Please note that the content of this book primarily consists of articles available from Wikipedia or other free sources online. The name Jerahmeel appears several times in the Tanakh. It means "He will obtain mercy of God" or "God pities" or "May God have compassion". The Jerahmeelites were a people, presumably descended from Jerahmeel number 1 above, living in the Negev, who David, while in service with the Philistines, claimed to have attacked, but with whom he was really on friendly terms. Cheyne developed a theory which made the Jerahmeelites into a significant part of the history of Israel, but most subsequent scholars have dismissed his ideas as fanciful.