לֹא דְבָר

From the study of 2 Samuel 9:5

Range of meaning

A town in Gilead, east of the Jordan, probably not far from Mahanaim. Its exact site is not known. The spelling varies: לוֹ דְבָר here and in 9:4, לֹא דְבָר in 17:27, and לִדְבִר (Lidebir/Debir) in Josh 13:26, if that is the same place. Its original meaning is uncertain. It may be connected to dober, "pasture" (Isa 5:17; Mic 2:12), or to a place-name Debir. Read as two Hebrew words, it can sound like "no thing" or "no word".

Against the English

English versions just transliterate the name, which is correct. The drift is in popular explanations of the name, which treat "no pasture" or "no word" as its established meaning.

How it drifted

Amos 6:13 (8th century BC, well after David) puns on the town as לְלֹא דָבָר, "in a thing of nothing", mocking Israel's pride in a military win there. Modern preaching took that pun and turned it into the town's dictionary meaning, then read "barrenness" back into 2 Samuel 9.

Used elsewhere in the period

2 Sam 9:4–5; 17:27; Amos 6:13; possibly Josh 13:26. The Greek Septuagint and the Latin Vulgate treat it as a name (Vulgate Lodabar) and do not translate it.

From the study of 2 Samuel 17:27

Range of meaning

A Gilead town name. It is spelled in different ways: lo' devar here and in Amos 6:13 (lo' = 'not'), lo devar in 2 Sam 9:4–5 (lo = 'to him'), and lidvir / lidebir in Josh 13:26. The name may originally have meant something like 'belonging to Debir' or 'pasture' (dovar/dever can mean 'pasture', Mic 2:12; Isa 5:17). The spelling with lo' gives it the sound 'no thing'.

Against the English

Transliterated 'Lo-debar'. English readers cannot hear the 'no thing' sound or see that the spelling varies.

How it drifted

In popular preaching the possible meanings 'no pasture' or 'no word' are often treated as a description of the place itself: a barren wasteland.

Used elsewhere in the period

Amos 6:13 plays on the name: 'you who rejoice in Lo-dabar' = 'you who rejoice in nothing', mocking a military victory there (probably the town retaken by Jeroboam II). The pun was already current in Israel by the 8th century BC.

From the study of 2 Samuel 9:4

Range of meaning

A place name for a town in Gilead, east of the Jordan. Its origin is uncertain. Proposals include: (1) lo' + davar, 'no thing / nothing'; (2) lo' + dover, 'no pasture' (dover means 'pasture' in Isaiah 5:17 and Micah 2:12); (3) an older name Lidebir, 'belonging to Debir', as Joshua 13:26 may preserve; (4) some other local name that later Hebrew speakers reinterpreted.

Against the English

English versions just transliterate it (Lo-debar, Lo Debar, Lodebar), which is right for a place name. Problems come from sermons that 'translate' it as if it were a description.

How it drifted

The meaning 'place of no word / no pasture / nothing' became popular in modern preaching, which made the town a symbol of barrenness and despair. That symbolism has some ancient footing (see Amos), but this narrative does not use it.

Used elsewhere in the period

2 Samuel 9:4-5 (spelled לוֹ דְבָר); 2 Samuel 17:27 (לֹא דְבָר); Joshua 13:26 (usually read Lidbir/Lidebir, on the border of Gad near Mahanaim); Amos 6:13, where the prophet mocks Israel for 'rejoicing in Lo-dabar', that is, 'in nothing'. This is a pun on a town Jeroboam II's Israel had recently taken, paired with Karnaim ('horns', meaning strength). The site is not securely identified. Proposals cluster in northern Gilead (e.g. Umm ed-Dabar or Tell Dover, near the Jordan Valley north of the Jabbok).