🔼The name Bocheru: Summary
- Meaning
- First Born, His First Born
- Etymology
- From the verb בכר (bakar), to be born first.
🔼The name Bocheru in the Bible
There's only one man named Bocheru in the Bible. Bocheru, son of Azel, is one of the last mentioned in the genealogy of Benjamin (1 Chronicles 8:38).
🔼Etymology of the name Bocheru
The name Bocheru comes from the verb בכר (bakar), meaning to be born first:
בכר
The verb בכר (bakar) means to be born first or rise early or earliest. The masculine noun בכור (bekor) describes the firstborn or eldest son, and the feminine counterpart בכירה (bekira) describes the first-born daughter. Noun בכרה (bekora) refers to the right of the first-born. Noun בכורים (bikkurim) means first fruits. Noun בכורה (bikkura) refers to the first ripe fig; a proverbial delicacy.
Feminine noun בכרה (bikra) came to denote the young of a camel, which is not merely cute but quite significant. The adult camel was the unit of international trade, and the word for camel — namely גמל, gamal — derives from a verb that means to ripen or come to fruition; hence the link to first fruits. A camel calf symbolizes an emerging market.
It's not uncommon for a name to exist in two forms, with or without the final waw, and Bocheru may simply be a playful variant of the name Becher. The waw may also be transposed on an original possessive yod, which makes the name Bocheru a playful variant of the name Bichri. And the final waw may also serve as the third person singular masculine pronominal suffix: his Becher.
🔼Bocheru meaning
For a meaning of the name Bocheru, NOBSE Study Bible Name List reads First Born. BDB Theological Dictionary doesn't translate.
Jones' Dictionary of Old Testament Proper Names figures the final ו (waw) to be the masculine pronominal suffix and reads His First Born.