Zimran in the Bible Encyclopedia - ISBE
zim'-ran (zimran, from zemer, "wild sheep" or "wild goat," the
ending -an being gentilic; Skinner, Genesis, 350): Son of
Abraham and Keturah (Gen 25:2; 1 Ch 1:32). The various
manuscripts of the Septuagint give the name in different
forms, e.g. in Gen A, Zebran; Codex Sinaiticus Zemran; Codex
Alexandrinus(1) Zembram; D(sil) Zombran; and Lucian Zemran; in
Chronicles, Codex Vaticanus has Zembran, Codex Alexandrinus
Zemran, Lucian Zemran (compare Brooke and McLean's edition of
the Septuagint for Genesis).
Hence, some have connected the name with Zabram of Ptol.
vi.7,5, West of Mecca; others with the Zamareni of Pliny (Ant.
vi.158) in the interior of Arabia; but according to Skinner
and E. Meyer (see Gunkel, Gen3, 261) these would be too far
south. Curtis (Chronicles, 72) says the name is probably to be
identified with the "Zimri" of Jer 25:25. It would then be the
name of a clan, with the mountain sheep or goat as its totem.
See TOTEMISM.
David Francis Roberts
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