Hebrew word · H6753

הַצְּלֶלְפּוֹנִי

hatzlelponi

Hazzelelponi

Found only here. None of these can be shown to be right.

Appears once in the Hebrew Old Testament. ·

What it means

A woman of the tribe of Judah living at the time of Egypt and Wilderness, only mentioned at 1Ch.4.3;

daughter of: Hur (H2354);

sister of: Uri (H0221), Shobal (H7732H), Salma (H8007H), Hareph (H2780), Jezreel (H3157J), Ishma (H3457), Idbash (H3031), Penuel (H6439H) and Ezer (H5829)

§ Hazelelponi = "facing the shade"

sister of the sons of Etam in the genealogies 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 1 Chronicles 4:3

Range of meaning

Found only here. Proposed explanations: (a) built from tsel, "shade", and panah, "turn" ("give shade, O you who turn toward me"); (b) tsel + panim, "face" ("shadow of my face"); (c) a clan name ("the Zelelponite"), since it begins with ha-, "the", and ends in -i, the usual ending for clan or place names. None of these can be shown to be right.

Against the English

English versions simply transliterate it, as either Hazzelelponi or Hazelelponi. Nothing is lost except the uncertain meaning.

Used elsewhere in the period

The Greek Septuagint renders it as a corrupted form (something like Eselebbōn), and the Vulgate has Asalelphuni. Rabbinic tradition (Babylonian Talmud, Bava Batra 91a; Numbers Rabbah 10:5) names Samson's mother "Tslelponit" and ties her to this name, partly because of the Zorathites in v. 2. Zorah was Samson's home town.

Where it appears

1 Chronicles · 1

  1. 1 Chronicles 4:3 הַצְלֶלְפּֽוֹנִי׃ [was] Hazelelponi

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

    Here: A woman's name found only here. It starts with what looks like the Hebrew article "the" (ha-), which is very unusual for a personal name. Its meaning is uncertain; suggestions include "(give) shade, you who turn to me" and "shadow of my face".

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