🔼The name Zimran: Summary
- Meaning
- One Who Makes Music, One Who Prunes
- Etymology
- From the verb זמר (zamar), to prune or praise.
🔼The name Zimran in the Bible
Zimran is one of the six sons of Abraham with Keturah (Genesis 25:2). That makes Zimran a half-brother of Isaac, the son of Abraham's first wife Sarah, and Ishmael the son of Hagar the Egyptian.
🔼Etymology of the name Zimran
The name Zimran comes from the fertile word-group זמר (zamar):
זמר
Verb זמר (zamar) basically means to cultivate and is used in two main ways: (a) to prune trees in an orchard or vineyard, and (b) to hone a crowd into a choir.
The first instance of our verb זמר (zamar) is commonly translated with to trim or prune. Noun זמיר (zamir) means a trimming or pruning. Noun זמורה (zemora) means branch or shoot. Noun מזמרה (mazmera) denotes a pruning knife.
The second instance of the verb זמר (zamar) is commonly translated with to sing or praise or play musical instruments. Nouns זמרה (zimra) and זמיר (zamir) mean song (the latter is identical to the noun meaning a trimming or pruning). Noun מזמור (mizmor) refers to an "agent of zamar", which would plausibly refer to a song that invited the audience to partake: a sing-along song. This noun is commonly translated with the word psalm.
There is also a sort of animal named זמר (zemer). This animal was probably a sheep or antelope, but it's unclear why this animal would be dubbed either a pruner or a praiser. Perhaps it stood on its hind legs and ate from high up branches, or perhaps it had horns from which folks made trumpets or it resembled a harp. We don't know.
🔼Zimran meaning
The name Zimran is the word זמר post-fixed with the nun, which tends to localize or personify the action of the root: One Who Makes Music, or One Who Prunes. Or Mountain Sheep Man.
For a meaning of the name Zimran, both NOBSE Study Bible Name List and Jones' Dictionary of Old Testament Proper Names go with the word that denotes the mountain dwelling creature. NOBSE reads Antelope; Jones reads Fine Chamois (meaning, a goat-like antelope according to the Oxford Dictionary).