🔼The name Jabin: Summary
- Meaning
- He Discerns
- Etymology
- From the verb בין (bin), to discern.
🔼The name Jabin in the Bible
There are two Jabins mentioned in the Bible, both kings of a Canaanite town called Hazor:
- The first Jabin attacks Israel under Joshua (Joshua 11:1). Although this Jabin leads a monstrously large alliance of kings and armies, "the Lord delivered them into the hand of Israel" (Joshua 11:8).
- Jabin number two, who lived about a century after the first one, is equally unfortunate. He and his general Sisera conquer and suppress Israel for twenty years, unto the insurrection led by Deborah and Barak. The Canaanites are defeated and a lady named Jael single-handedly kills Sisera (Judges 4:2).
🔼Etymology of the name Jabin
The name Jabin comes from the verb בין (bin) meaning to understand or have insight:
בין
The verb בין (bin) means to distinguish and thus to discern, contemplate and understand. Its derivation בין (ben) means between, and obviously resembles the word בן (ben), son. A spectrum of sons is what an אב ('ab), or father, is expressed in.
🔼Jabin meaning
The name Jabin has to do with insight, and the preceding yod may either simply make the verb active (He Will Perceive) or may be a remnant of יהוה, YHWH, to argue the Divine origin of the insight, or the power obtained by it.
NOBSE Study Bible Name List reads He (God) Perceives. Jones' Dictionary of Old Testament Proper Names reads He Will Understand.