🔼The name Giah: Summary
- Meaning
- Waterfall, Breaking Forth
- Etymology
- From the verb גיח (giah), to burst forth.
🔼The name Giah in the Bible
The name Giah occurs one time in the Bible. It's a place near the hill of Ammah, which is famous for being the location where David's general Joab and Abishai caught up with the renegade Abner.
🔼Etymology of the name Giah
The name Giah comes from the verb גיח (giah), meaning to burst forth:
גיח גיא
The verb גיח (giah), or גוח (gwh), means to burst forth. It's applied to rivers and human births. Human collectives such as families and tribes are in the Bible often symbolized as mountains. Hence births signify valleys and are associated with rivers.
Verb גיא (gy') isn't used in the Bible and its meaning is subsequently unknown. The derived noun גיא (gai'), however, means valley and is used frequently. There are at least seven named valleys mentioned in the Old Testament.
The observation that "every valley shall be exalted and every mountain made low" ties into the principle of rebirth, via which is peopled a world in which every individual is king and high priest and utterly free.
🔼Giah meaning
For a meaning of the name Giah, NOBSE Study Bible Name List reads Waterfall, and Jones' Dictionary of Old Testament Proper Names proposes Breaking Forth, "i.e. of a fountain". BDB Theological Dictionary reads "from A Spring" but adds a question mark to indicate that nothing is certain.