Hebrew word · H5900

עִירוּ

'iru

Iru

Personal name found only here. Its meaning is unclear. It may relate to ʿîr "city," ʿayir "young donkey," or the root ʿwr "to be awake."

Appears once in the Hebrew Old Testament. · Updated October 21, 2026

What it means

A man of the tribe of Judah living before Israel's Monarchy, only mentioned at 1Ch.4.15;

son of: Caleb (H3612);

brother of: Achsah (H5915), Elah (H0425J) and Naam (H5277)

§ Iru = "watch"

son of Caleb and grandson of Jephunneh

Abridged from Brown, Driver and Briggs, A Hebrew and English Lexicon of the Old Testament (1906), via STEPBible.org (CC BY 4.0).

Range of meaning: Personal name found only here. Its meaning is unclear. It may relate to ʿîr "city," ʿayir "young donkey," or the root ʿwr "to be awake."
Against the English: All versions print "Iru." Some commentators prefer "Ir."
Used elsewhere in the period: A man named Ir appears in 1 Chronicles 7:12. Hebrew lists normally link names with "and." If the final -u here is really the "and" of the next word, the list reads like the usual pattern "Ir and Elah and Naam."

1 Chronicles · 1

1 Chronicles 4:15 עִ֥ירוּ Iru

The sons of Caleb son of Jephunneh: Iru, Elah, and Naam. The son of Elah: Kenaz.

Here: First of Caleb's sons. The name appears only here and may originally have been "Ir" (possibly "city" or "young donkey"), with the final -u really being the "and" of the next name.

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