LEB-KAMAI

(Leb-kaʹmai) [Heart of Those Rising Up Against Me].

This appears to be a cryptographic name for Chaldea, or Kas·dimʹ. It occurs only at Jeremiah 51:1, in a statement regarding what Jehovah would do to Babylon and the inhabitants of Chaldea. The term is employed there in keeping with a system called athbash, in which the last letter of the Hebrew alphabet (taw) represents the first letter thereof (ʼaʹleph), the second-last letter (shin) represents the second (behth), and so forth. Hence, at Jeremiah 51:1 the real name (Kas·dimʹ) is disguised by forming the Hebrew word Lev qa·maiʹ (Leb-kamai). For “Leb-kamai” the Greek Septuagint has “the Chaldeans” and the Targums read “the land of the Chaldeans.”