Hebrew word · H5862

עֵיטָם

'eitam

Etam

A place-name, probably from 'ayit, "bird of prey", meaning something like "place of hawks/eagles". There are two Etams: (1) a town in Judah between Bethlehem and Tekoa, fortified by Rehoboam (2 Chr 11:6). (2) The "rock of Etam" where Samson hid (Judg 15:8, 11), and a Simeonite village (1 Chr 4:32).

Appears 5 times in 5 verses of the Hebrew Old Testament. ·

What it means

§ Etam = "lair of wild beasts"

a cliff; site uncertain

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 1 Chronicles 4:3

Range of meaning

A place-name, probably from 'ayit, "bird of prey", meaning something like "place of hawks/eagles". There are two Etams: (1) a town in Judah between Bethlehem and Tekoa, fortified by Rehoboam (2 Chr 11:6). It was probably near Khirbet el-Khokh by the springs of 'Ain 'Atan, south of Bethlehem, which later fed water to Jerusalem. (2) The "rock of Etam" where Samson hid (Judg 15:8, 11), and a Simeonite village (1 Chr 4:32).

Against the English

English readers meet it as a bare name and may take it for a person, especially in "the father of Etam".

Used elsewhere in the period

The Greek Septuagint of Josh 15:59 adds a list of Judahite towns that includes Etam (Aitan) alongside Tekoa and Ephrathah/Bethlehem. Josephus (Antiquities 8.186) describes Solomon's pleasure gardens at Etam, about fifty stadia (roughly 9 km) from Jerusalem.

Where it appears

Judges · 2

  1. Judges 15:8 עֵיטָֽם׃ ס Etam

    And he struck them ruthlessly with a great slaughter, and then went down and stayed in the cave at the rock of Etam.

    Here: A place inside Judah's territory, probably in the hills near Bethlehem (compare the Etam fortified by Rehoboam, 2 Chr 11:6). Hiding there pulls Judah into Samson's feud (vv. 9–13).

  2. Judges 15:11 עֵיטָם֒ Etam

    In response, three thousand men of Judah went to the cave at the rock of Etam, and they asked Samson, “Do you not realize that the Philistines rule over us? What have you done to us?” “I have done to them what they did to me,” he replied.

1 Chronicles · 2

  1. 1 Chronicles 4:3 עֵיטָ֔ם Etam

    These were the sons of Etam: Jezreel, Ishma, and Idbash. And their sister was named Hazzelelponi.

    Here: A town in the hill country of Judah near Bethlehem (Rehoboam later fortified it, 2 Chr 11:6). The name probably means "place of birds of prey". It is treated here as a place whose population forms a clan. It is not a person.

  2. 1 Chronicles 4:32 עֵיטָ֣ם [were] Etam

    And their villages were Etam, Ain, Rimmon, Tochen, and Ashan—five towns—

2 Chronicles · 1

  1. 2 Chronicles 11:6 עֵיטָ֖ם Etam

    He built up Bethlehem, Etam, Tekoa,

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