Names. Sounds.
Memory. Connection. Identity.
Where I grew up, your family was key to your identity. Being a son of so and so was how you are introduced.
Things are a bit different now. In urban London sounds have been muffled as now our work seems to be the key to identity. In some ways this is good. We would rather be judged by our deeds than our parentage. Being from a middle class family I received many advantages purely because of my family connections.
However the muffling also means that the structures that define us are no longer sounded. So since we don’t speak about family but work there is an assumption that everyone is in their position because of their work. However familial background does increasingly define who walks in the corridors of power.
This passage is mostly about family; fathers, sons and wives are sounded. A small different sound almost unheard places itself in the middle.
he is the Anah who found the springs in the wilderness, as he pastured the donkeys of his father Zibeon
The sound of Anah is odd because he is not solely defined by his family, unlike the others in this passage. He is also defined by what he does.
The genealogies in the bible often do this. A familiar rhythm is disrupted. This disruption might be important, since sound alerts us to change and this might be for a reason.