Meaning of the Name Gedaliah
Gedaliah most likely comes from the Hebrew form Gedalyahu/Gedalyah. The name is usually explained as "Yah has made great" or "Yah has exalted," based on the gdl root combined with a divine element. The etymology is broadly accepted, though interpreters differ slightly on the precise nuance of the root.
Origin
The name Gedaliah is of Hebrew origin.
Who is Gedaliah in the Bible?
The best-known biblical Gedaliah is the governor appointed by Babylon over Judah after the fall of Jerusalem. He tried to stabilize the remnant population but was soon assassinated; his story appears especially in 2 Kings and Jeremiah. Other men with the same name also appear in genealogies and brief notices.
The story of Gedaliah in the Bible
Gedaliah appears in Scripture immediately after the Babylonian destruction of Jerusalem. According to 2 Kings 25:22, King Nebuchadnezzar appointed Gedaliah son of Ahikam as governor over the people who were left in the land rather than carried into exile. The book of Jeremiah describes this period in more detail: the prophet Jeremiah, released from his chains, was sent to Gedaliah in Jeremiah 40:5 and stayed with him at Mizpah. Gedaliah worked to gather the scattered remnant; those who had fled to the surrounding regions returned to him, and he assured them that if they remained in the land and served Babylon, things would go well for them. That hope proved short-lived. Despite warnings, Ishmael son of Nethaniah, a man of royal descent, killed Gedaliah and those with him at Mizpah, where he was being received at table, as Jeremiah 41:2 records. Terrified by the assassination, the remaining people fled to Egypt. Gedaliah's brief governorship marks the tragic collapse of the first hope after the exile.
Is Gedaliah mentioned in the Quran?
The name Gedaliah does not appear in the Quran; in the Old Testament, in 2 Kings and Jeremiah, he is the governor whom Babylon appointed over Judah.
Verses where Gedaliah appears
- 2 Kings 25:22 —
As for the people who were left in the land of Judah, whom Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon had left, even over them he made Gedaliah the son of Ahikam, the son of Shaphan, governor.
- Jeremiah 40:5 —
Now while he had not yet gone back, Go back then, he said, to Gedaliah the son of Ahikam, the son of Shaphan, whom the king of Babylon has made governor over the cities of Judah, and dwell with him among the people; or…
- Jeremiah 41:2 —
Then arose Ishmael the son of Nethaniah, and the ten men who were with him, and struck Gedaliah the son of Ahikam the son of Shaphan with the sword, and killed him, whom the king of Babylon had made governor over the…