🔼The name Jeberechiah: Summary
- Meaning
- Yah Blesses
- Etymology
- From (1) the verb ברך (barak), to kneel or to bless, and (2) יה (yah), the shortened name of the Lord.
🔼The name Jeberechiah in the Bible
The name Jeberechiah (in fact spelled Jeberechiahu) occurs one time in the Bible. The prophet Isaiah mentions Jeberechiah as the father of a man called Zechariah. This Zechariah and a priest called Uriah, are witnesses to Isaiah's mission to name his son Maher-shalal-hash-baz (Isaiah 8:3).
🔼Etymology of the name Jeberechiah
The name Jeberechiah consists of two elements, the final part being יה (Yah) = יהו (Yahu) = יו (Yu), which in turn are abbreviated forms of the Tetragrammaton; the name of the Lord: YHWH.
The first part of the name Jeberechiah comes from the verb ברך (barak), meaning either to kneel or to bless:
ברך
The verb ברך (barak) mostly means to bless and sometimes to kneel. But the noun ברך (berek) always means knee, and the noun ברכה (beraka) always means blessing. The opposite of to bless is to curse, or ארר ('arar), which literally means to bind or restrict.
That probably means that the act of blessing had to do with the act of giving someone the freedom to do whatever this person had in their heart to do. The freely moving knee, after all, makes it possible to walk and run and go wherever one wants.
The J with which the name Jeberechiah begins comes from an active form of the verb: he blesses or he will bless.
🔼Jeberechiah meaning
For a meaning of the name Jeberechiah, NOBSE Study Bible Name List reads Yahweh Blesses, and BDB Theological Dictionary proposes the similar Yah Blesseth. Jones' Dictionary of Old Testament Proper Names has He Will Be Blessed Of The Lord.