🔼The name Palti: Summary
- Meaning
- Escapist, Delivered
- Etymology
- From the verb פלט (palat), to escape, save or deliver.
🔼The name Palti in the Bible
There are two men named Palti in the Bible:
- A son of Raphu of Benjamin, and one of the twelve spies that were sent out by Moses to scout out Canaan (Numbers 13:9).
- A son of Laish of Gallim (1 Samuel 25:44). This man is also known as Paltiel, and he was the unfortunate husband of Michael, the daughter of king Saul. Saul had previously promised Michael to David, who paid her bizarre dowry of one hundred Philistine foreskins, and when David became king he forced the return of Michael to the understandable dismay of poor Paltiel (2 Samuel 3:16).
Note that the name Palti is spelled the same as the ethnonym Paltite and the name Piltai.
🔼Etymology of the name Palti
The name Palti comes from the verb פלט (palat), meaning to escape or save, deliver:
פלט
The verb פלט (palat) means to bring into security, cause to escape, or to deliver. Noun פלט (pallet) means deliverance. Nouns פליט (palit) and פליט (palet) mean fugitive. Noun פליטה (peleta) means escape or deliverance. Noun מפלט (miplat) describes an agent or place of escape or deliverance.
The letter י (yod) upon which our name ends, may either create an adjective (escapist), a possessive form (my deliverance), or may be a remnant of יה (Yah), which is short for יהוה, which is the name YHWH, or Yahweh.
🔼Palti meaning
NOBSE Study Bible Name List deems Palti an "abbreviation of Pelatiah," for which it reads Yahweh Has Freed, and Jones' Dictionary of Old Testament Proper Names has the similar Deliverance Of The Lord.
BDB Theological Dictionary suggests that Palti is "perhaps abbreviation of Paltiel," which it doesn't translate either. Still, BDB lists both names under the verb פלט (palat), meaning to bring into security.