis, in Hurrian a final zayin/Z is one of the most common Hurrian suffixes, including in such Biblical Hurrian names as PR -Z [--Y] (Genesis 13: 7) and QN -Z [--Y] (Genesis 15: 19). Though often not translated, the Hurrian meaning of this zayin/Z suffix may be “beloved”.

Thus in Hurrian, the YP -Z component of the name “Eliphaz” means: “Beloved Sacrificial Pit for Summoning the Hurrian Gods from the Underworld”.

We come to see that not only was Eliphaz [Esau’s firstborn son] not a good Hebrew, but also his very name, featuring YP, is telling us that he honored Hurrian gods from the Hurrian netherworld! Thus from a Hebrew perspective, “Eliphaz” is an evil name for an evil Biblical character.

Certainly Eliphaz must be ill-fated, as he is the firstborn son of ill-fated firstborn son Esau. His name may sound fine on the surface in Hebrew, but in fact (a) its underlying Hurrian meaning is very negative, from a Hebrew perspective, as it blasphemously honors Hurrian gods from the Hurrian netherworld, where YP renders the XTY/Hurrian word a-a-pi; and beyond that, (b) “Eliphaz” : ’L - YP - Z : אליפז is essentially the same name as the name of the Patriarchs’ greatest historical nemesis, ia-pa-xi : Yapa-xu, a firstborn son [per Amarna Letter EA 298] who in Year 13 nefariously threatened to drive the Patriarchs out of the Patriarchs’ lovely Ayalon Valley, being the Patriarchs’ “Hebron”. Ayalon : ’LN : אלן [ia-lu-na, being the shortform spelling of ’YLWN per Genesis 13: 18, 14: 13, 18: 1, and the cuneiform spelling in Amarna Letter EA 287: 57 from Jerusalem]. Valley : ‘MQ : עמק [per Genesis 37: 14].

Once we focus on the ethnic identity of Eliphaz’s mother, the blasphemous nature of the name “Eliphaz” comes shining through. YP not only means “shine” in Hebrew, but also, and more importantly, YP renders the Hurrian common word a-a-pi that means “a sacrificial pit for summoning Hurrian gods from the underworld” in XTY/XWY/XRY/Hurrian. “Eliphaz”, whose root is YP, is a truly blasphemous name for this ill-fated firstborn son of an ill-fated firstborn son [Esau] of [younger son] Patriarch Isaac.

Jim Stinehart
Evanston, Illinois