🔼The name Beth-pazzez: Summary
- Meaning
- House Of Dispersion
- Etymology
- From (1) the noun בית (beth), house, and (2) the verb פצץ (pasas), to scatter.
🔼The name Beth-pazzez in the Bible
The name Beth-pazzez occurs only once in the Bible. It belongs to a settlement that came to be in the territory allotted to the tribe of Issachar, in the area which would later be called Galilee (Joshua 19:21).
🔼Etymology of the name Beth-pazzez
The name Beth-pazzez consists of two elements. The first part is identical to the common Hebrew word בית (bayit) meaning house:
בית
The noun בית (bayit) means house. It sometimes merely denotes a domestic building, but mostly it denotes the realm of authority of the house-father, or אב (ab). This ab is commonly the living alpha male of a household, but may very well be a founding ancestor (as in the familiar term the "house of Israel"). The אב (ab) may also be a deity, in which case the בית (bayit) is that which we know as a temple.
In the larger economy, a house interacts with other houses. These interactions are governed by the אב (ab), or "father" and executed by the בנים (benim), or "sons": those people living in the house, irrespective of any biological relation with the אב (ab). The "sons" combined add up to אם ('em), which means both "mother" and "tribe".
The second part of our name comes from the verb פצץ (pasas), meaning to break apart or scatter:
פצץ
The verb פצץ (pasas) means to break apart or scatter and so does this verb's by-form פוץ (pus). Noun מפיץ (mepis) describes a scatterer or disperser. Either an identical other verb פוץ (pus) or the same one may also describe an overflowing (of springs or cities), which is an action obviously not far removed from scattering.
Verb פוש (push) appears to have the same meaning as פוץ (pus I) and means to scatter. Either an identical other verb פוש (push) or the same one may also describe the darting about of young calves, which is really rather similar to scattering.
Verb פשח (pashah) means to tear in pieces.
🔼Beth-pazzez meaning
For a meaning of the name Beth-pazzez, both NOBSE Study Bible Name List and Jones' Dictionary of Old Testament Proper Names read House Of Dispersion. BDB Theological Dictionary has Place Of Dispersion.
It's of course unknown why this place was named this way, but it would be an excellent name for a quarry or mine of some sort.