🔼The name Bene-jaakan: Summary
- Meaning
- Sons Of Jaakan
- Etymology
- From (1) the plural of the noun בן (ben), son, and (2) the name Jaakan, from the verb עקם ('aqam), to twist.
🔼The name Bene-jaakan in the Bible
Bene-jaakan is a location in the wilderness between Egypt and the Sinai (Numbers 33:31). There's also a Beeroth Bene-jaakan (spelled with a maqqep: בני־יעקן), but it's not clear how the two relate (Deuteronomy 10:6).
🔼Etymology of the name Bene-jaakan
This name consists of two parts; the latter being the name Jaakan, which probably means He Twists (see our article on the name Jaakan for the details).
The first part of the name Bene-jaakan comes from the common Hebrew noun בן (ben), meaning son:
בן
The noun בן (ben) means son, or more general: a member of one particular social or economic node — called a "house", which is built upon the instructions of one אב ('ab), or "father" — within in a larger economy (hence: the "sons of the prophet" are the members of the prophet-class; the prophets). This noun obviously resembles the verb בנה (bana), to build, and the noun אבן ('eben), stone.
Our noun's feminine version, namely בת (bat), means daughter, which resembles the noun בית (bayit), meaning house. Sometimes our noun is contracted into a single letter ב, whose name beth comes from בית (bayit) and means "house" as well. As a prefix, the letter ב (be) means "in." The word for mother, אם ('em), is highly similar to that of tribe or people, אמה ('umma).
🔼Bene-jaakan meaning
Bene-jaakan means Sons of Jaakan, or Sons Of He Who Twists.