Jerahmeel; Jerahmeelites

je-ra'-me-el, je-ra'-me-el-its (yerachme'el, "may God have compassion!"):

(1) In 1 Ch 2:9,25,26,27,33,42, he is described as the son of Hezron, the son of Perez, the son of Judah by Tamar his daughter-in-law (Ge 38:1-30). In 1 Sam 27:10 is mentioned the neghebh of the (ha-yerach-me'eli, a collective noun), the Revised Version (British and American) "the South of the Jerahmeelites." The latter is a tribal name in use probably before the proper name, above; their cities are mentioned in 1Sa 30:29. Cheyne has radical views on Jerahmeel. See EB , under the word; also T. Witton Davies in Review of Theology and Philosophy, III, 689-708 (May, 1908); and Cheyne's replies in Hibbert Journal, VII, 132-51 (October, 1908), and Decline and Fall of the Kingdom of Judah.

(2) A Merarite Levite, son of Kish (1Ch 24:29).

(3) "The king's son," the Revised Version (British and American) and the King James Version margin (Jer 36:26). the Revised Version margin, the King James Version have "son of Hammelech," taking the word ha-melek as a proper name. He was "probably a royal prince, one who had a king among his ancestors but not necessarily son of the ruling king; so Jer 38:6; 1Ki 22:21Ki 6:1-38b; especially Zep 1:8 written at a time when the reigning king, Josiah, could not have had a grown-up `son' " (Driver, Jeremiah, 224, note e). Jerahmeel was with two others commanded by Jehoiakim to arrest Jeremiah and Baruch.

David Francis Roberts