🔼The name Arah: Summary
- Meaning
- Traveler
- Etymology
- From the verb ארח ('arah), to wander or travel.
🔼The name Arah in the Bible
There are two or three men named Arah in the Bible:
- One is a son of Ulla of Asher (1 Chronicles 7:39).
- The other is the family head whose family returns from Babylon together with Zerubbabel. Ezra counts 775 members of this family (2:5) but Nehemiah counts 652 (7:10). Still, Arah's family is quite substantial, and if he is the ancestor (which the words "sons-of" seem to indicate), he was probably not present during the return. On the other hand, he may also simply be the leader of a large group of uncles and cousins, and very much alive and actively leading his people west.
- In Nehemiah 6:18 we meet another (or the same) Arah, whose son Shecaniah has a son-in-law named Tobiah, who is a man of significant status (see Nehemiah 2:10), also in part because his son Jehohanan has married the daughter of Meshullam, the son of Berechiah.
🔼Etymology of the name Arah
The name Arah comes from the verb ארח ('arah), meaning to wander or travel:
Excerpted from: Abarim Publications' Biblical Dictionary
ארח
The verb ארח ('arah) means to wander, travel or keep company with. Noun ארח (orah) means way or path. Noun ארחה (orha) denotes a caravan or traveling company. Noun ארחה (aruha) appears to refer to a traveler's food ration.
ירח
Noun ירח (yareah) means moon, and appears to relate to the previous verb. Noun ירח (yerah) means month.
🔼Arah meaning
For a meaning of the name Arah, BDB Theological Dictionary reads a timid Traveler? NOBSE Study Bible Name List, far less timid, reads Wayfarer. And Alfred Jones (Dictionary of Old Testament Proper Names), bold as ever, offers Wandering.