Prayer Tents Bible References - Prayer Tents

GEDALIAH

(Heb. gĕḏalyâ, gĕḏalyāhû)

1. The son of Ahikam and governor of Judah after it was overrun by Babylonian forces in 586 b.c.e. (2 Kgs. 25:22-26; Jer. 40:6–44:18). Gedaliah was of royal stock (2 Kgs. 22:3, 14) and may have been the same royal steward who is mentioned on a stamp seal found at Lachish. As governor, he succeeded in effecting order in Judah with the help of the aged prophet Jeremiah and some army officers. However, his tenure lasted only two or three months. He and others were assassinated by a conspiratorial congress of Jewish nationalists led by Ishmael, who was of the royal line. This happened because Gedaliah, who had a trusting nature, ignored prior warnings of the plot and rejected Johanan’s scheme to murder Ishmael.

Gedaliah’s death marked the end of a surviving Jewish community in Judah since his partisans, fearing Babylonian reprisals, fled to Egypt, forcing Jeremiah to go with them. In effect, a marked Jewish presence disappeared from Palestine until new leadership came with the return from Exile. The exiled Jews marked each anniversary of Gedaliah’s death with a day of mourning and fasting (Zech. 7:5).

2. A professional musician during David’s reign. His father Jeduthum was one of three leaders appointed by the king to provide music (1 Chr. 25:3, 9).

3. A priest from the family of the high priest Jeshua who divorced his pagan wife after the Exile (Ezra 10:18).

4. A Jerusalemite prince (son of Pashhur) who had pro-Egyptian leanings and agitated for Jeremiah’s death because he urged submission to the Babylonians during the siege of Jerusalem (Jer. 38:1-6).

5. The grandfather of the prophet Zephaniah (Zeph. 1:1).

Kenneth D. Mulzac

Prayer Tents Bible References - Prayer Tents

GEDALIAH

Eerdmans Dictionary of the Bible (2000)