🔼The name Chesalon: Summary
- Meaning
- [Mount] Goof, Constellation Observatory
- Etymology
- From the verb כסל (kasal), to be a mental invertebrate.
🔼The name Chesalon in the Bible
The name Chesalon occurs only one time in the Bible. In Joshua 15:10 it is equated with Mount Jearim, which marked the border of the territory allotted to the tribe of Judah.
🔼Etymology of the name Chesalon
The name Chesalon appears to be derived from the verb כסל (kasal), meaning to be confident but mostly in a stupid way:
כסל
The verb כסל (kasal) means to have no skeletal strength or engage in pareidolia (falsely recognizing images in random patterns, such as Mickey Mouse in a cloud). It describes muscle- and boneless body parts, or a "belief" in the systematic link between uncorrelated events. It typically describes stellar constellations, which are obviously as fantastic as useless.
Nouns כסל (kesel) and כסלה (kisla) mean stupidity or (misplaced) confidence. The former may also describe a body part, probably the loin or lower belly (or blubber butt). The feminine noun כסילות (kesilut) means stupidity.
Noun כסיל (kesil) means fool or dunce; someone who "sees" structure in uncorrelated events. This is also the word for stellar constellations in general, and more specific the constellation Orion.
🔼Chesalon meaning
Scholars appear to interpret this name along the lines of the positive meaning of our verb כסל, but since our name lacks context, there's no guarantee that this mountain wasn't known as Mount Goof.
In fact, it's perfectly plausible that Mount Chesalon was used as a stellar observatory by a society that believed there was intrinsic value in the apparent relationship of stars, to a creative human who is not bound by an allegiance to measurable facts or falsifiable hypotheses. Note that "philosophers" such as Plato were speculators rather than scientists, whose kasalic webs of unsubstantiated fantasies combined with Roman imperialism thrust mankind into millennia of intellectual darkness.
For a meaning of the name Chesalon, NOBSE Study Bible Name List reads a merciful Trust and Jones' Dictionary of Old Testament Proper Names has Firm Confidence. BDB Theological Dictionary does not translate this name but does list in under the verb כסל.