🔼The name Baal-hamon: Summary
- Meaning
- Lord Of A Multitude, Possessor Of Abundance
- Etymology
- From the verb בעל (ba'al), to be lord, and the noun המון (hamon), a large noisy group of people.
🔼The name Baal-hamon in the Bible
The name Baal-hamon occurs only once in the Bible. In the Song of Solomon the bride sings out: "Solomon had a vineyard in Baal-hamon" (Song of Solomon 8:11). We don't know where that vineyard might have been but some scholars equate it with Baal-gad.
🔼Etymology of the name Baal-hamon
The name Baal-hamon consists of two parts. The first part is the familiar word בעל (ba'al), Baal, meaning lord or master:
בעל
The verb בעל (ba'al) means to exercise dominion over; to own, control or be lord over. The ubiquitous noun בעל (ba'al) means lord, master and even husband, and its feminine counterpart בעלה (ba'ala) means mistress or landlady.
God is obviously called 'lord' all over the Bible and the sin of the Baal priests (1 Kings 18:40) was not that they called upon some other deity but rather their incessant howling of the word 'lord' without any further responsibility or effects (see Matthew 7:21 and 11:4-5).
The second part of our name is the same as the noun המון (hamon), denoting a large group of noisy people:
המה
The masculine pronouns הם (hem) and המה (hemma) mean "they." The feminine versions are הנה (henna) and הן (hen). The singular versions (meaning he and she) are הוא (hu) and היא (hi).
The similar verb המה (hama) means to be noisy, and that particularly of a "them". The derived masculine noun המון (hamon) denotes a noisy multitude.
נהה
The verb נהה (naha) means to wail or lament, and is probably onomatopoeic, after the sound of crying. Nouns נהי (nehi), נהיה (nihya), ני (ni) and הי (hi) all describe forms of wailing.
נהם
The verb נהם (naham) describes a muffled groaning. Nouns נהם (naham) and נהמה (nehama) mean a growling.
נאם
The noun נאם (ne'um) describes a labored utterance of a prophet in trance. Denominative verb נאם (na'am), means to utter a prophetic utterance.
🔼Baal-hamon meaning
For a meaning of the name Baal-hamon, both NOBSE Study Bible Name List and Jones' Dictionary of Old Testament Proper Names read Lord Of A Multitude. BDB Theological Dictionary goes after the root meaning of the hamon-part, and reads Possessor Of Abundance.