🔼The name Moladah: Summary
- Meaning
- Birth-Place, Origin
- Etymology
- From the verb ילד (yalad), to beget.
🔼The name Moladah in the Bible
There's one town in the Bible named Moladah. It's a city at the southern extremity of the territory allotted to the tribe of Judah (Joshua 15:26). Since the tribe of Simeon didn't receive its own land (because their patriarch Simeon and his brother Levi had murdered Shechem and his men after he had raped Dinah — Genesis 34) the Simeonites lived in Judah's area, and thus received some of Judah's towns. Moladah was one of those (Joshua 19:2, 1 Chronicles 4:28). After the return from Babylon, Moladah was repeopled by Judaic families (Nehemiah 11:26).
🔼Etymology of the name Moladah
The name Moladah comes from the verb ילד (yalad) meaning to bear or bring forth:
ילד
The verb ילד (yalad) means to beget or bring forth — children by both biological parents but also citizens by "mother"-cities and "father"-kings and such — or to produce (things) or bring about (events).
Nouns ולד (walad) and ילד (yeled) mean (male) child; ילדה (yalda) means girl. Noun ילדות (yaldut) means childhood. Adjectives ילוד (yillod) and יליד (yalid) mean "born." Noun מולדת (moledet) means kindred. Plural noun תולדות (toledot) means descendants or offspring.
This name isn't used as proper noun in the narrative, but it looks like a straight forward construction of the root, plus the feminine ending ה (he), and the prefix מ (mem) that usually marks a place or item at which or with which the root idea is executed. Thus name Moladah would thus mean Place Of Bringing Forth. Another way of explaining this name is through the feminine noun מולדת (moledet), meaning kindred. Our name could be that noun but spelled with the feminine ending ה instead of ת.
🔼Moladah meaning
For a meaning of the name Moladah, NOBSE Study Bible Name List reads Birth, Origin. Jones' Dictionary of Old Testament Proper Names proposes Birth-Place. BDB Theological Dictionary does not interpret our name but does list it under the verb ילד (yalad).