[Deleted]

[Alaris]

I too received the spiritual impression just last week, but my impression was that Gazelem is the name of the stone rather than the servant.

Some more food for thought:

“The word Gazelem appears to have its roots in Gaz - a stone and Aleim, a name of God as a revelator or interposer in the affairs of men. If this suggestion be correct, its roots admirably agree with its apparent meaning-a seer.” (George Reynolds, A Dictionary of the Book of Mormon, p. 92)

From: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gazelem

Here is the scripture and some added verses for context:

Alma 37:22 For behold, the Lord saw that his people began to work in darkness, yea, work secret murders and abominations; therefore the Lord said, if they did not repent they should be destroyed from off the face of the earth.
23 And the Lord said: I will prepare unto my servant Gazelem, a stone, which shall shine forth in darkness unto light, that I may discover unto my people who serve me, that I may discover unto them the works of their brethren, yea, their secret works, their works of darkness, and their wickedness and abominations.
24 And now, my son, these interpreters were prepared that the word of God might be fulfilled, which he spake, saying:
25 I will bring forth out of darkness unto light all their secret works and their abominations; and except they repent I will destroy them from off the face of the earth; and I will bring to light all their secrets and abominations, unto every nation that shall hereafter possess the land.

Whether Gazelem is the servant or the stone the bolded part of verse 23 seems to be about the purpose of the stone. The context of Alma's referring to Gazelem is discovering secret combinations and discovering those who server the Lord - very interesting indeed!

My linguist pal thaabit said gazel may be related to anther word as "El" rarely appears but at the beginning or end of a name.

גָּזֵל‎ gāzēl ; h1498
From gzl {h1497}
Mean robbery, or (concretely) plunder
KJV robbery, thing taken away by violence
BDB 160a
(g gāzēl–gāzēl BDB)
גּזל‎ gzl ; h1497
From a primitive root
Mean to pluck off; specifically to flay, strip or rob
KJV catch, consume, exercise [robbery], pluck (off), rob, spoil, take away (by force, violence), tear
BDB 159d
(g gzl–gzl BDB)

If that's what gazel means, then it reminds of Gileadi's definition of Maher Shalal Hash Baz: Hasten the Plunder, Hurry the Spoil

That is the name Isaiah gave one of his sons as he was not permitted to share the meaning publicly but has a dual reference to the destruction of Israel and an end-times nation that represents Assyria.

http://www.isaiahexplained.com/8#commentary

Peter's name meaning cephas or stone could also have something to do with the fact Gazelem is tied to the end times servant. I do believe the end times Elias is ascending to Peter's spiritual level after all. Hey what's with the new smileys?

[Alaris]

That Wikipedia entry you linked to says,

The identity of Gazelem is uncertain, but the most likely candidates are (the seer stones used by) Mosiah and Joseph Smith. The Jaredites are the people whose secret works Gazelem is to bring to light, and both Mosiah and Joseph Smith are supposed to have used seer stones to translate the Jaredite record.

Re: the bold type above, I don't understand the passage in that way. I understand it as meaning that the end times seer will be given a stone which will allow him to bring to light the secret, abominable works of the people living in his times (in other words, the modern people), not that he will use the stone to reveal the secret works of the ancient Jaredites. The Urim and Thummim will be used to translate that Jaredite record, not this seer stone. That, at least, is my understanding.

Totally agreed. Man these smileys ... geek and ugeek??

[ParticleMan]

While other possibilities are suggested,

An etymology based on North-west Semitic gzl, gṣl, ǵzl or ǵṣl would be the most likely, with a dual ending -êm. The dual ending would tend to reinforce reading GAZELEM as the noun of the following appositive, because the “directors”/“interpreters” consisted of two (=dual) stones set in a silver bow.

https://onoma.lib.byu.edu/index.php/GAZELEM

[skmo]

Anyone got a clue what Gaz might mean?

It was a Soviet All Wheel Drive vehicle, similar to the U.S. Military's Willy's Jeep:

GAZ-69.jpg (59.94 KiB) Viewed 305 times

[skmo]

Okay, now we're getting somewhere. Gaz- is a Russian word, which means that the -elem part of Gazelem is likely also Russian. Gaz, then, must mean "to transport over any terrain," but now what does -elem mean in Russian?

Assuming we're talking about the English pronunciation of "elem" written in Cyrillic characters, that would be "элэм" which translates to either "Elam" which would mean it's Elam's Jeep (we'd still need to decide which historical Elam they're talking about) or "lame" meaning it's a fairly ineffective vehicle, which would explain why it was replaced by the much better UAZ-469, a vehicle still in production today.

I'd like to have one of these. They're reported to not only be quite tough and reliable, they're supposed to be VERY easy to perform service and maintenance on, unlike anything new coming from US manufacturers.

uaz_469.jpg (188.44 KiB) Viewed 289 times