Cousin Jedediah

DESCRIPTION: "O Jacob, get the cows home, and put them in the pen, For theh courains are a-coming to see us once again." "There's Hezekiah, and Azariah, and Aunt Sophia, and Jedediah... We'll all take tea." Everyone prepares a fancy reception for Jedediah and all
AUTHOR: H. S. Thompson (source: sheet music published by Oliver Ditson & Co.)
EARLIEST DATE: 1863 (sheet music)
KEYWORDS: family home food clothes
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (2 citations):
ShillingSongBook3, p. 69, "Cousin Jedediah" (1 text)
Dime-Song-Book #13, p. 50, "Cousin Jedediah" (1 text)
Roud #15897
NOTES [193 words]: There is something curious about the names in this song, in that several are obscurely Biblical (Hezekiah, the name of a King of Judah; Azariah, a common Old Testament name used e.g. of another king of Judah who was also known as Uzziah; Jedediah was the name the prophet Nathan used for Solomon in 2 Samuel 12:24; Jerusha, according to 2 Kings 15:33, was daughter of someone named Zadok who bore the future King Jotham of Judah to King Azariah/Uzziah; Obed, according to Ruth 4:17, was the son of Boaz and Ruth and the father of Jesse rather of David; Job was the hero of the book of that name; Uriah was the first husband of Bathsheba the mother of Solomon).
Thus all the Biblical names except Job are intimately connected with the royal family of Judah (and even Job was reputed to be a king, but not of Judah). And all of the visitors to the family have one of these Biblical names: Hezekiah, Azariah, and Jedediah (the name "Sophia" isn't Biblical, except in the sense that it's a feminization of the Greek word for "wisdom" -- but maybe she married into the family). I don't know if this was intended to be significant, but it's certainly an oddity. - RBW
Last updated in version 7.0
File: ShS3069

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