Fine white linens and royalty

 When filling out the Tribe of Yehudah section in my family tree project, one thing in particular caught my eye: the fairly significant number of people of the tribe who were named either after clothes, types of cloths or had names that were connected to the color white:

  • Saraf, descendant of Shelah - possibly a reference to white-hot flames.
  • Salma/Salmon (2) - a type of clothing.
  • Nefeg? son of David - possibly from root pag, faded.
  • Sheshan son of Yish'i - from Shesh, a type of Egyptian white cloth.
  • Chur son of Kalev ben Chetzron - white, royalty.
  • Shoval son of Kalev ben Chur - the piece of cloth that trails at the back of the clothing.
  • Rekem of Chevron - possibly from Rikma, embroidery or lace.
  • Charan? son of Kalev ben Chetzron - probably from the root char which means anger, in particular, raging white-hot. Related as such to Chur.
  • Yair son of Seguv - he will light, from or, light.
  • Ashchur son of Kalev ben Chur - possibly even named after Chur, in any case, clearly from the root of Chur, white, royalty (not sure yet about the "ash" part).
  • Tzochar son of Ashchur - whiteness, purity.
  • Acharchal? son of Harum - possibly also related to the root Char or Chur.
  • Zerach son of Yehudah - possibly from root zarach, shining.
  • Zerachyah of Bnei Pachat Moav - like Zerach, from root zarach, shining.
  • Sheshai of Bnei Bani - possibly like Sheshan, from Shesh.
  • Sheshbetzar? son of Shealtiel - possibly like Sheshan, from Shesh.
  • Ohel daughter of Zerubavel - tent.

There may be more, but I still haven't figured out the meanings of everyone's names. It seems that the sense of royalty was around from the early days of the tribe, hence refences to whiteness or cloths that relate to royalty. It's interesting to note that Yishmael ben Netanyah, who murdered Gedalyahu ben Achikam, was called "from the seed of the royalty" - מזרע המלוכה. Though I've chosen to accept the tradition that he was actually a descendant of Yarcha, the former Egyptian slave of Sheshan and that melucha is a reference to his ties to Amon (melucha as in Molech, chief deity of Amon), it's interesting that Yishmael's zera hamelucha can still be interpreted as referring to royalty as he comes from Yehudah, a tribe who kept as a tradition their (perceived) royalty and also in particular because he was a descendant of Sheshan, a name that is clearly referencing the Shesh cloth of royalty (Sheshan is also one of the few non-officially-royal people in Tanach to have a slave, which is also noteworthy). 



Apparently, this is what ancient Egyptian clothing looked like. Cool.

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