🔼The name Ner: Summary
- Meaning
- Lamp
- Etymology
- From the noun נר (ner), lamp.
🔼The name Ner in the Bible
The one and only Ner in the Bible is a son of Maacah and Abiel (a.k.a. Jeiel — 1 Chronicles 9:35), the father of Abner and Kish, and the grandfather of king Saul.
Ner plays no active role in the Bible. He is mentioned a few times as the grandfather of Saul, but most often as the father of Saul's uncle Abner, who became a general in the army of Israel.
🔼Etymology of the name Ner
The name Ner is identical to the noun נר (ner), meaning lamp:
נהר
The verb נהר (nahar) means to flow or stream and is used for both water and light (which in turn demonstrates that the ancients had Relativity Theory; see our expanded article for more). Noun נהר (nahar) means river or stream. Noun נהרה (nahara) means light or daylight and מנהרה (minhara) "place of nahara". Nouns נר (ner) and ניר (nir) mean lamp, and nouns מנורה (menorah) and מנרה (menorah) mean lampstand.
🔼Ner meaning
For a meaning of the name Ner, both NOBSE Study Bible Name List and Jones' Dictionary of Old Testament Proper Names read Lamp. BDB Theological Dictionary doesn't translate our name but does confirm that it's the same as the word for lamp.