Hebrew word · H3299
וְיַעֲשׂוֹ
veya'asov
Jaasu
From the verb 'āśāh, 'to do, make'. The written form יעשו would be a verb form, 'they will do/make'. That is unusual for a name, though not impossible.
Appears once in the Hebrew Old Testament. ·
What it means
A man living at the time of Exile and Return, only mentioned at Ezr.10.37
§ Jaasau = "they will do"
one of the descendants of Bani who took a foreign wife during the time of Ezra
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
- Range of meaning
From the verb 'āśāh, 'to do, make'. The written form יעשו would be a verb form, 'they will do/make'. That is unusual for a name, though not impossible. The read form יַעֲשָׂי fits the common -ay shortened-name pattern, probably for a fuller name like Ya'asiel ('God makes', 1 Chronicles 11:47; 27:21) or 'Asaiah ('Yah has made').
- Against the English
KJV and YLT 'Jaasau' and BSB/WEB 'Jaasu' follow the written consonants. 'Jaasai' (used in some translations and in the supplied context gloss) follows the vowel points and the reading tradition.
- Used elsewhere in the period
The name occurs only here. The ancient scribes noted the difference between what is written and what is read in the margin of the Masoretic Text, the standard Hebrew text. The difference is just the last letter: waw (ו) in the written form, yod (י) in the read form. These two letters look much alike in the square Hebrew script, so scribes often confused them.
Where it appears
Ezra · 1
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Ezra 10:37 וְיַעֲשָֽׂי׃ and Jaasai
Mattaniah, Mattenai, and Jaasu.
Here: 'And' plus a personal name. The written consonants read Ya'asu ('they will do/make'), while the reading tradition says Ya'asai, probably a shortened name meaning '[Yah] has made' or 'work [of Yah]'. Either way it ends this group of three in the list of the clan of Bani.
Word data: STEPBible.org (CC BY 4.0), main text only.