Habaiah
1:
HABAIAH (PERSON) [Heb ḥŏbayyâ (חֳבַיָּה)]. Var. HOBAIAH. The head of a family of priests which is listed among those exiles of uncertain descent returning from Babylon to Jerusalem and Judah (Ezra 2:61 = Neh 7:63; 1 Esdr 5:38). This priestly family, along with two others, was excluded, at least temporarily, from the priesthood as being unclean for lack of documentation of their priestly lineage. The name is theophoric and derives from the Heb root ḥb which means “withdraw,” “hide.” The Qal impv., ḥăbı̂, is used in Isa 26:20 thus suggesting that this name was formed with the imperative, not an unusual occurrence, according to Albright (1928: 234), in hypocoristic formations. Since the Heb root ḥb˒, which in the causative means “hide,” is used in the sense of “protect” elsewhere (Josh 6:17, 25; 1 Kgs 18:4, 13; Isa 49:2), the name, which Noth (IPN, 178) understands as “Yahweh has hidden,” could also mean “Yahweh has protected” or “Protect, O Yahweh.” The several Greek transliterations of this name account for the variety of its spelling in translation: Ezra—hobaia (A), labeia (B), ōdouia (Luc); Neh—hebeia (A, B), abia (S, Luc); 1 Esdr—hobbeia (B), obdia (A), ōdouia (Luc).
Bibliography
Albright, W. F. 1928. The Egyptian Empire in Asia in the Twenty-first Century B.C. JPOS 8: 223–56.
Rodney H. Shearer
Freedman, D. N. (1996, c1992). The Anchor Bible Dictionary (3:1). New York: Doubleday.
2:
HABA´IAH (habʹā-ya); also Hoba´iah (ho-bāʹya; “Jehovah has hidden”). A priest whose descendants returned from the captivity with Zerubbabel but were removed from the priesthood, not being able to trace their genealogy (Ezra 2:61; Neh. 7:63), about 536 b.c.
Unger, M. F., Harrison, R. K., Vos, H. F., Barber, C. J., & Unger, M. F. (1988). The new Unger's Bible dictionary. Revision of: Unger's Bible dictionary. 3rd ed. c1966. (Rev. and updated ed.). Chicago: Moody Press.
3:
Habaiah (Heb. ḥŏḇayyâ) (also HOBAIAH)
A priest whose descendants returned from the Exile with Zerubbabel. Because they were unable to prove their priestly descent, they were excluded from the priesthood (Ezra 2:61–63). At Neh. 7:63 the name appears as Hobaiah.
Freedman, D. N., Myers, A. C., & Beck, A. B. (2000). Eerdmans dictionary of the Bible (535). Grand Rapids, Mich.: W.B. Eerdmans.
