Hebrew word · H3817

לְאֻמִּ֑ים

ule'umim

Leummim

As a tribal name, 'Leummim'. It comes from le'om (plural le'ummim), a poetic word for 'people, nation, populace'.

Appears once in the Hebrew Old Testament. ·

What it means

People descended from Leumm(?) of the Patriarchs, only mentioned at Gen.25.3; descended from Dedan (H1719C); along with Asshurim (H0805A) and Letushim (H3912)

§ Leummim = "peoples"

son of Dedan and grandson of Jokshan

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 Genesis 25:3

Range of meaning

As a tribal name, 'Leummim'. It comes from le'om (plural le'ummim), a poetic word for 'people, nation, populace'.

Against the English

'Leummim' (KJV, WEB, ESV, NASB) or 'Leummites' (BSB, NLT, NIV). The transliteration hides that the name sounds like 'Peoples' to a Hebrew ear.

Used elsewhere in the period

The common noun appears in Gen 25:23 ('two le'ummim from your womb'), Gen 27:29 ('let peoples bow down to you') and often in the Psalms and Isaiah. A tribe of this name is not securely attested outside the Bible. The third name, Letushim, is likewise unknown elsewhere. It has been connected, without certainty, to the root ltsh, 'hammer, sharpen' (Gen 4:22; 1 Sam 13:20).

Where it appears

Genesis · 1

  1. Genesis 25:3 וּלְאֻמִּֽים׃ and Leummites

    Jokshan was the father of Sheba and Dedan. And the sons of Dedan were the Asshurites, the Letushites, and the Leummites.

    Here: A plural tribal name formed from the ordinary word le'om, 'people, nation'. The same word comes back twenty verses later in the oracle about Jacob and Esau: 'two peoples (le'ummim) shall be divided' (25:23).

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