Biblical Hebrew Forum

["Harold R. Holmyard III" <hholmyard AT ont.com>]

Dear Dave,

> ?? I thought the "on" in this verse meant "sorrow," as in "son of my
> sorrow/distress," and Jacob chose to give him a less depressing name.

HH: The Dictionary of Classical Hebrew agrees with you, and tags the 
word in Gen 35:18 as )NH ("oneh"), meaning "distress," "mourning," or 
"weariness." That is the interpretation I have always heard, but I 
was trying to look at it from others' perspectives. The text in 
Genesis has )WoNiY, so it certainly seems capable of being a suffixed 
form of either the word )WoN ("strength") or )fWeN ("trouble, 
distress"), as well as the term chosen by DCH.

                                Yours,
                                Harold Holmyard