The Mystery of David's Name, pt. 2, and Suggestions for Yishai's
Last year I made a post about what I perceived (and still do, to some extent), to being a big mystery, and that, is the meaning of David's name. I brought a few theories and suggestions, but nothing solid. A few days ago, a new theory came to mind, which I think is more solid (though not necessarily perfect): Daat Mikra and others suggest that David is a short-form of Dodvayahu, which is a combination of Dod (beloved) and the name of Hashem, so it means = beloved of Hashem. I rejected this option in my previous post, but having thought about it again this week, I think it might point to another possibility: In Hebrew, there are things called "binyanim" (בניינים). Wikipedia tells me that this should be translated as "grammatical conjugations". In short, in Semitic languages, verbs can be deflected to different tenses and forms. Typically, these are symbolized by verbs in the פעל (P'AL) root. One such form is the פעיל form, which means that someone is active...