🔼The name Hoglah: Summary
- Meaning
- Partridge
- Etymology
- From a verb חגל (hagal), to wobble or hop.
🔼The name Hoglah in the Bible
There's only one Hoglah in the Bible and she is the daughter of Zelophehad, the son of Hepher, the son of Gilead, the son of Machir, the son of Manasseh (Numbers 27:1).
Of this Zelophehad it's written that he had only daughters, and when he died his daughters realized that their father's name would disappear on account of him having no sons. They take their concern to Moses and ask for land — probably so that those who live there could be called the 'sons' of Zelophehad; a common occurrence in Hebrew Scriptures.
God hears the daughters and has Moses institute the rule that if a man dies without having sons, his possessions have to be transferred to his daughters (Numbers 27:7). Another rule, however, confined the daughters' marital options to the descendants of Manasseh (Numbers 36:10; the institution of endogamy).
The names of the daughters of Zelophehad are: Mahlah, Noah, Hoglah, Milcah and Tirzah (which immediately accounts for the largest cluster of feminine names anywhere in the Bible).
🔼Etymology of the name Hoglah
The name Hoglah is ascribed to an unused root חגל (hagal), which occurs in Arabic with the meaning of to hobble or hop. The Arabic derived noun means partridge, so scholars conclude that the Hebrew name Hoglah does the same. There's nothing in the vocabulary of the Bible that comes close to the name Hoglah.
🔼Hoglah meaning
For a meaning of the name Hoglah, BDB Theological Dictionary, NOBSE Study Bible Name List and Jones' Dictionary of Old Testament Proper Names all read Partridge.