ezer

STEPBible's lexical data splits H5829 into five sub-entries, one per bearer, and the lexica agree in filing the personal name separately from the homographic common noun עֵזֶר (H5828), "help, helper" (BDB, HALOT, DCH). Formally the name is a common substantive taken over whole as an anthroponym, the type classified in Noth's standard study of Israelite personal names; the same element appears in the compound names אֱלִיעֶזֶר, אֲבִיעֶזֶר, אֲחִיעֶזֶר, יוֹעֶזֶר and רֹמַמְתִּי עֶזֶר, and the root supplies עֶזְרָא and עֲזַרְיָה. Four of the five occurrences read עֵזֶר; Nehemiah 12:42 reads וָעָזֶר, the vowel lengthening produced by a major disjunctive accent rather than a distinct name. On the semantics of the underlying noun, BDB, TLOT (Bergmann) and NIDOTTE (Harman) treat one root, "help, helper," with the great majority of the noun's occurrences predicated of God, often in military or rescuing contexts; the proposed second root, "strength, warrior," argued from Ugaritic ǵzr, bears on a handful of poetic verses and not on the onomastic material here.

The five bearers. (1) 1 Chronicles 4:4, in the Judahite and Calebite material of 1 Chronicles 4:1-8, where אֲבִי חוּשָׁה marks Ezer as the eponymous founder of Hushah rather than a literal father; the corresponding gentilic חֻשָׁתִי is used of Sibbecai at 2 Samuel 21:18 and 1 Chronicles 11:29. (2) 1 Chronicles 7:21, in the Ephraimite genealogy of 7:20-27, whose textual state is uneven: שׁוּתֶלַח and תַּחַת each recur, and אֶלְעָדָה in verse 20 stands beside אֶלְעָד in verse 21, so the standard commentaries treat the unit as a compilation whose internal affiliations cannot be fixed. The subject of כִּי יָרְדוּ לָקַחַת אֶת־מִקְנֵיהֶם is unexpressed, so the notice may be construed either with the Ephraimites descending on Gath or with the Gathites descending on them, and verse 22 makes Ephraim their father, which sits awkwardly with the intervening generations of the list. (3) 1 Chronicles 12:9 in English versification, Hebrew 12:10, heading the roll of eleven Gadite officers in 12:8-15 who came over to David at the wilderness stronghold; Ezer is הָרֹאשׁ, first of the eleven. (4) Nehemiah 3:19, שַׂר הַמִּצְפָּה, repairing a מִדָּה שֵׁנִית opposite the ascent to the armory at the Angle, within the district organization of the wall-building list. (5) Nehemiah 12:42, the last of eight names following the seven trumpet-bearing priests of 12:41; whether the eight continue the priestly roster or belong with the singers whose performance the same verse reports is not settled by the syntax and is canvassed in the commentaries on the passage. No reconstruction identifies any of the five with another, and no context exploits the meaning of the name.