Jemima

Jemima is a feminine given name which may refer to :

People:

Biblical and fictional characters:

Jemima (cat)

Jemima is a principal character in the musical play Cats, written by Andrew Lloyd Webber using the poetry of T. S. Eliot. She is the youngest member of the tribe of Cats, being the first one in her whole tribe to accept Grizabella by singing with her a small part in the song 'Memory'.

Character

In the musical play Cats, Jemima is a kitten and, while usually a chorus cat, plays a role in accepting Grizabella; she is among several kittens (the others being Victoria, Electra, and Etcetera) who trust Grizabella and are pulled away in efforts to reject the aging cat. A wide-eyed, beautiful innocent cat with an ethereal voice, she truly hears Grizabella's plea for re-acceptance and encourages the older cat for a chorus in "Memory". Her coat is a rich satin red with black, brown and white tinges and a white chest. Her gloves/leg warmers are black and white, and the actress portraying her often has large eyes to make the character seem more innocent. When the show was reworked in 2014, her wig colors were changed from red and black to a less blocky, scruffy brown.

Jemima (Bible)

Jemima (also written Jemimah, Hebrew: יְמִימָה‎, Yemimah) was the oldest of the three beautiful daughters of Job, named in the Bible as given to him in the later part of his life, after God made Job prosperous again. Jemima's younger sisters are named as Keziah and Keren-Happuch. Job's sons, in contrast, are not named.

Jemima, along with her sisters, was described as more beautiful than all the other women in the land. Also, unusually and in common with her sisters, Jemima was granted an inheritance by her father, with her brothers as might have been expected. (Job 42-15) Apart from these brief references at the end of the Book of Job, Jemima is not mentioned elsewhere in the Bible.

The name Jemima in Hebrew literally means "warm", i.e. affectionate and hence it is taken to mean dove, which in Hebrew is also derived from the word for warmth.

In Job 42:14 (ESV):

Possible Arabian queen

The Christian theologian John Gill notes that Jemima may mean either "day" or "dove", the latter by association with the Arabic word يمامة yamāmah. Noting that there is a land in Arabia with the name al-Yamama, which had a queen called Zarqāʼ al-Yamāmah, he conjectures that the Biblical Jemima may be connected with the Yamamah of Arabic folklore.