🔼The name Shilhi: Summary
- Meaning
- Yah Has Sent, Dart Of Yah
- Etymology
- From (1) the verb שלח (shalah), to send or let go, and possibly (2) יה (yah), the shortened name of the Lord.
🔼The name Shilhi in the Bible
There's only one Shilhi in the Bible, and he is the father of Azubah, the mother of king Jehoshaphat and the wife of king Asa of Judah (1 Kings 22:42, 2 Chronicles 20:31).
🔼Etymology of the name Shilhi
The name Shilhi comes from the verb שלח (shalah), meaning to send or let go:
שלח
The verb שלח (shalah) means to send; to send whatever from messengers to arrows. It may even be used to describe a plant's offshoots or branches.
Noun שלח (shelah) refers to some kind of weapon, apparently a kind of missile. Plural noun שלוחים (shilluhim) means a send-off; a sending away or parting gift. Noun שלוחה (sheluha) refers to a shoot or branch. Noun משלח (mishlah) describes an outstretching of one's hand (i.e. an undertaking, or referring to the place where the letting go takes place). Noun משלוח (mishloah) also means an outstretching or a sending. Noun משלחת (mishlahat) describes a discharge from service, or a deputation.
The noun שלחן (shulhan) means table. It may actually stem from a whole other but identical verb that originally described the skinning an animal and stretching the hide out to dry. Possibly helped by the previous verb, this outstretching of a hide became attached to the laying down of a blanket (or indeed a hide) in order to stall goods on it (like the elements of a meal). When someone invented a table on legs the word to describe it was lifted from the old custom of picnicking on a blanket: a stretcher-outer.
The letter י (yod) upon which our name ends, may either create an adjective (ballistic), a possessive form (my arrow), or may be a remnant of יה (Yah) = יהו (Yahu) = יו (Yu), which in turn are abbreviated forms of the Tetragrammaton יהוה, YHWH, or Yahweh.
🔼Shilhi meaning
For a meaning of the name Shilhi, NOBSE Study Bible Name List goes with שלח I (shalah I), meaning to send out or let go, and takes the final yod to be a remnant of the divine name. Hence NOBSE reads Yahweh Has Sent.
Jones' Dictionary of Old Testament Proper Names appears to be most impressed with the ballistic element of the verb שלח I (shalah), and reads Armed "of the Lord" or Dart Of The Lord (where the first interpretation appears to be an applied adjective and the second one an integration of the divine name).
BDB Theological Dictionary doesn't translate the name Shilhi but does list it under the verb שלח (shalah), meaning to send.