🔼The name Malchiram: Summary
- Meaning
- The King is Exalted, My King Is High, King Of Height
- Etymology
- From (1) noun מלך (melek), king, and (2) the verb רם (rum), to be high.
🔼The name Malchiram in the Bible
The name Malchiram occurs only one time in the Bible. He is mentioned among the descendants of king Solomon, and more specifically, as a son of king Jeconiah "the prisoner," since Jeconiah was the last king of Jerusalem and was deported to Babylon (1 Chronicles 3:18).
🔼Etymology of the name Malchiram
The name Malchiram consists of two elements. The first part of our name comes from the noun מלך (melek), meaning king:
מלך
The noun מלך (melek) means king, and a king is not merely a glorified tribal chief but the alpha of a complex, stratified society, implying a court and a complex government.
The Bible insists that a society must be governed by a triad of anointed sovereigns, namely prophets, priests and the king. A good king causes his people to be prosperous and peaceful whereas a bad one causes poverty and strife. The difference between the two is dictated by how close to the Law of Nature (a.k.a. the Word of God) the king operates. A kingdom that is wholly in tune with the Law consists of only sovereign individuals and is thus without a physical king.
An Aramaic cognate verb מלך (malak) means to consult, which confirms that the concept of royalty indeed evolved from wisdom and intellectual prowess rather than brute physical or political strength, as is commonly suggested.
From this noun derives the verb מלך (malak): to be or become king, the nouns מלכה (malka) and מלכת (meleket): queen or court-lady, the noun מלוכה (meluka): kingship or royalty, and the nouns מלכות (malkut), ממלכה (mamlaka) and ממלכות (mamlakut), meaning sovereignty or kinghood.
The second part of our name is the word רם (rum), meaning height:
רום
The verb רום (rum) means to be high or high up in either a physical, social or even attitudinal sense, and may also refer to the apex in a natural process: the being ripe and ready-for-harvest of fruits. Subsequently, our verb may imply a state beyond ripe (higher than ripe, overripe), which thus refers to rotting and being maggot riddled. This means that to the ancients, higher did not simply mean better, and an arrogant political status that was higher than it should be equaled rot and worms (Acts 12:23).
Derived nouns, such as רום (rum) and related forms such as רמה (rama), describe height or pride. Noun רמות (ramut) describes some high thing. The noun ארמון ('armon) refers to a society's apex: a citadel or palace. The noun ראם (re'em) describes the wild ox, which was named possibly for the same reason why we moderns call a rising market a "bull" market. The similar verb ראם (ra'am) means to rise.
The important noun רמון (rimmon) means pomegranate and the pomegranate became the symbol for harvest-ready fruit (see our full dictionary article for more on this). Overripe items might suffer the noun רמה (rimma), worm or maggot, or the verb רמם (ramam), to be wormy.
In between these two elements sits the letter י (yod), which probably creates a possessive form out of the noun מלך, and forms מלכי which may either mean "my king" or "king of". But it may also turn the second part into a third person singular verbal expression: "he is high". And of course the magic of Hebrew names lies in the fact that all these meanings are valid and any distinction isn't.
🔼Malchiram meaning
For a meaning of the name Malchiram NOBSE Study Bible Name List ties the yod to rum and reads The King is Exalted. Jones' Dictionary of Old Testament Proper Names ties the yod to melek and reads King Of Height. BDB Theological Dictionary also ties the yod to melek but figures it comes from the name of the Lord, YHWH, and concludes My King (=YHWH) Is High.