Hebrew word · H2984

יִבְחָר

veyivchar

Ibhar

This is a verb of the root b-ḥ-r, 'to choose, select, prefer', in the form that describes ongoing or future action: 'he chooses / he will choose / may he choose'. Israelite names were often a whole sentence, and the subject was often God left unspoken.

Appears 3 times in 3 verses of the Hebrew Old Testament. ·

What it means

A man of the tribe of Judah living at the time of United Monarchy, first mentioned at 2Sa.5.15;

son of: David (H1732);

brother of: Amnon (H0550), Chileab (H3609), Absalom (H0053), Adonijah (H0138), Shephatiah (H8203), Ithream (H3507), Shammua (H8051H), Shobab (H7727), Nathan (H5416), Solomon (H8010), Elishua (H0474), Nepheg (H5298H), Japhia (H3309I), Elishama (H0476H), Eliada (H0450), Eliphelet (H0467), Tamar (H8559H), Elpelet (H0467I), Nogah (H5052) and Jerimoth (H3406N)

§ Ibhar = "Jehovah chooses"

one of the sons of David, born in Jerusalem

Abridged from Brown, Driver and Briggs, A Hebrew and English Lexicon of the Old Testament (1906), via STEPBible.org (CC BY 4.0).

In depth

From the study of 2 Samuel 5:15

Range of meaning

This is a verb of the root b-ḥ-r, 'to choose, select, prefer', in the form that describes ongoing or future action: 'he chooses / he will choose / may he choose'. Israelite names were often a whole sentence, and the subject was often God left unspoken. So Ibhar is best read as a shortened form of a fuller name, '(God/Yah) chooses'.

Against the English

Every English version simply transliterates the name. The loss is that an English reader does not hear a sentence in it. A Hebrew hearer would have heard 'He chooses' each time the boy was called.

Used elsewhere in the period

The verb bāḥar is the standard term for God choosing a person, a tribe or a place. In Deuteronomy, God chooses 'the place where he will make his name dwell' (Deut 12:5), and he chose David (1 Sam 16:8–10, where the same verb is used in the negative: 'the LORD has not chosen this one'; 2 Sam 6:21, 'the LORD, who chose me'). Other personal names of the same sentence type are Ibneiah ('Yah builds') and Jeconiah ('Yah establishes'). Ibhar appears only here and in 1 Chr 3:6 and 14:5.

Where it appears

2 Samuel · 1

  1. 2 Samuel 5:15 וְיִבְחָ֥ר and Ibhar

    Ibhar, Elishua, Nepheg, Japhia,

    Here: The prefix ve- ('and') carries on the list of sons from verse 14. The name is a verb form, 'he chooses', and is most likely a shortened form of '(God) chooses'. Parents gave it in thanks for a child they took to be chosen or favoured by God.

1 Chronicles · 2

  1. 1 Chronicles 3:6 וְיִבְחָ֥ר and Ibhar

    David’s other sons were Ibhar, Elishua, Eliphelet,

  2. 1 Chronicles 14:5 וְיִבְחָ֥ר and Ibhar

    Ibhar, Elishua, Elpelet,

Word data: STEPBible.org (CC BY 4.0), main text only.