🔼The name Eliakim: Summary
- Meaning
- God Sets Up
- Etymology
- From (1) the word אל ('el), God, and (2) the verb קום (qum), to set up.
🔼The name Eliakim in the Bible
There are five different men named Eliakim mentioned in the Bible:
- A son of Hilkiah and much appreciated chief housekeeper of king Hezekiah of Judah (2 Kings 18:18 to 19:2, Isaiah 22:20, 36:3-22, 37:2).
- The son and successor of king Josiah of Judah. Pharaoh Neco deposed Eliakim's brother Jehoahaz, made Eliakim king and changed his name to Jehoiakim, which uses the same secondary element but YHWH instead of El (2 Kings 23:34, 2 Chronicles 36:4).
- A trumpet playing priest at the time of the dedication of the second temple (Nehemiah 12:41).
- Twice an ancestor of Jesus the Nazarene. According to Matthew, Eliakim (Ελιακειμ) was a grandson of Zerubbabel, who descended from king David via Solomon (Matthew 1:13). According to Luke, Eliakim was a great-great-great-grandson of king David via Nathan (Luke 3:30).
🔼Etymology of the name Eliakim
The name Eliakim consists of two elements, the first one being אל ('el), the prominent Canaanite deity, whose name became applied to the God of Israel, or the common abbreviation of Elohim, the genus God:
אל אלה
In names אל ('el) usually refers to אלהים ('elohim), that is Elohim, or God, also known as אלה ('eloah). In English, the words 'God' and 'god' exclusively refer to the deity but in Hebrew the words אל ('l) and אלה ('lh) are far more common and may express approach and negation, acts of wailing and pointing, and may even mean oak or terebinth.
The second part of our name probably comes from the verb קום (qom), meaning to rise or stand up:
קום
Verb קום (qum) means to stand or rise up, both literally (getting up from sitting or erecting some statue) or figuratively (establishing someone in some office). Noun קימה (qima) means a rising up, noun תקומה (tequma), denotes an ability or power to stand, and noun מקום (maqom) describes some set location, place to stand or station.
Noun קמה (qoma) or קומה (qoma) means height or highness and noun קים (qim) describes someone who rises up against someone (an adversary or enemy). Noun קיממיות (qommiyut) means uprightness. Noun קמה (qama) denotes standing grain. And noun יקום (yequm) denotes substance or existence.
🔼Eliakim meaning
For a meaning of the name Eliakim, NOBSE Study Bible Name List reads God Will Establish, Jones' Dictionary of Old Testament Proper Names has Whom God Sets Up, and BDB Theological Dictionary proposes God Sets Up.