There are numerous American towns with “-ville” at the end of their names. The suffix “-ville” means “city.” So, Jacksonville is the “city of Jackson.”
There are also countries with “-stan” at the end of their names, such as Pakistan and Afghanistan. The suffix “-stan” means “place of.” So, Afghanistan is the “place of the Afghans” and so forth.
Something similar happens with place names in the Bible when the Hebrew word “beth” (בֵּית) is joined to another word. This is a form of “bayit” (בַּיִת), which means “house.” There’s Bethel (בֵּית־אֵל), for instance, which means “House of El” (“House of God”), and Beth-Eden (בֵּית עֶדֶן), meaning “House of Delight or Luxury” (Amos 1:5).
Most famously is Bethlehem which means “House of Bread.” The Bible mentions two Bethlehems:
- Bethlehem of Zebulun (Josh. 19:5)
- Bethlehem of Judah.
The latter, of course, is David’s hometown and the birthplace of Jesus.
In Hebrew, the name occurs both as two words בֵּית לֶחֶם (Beth Lechem) and as two conjoined words בֵּית־לֶחֶם (Beth-Lechem), but never, as we write it in English, as one undivided word, “Bethlehem.” The Hebrew pronunciation has a hard “h” so Beth-Lechem would have been a more appropriate spelling, but we are stuck with Bethlehem.
The noun “lechem” does mean “bread” but it’s also the generic word for “food” or “nourishment.” Were we to pray the Lord’s Prayer in Hebrew, we would ask our Father to give us this day our daily lechem, our daily nourishment.
The first mention of “lechem” in the Bible is when Adam sinned, when God told him that thenceforth “by the sweat of your face you shall eat bread [lechem]” (Gen. 3:19).
How graciously fitting, therefore, that the Last Adam was born in the House of Bread. He came to redo what Adam had undone—and to do it even better.
By the sweat of Jesus’ face, by his effort and sacrifice and his bearing of the curse for us, we now eat of him, the Bread of Life, and live forever.
