Juniper Meaning in the Bible

Juniper comes from the Latin juniperus, of uncertain further derivation, possibly from juncus ('rush') plus parere ('to produce'). It entered English as a plant word and became a given name only recently, in the same botanical wave as Willow, Hazel, and Clover. It is a nature name rather than a Hebrew one.

But unlike most modern plant names, this one is actually in the King James Version — and in one of the Old Testament's most human scenes. In 1 Kings 19, Elijah has just won the confrontation on Mount Carmel and then run for his life from Jezebel. He goes a day's journey into the wilderness, sits down under a juniper tree, and asks God to take his life: 'It is enough; now, O LORD, take away my life; for I am not better than my fathers' (1 Kings 19:4).

What happens next is the reason the tree matters. God does not rebuke him, argue with him, or give him a task. An angel touches him and tells him to eat. He sleeps, is woken and fed a second time, and only then — after rest and two meals — is he sent on. The juniper is the place where God's response to a burned-out servant was food and sleep. Job 30:4 and Psalm 120:4 mention the plant too, but 1 Kings 19 is the passage that gives the name its weight.

As a modern name, Juniper is three syllables, unmistakably feminine in current US use though not intrinsically so, and comes with the well-liked short form June — which also lets a family honour a grandmother named June without using a name that reads dated on a newborn.