🔼The name Paltite: Summary
- Meaning
- Of Deliverance, Pertaining To Escape
- Etymology
- From the verb פלט (palat), to escape, save or deliver.
🔼The name Paltite in the Bible
The name Paltite occurs only once in the Bible. In 2 Samuel 23:26 we learn about Helez the Paltite, who was counted among the mighty-men of David. In the mighty-man list of the Chronicler, however, this Helez is called a Pelonite (1 Chronicles 11:27).
The ethnonym Paltite might point to the name of a city named פלט (Palat or Pelet, or something like that), and the only Biblical name that comes close to that is Beth-pelet in Judah (Joshua 15:27). But it could also be that Paltite indicates a descendant of a sub-clan's patriarch named Pelet (of which there are two mentioned in the Bible). That would explain why in the Book of Samuel Helez is called a Paltite (= someone of the family of Pelet), and in Chronicles a Pelonite (= someone from a town called Pelon).
🔼Etymology of the name Paltite
The ethnonym Paltite is technically an adjective derived from the verb פלט (palat), meaning to bring into security:
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.
🔼Paltite meaning
For a meaning of the name Paltite, NOBSE Study Bible Name List doesn't expound beyond "a native of Beth-pelet", which it translates with "House Of Escape". Jones' Dictionary of Old Testament Proper Names doesn't treat Paltite separately and lists it under the identical name Palti, which Jones translates with Deliverance Of The Lord.
BDB Theological Dictionary doesn't offer an interpretation of the name Paltite, but does list it under the verb פלט (palat). BDB further states that Paltite points at Beth-pelet, which BDB translates with Place Of Escape.