Genesis 38:3-7 and 46:12 name him as a son of Yehudah by Shu'a's daughter (שוע), who is herself never named. Er was deemed to have been "wicked in the sight of YHVH", though what that meant precisely is left unexplained. His brother Onan, required to fulfill his Levirate obligation (cf Deuteronomy 25:5-10) of fathering a child on the widow, spilled his seed on the ground, and was likewise punished with death for the act (today's use of the term "onanism" as a synonym for male masturbation is based on this, but incorrectly; what he performed was coitus interruptus). The myth is connected to the sacred marriage of Yehudah and his "daughter-in-law" Tamar, which is to say the date-palm aspect of the mother goddess (see notes to CHIRAH).
1 Chronicles 4:21 names an Er who is the father of Lechah (לֵכָה) and the brother of La'adah (לַעְדָּ֖ה); La'adah himself "fathered" Mareshah, and I have put "fathered" in inverted commas, because this appears to be another of those occasions when the fathering is not biological; the same verse tells us that La'adah also "fathered the clans of the linen workers at Beit Ashbe'a", so we are talking about a Guild of specialist craftsmen, and him their Master. The location of Beit Ashbe'a is not known.
Genesis 46:16 names the sons of Gad as Tsiphyon (צִפְיוֹן), Chagi (חַגִּי), Shuni (שׁוּנִי), Etsvon (אֶצְבֹּן) - or possibly Etsbon - Eri (עֵרִי) - the reason why I am mentioning this - Arodi (אֲרוֹדִי) and Ar'eli (אַרְאֵלִי). Very little is known about Eri, but click on the link for what there is.
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Which brings us to the difficult question: what is the root of this name?
ER is spelled Ayin-Reysh (ער), and this should, by all logic, take us in a different direction than the root UR, which is selled Aleph-Reysh (אר). Life, alas, is never quite that simple.
If it were Aleph-Reysh, it would take us to a very specific place, to modern Tel el-Muqayyar in south Iraq's Dhi Qar governorate, the site of Biblical Ur Kasdim, Ur of the Chaldees; and we would then wish to note that Ur came to mean "a city" in the early Mesopotamian languages, and that it may well be the source of the word IR in Yehudit, which likewise means "city". Ur, however, is spelled with an Aleph (א), and Ir, like Er here, with an Ayin (ע). So it cannot be, can it.
ER is spelled Ayin-Reysh (ער), and this should, by all logic, take us in a different direction than the root UR, which is selled Aleph-Reysh (אר). Life, alas, is never quite that simple.
If it were Aleph-Reysh, it would take us to a very specific place, to modern Tel el-Muqayyar in south Iraq's Dhi Qar governorate, the site of Biblical Ur Kasdim, Ur of the Chaldees; and we would then wish to note that Ur came to mean "a city" in the early Mesopotamian languages, and that it may well be the source of the word IR in Yehudit, which likewise means "city". Ur, however, is spelled with an Aleph (א), and Ir, like Er here, with an Ayin (ע). So it cannot be, can it.
Gesenius suggests that ER means "watcher", but without explaining why; the logical connection is with OR = light, but there too we have an Aleph, not an Ayin (אור not עור). The inference is of a watch-tower, and most ancient cities had one (Migdal, Mitspeh etc), used for security purposes, but more specifically for the continuous observance of the heavens in order to pronounce the "mo'adim", the seasons, festivals, sunsets etc and to read the "otot", the signs and messages and signals from the gods of the heavens. This watchtower developed into the minaret, and into the place from which the call to prayer was made, and later still, in Christian churches, into the belfry and spire. It may be that the name of the town derived from this too. We know that towns like Migdal and Mitspeh derived their names in similar manner, and many Roman forts developed into towns that retained the word "fort", or in English "chester" from the Latin "castra"; e.g. Manchester, Lancaster, and Chester itself.
However! The Book of Daniel, which is the most Chaldean of all the Biblical writings, spells the name IYR with an Ayin (עִ֣יר - Iriyn in the plural - עִירִין֙), and uses it to mean "watcher" in the sense of "angels" (4:10, 14 and 20), while 2 Samuel 20:26 has an Ira with an Ayin (עִירָא֙), as the name of one David's priests.
I noted above that the word for "light" is OR with an Aleph; I waited till now to point out that light is a form of heat, or depends on heat, and that Yehudit also has a word for heat, usually used in the human sense of passion and ardour, and that word, with an Ayin, is IYR - see for example Hosea 7:4, where the Prophet complains that "They are all adulterers, like an oven heated by a baker who does not need to stoke the fire from the kneading to the rising of the dough." The stoking is rendered by ME'IR (מֵעִ֔יר).
Arise, YHVH, in your anger. Lift yourself up in indignation against my adversaries. Waken for me at the judgment which you have commanded.
URAH comes from the identical radical form Ayin-Reysh (ער), but what has the concept of wakening to do with the archetype of a city - unless Gesenius' "watcher" turns out to have been correct, and there is indeed that connection to OR, which means "light" - that divergence of meanings again! Or did this root come in from a completely different language, and happen to have the same letters? And does the name ER belong to the one root, or to the other?
The technical term for these doublings when we hear them is homophones; for English equivalents think "accessory" and "accessary", or "navel" and "naval", or "yaw", "you're", "your" and "yore"; though none of these are absolutely identical when we write them down. But "bow" (used to play a violin) and "bow" (as in a rainbow or a bowtie), or "bow" (as in the male equivalent of curtseying before an audience), are precisely identical when written down, even if the last is not a homophone. Is Asher then Osher? Is Bel then Ba'al.
Is it then possible that the Chaldean Ur entered the Yehudit language twice over, once spelled with an Aleph, once with an Ayin, and then the meanings diverged?
I noted above that the word for "light" is OR with an Aleph; I waited till now to point out that light is a form of heat, or depends on heat, and that Yehudit also has a word for heat, usually used in the human sense of passion and ardour, and that word, with an Ayin, is IYR - see for example Hosea 7:4, where the Prophet complains that "They are all adulterers, like an oven heated by a baker who does not need to stoke the fire from the kneading to the rising of the dough." The stoking is rendered by ME'IR (מֵעִ֔יר).
And then there is Psalm 7:7, which says:
KUMAH YHVH BE APECHA HINAS'E BE AVROT TSORERAI VE URAH ELAI MISHPAT TSIVIYTA
קוּמָה יְהוָה בְּאַפֶּךָ הִנָּשֵׂא בְּעַבְרוֹת צוֹרְרָי וְעוּרָה אֵלַי מִשְׁפָּט צִוִּיתָ
Arise, YHVH, in your anger. Lift yourself up in indignation against my adversaries. Waken for me at the judgment which you have commanded.
URAH comes from the identical radical form Ayin-Reysh (ער), but what has the concept of wakening to do with the archetype of a city - unless Gesenius' "watcher" turns out to have been correct, and there is indeed that connection to OR, which means "light" - that divergence of meanings again! Or did this root come in from a completely different language, and happen to have the same letters? And does the name ER belong to the one root, or to the other?
The technical term for these doublings when we hear them is homophones; for English equivalents think "accessory" and "accessary", or "navel" and "naval", or "yaw", "you're", "your" and "yore"; though none of these are absolutely identical when we write them down. But "bow" (used to play a violin) and "bow" (as in a rainbow or a bowtie), or "bow" (as in the male equivalent of curtseying before an audience), are precisely identical when written down, even if the last is not a homophone. Is Asher then Osher? Is Bel then Ba'al.
Is it then possible that the Chaldean Ur entered the Yehudit language twice over, once spelled with an Aleph, once with an Ayin, and then the meanings diverged?
Either way, Er presents an example of one of the difficulties that scholars have with the text of the Bible. We are dealing with a very ancient language, and witnessing it from Genesis to Maccabees over a period of roughly eighteen hundred years (by its internal estimation; probably a gret deal longer in reality), during which time the language evolved and developed and changed continuously, as all languages do (think of the changes from "Beowulf" to Chaucer, and then to Shakespeare, Pepys, Dickens, today), absorbing words from other languages, which then keep or change their meaning (ketchup is really Chinese k'ē chap, though that is "tomato juice" not sauce; or possibly Malaysian kao tchoup, but that is very spicy and not at all sweet), and which may or may not be similar to words already in the language. As someone who has lived in north America, I have seen this with English, where, for example, kerb and curb, and story and storey, have ceased to be spelled differently (in both cases the latter has disappeared from usage), though they have retained their separate meanings.
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