🔼The name Tolad: Summary
- Meaning
- Begetter, Generation
- Etymology
- From the verb ילד (yalad), to beget.
🔼The name Tolad in the Bible
The name Tolad occurs one time in the Bible. It's the name of a city occupied by the tribe of Simeon (1 Chronicles 4:29). But because their patriarch, Simeon (together with his brother Levi) had avenged the rape of his sister Dinah by Shechem the Hivite by killing the perpetrator and his associates, the tribe of Simeon had no land of its own (Genesis 34). Simeon was to live in the lands of Judah, and so Tolad was a city in the territory of Judah. When this town is first mentioned it is called Eltolad (Joshua 15:30), and it was indeed given to Simeon (Joshua 19:4).
🔼Etymology of the name Tolad
The name Tolad comes from the verb ילד (yalad) meaning to bear or bring forth. And specifically, it's the singular version of a word which only occurs in plural in the Bible, namely תולדות (toledot), meaning descendants:
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.
🔼Tolad meaning
For a meaning of the name Tolad, NOBSE Study Bible Name List reads Begetter (which is curious because it reads Kindred Of God for Eltolad). Alfred Jones (Dictionary of Old Testament Proper Names) proposes Generation, "i.e. posterity" for Tolad and God Of The Generation for Eltolad. BDB Theological Dictionary translates neither name but does confirm that both come from ילד (yalad) meaning to bear or bring forth.