🔼The name Rinnah: Summary
- Meaning
- Ringing Cry, Cheer
- Etymology
- From the verb רנן (ranan), to give a ringing cry.
🔼The name Rinnah in the Bible
The name Rinnah occurs only once in the Bible. He's mentioned among the sons of Shimon, in the genealogy of Judah (1 Chronicles 4:20).
🔼Etymology of the name Rinnah
The name Rinnah derives of the verb רנן (ranan), meaning to give a ringing cry:
רנן
The cheerful verb רנן (ranan) means to produce a ringing cry, either out of joyous cheer, distress or to introduce a declaration of some sort. Nouns רן (ron), רנה (rinna) and רננה (renana) all describe ringing cries. Plural noun רננים (renanim) refers to birds that deliver piercing cries.
ארן
The unused verb ארן ('aran) appears to have meant to be nimble, agile, or even high up or aroused, and in cognate languages it yields a noun for a kind of wild mountain goat. The indeed Biblical noun ארן ('oren) means fir or cedar.
The noun ארון ('aron) is the word that is usually translated with Ark (that is the Ark of the Covenant, not the Ark of Noah). But this noun is also used for the coffin in which Joseph's bones were repatriated, or the chest in the temple in which money was collected.
It's not clear whether these boxes were known from the wood they were made of (namely the sprightly fir or cedar), caused society to be nimble, agile or elevated, or perhaps because these boxes were designed to exist within a collective verbal expression from bystanders (after the verb רנן, ranan).
🔼Rinnah meaning
For a meaning of the name Rinnah, NOBSE Study Bible Name List proposes Ringing Cry and Jones' Dictionary of Old Testament Proper Names has A Joyful Cry. BDB Theological Dictionary does not translate this name but does list it under the root רנן.