Av 15 – Rephaiah the Son of Hur

August 9, 2025

05 – Av, Hur, Jerusalem, Nehemiah, Rephaiah

Hebrew

Av 15, 5785; from sunset August 8, 2025, to sunset August 9, 2025

(The fifteenth day of the fifth month)

This is an image of a portion of the wall rebuilt by Nehemiah and company.

Today in the Bible, we’ll meet Rephaiah ben Hur (Rephaiah, the son of Hur). We’re in the midst of the 52 days that the Bible says the children of Israel worked together restore the walls and gates of Jerusalem after their destruction by Nebuchadnezzar. Every day, we’ve studied a new group of men who donated their labor to the restoration of the city and learned the meaning of their names. Let’s meet Rephaiah.

And next unto them repaired Rephaiah the son of Hur, the ruler of half the district of Jerusalem. – Nehemiah 3:9 (JPS)

רְפָיָה

Refayah = Rephaiah

The name “Rephaiah” is mentioned four other times in the Bible, all in 1 Chronicles. Our verse above is its only appearance in the book of Nehemiah. Rephaiah derives from the verb-root “rafa” (רפא) which means “to heal or make healthy.” The last three letters of his name are a dead giveaway by now, they represent the first two letters of God’s Holy Name.

Verb Root	Transliteration	Meaning
רפא	rafa	to heal, make healthy

Prefix/Suffix	Transliteration	Comments
י	y, i	sometimes, just a “yod” (י), the first letter of God’s Holy Name, may serve as an indicator of its presence
ה	h	“yah” (יה) this combination of the 1st and 2nd letters of “The Name” is often translated as “iah” & is a very common name ending
ו	v, w, u, o	“yahu” (יהו) – the first three letters – is not quite as common but still found – as in “Elijah” – “Eliyahu”
ה	h	adding all four letters of “The Name” is not done

These four letters represent God’s Holy Name. Many proper nouns use a combination of two or three of these letters as a prefix or a suffix to indicate an attachment to the Name of the LORD.

The name “Rephaiah” means “The LORD Heals.”

Rephaiah was the son of Hur.

חוּר

Chur = Hur

The meaning of the name Hur is a bit of a toss-up. It’s another one of those “ch” words…and actually pronounced like “khoor” and transliterated as “Chur.” It appears to come from the root word “charar” which has three meanings.

charar (I) – to be burned or charred (notice the similarity to our word “charred”)

charar (II) – to be noble

charar (III) – assumed root of the word “chor,” meaning hole

This root is related to “charah” which we studied the other day (Harhaiah), meaning “to ignite, kindle, or cause to burn.”

Bible dictionaries are all over the place for the meaning of Hur – Noble Man? Cavern? One of the Burnings?

Half the District of Jerusalem

The Bible commentaries tell us that, at this time, Jerusalem was split into two districts – one half for the tribe of Benjamin and one half for the tribe of Judah. Jerusalem sat on the border of both tribes. Rephaiah, son of Hur, was ruler over one of the halves, probably Judah. As we shall see in a few verses, the ruler of the other half is also busily working away on the wall – only this guy is not working with his sons – but, rather, with his daughters.

Ben Hur

On a side note, in Hebrew, the “son of Hur” = “Ben Hur” – believe it or not. However, our Ben Hur is not the same man in the famous 1959 movie. I’ve never actually seen the movie, but it is apparently set in 26 AD Jerusalem. Still, I wasn’t expecting to actually see the name in the Bible.

To read all of our posts on Nehemiah, click on the image above.