Irad, Iram and other Ir names

Been a little while since I've made a post on name-meanings, but I had this realization recently.

For some time this last semester, I had been looking into the topic of apocryphal Enochic literature, because I had been thinking about doing a project on it for one of my courses. Eventually I switched to a different topic (if you're curious, it's about the Nesiut (patriarchy) of Rabban Yochanan ben Zakkai), but having already delved pretty deeply into the subject, I realized recently that the topic might serve to explain the meaning of two ancient Tanachic names. I say ancient because chronologically-speaking, these people are some of the oldest in Tanach.

Irad:

Irad was none other than Kayin (Cain)'s grandson, son of his son Chanoch (the first, less-famous Enoch):

"וַיִּוָּלֵד לַחֲנוֹךְ אֶת עִירָד וְעִירָד יָלַד אֶת מְחוּיָאֵל וּמְחִיָּיאֵל יָלַד אֶת מְתוּשָׁאֵל וּמְתוּשָׁאֵל יָלַד אֶת לָמֶךְ."

"To Enoch was born Irad, and Irad begot Mehujael, and Mehujael begot Methusael, and Methusael begot Lamech."

Other than that we don't know anything else about Irad from p'shat Tanach. But we do have some interesting traditions that tie Enosh, who was born a generation before Irad to Shet, Kayin's younger brother, to the birth of idolatry:

Most famous is the Rambam's explanation of how idolatry came to be (Laws of Idolatry and Customs of the Nations 1:1-2):

"In the days of Enosh, the sons of man erred exceedingly, the advice of the wise man of that generation was nullified, and even Enosh himself was among the victims of that folly. Their mistake was this: Seeing, said they, that God created these stars and planets to rule the world, that He placed them high above to share honors with them, for they are ministers who render service in his presence, it is proper that they be praised and glorified and honored, this is the will of God, to exalt and honor him whom He exalted and honored, even as a king desires to honor those who stand in his presence, for such is the honor of the king. As soon as this matter was rooted in their heart, they commenced to erect temples in honor of the stars, to offer sacrifices to them, to praise and glorify them in words, and bow down to them in order to reach the will of God by this evil idea. This was the groundwork for the worship of stars. [...]

In the long process of time, there arose among the sons of man false prophets, who asserted that God commanded them saying: "Worship yon star, or all of the stars, and offer sacrifices to it, and compound for it thus and such, and erect a temple for it, and hew its image so that all of the people, women and children and the rest of the populace included, bow down to it". [...] etc"

Rambam continues detailing the rest of the process of the development of idolatry. I recommend reading it in its entirety. In any case, this whole process began in the time of Enosh.

Now, I spent quite some time attempting to source this Rambam. The closest I got was a Talmudic source and a Midrashic source:

Talmud, Shabbat 118b: "Rabbi Ḥiyya bar Abba said that Rabbi Yoḥanan said: With regard to anyone who observes Shabbat in accordance with its halakhot, even if he worships idolatry as in the generation of Enosh."​

Midrash Tanchuma Noach 18: "When the generation of Enoch called their idols by the name of the Holy One, blessed be He, as it is said: "Then began men to call by the name of the Lord" (Beresheet 4:26)."

But I haven't managed to find a traditional Jewish source that describes the gradual process of the development of idolatry as the Rambam did.

However, in Enochic literature, there are a number of sources that discuss the bad angels, more famously known as "watchers", as having come down to Earth in the time of one of Enosh's descendants, Yered. Interestingly enough, this tradition was apparently echoed by of all people, a pre-Muhammadian Medinian Arab, whose testimony was brought down by a post-Muhammadian historian named Hisham Ibn al-Kalbi. Ibn al-Kalbi brought down the tradition of how idolatry came to the world from Abu al-Mundhir's father. The tradition, recounted in al-Kalbi's book The Book of Idols, states that first one of the descendants of Kayin created statues of righteous people that had died, in their memory. Then people started rituals intended to honor them. This happened in the time of Yered. Then people decided to start worshipping them. Then Chanoch (Enoch, the more famous one) was sent by God to try to convince them to renounce their sinful ways, but they didn't listen to him. The way Ibn al-Kalbi describes this, it seems that this all happened in a gradual process, a bit similar to the Rambam.

This is similar to that which was described in Enochic literature, that in the time of Yered, these watchers, dark angels, came down to earth and taught mankind many forms of sin.

I then came to suspect that this had been taught to Medinian Arabs by local Medinian Jews. I do not think that the Rambam himself was espousing some form of the Enochic literature, but I do think that in the past, there had been two parallel traditions among Jews as to how idolatry came down to the world, and some Medinian Jews had preserved a different tradition from the Rambam. Both traditions featured a gradual process, with the key differences being: a. When did the process begin? b. Who brought on the process?

One tradition held that the process began in the time of Enosh and it was solely mankind's idea to start worshiping stars and natural forces and such. The other tradition held that the process began in the time of Yered and it was the angels that began teaching mankind to sin, and from there the ball got rolling.

What does all of this have to do with Irad?

Well, even if my theory is correct, about the two traditions, it seems that even the Enoshic tradition would have included some form of intervention by bad angels, though the core ideas of how to sin came from mankind. I am referring to the bad angels apparently mentioned in Beresheet, who later appear in Talmudic and Midrashic sources. I say apparently because some classic commentators understand them to have been children of important people and not angles. But we will stick for now with the understanding that they were angels.

Here are some traditional Jewish sources that mention these bad angels:

Bavli Niddah 61a: "The Gemara cites another case of a report that caused concern. Before the battle against Og, king of Bashan, it is stated: “And the Lord said to Moses: Do not fear him; for I have delivered him into your hand, and all his people, and his land; and you shall do to him as you did to Sihon king of the Amorites, who dwelt at Heshbon” (Numbers 21:34). The Gemara asks: Now, Sihon and Og were brothers, as the Master said: Sihon and Og were sons of Ahijah, son of Shamhazai."

Targum Yonatan on Beresheet 6:4: "Schamchazai and Uzziel, who fell from heaven, were on the earth in those days; and also, after the sons of the Great had gone in with the daughters of men, they bare to them: and these are they who are called men who are of the world, men of names."

Midrash of Shamchazai and Azael (not quoting because it's long). Brought also in Yalkut Shimoni on the Torah 44:1.

Bavli Yoma 67b: "The school of Rabbi Yishmael taught: Azazel is so called because it atones for the actions of Uzza and Azael."

And so forth.

By the way, the tradition that states that Sichon and Og were the sons of Achiyah, son of Shamchazai, ties into the Enochic literature which features two giant siblings named Ohayah and Hahayah (אוהיה וההיה) who are the sons of Shamchazai (see for example L. Stuckenbruck, The Book of Giants and Qumran Fragments, p. 92). Notice the similarity between the name Achiyah (אחיה) and the names of the giants, recalling that Og was a giant, and in some traditions, also Sichon.

In short, we have here traditions that bad angelic entities lived on earth before the flood, apparently arriving on earth around the time of Enosh.

Now we may be able to understand Irad's name. "Watchers" in Aramaic are called עירין, Irin. This word appears in both singular form (עיר, Ir) and plural form in Daniel 4:10, 14, 20, and it also appears in the Qumranic fragments that feature Enochic literature (for more on that, see Stuckenbruck's book).

Bearing in mind that Irad was a descendant of Kayin, i.e., part of the badder human lineage (although this may not be saying much in light of the tradition that Enosh himself also sinned), we may be seeing here part of the worship or at least part of the honor that humans gave these bad angels, the watchers. The name Irad (עירד) may be split into two words: Ir (עיר) which means "Watcher" and Rad (רד) which is a root referring to ruling over something and is used, among other places, as an explanation for the creation of man by Hashem in Beresheet 1:26: "And God said, “Let us make humankind in our image, after our likeness. They shall rule the fish of the sea, the birds of the sky, the cattle, the whole earth, and all the creeping things that creep on earth.”" - "וַיֹּאמֶר אֱלֹוקים נַעֲשֶׂה אָדָם בְּצַלְמֵנוּ כִּדְמוּתֵנוּ וְיִרְדּוּ בִדְגַת הַיָּם וּבְעוֹף הַשָּׁמַיִם וּבַבְּהֵמָה וּבְכׇל הָאָרֶץ וּבְכׇל הָרֶמֶשׂ הָרֹמֵשׂ עַל הָאָרֶץ."

Therefore, the name Irad appears to mean that the Watcher(s) will rule or do/does rule. Perhaps it is a reference to a particular Watcher, but more likely it was intended to refer to all of the Watchers, and is a reference of things that were happening in those days, or perhaps a prophetic name of things that were going to happen.

Circling back to Enochic literature for a moment, you may have noticed that the names of Kayin's descendants are similar to those of Shet's descendants. There has been some discussion over this matter (see for example Universal Jewish History, pp. 69-70), but the main point right now is that Irad's parallel person is none other than Yered (עירד - ירד), and it is about Yered that the Book of Enoch writes: "And they (the Watchers) were in all two hundred; who descended in the days of Jared on the summit of Mount Hermon" (see here) - evidently in the Hebrew or Aramaic original there was some wordplay here with the word ירד - descended and the name ירד - Yered, which as you can see, are spelled the same. In other words, the Yeredic seems to feature a tradition that the Watchers came down to earth in the time of Yered and interestingly enough, his Kayinic parallel's name also tied into this event.

Iram:

Aluf (chieftain) Iram was one of the chieftains of the Edomite tribes and is mentioned twice in Tanach, in similar verses:

 ".אַלּוּף מַגְדִּיאֵל אַלּוּף עִירָם אֵלֶּה אַלּוּפֵי אֱדוֹם לְמֹשְׁבֹתָם בְּאֶרֶץ אֲחֻזָּתָם הוּא עֵשָׂו אֲבִי אֱדוֹם"

"Chieftain Magdiel, and Chieftain Iram. Those are the chieftains of Edom—that is, of Esau, father of the Edomites—by their settlements in the land which they hold." (Beresheet 36:43 with my embellishments).

".אַלּוּף מַגְדִּיאֵל אַלּוּף עִירָם אֵלֶּה אַלּוּפֵי אֱדוֹם"

"Chieftain Magdiel, and Chieftain Iram; these are the chieftains of Edom." (Chronicles 1:1:54 with my embellishments).

I suspect that names featuring the root עיר (Watcher) remained in use long after the time of Irad, and that's how we arrive at Iram, whose name is made up of two words: Ir (עיר), Watcher, and Ram (רם), Great. So Iram means "Great Watcher" or "the Watcher is great". From the idolatry perspective, this name is similar to Khiram (previously discussed in this post).

Other 'Ir' names:

Now, there are a few other names in Tanach that have the root 'Ir' in them: Iri (עירי), Ira (עירא) (here, here and here) and Iru (עירו). I'm pretty sure that Iri would mean "my Watcher"; the name makes sense (we can see from Daniel that not all Watcher-type angels are evil). I am less sure about Ira and Iru. In Ira's case, the problem is that I am still stumped by the meaning of the letter Alef at the end of many Tanachic names, such as Ezra (עזרא). Some commentators believe that Ezra is the Aramaic form of Azariah (עזריה) and the Alef is a short-form of the name of Hashem, but I'm skeptical of this explanation because it doesn't fit in with all of the names that end with an Alef. For this reason, I'm not sure what the exact meaning of Ira would be. It could be a short-form of Iriah (עיריה), "Watcher of Hashem", but I'm just not sure. In Iru's case, if the name was Iro (עירו), it would mean "his Watcher". But I'm not sure what the name means if it's Iru.

So, as always, I will be happy to hear your thoughts in the comments.