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Discover the meanings of thousands of Biblical names in Abarim Publications' Biblical Name Vault: Jalon

Jalon meaning

Jalon in Biblical Hebrew
ילון
Jalon categories:
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male names
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browse names and categories

Source: https://www.abarim-publications.com/Meaning/Jalon.html

🔼The name Jalon: Summary

Meaning
Lodging, Murmuring
Howler
Etymology
From the verb לון (lun), to lodge or to murmur.
From the verb ילל (yalal), to howl.
Related names
• Via לון (lun): Tilon
• Via ילל (yalal): Helel

🔼The name Jalon in the Bible

The one and only Jalon mentioned in the Bible is one of four sons of a certain Ezrah (not the famous one) of Judah (1 Chronicles 4:17).

🔼Etymology of the name Jalon

The name Jalon seems to be related to the Hebrew verb לון (lun):

Excerpted from: Abarim Publications' Biblical Dictionary
לון

The verb לון (lun) or לין (lin) means to lodge or spend the night, with the added nuance that this lodging occurs in a public inn and the lodger ends up hunkered down with multiple fellows. Nouns מלון (malon) and מלונה (meluna) describe places of lodging or inns.

Perhaps a whole other yet identical verb לון (lun) speaks again of a collective depression and is commonly translated as to murmur. It usually applies to people murmuring against their leaders. Noun תלנה (telunna) means a murmuring, or a low-key public protest.

— See the full Dictionary article —

Another possibility is that our name was derived from the verb ילל (yalal), meaning to howl, and turned into a personal epithet by dropping the second identical consonant and adding the familiar waw-nun couple:

Excerpted from: Abarim Publications' Biblical Dictionary
ילל

The verb ילל (yalal) means to howl or wail and describes a collective yet chaotic expression of dismay or lament. Nouns ילל (yelel) and יללה (yelala) mean a howling or a wailing.

The meaning of noun תולל (tolal) is a bit complicated but from form and context scholars have deducted that it means something like "they that made us wail."

— See the full Dictionary article —

🔼Jalon meaning

For a meaning of the name Jalon, NOBSE Study Bible Name List reads Passing The Night and Jones' Dictionary of Old Testament Proper Names offers Abiding; both apparently derived from לון (lun I).

BDB Theological Dictionary does not offer an interpretation of our name and also doesn't list it under a particular root but alphabetically.

We don't know anything about the mother of Jalon, and why Ezrah would call his son "Spent The Night" the Bible leaves to our imagination. But on the other hand, Ezrah may have meant to name him He Murmurs or even Howler.