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הָם

𐤄𐤌

Ham

H1990 noun

SILEX Entry

Root uncertain uncertain (likely proper name; possible speculative association with 'hot' or 'dark')

Definition

Proper name, designating one of the sons of Noah; also used to refer to the putative ancestor of various peoples and, by extension, to the regions associated with his descendants, including parts of Northeast Africa (notably Egypt, Cush/Nubia, and sometimes Libya) and areas adjacent to the land of Israel. In the Hebrew Bible, the term is mostly a personal name but may also be associated with geographical or ethnic identities.

Semantic Range

personal name (Noah's son), eponymous ancestor of select peoples (Cush, Egypt/Mizraim, Put, Canaan), poetic term for Egypt or adjacent regions

Root / Etymology

Root uncertain. The word הָם is traditionally understood as a proper name of an individual (son of Noah), but its original root meaning, if any, is unclear. Some ancient etymologies connect it with concepts of 'heat' or 'darkness,' but these are speculative and not linguistically substantiated. Modern scholarship treats the etymology as uncertain.

Historical & Contextual Notes

In the genealogies of Genesis (Gen 5:32, 6:10, etc.), Ham (הָם) is one of the three sons of Noah and is depicted as the ancestor of several notable peoples typically associated with Africa and bordering regions: Cush (Nubia), Mizraim (Egypt), Put (Libya), and Canaan. The Table of Nations in Genesis 10 uses 'Ham' as both an eponymous ancestor and a means of ethnogeographic classification. Later biblical traditions sometimes refer to Egypt as 'the land of Ham' (e.g., Psalm 78:51; 105:23,27; 106:22). However, the association of הָם strictly with Palestine is unfounded and likely reflects misunderstandings in earlier lexicons. In historical usage, the term did not imply the later ethnoreligious identities ascribed to the descendants of Ham. English translations generally render הָם with the transliterated name 'Ham,' but sometimes interpret related phrases (such as 'land of Ham') as references to Egypt or its surrounding territories. The usage and boundaries of the term are not always consistent across textual traditions. There is no evidence for a direct linguistic link between the Hebrew הָם and the English word 'Ham.'

Original Strong's Gloss (1890)

of uncertain derivation; Ham, a region of Palestine; Ham.

Bantu Hebrew

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Root Family

הם (h-m) — uncertain; proper name; eponymous ancestor

Strong's Lemma SIBI-P1
H1992 הֵם in them

Word Forms

1 distinct form

SIDANCE Surface Transliteration Morphology Common SIBI-P1 Occurrences
H1990-01 בְּ/הָ֑ם beham HR/Np in Ham in Ham 1

Occurrences in Scripture

1 total occurrence

SIDANCE Reference Word Transliteration Morphology Common SIBI-P1
H1990-01 Genesis 14:5 בְּ/הָ֑ם beham HR/Np in Ham in Ham
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