In their 1997 article, The Hebrew Origin of Some Book of Mormon Place Names, Stephen D. Ricks and John A. Tvedtnes proposed that “Cumorah” is derived from kəmôrāh, an abstract noun meaning “priesthood” and derived from כמר kômer, “priest.” As noted by Ricks and Tvedtnes, some may object to this, as כמר is used in the Hebrew Bible for false priests, something they refute in their article (p. 257).
Interestingly, the Aramaic-speaking Jews at Elephantine in the 5th century B.C. did not use kmr in a derogatory fashion, but in a neutral manner, something that might serve to strengthen the proposal of Ricks and Tvedtnes. As Gard Granerød noted:
The use of the term kmr (and khn!) must be viewed in light of other occurences of the term kmr in the Aramaic documents from Egypt. In a fragmentary letter we read about a certain Thotomous (an Egyptian name) who was entitled “a priest” (kmr, A5.4:2). The surrounding text is badly damaged. Therefore, it is not possible to say whether it was Thotomous himself who used the term kmr was a self-designation when writing (and speaking) in Aramaic. Moreover, the term also occurs in a deed of conveyance in which the Judaean Mahselah transferred the title of his house to his daughter (B2.7). The boundaries of the house in question are described by a reference to the house of a certain “ḥarwodj son of Palṭu, priest [kmr] of K[hnum] the god” (B2.7:15). The document is conventionally formulated, and the term kmr is not used with any kind of negative connotations. In addition, the witnesses of the legal transaction are international (one Mithrasarah son of Mithrasarah, apparently a Persian, and two individuals identified as Caspians, cf. B2.7:18-19).
The term is also found in Aramaic inscriptions on sarcophagi found in South Saqqarah. One of them illustrates that kmr was a designation that the bearer himself accepted: lš’yl kmr’ zy nbw ytb tqm’ bswn, “(Belonging) to Sheil the priest of Nabu, residing everlastingly [OR: (in the) eternal shrine] in Syene” (D18.1, cf. D18.2).
Finally, the term occurs in the inscription on a memorial stela of a priest of Baal found in Memphis: l’nn br ‘lyš kmr’ zy b’l b’l’nwt, “(Belonging) to ‘Anan son of ‘Eliash the priest of Baal husband/citizen of Anoth” (D21.17).
In light of these examples, it appears that the term kmr was used as a commonplace and neutral designation for a particular type of religious specialist in Aramaic documents from Egypt, regardless whether he served an Egyptian god (e.g. Khnum) or was associated with a temple of one of the non-Egyptian gods in Egypt (like Nabu and Baal). Therefore, when Jedaniah and the other Judaeans wrote the Bagavahya and mentioned “the priests (kmry’) of Khnum,” this was not meant as an insult. To put it differently, the Elephantine Judaeans did not use kmr as a derogatory term; rather, they were simply using an ordinary Aramaic word. (Gard Granerød, Dimensions of Yahwism in the Persian Period: Studies in the Religion and Society of the Judaean Community at Elephantine [Beihefte zur Zeitschrift für die alttestamentliche Wissenschaft volume 488; Berlin: De Gruyter, 2018], 52-54, emphasis added)
