🔼The name Iye-abarim: Summary
- Meaning
- Ruins Of The Regions Beyond, Ruins Of Crossing Over
- Etymology
- From (1) the noun עי ('i), ruin, and (2) the verb עבר ('abar), to pass over.
🔼The name Iye-abarim in the Bible
The name Iye-abarim (or Ije-Abarim) occurs twice in the Bible. In Numbers 21:11 we read how the Israelites traveled from Oboth to Iye-abarim, in the wilderness opposite Moab, to the east. From there they went to Wadi Zered.
In Numbers 33:44 the same thing occurs, except that the people arrive in Iye-abarim but set out from Iim (or Iyim) and proceeded to Dibon-gad.
It appears that Iim is a shortened form of Iye-abarim.
🔼Etymology of the name Iye-abarim
The name Iye-abarim consists of two elements. The first part seems to be either a possessive form or else a so-called construct-plural of any of the nouns עי ('i):
עוה
The verb עוה ('awa) means to bend or twist, usually with a bottom line or ruin or perversion. Noun עון ('awon) means iniquity or guilt. Verb עוה ('awa) means to commit iniquity of do wrong. Nouns עוה ('awwa), עי ('i) and מעי (me'i) mean distortion or ruin. Plural noun עועים ('iw'im) means a distorting or warping.
The second part of our name is the same as the name Abarim (from which this website — Abarim Publications — gets its name), which comes from the verb עבר (abar), meaning to pass over, by, through:
עבר
The important verb עבר ('abar) means to pass or cross over (a river, border, obstacle or terrain). The derived noun עבר ('eber) describes what or where you end up when you do the verb: the other side or region beyond.
🔼Iye-abarim meaning
For a meaning of the name Iye-abarim, NOBSE Study Bible Name List reads Ruins Of The Abarim (Regions Beyond). Jones' Dictionary of Old Testament Proper Names has (for Ije-Abarim) Ruinous Heaps Of Abarim. BDB Theological Dictionary does not offer an interpretation of this name, and lists it alphabetically and not under a particular root.
If we take the noun עי ('i) to mean ruin, Numbers 33:44-45 would read something like: ... and they camped at The Ruins Of Crossing Over, at the border of Moab. And they departed from The Ruins and ...