🔼The name Ephes-dammim: Summary
- Meaning
- Coming To Nought Of Bloodlines, End Of Bloods, Extremity Of Bloodshed
- Etymology
- From (1) אפס ('apas), extremity or nought, and דמים (damim), bloods or bloodshed.
🔼The name Ephes-dammim in the Bible
The name Ephes-dammim occurs only once in the Bible, namely in 1 Samuel 17:1, where we read that the Philistines had gathered to fight against Israel and mustered at Socoh of Judah but camped between Socoh and Azekah, in Ephes-dammim. Israel, meanwhile, had set up camp in the Valley of Elah, where not long after, David and Goliath had their face off. This famously resulted in the death of Goliath and the slaying of the Philistines. It also signified the beginning of the rise of David and the final defeat of one of Israel's most significant arch-enemies.
Some commentators have proposed that Ephes-dammim is the same as the Pas-dammim mentioned in 1 Chronicles 11:13, but although these names are certainly very similar and both places mark decisive victories against arch-enemies, from a literary point of view they must be kept distinct. Ephes-dammim is associated with Israel's permanent victory over the Philistines, whereas Pas-dammim is associated with Israel's (not yet permanent) victory over Esau and hence the Amalekites.
🔼Etymology of the name Ephes-dammim
The name Ephes-dammim consists of two elements, the first one being אפס ('apas), meaning extremity, termination or nought, from the verb אפס ('apes), to come to nought:
פסס
The verb פסס (pasas) means to spread out or spread thin. It may describe covering a broad stretch of space, or a broad spectrum of colors. It may even describe a dissipation into thin air and hence mean to vanish. Noun פס (pas) describes a person's hand or foot, the spreading extremities of one's limbs. Noun פסה (pissa) describes an abundant variety in goods. Specialized verb פשה (pasa) speaks of the spreading of skin diseases.
The related verb אפס ('apes) means to come to nought. Noun אפס ('epes/'apes) occurs in the familiar phrase "the ends of the earth", which describes regions of little or no civilized humanity. It's also frequently used to describe a coming to "nought" of people, their efforts or their estates. Noun אפס ('opas) means foot sole, and clearly correlates to noun פס (pas).
The second part of our name is the plural of the noun דם (dam), meaning blood. This plural word is the common word for bloodshed (Exodus 22:2) and occurs in terms like איש דמים ('ish damim), man of bloodshed (2 Samuel 16:8) and חתן דמים (hatan damim), groom of bloodshed (Exodus 4:25):
דמם
The root דמם (ddm) is all about beginnings — or rather the simplicity from whence complexity arises — from being still before the noise starts to being monochromatic before color vision starts. Verb דמם (damam) means to be still, noun דממה (demama) denotes calmness and דמה (dumma) denotes a silenced person. Noun דומה (duma) describes the silence of death, noun דומיה or דמיה (dumiya) the silence of waiting and noun דומם (dumam) the silence of inertia or inactivity.
Verb דמה (dama I) describes making a (still) image. Nouns דמות (demut) and דמין (dimyon) mean likeness. Verb דמה (dama II) means to stop, halt or arrest. Noun דמי (domi) means a halting. Whatever the unused verb דמן (dmn) might have meant, noun דמן (domen) denotes refuse and מדמנה (madmena) a manure pit.
Unused verb אדם ('dm) may have meant to produce or begin to produce. Noun אדם (adam) is one of a few words for man but means literally probably "product" or likeness-made-from-soil; man as corporeal unit of humanity. This word is never used in plural, and its feminine equivalent, namely אדמה (adama), denotes arable soil or clay-red earth.
Red is the first color a baby learns to see and red or ruddy is indeed the color of rudiment: verb אדם ('adom or 'adem) means to be red, adjective אדם ('adom) means red, noun אדם ('odem) denotes a ruddy gem, possibly quartz, noun אדם ('edom) denotes a kind of red stew, adjective אדמדם ('adamiddam) means reddish, and adjective אדמוני (admoni) means red or ruddy.
The ubiquitous noun דם (dam) means blood; the seat of life, whose circulatory system always sits inside an organic body, isolated from the world at large. When a river turns to blood, it not so much assumes the color and thickness of blood but becomes isolated from the greater hydrological cycle. The life that is seated in the blood is therefore primarily an issue of waste-management. Without it, the organism pollutes and dies.
🔼Ephes-dammim meaning
For a meaning of the name Ephes-dammim, NOBSE Study Bible Name List: End Of Bloods. BDB Theological Dictionary equates Ephes-dammim with Pas-dammim and declares either meaning unknown.
Jones' Dictionary of Old Testament Proper Names reads Extremity Of Bloods, and explains that the blood refers to that of grapes (Genesis 49:11), so that Ephes-dammim would be a vineyard. That's a bit of a stretch, also seeing that history remembers Ephes-dammim for its association to the decapitation of Goliath and the slaying of countless Philistines.