🔼The name Hazar-hatticon: Summary
- Meaning
- The Middle Village
- Etymology
- From (1) the noun חצר (haser), village, and (2) the adjective תיכון (tikon), middle.
🔼The name Hazar-hatticon in the Bible
The name Hazar-hatticon occurs only once in the Bible. It's the name of a settlement which was situated close to Hauran, and which helped to mark the northern border of the restored Israel, as stipulated by YHWH and dictated to Ezekiel in a vision (Ezekiel 47:16).
🔼Etymology of the name Hazar-hatticon
The name Hazar-hatticon consists of two or three elements. The first part is the same as the noun חצר (haser), meaning village:
חצר
The verb חצר (hasar) relates to the first visual manifestations of a gathering or emergence of some sort: to begin to cluster or gather or emerge.
The noun חציר (hasir) means grass, which is the first plant to sprout after, say, a fire. Noun חציר (hasir) means leek (a bigger version of grass) and חצצרה (hasosra) means trumpet, i.e. the perhaps leek-like instrument with which a gathering of humans is instigated.
The noun חצר (haser) denotes a hamlet or settlement or loose, rudimentary federation; the initial beginning of what some day might become a village or even a city. Noun חצר (haser) refers to an enclosure in the architectural sense, or even a court in the sense of it being a place where people loosely gather.
The second part of our name starts with the letter ה (he), which is either the definite article, or else the particle of direction, meaning "towards" or ascription, "of the".
The core of the second part of our name comes from the adjective תיכון (tikon), meaning middle:
תוך
The noun תוך (tawek) means middle one or midst or between. It's unclear where it came from or how it was formed. Derived adjective תיכון or תיכן (tikon) means middle.
🔼Hazar-hatticon meaning
For a meaning of the name Hazar-hatticon, both NOBSE Study Bible Name List and Jones' Dictionary of Old Testament Proper Names read The Middle Village. BDB Theological Dictionary does not interpret Hazar-hatticon but does list it under the noun חצר (haser).
Our name could be construed to mean Middle Village, assuming it was situated in the middle of a bunch more, but it's also perfectly possible that this place was named after the very principle of middleness, and that this name reflected creation's inherent provision of being able to have something in the middle.
After all, the existence of middleness was essential on the second creation day, when the waters were divided by the firmament in the middle (Genesis 1:6), as well as in the great cadaver vision through which YHWH demonstrated his covenant with Abraham, which resulted in the emergence of Israel and finally Jesus Christ (Genesis 15:10), as well as in his ability to be present in Israel (Exodus 25:8).
Ergo, the name Hazar-hatticon also means Around The Middle.