Hebrew word · H4105

מְהֵיטַבְאֵל

meheitav'el

Mehetabel

A sentence name meaning 'God (El) does good' or 'God makes [things] good', from yāṭab, 'to be good', in its causative form. The same name belongs to an Israelite ancestor in Nehemiah 6:10 (Mehetabel, there a man's ancestor).

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

What it means

A woman living at the time of the Patriarchs, first mentioned at Gen.36.39; her mother was Matred (H4308); married to Hadad (H1908H)

§ Mehetabeel or Mehetabel = "favoured of God"

1) the ancestor of Shemaiah, the false prophet who was hired against Nehemiah by Tobiah and Sanballat

2) the daughter of Matred and wife of king Hadad of Edom

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 Jubilees 38:23

Range of meaning

A sentence name meaning 'God (El) does good' or 'God makes [things] good', from yāṭab, 'to be good', in its causative form. The same name belongs to an Israelite ancestor in Nehemiah 6:10 (Mehetabel, there a man's ancestor).

Against the English

Charles's 'Maitabith' hides both the meaning and the link to Genesis. Readers of Jubilees in English would not recognise this as Mehetabel.

How it drifted

Names get worn down when they pass through two translations. The ending -el ('God') seems to have dropped out or been altered in the Ethiopic tradition.

Used elsewhere in the period

Genesis 36:39; 1 Chronicles 1:50; Nehemiah 6:10.

Where it appears

Genesis · 1

  1. Genesis 36:39 מְהֵֽיטַבְאֵל֙ [was] Mehetabel

    When Baal-hanan son of Achbor died, Hadad reigned in his place. His city was named Pau, and his wife’s name was Mehetabel daughter of Matred, the daughter of Me-zahab.

1 Chronicles · 1

  1. 1 Chronicles 1:50 מְהֵיטַבְאֵל֙ [was] Mehetabel

    When Baal-hanan died, Hadad reigned in his place. His city was named Pau, and his wife’s name was Mehetabel daughter of Matred, the daughter of Me-zahab.

Nehemiah · 1

  1. Nehemiah 6:10 מְהֵֽיטַבְאֵ֖ל Mehetabel

    Later, I went to the house of Shemaiah son of Delaiah, the son of Mehetabel, who was confined to his house. He said: “Let us meet at the house of God inside the temple. Let us shut the temple doors because they are coming to kill you—by night they are coming to kill you!”

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