🔼The name Zaccur: Summary
- Meaning
- Remembered, Mindful
- Etymology
- From the verb זכר (zakar), to remember or to review.
🔼The name Zaccur in the Bible
There are up to eight men named Zaccur in the Bible:
- The father of Shammua of Reuben, who was one of the twelve spies who Moses sent out to reconnoiter Canaan (Numbers 13:4).
- A son of Mishma of Simeon (1 Chronicles 4:26).
- A descendant of Merari, son of Levi, through Jaaziah (1 Chronicles 24:27).
- One of the sons of Asaph, the famous Levite musician in the time of king David (1 Chronicles 25:2). When the musical duties were assigned, Zaccur and his family caught the third lot (1 Chronicles 25:10). This family was still going strong at the time of the return. Zaccur's great-great-great-grandson Zechariah played music at the dedication ceremony of the restored wall of Jerusalem (Nehemiah 12:35).
- A son of Imri and builder on the post-exilic restoration project (Nehemiah 3:2).
- One who was among the signers of the Sealed Document (Nehemiah 10:12). No further details about this Zaccur are submitted, and he might be the same as the previous or the next Zaccur.
- A son of Mattaniah and the father of Hanan, whom Nehemiah assigned duties pertaining to the store houses (Nehemiah 13:13).
🔼Etymology of the name Zaccur
The name Zaccur comes from the verb זכר (zakar), meaning to remember:
זכר
The verb זכר (zakar) means to remember, to deliberately review, or to cause to remember or review — by means of public oration, urging and pleading, physical memorials, and so on.
Noun זכר (zeker) means remembrance, memory, memorial or invocation. Noun זכרון (zikkaron) or זכרן (zikkaron) denotes a memorial or token — a memorial day, altar-plates, stones, crowns, books, proof of citizenship, even spoils of war. Noun אזכרה ('azkara) refers to a memorial-offering.
Noun זכור (zakur) and noun and adjective זכר (zakar) mean male. This noun denotes the male of humans and animals, and marvelously illustrates the parallel between sexual reproduction and the learning process, which is so overly prevalent in the Bible.
🔼Zaccur meaning
For a meaning of the name Zaccur, NOBSE Study Bible Name List reads Remembered. Jones' Dictionary of Old Testament Proper Names proposes Mindful. BDB Theological Dictionary does not offer an interpretation of the name Zaccur but does list it under the verb זכר (zakar), meaning to remember.