Hebrew word · H7803

שׁוּתֶ֫לַח

shutalach

Shuthelah

A personal and clan name. Its meaning is unclear and the explanations offered are guesses. Numbers 26:35–36 gives him as the head of the main Ephraimite clan, the Shuthelahites, and lists Eran as his son.

Appears 4 times in 4 verses of the Hebrew Old Testament.

What it means

A man of the tribe of Ephraim living at the time of Egypt and Wilderness, first mentioned at Num.26.35;

son of: Ephraim (H0669);

brother of: Becher (H1071H), Tahan (H8465), Ezer (H5827), Elead (H0496) and Beriah (H1283H);

father of: Eran (H6197) and Bered (H1260H)

Also named: shu.tal.chi (שֻׁתַלְחִי "Shuthelahite" H8364)

§ Shuthelah = "noise of breaking"

son of Ephraim, ancestor of Joshua, and progenitor of family of Ephraim

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 7:20

Range of meaning

A personal and clan name. Its meaning is unclear and the explanations offered are guesses. Numbers 26:35–36 gives him as the head of the main Ephraimite clan, the Shuthelahites, and lists Eran as his son.

Against the English

Every English version simply writes it out as 'Shuthelah'. Nothing is lost.

Used elsewhere in the period

Num 26:35–36 (clans of Ephraim: Shuthelah, Becher, Tahan, and Eran son of Shuthelah); 1 Chr 7:21 (a second Shuthelah lower in the line).

Where it appears

Numbers · 2

  1. Numbers 26:35 לְשׁוּתֶ֗לַח of Shuthelah

    These were the descendants of Ephraim by their clans: The Shuthelahite clan from Shuthelah, the Becherite clan from Becher, and the Tahanite clan from Tahan.

  2. Numbers 26:36 שׁוּתָ֑לַח Shuthelah

    And the descendants of Shuthelah were the Eranite clan from Eran.

1 Chronicles · 2

  1. 1 Chronicles 7:20 שׁוּתָ֑לַח Shuthelah

    The descendants of Ephraim: Shuthelah, Bered his son, Tahath his son, Eleadah his son, Tahath his son,

    Here: The first-listed and best-known son of Ephraim. Numbers 26:35 names him as the head of the Shuthelahite clan. The spelling with -ta- is just the form the word takes at a pause in reading. The name comes back in verse 21, probably for a later descendant with the same name.

  2. 1 Chronicles 7:21 וְשׁוּתֶ֥לַח and Shuthelah

    Zabad his son, and Shuthelah his son. Ezer and Elead were killed by the natives of Gath, because they went down to steal their livestock.

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