🔼The name Pas-dammim: Summary
- Meaning
- Extremity Of Bloodshed, Coming To Nought Of Bloodlines
- Etymology
- From (1) פס (pas), end or termination, and (2) דמים (damim), bloods or bloodshed.
🔼The name Pas-dammim in the Bible
The name Pas-dammim (or Pas-Dammim or Pasdammim) occurs only once in the Bible, namely in 1 Chronicles 11:13, which commemorates a battle between David and his celebrated mighty-men (specifically Eleazar son of Dodo the Ahohite) versus the Philistines. This battle took place at Pas-dammim, in a field full of barley (שערה, se'ora, means barley or hair).
In 2 Samuel 23:11-12 we read of the same battle, but this account has the battle takes place in a field full of lentils (עדש, 'adash), and doesn't mention the name Pas-dammim. But note that both red lentils (Genesis 25:34) and barley (via Seir) are obvious references to Esau, and by that time, the Amalekites.
The name Pas-dammim is closely similar to Ephes-dammim. Some commentators demand that these are two names of the same place, and although that's possible, it remains conjecture.
🔼Etymology of the name Pas-dammim
The name Pas-dammim consists of two elements, the first one being פס (pas), meaning extremity or termination, from the verb פסס (pasas), to spread out or thin:
פסס
The verb פסס (pasas) means to spread out or spread thin. It may describe covering a broad stretch of space, or a broad spectrum of colors. It may even describe a dissipation into thin air and hence mean to vanish. Noun פס (pas) describes a person's hand or foot, the spreading extremities of one's limbs. Noun פסה (pissa) describes an abundant variety in goods. Specialized verb פשה (pasa) speaks of the spreading of skin diseases.
The related verb אפס ('apes) means to come to nought. Noun אפס ('epes/'apes) occurs in the familiar phrase "the ends of the earth", which describes regions of little or no civilized humanity. It's also frequently used to describe a coming to "nought" of people, their efforts or their estates. Noun אפס ('opas) means foot sole, and clearly correlates to noun פס (pas).
The second part of our name is the plural of the noun דם (dam), meaning blood. This plural word is the common word for bloodshed (Exodus 22:2) and occurs in terms like איש דמים ('ish damim), man of bloodshed (2 Samuel 16:8) and חתן דמים (hatan damim), groom of bloodshed (Exodus 4:25):
דמם
The root דמם (ddm) is all about beginnings — or rather the simplicity from whence complexity arises — from being still before the noise starts to being monochromatic before color vision starts. Verb דמם (damam) means to be still, noun דממה (demama) denotes calmness and דמה (dumma) denotes a silenced person. Noun דומה (duma) describes the silence of death, noun דומיה or דמיה (dumiya) the silence of waiting and noun דומם (dumam) the silence of inertia or inactivity.
Verb דמה (dama I) describes making a (still) image. Nouns דמות (demut) and דמין (dimyon) mean likeness. Verb דמה (dama II) means to stop, halt or arrest. Noun דמי (domi) means a halting. Whatever the unused verb דמן (dmn) might have meant, noun דמן (domen) denotes refuse and מדמנה (madmena) a manure pit.
Unused verb אדם ('dm) may have meant to produce or begin to produce. Noun אדם (adam) is one of a few words for man but means literally probably "product" or likeness-made-from-soil; man as corporeal unit of humanity. This word is never used in plural, and its feminine equivalent, namely אדמה (adama), denotes arable soil or clay-red earth.
Red is the first color a baby learns to see and red or ruddy is indeed the color of rudiment: verb אדם ('adom or 'adem) means to be red, adjective אדם ('adom) means red, noun אדם ('odem) denotes a ruddy gem, possibly quartz, noun אדם ('edom) denotes a kind of red stew, adjective אדמדם ('adamiddam) means reddish, and adjective אדמוני (admoni) means red or ruddy.
The ubiquitous noun דם (dam) means blood; the seat of life, whose circulatory system always sits inside an organic body, isolated from the world at large. When a river turns to blood, it not so much assumes the color and thickness of blood but becomes isolated from the greater hydrological cycle. The life that is seated in the blood is therefore primarily an issue of waste-management. Without it, the organism pollutes and dies.
🔼Pas-dammim meaning
For a meaning of the name Pas-dammim, NOBSE Study Bible Name List offers Boundary Of Bloodshed. BDB Theological Dictionary equates Pas-dammim with Ephes-dammim and declares either meaning unknown.
Jones' Dictionary of Old Testament Proper Names reads Extremity Of Dammim, but has Extremity Of Bloods for Ephes-dammim, and explains that the blood refers to that of grapes (Genesis 49:11), so that Ephes-dammim would be a vineyard. That seems a bit unnecessary, at least for Pas-dammim, where lentils grew and Philistines were slain.
Note that in addition to the lentils and the barley, the word דם (dam), blood, closely relates to Edom, the name of the people of Esau. Our name may in fact refer to genocide: the wholesale termination of all the bloodlines coming from of Esau, including the Amalekites.