🔼The name Nodab: Summary
- Meaning
- Nobility, Generosity
- Etymology
- From the verb נדב (nadab), to willingly give.
🔼The name Nodab in the Bible
There's only one Nodab in the Bible and he is an otherwise unknown Arabian leader or tribe. We know of him because the Israeli tribes of Reuben, Gad and Manasseh waged war with him (them), defeated him and displaced him (1 Chronicles 5:19).
🔼Etymology of the name Nodab
The name Nodab appears to be related to the verb נדב (nadab), meaning to willingly give, incite or impel, and more precisely, to the derived noun נדיב (nadib), meaning generous or noble:
נדב
The verb נדב (nadab) means to give, donate or volunteer, and by implication to be noble. From it derive the noun נדבה (nedaba), freewill offering, the noun and adjective נדיב (nadib), generous or noble, and the noun נדיבה (nediba), generous deed.
🔼Nodab meaning
For a meaning of the name Nodab, both NOBSE Study Bible Name List and Jones' Dictionary of Old Testament Proper Names read Nobility.
BDB Theological Dictionary doesn't offer an interpretation of the name Nodab, places it under the root נדב (nadab), but pouts that the relation to the root is "quite uncertain". A Hebrew audience wouldn't bother much with BDB's objections and would readily assume that it has to do with it, one way or the other.