Leummim is a name found in the King James Bible, appearing 1 time in the text.
Who This Was
Leummim is named in the King James Bible only once, in the table of nations recorded in Genesis 25. The passage reads: “And Jokshan begat Sheba, and Dedan. And the sons of Dedan were Asshurim, and Letushim, and Leummim” (Genesis 25:3). He is thus a descendant of Abraham through Keturah, whom Abraham married after the death of Sarah. Abraham and Keturah had several sons, including Jokshan, and Jokshan fathered Dedan, whose sons were Asshurim, Letushim, and Leummim.
The setting of this brief notice is the closing account of Abraham’s life. After Sarah’s death, Abraham took Keturah as his wife, and she bore him Zimran, Jokshan, Medan, Midian, Ishbak, and Shuah. To these sons Abraham gave gifts while he was still living, and he sent them away from Isaac his son, eastward, to the east country (Genesis 25:5-6). The descendants of these sons, including the line of Dedan down to Leummim, became the peoples and tribes remembered in Israel’s traditions as the “children of the east.”
Scripture tells us nothing further about Leummim as an individual. He appears only in this genealogy, as the last-named son of Dedan. The source note identifies the Leummim as a nomadic tribe descended from Dedan, and that is the sum of what the biblical text preserves: a name in a family line, a people among the nations that sprang from Abraham, living out their days away from the promised line of Isaac. No deed, word, or character of Leummim is recorded.
The Name
The name Leummim appears to be a plural form related to the Hebrew word *le’om*, which denotes a people, a nation, or a community. In that sense the name may carry the idea of “peoples” or “nations,” fitting a tribal designation. However, the precise meaning and derivation of this name as borne by Dedan’s son are not clearly recoverable, and scholars have proposed differing understandings. What can be said with confidence is that the name is Hebrew in form and that it is rendered “Leummim” in the King James Version. Beyond this general connection to the concept of peoples or nations, no meaning should be asserted as certain.
A Closing Thought
Leummim’s entire legacy in Scripture is a single mention in a genealogy—a name in a list, nothing more. Yet that quiet inclusion is not without comfort. God’s purposes in history are not carried only by the famous; they are woven through ordinary families and forgotten generations whose stories we will never read. Leummim belonged to a people who received gifts from Abraham and went their way east, far from the spotlight of the biblical narrative. Still, he was known to God, numbered among the nations, and remembered in the book that tells of God’s faithfulness from generation to generation.
At a Glance
- Gender: Male
- Testament: Old
- Mentions in the KJV: 1
Where It Appears in Scripture
- Genesis 25:3 — And Jokshan begat Sheba, and Dedan. And the sons of Dedan were Asshurim, and Letushim, and Leummim.