We stayed in our Bible review offering female baby names of Old Testament heroines with the Exodus of Moses and the women in his life, his wife Zippora and his sister Miriam. Today we continue advancing and we are already in the Promised Land, where milk and honey flow. We are going to meet the women of the time of the Joshua and the Judges, who will surely inspire you if you are looking for a beautiful name for your daughters: Rahab, Deborah and Jael .
Rahab
Rahab is one of my favorite women in the Bible. Mateo names her as one of Jesus’ ancestors, which makes her story especially exciting, especially when we get to know her better.
Rahab is a prostitute. There is no doubt about it, the book of Joshua explains it clearly. It is about a woman who lives in Jericho and will have great importance in the taking of the city.
Josué sends two spies to enter the city and find out how he can take it. They will enter the house of this whore who lived in a humble house built within the city walls. But soon it was learned that these Hebrew spies had entered and the police of the time went to Rahab’s house and asked her where those men who had slept there were. She told them that they had left before the doors of Jericho were closed as was done every night and she told them where they had fled.
Rahab lied. Possibly she did not feel much loyalty to her fellow citizens, perhaps they did not treat her well because of her profession, to which we can assume that she led the misery of her family. In addition, knowing what the warlike trajectory of the Hebrews was, she had to suppose that Jericho would fall sooner or later and collaborating with the spies could mean the salvation of herself, her parents and her brothers, whom I usually imagine as children. So when the police arrived she hid the two spies on the roof of the house and they were saved.
When they marched, aided by her who made it easy for them to descend the walls from her window, they made a pact. When the Hebrews took the city she could put a sign on her door and no one inside would be harmed. The Hebrews kept their end of the bargain, and when they attacked the city and wiped out its inhabitants, Rahab and her entire family were saved.
We could say that Rahab betrayed her neighbors, but saved her family when no one possibly cared about them and she was condemned to prostitution.
Rahab then reappears being named as the wife of Salmon, one of those spies who had hidden in his house and already lived within the Hebrew people. Her husband Salmon was the nephew of Aaron’s wife, Moses’ brother, so the former prostitute was accepted among the most important families. Not only that, but her son Boaz, who we will talk about later, is King David’s great-grandfather and, therefore, that makes her an ancestor of Jesus in the genealogy given by Matthew.
The name of Rahab comes from “RACHAV”, root in Hebrew that means “open, wide, wide”. It is not used in Hebrew as a name and there are various theories as to why she was named that way.
Deborah and Jael
Deborah (in Hebrew DVORA) means “bee”. She is the only woman who appears among the judges in the book of the same name, which narrates the vicissitudes of the people of Israel from the death of Joshua to the advent of the monarchy.
Deborah was a prophetess and spoke under a palm tree on Mount Ephraim. When the people of Israel suffered from the oppression of the Canaanites Deborah accompanied Barak as head of the army of the Hebrews to fight against Sisera, the general of Canaan and free themselves.
In the fourth book of Judges we can read the story of Déborah in prose and in the fifth book she herself sings a song in which she narrates what happened, this being one of the most ancient poems in the Bible.
Jael (in Hebrew is YAEL) is the mountain goat if we think of the Hebrew letters that make up the name and then we make oleh = to go up. Another possibility of interpretation would be “YA” is for JAweh (the name of God) and “EL” is for Elohim, that is, YAEL = Jaweh is the name of God.
Jael also appears in the Book of Judges, in the chapters dedicated to Deborah. It happens that General Sisera was defeated but escaped, taking refuge in the tent of Jael’s husband. Although her reasons are not explained to us, she makes him believe that she will save him, but when she sleeps, she ends his life.
He first offered him milk when he asked for a drink, but when he slept quietly under a blanket, he drove a stake into his head. Logically the Bible praises his behavior as it helps to destroy one of Israel’s enemies.
Ana and Penina
I do not want to fail to mention here two characters that appear in the chapter of the Book of Samuel destined to tell us about his birth. Elcana had two wives, one was called Penina and the other Ana , from the Hebrew HANNAH, which means “charm and grace.”
The first, whose name means “pearl” had several children but Ana was sterile. Hannah’s prayer will be heard by God and she will conceive the one who will be the great prophet Samuel, who, later educated by the priest Eli, will end up being the guide of his people and the one who will anoint the first kings of Israel.
We stay here. In the next installment we will go back a bit and finish the Book of Judges and we will find the Book of Ruth, where new women appear.
We will continue to review the Old Testament to suggest biblical female names and tell the stories of these heroines who have so influenced our culture. Surely you like some of the names for your daughters.
In Babies and more | Female baby names: Old Testament characters (I), (II) and (III), (IV), (V)
