Shaleph (Sheleph)

שלף


Every translation I can find, including both the orthodox and the scholarly-secular Jewish ones, all, without exception, write him in English as Sheleph, and yet all write him in Yehudit as Shalaph (Mechon-Mamre here, BibleHub here, ORT here). ORT is the exception, in that it spells Sheleph as Shelef, but specifically in pronouncing it as Shaleph - click here to hear it.

Genesis 10:26 and 1 Chronicles 1:20 name him as a tribe of Arabia Felix, generally thought to be the Shalepynoi mentioned by Ptolemy (Geography 6:7:154).

There is a Yehudit root Shalaph (שלף) = "to draw out" (Judges 8:10 and 20 has SHOLEPH - שֹׁלֵף), as of a sword from its scabbard (Joshua 5:13, Job 20:25), or a foot from its shoe (Ruth 4:7), which is probably derived from, rather than the derivation of, this name, and probably also the root of the Yiddish word "shlep", which a lot of North American Jews clearly don't know, because they think the Yiddish word is "shep".




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