Bible Lexicons

יְשֻׁרוּן m. Jeshurun, Jesurun, a poetical and (at the same time apparently) a tender and loving appellation of the people of Israel; found four times, Deuteronomy 32:15, 33:5, 26 Deuteronomy 33:26; Isaiah 44:2. Interpreters are not determined as to its origin. To me it appears probable [but see below] that יְשֻׁרוּן was a diminutive of the name יִשְׂרָאֵל, used among the people and in common life for the fuller form יִשְׂרָאֵלוּן (as to the syllable וּן added to diminutives, see Lehrgeb. p. 513, and Hoffmann, Syr. Gr. page 251); but, like other words of this sort in frequent use, more freely inflected and contracted (compare Syriac Aristot, for Aristotle; Arab. Bokrat, for Hippocrates; and the German diminutive names, such as Friß for Friedrich); and thus, at the same time, an allusion was made to the idea of rectitude, uprightness, as found in the root יָשַׁר; compare יְשָׁרִים Numbers 23:10. So Gr. Venet. Ἰσραελίσκος. Others regard יְשֻׁרוּן as a diminutive from יָשָׁר (as if יָשׁוּר), as though rectulus, justulus [the righteous little people], das liebe, fromme Bölkchen (Aqu., Symm., Theod. εὐθύς); but the passage in Isaiah appears to hinder this, where it stands for יִשְׂרָאֵל, parall. יַעֲקֹב: [Yet this was Gesenius’ corrected judgment].