TUBALOTH
| Lehite PN | King of Lamanites, 1st c. BC (Helaman 1:16) |
This word resembles Hebrew tubāl, as in the PNs Tubal (Genesis 10:2) and TubalCain (Genesis 4:22) and the GN Tubal (Isaiah 66:19). The ending -oth looks like the Hebrew f.p., but it also appears on masculine PNs, e.g., Naboth in 1 Kings 21 passim and Meraioth in Ezra 7:3. See also the Book of Mormon masculine PN Hagoth (JAT). The Egyptian fem. pl. wt parallels the Hebrew, but in Egyptian gender distinctions are unimportant, since it can be both (RFS).
Other less likely considerations include Hebrew tebūl, “turban,” and ṭōb, “good” (JH).
King Tubaloth, like his brother Amalickiah, battled the Nephites. The association this creates with biblical TubalCain may reflect a member of the Midianite amphictyony, the Kenites (gayin, gênî, tûbāl and tabal all mean “metalworker, smith”) (JCS 23:65; Albright, YGC, 36–42). The Amlicites/Amalekites and Lamanites marked themselves in fulfillment of a curse (Alma 3:4, 13, 18), as if descendants of an eponymous ancestor, Qayin (Genesis 4:15) (RFS). Such a connection becomes even more important if the name of Tubaloth’s brother, Amalickiah, derives from “Amalekite,” for the Amalekites and Kenites are linked in the Bible (e.g., 1 Samuel 15). These facts would argue for metonymy (JAT).
There is in Deuteronomy or Judges a masculine name that ends in ot. Find it and add it to this list. FOUND: Judges 4:4, Lapidoth, husband of Deborah.
