Hebrew word · H3903

לַחְמָס

velachmas

Lahmam

A proper name for a lowland town. Many link the consonants l-ḥ-m with the common root for 'bread' or 'food' (leḥem, as in Bethlehem, 'house of bread'), but town names often keep older meanings, and nothing here proves which one is meant.

Appears once in the Hebrew Old Testament. ·

What it means

§ Lahmam = "provisions"

a town in the lowland of Judah

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 Joshua 15:40

Range of meaning

A proper name for a lowland town. Many link the consonants l-ḥ-m with the common root for 'bread' or 'food' (leḥem, as in Bethlehem, 'house of bread'), but town names often keep older meanings, and nothing here proves which one is meant.

Against the English

KJV, WEB and YLT follow the traditional printed Hebrew and read 'Lahmam'. BSB, and several other modern versions based on the Leningrad Codex, read 'Lahmas'. This is the only real difference between translations in this verse.

Used elsewhere in the period

Named only here. The modern Arabic ruin-name Khirbet el-Lahm, a few kilometres south of Beit Guvrin (ancient Eleutheropolis), keeps the sound of the name, and many historical atlases suggest it as the site. Ancient Arabic place names often do preserve biblical ones, but agreement in sound alone is not proof.

Where it appears

Joshua · 1

  1. Joshua 15:40 וְלַחְמָ֖ס and Lahmas

    Cabbon, Lahmas, Chitlish,

    Here: Another town in the same district, also named only here. Its spelling differs between manuscripts (Lahmas or Lahmam). It is often linked with the ruin Khirbet el-Lahm near Beit Guvrin, a link that rests on the name sounding the same.

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