Another, but a smaller, class consists of names compounded with in, 'people,' resembling the many Greek compositions with Xu6s and Sii,uos; and just as in Greek .3+j/1os is placed first or last (Demosthenes, Aristodemos), so also all is at one time found in the first, and at another in the last place; only that, according to the laws of the Semitic language, the sense of one of these posi tions is exactly the reverse of the other. It is im portant, however, to remark here that in this, just as in the former class, one member is generally a word which is used by itself as a proper name; that here, therefore, instead of a reference to the mere family, a wider regard to the whole people prevails, and an individual is considered with rela tion to his nation. Thus the common name Exod. vi. 23, the German Edelvalk, i.e., one who belongs to the noble people, so that it answers to the Greek Aristodemos ; virrzp, Gianzvolk, also a favourite name, which would be Phaidrodemos in Greek ; on the contrary a3r1fr, 2 Sam. iii. 5, perhaps the German Volk halt, the Greek Demosthenes ; Polkbreit ; nF7:1:, Volkgriin, which occurs in i Chron. ii. 44 as the name of a place, but which most originally have been the name of the founder of that place. As all these compounds must be conceived to be in the state construct, so likewise we are probably to take the names properly people's in creaser,' a suitable name for a prince, and lovw, people's turner' or `leader;' for, as was observed above, the simple names are often formed with a prefixed fad; and we actually find ]ii' as a simple name, in Num. xxvi. 24, I Chron. vii. r.
Most of the compound names, however, rather endeavour to express a religious sense, and there fore often contain the divine name. And here we at the same time find a new law of formation : as these compounds are intended to express a com plete thought, such as the religious sentiment re. quires, a name may consist of an entire proposition with a verb, but of course in as brief a compass as possible ; and indeed shorter compounds are made with a verb than with a passive participle, as t,.rei) (in the N. T. NaCavaiiN, properly gave/ i.e., whom God gave, given by God, 06- Soros or 0€63wpos) sounds shorter than 9;$4;11-q with the participle, which would certainly express the same sense. But as the finite verb, as also any other predicate, can just as well precede as follow, accordingly a great freedom in the position of the divine name has prevailed in this class; and this peculiarity is preserved, in the same case, in the following period : but indeed the Greeks use Acupo Ge6s as well as OebScupos. Thus, t..t)n), r Chron. ii. 14, or /1:4`..:3, Jer. xxxvi. 12. The two names are then generally assigned to two different sons; nevertheless, both combinations may form names for the same person, as i•mp, i Chron. hi. 5, and tiv* 2 Sam. xi. 3, belong to the same
individual. Now, as compound names evidently became very general, it is not surprising that, in the infinite multiplication of names to correspond with the infinite multitude of persons, some proper names were at length formed which solely consist of two names of God himself, expressing, as it were, the ineffably holy name to which the person dedicates himself,* as Abiel and Eliab, nay even Ebel, I Chron. v. 24, viii. 20; 2 Chron. xxxi. 13. A very important question, however, still remains : what divine names were thus used in the earliest times until Moses? We find that El was then the commonest, and Shaddai less frequent; the latter is only found in rock of the Al mighty,' Num. i. 6, ii. and N1t",;s7p, people of the Almighty,' ver. 12 ; still more rarely is 111, rock,' itself used as a divine name, as 11T11Z, Num. i. so, which is almost equivalent to t•tryip, God redeems.' If we now consider that, accord ing to the ancient testimony in Exod. vi. 3, the name Jahve (Jehovah) was not known then, but that the only other name of God which existed, beside the common El and E/ohim, was the rarer and more awful Shaddai, these historical traces which are discovered in proper names, accord most perfectly with that statement, and furnish a very welcome confirmation of it.
On reviewing this whole system of forming compound names, it is evident that they at length became very common, as if their sounding pomp was considered more dignified and attractive ; nevertheless, their chief tendency was to express the three great and most comprehensive relations in which a man can stand : namely Home, People, and God. The original luxuriance of all language again gathered itself together in names, as in a fruitful soil ; and accordingly there were times, even within the historical period, in which the primitive energies of all language were so busily active even in this apparently barren province, that (since all possible combinations were attempted in order to make an infinitude of names for the infinite number of persons) such names also were devised as, at first hearing, were surprising, as properly 'self-father,' 'self-god,' atirbeeos, a name which may be old, as it is only now found in the book of Job. And if we compare this Hebrew mode of forming compound names with that of the Greeks and Arabs, as the more familiar examples, we find this remarkable result, although it harmonises with many other phenomena; namely, that it is essentially more like the Greek than the Arab mode ; only that the Greeks allude more frequently, in their names, to the people, which is characteristic of the whole of Greek life ; while the Arabs, who always had families only, but never were a nation, never allude to the people, and do not, in composition, possess so great free dom in the position and juncture of words.