🔼The name Hazar-susah: Summary
- Meaning
- Village Of The Mare, Horsepower Barracks
- Etymology
- From (1) the noun חצר (haser), village, and (2) the noun סוסה (susa), mare.
🔼The name Hazar-susah in the Bible
The graceful name Hazar-susah occurs once in the Bible. It's the name of a town in the area allotted to the tribe of Simeon (Joshua 19:5). By the time the Chronicler was writing, the town was known as חצר סוסים (Hazar-susim; 1 Chronicles 4:31).
🔼Etymology of the name Hazar-susah
The name Hazar-susah obviously consists of two elements. The first part of our name is the same as the noun חצר (haser), meaning village:
חצר
The verb חצר (hasar) relates to the first visual manifestations of a gathering or emergence of some sort: to begin to cluster or gather or emerge.
The noun חציר (hasir) means grass, which is the first plant to sprout after, say, a fire. Noun חציר (hasir) means leek (a bigger version of grass) and חצצרה (hasosra) means trumpet, i.e. the perhaps leek-like instrument with which a gathering of humans is instigated.
The noun חצר (haser) denotes a hamlet or settlement or loose, rudimentary federation; the initial beginning of what some day might become a village or even a city. Noun חצר (haser) refers to an enclosure in the architectural sense, or even a court in the sense of it being a place where people loosely gather.
The second part of our name is the same as the feminine noun סוסה (susa), meaning horsepower:
סוס
The unused verb סוס (sus) probably meant to dart forth or be swift. The noun סוס (sus) literally means "swift one" and is applied to a bird, namely the swallow, and a large land mammal, namely the horse. The feminine version is סוסה (susa), but instead of it meaning mare (as is commonly thought) it rather refers to the horse-force of an army.
Long before any animal would become a pet, the horse was a unit of cavalry. Regular people didn't ride horses; they had mules and donkeys, and merchants didn't use horses; they had camels. Seeing a horse in the ancient world was like seeing a tank today.
The second part of the name חצר סוסים (Hazar-susim), curiously enough, is the plural form of the masculine noun סוס (sus), meaning horse (or stallion).
🔼Hazar-susah meaning
For a meaning of the name Hazar-susah, NOBSE Study Bible Name List reads Village Of A Mare. Jones' Dictionary of Old Testament Proper Names appears to be persuaded by the rule in Hebrew that a modifier such as סוס should be translated as a plural in English. The horse, in this case, really means horses in general. Hence Jones reads Village Of Horses. Ultimately, a place called horse-village was obviously a military facility where the king maintained his cavalry: the Horsepower Barracks.