LABAN

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Lehite PN 1. Captain of fifty in JERUSALEM (1 Nephi 3:31; 2 Nephi 4:1), and custodian of Brass Plates (1 Nephi 3:3) and a descendant of JOSEPH who was sold into EGYPT (1 Nephi 5:16).
2. Brass Plates of (1 Nephi 3:3, 123 Nephi 10:17)
3. Sword of (1 Nephi 4:9; 2 Nephi 5:14; Jacob 1:10; Words of Mormon 1:13; Mosiah 1:16).

Etymology

The PN LABAN appears in Genesis 24:29, 50, and as a GN in Deuteronomy 1:1.[1] The PN lbn also appears in Ugaritic.[2] It is possible that the name derives from the Hebrew לבן lābān “white, pale.”[3] Because the Hebrew feminine form lĕbānâ means “full moon,” the biblical PN could also be a theophoric element analogous to the Babylonian names containing the theophoric name Sîn, meaning the moon god. This would be especially meaningful since the biblical Laban lived in Haran (Genesis 27:43; 29:4), which (like Sumerian Ur) was a center of worship of the Moon-god Sîn.[4]

See LEBANON.

Variants

Deseret Alphabet: 𐐢𐐁𐐒𐐊𐐤 (leɪbʌn)

Notes


  1. This GN is equivalent to the Egyptian Rwbn, RbЗnЗ = “town of Laban” in Palestine, taken by Sargon II of Assyria. ( Wiseman, DOTT, 62[h].)
  2. KTU 3.23:23; noted also in Cyrus H. Gordon, Ugaritic Textbook 19.1351.
  3. HALOT.
  4. J-C. Margueron, “Ur,” in Freedman, ed., ABD, VI:766; Y. Kobayashi, “Haran,” ABD, III:58-59.
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