🔼The name Ibneiah: Summary
- Meaning
- Yah Builds Up
- Etymology
- From (1) the verb בנה (bana), to build, and (2) יה (yah), the shortened name of the Lord.
🔼The curious case of the names Ibneiah and Ibnijah in the Bible
The names Ibneiah and Ibnijah each occur only once in the Bible and that in the same verse: 1 Chronicles 9:8. But the strange thing is that these names are exactly the same in Hebrew (even with the much later added Masoretic vowel symbols).
For some untold reason, the earliest translations of the Bible began to distinguish between the יבניה, son of Jeroham, and יבניה, the father of Reuel, all of Benjamin, and we've been stuck with that distinction ever since. But it appears to be completely uncalled for.
🔼Etymology of the name Ibneiah/Ibnijah
The name Ibneiah or Ibnijah consists of two elements, the final bit being יה (Yah) = יהו (Yahu) = יו (Yu), which in turn are abbreviated forms of the Tetragrammaton יהוה, YHWH, or Yahweh.
The first part of our name is an active form of the verb בנה (bana), meaning to build:
בנה
The verb בנה (bana) means to build, mostly of stone buildings and thus of houses and thus of families and dynasties: hence the association between this verb and the nouns אבן ('eben), stone, and בן (ben), son.
Noun בניה (binya) means a building in the sense of a structure. Noun מבנה (mibneh) means building in the sense of place of building. Noun תבנית (tabnit) means building in the sense of the act of building: a construction, pattern or image.
Noun תבן (teben) means straw (the stems of grains), which was inserted into clay to enhance the structural integrity of the building. We do the same today with carbon fibers.
🔼Ibneiah/Ibnijah meaning
For a meaning of the name Ibneiah/Ibnijah, NOBSE Study Bible Name List reads Yahweh Builds Up, Jones' Dictionary of Old Testament Proper Names proposes He Will Be Built Up Of The Lord, and explains this with "i.e. will cause to prosper," and BDB Theological Dictionary has Yah Buildeth Up.