Abijah
Encyclopedia
Abijah or Abiah or Abia is a Biblical unisex name
Unisex name
A unisex name, also known as an epicene name, is a given name that is often given to either a boy or a girl. Some countries, however, require that a given name be gender-specific or have enough names with male and female versions...

 that means Aviya or "my Father is Yahweh" in Hebrew. In the Old Testament the name Abijah was borne by several characters:

Women
  1. Abijah (queen)
    Abijah (queen)
    Abijah is a person named in the Old Testament. She was the daughter of a Zechariah, possibly Zechariah the son of Jeberechiah , and afterwards the wife of Ahaz, and mother of Hezekiah...

    , the daughter of Zechariah
    Zechariah
    Zechariah was a person in the Hebrew Bible and the author of the Book of Zechariah, the eleventh of the twelve minor prophets. He was a prophet of the two-tribe kingdom of Judah, and like Ezekiel was of priestly extraction. He describes himself as "the son of Berechiah, the son of Iddo." In Ezra...

     (2 Chr. 29:1; compare Isaiah
    Book of Isaiah
    The Book of Isaiah is the first of the Latter Prophets in the Hebrew Bible, preceding the books of Ezekiel, Jeremiah and the Book of the Twelve...

     8:2), who married King Ahaz
    Ahaz
    Ahaz was king of Judah, and the son and successor of Jotham. He is one of the kings mentioned in the genealogy of Jesus in the Gospel of Matthew....

     of Judah. She is also called Abi. (2 Kings 18:2) She was the mother of King Hezekiah
    Hezekiah
    Hezekiah was the son of Ahaz and the 14th king of Judah. Edwin Thiele has concluded that his reign was between c. 715 and 686 BC. He is also one of the most prominent kings of Judah mentioned in the Hebrew Bible....

    . (2 Chr. 29:1)
  2. A wife of Hetzron
    Hezron
    Hezron is a name which occurs several times in the Hebrew Bible.* A plain in the south of Judah, west of Kadesh-barnea .* One of the sons of Reuben ....

    , one of the grandchildren of Judah. (1 Chr. 2:24)


Men
  1. Abijah (king) of the Kingdom of Judah
    Kingdom of Judah
    The Kingdom of Judah was a Jewish state established in the Southern Levant during the Iron Age. It is often referred to as the "Southern Kingdom" to distinguish it from the northern Kingdom of Israel....

    , also known as Abijam
    Abijam
    Abijam was the fourth king of the House of David and the second of the Kingdom of Judah. He was the son of Rehoboam, the grandson of Solomon and the great-grandson of David. The Chronicler refers to him as Abijah ....

    , who was son of Rehoboam
    Rehoboam
    Rehoboam was initially king of the United Monarchy of Israel but after the ten northern tribes of Israel rebelled in 932/931 BC to form the independent Kingdom of Israel he was king of the Kingdom of Judah, or southern kingdom. He was a son of Solomon and a grandson of David...

     and succeeded him on the throne of Judah
    Kingdom of Judah
    The Kingdom of Judah was a Jewish state established in the Southern Levant during the Iron Age. It is often referred to as the "Southern Kingdom" to distinguish it from the northern Kingdom of Israel....

    . (1 Chr. 3:10, Matt. 1:7, 1 Kings 14:31)
  2. A son of Becher
    Becher
    -People:* Bernd and Hilla Becher, German photographers* J. J. Becher, German physician and alchemist* Johannes R. Becher, German politician and writer* Kurt Becher, German SS officer* Rabbi Mordechai Becher, author and lecturer on Jewish theology...

    , the son of Benjamin
    Benjamin
    Benjamin was the last-born of Jacob's twelve sons, and the second and last son of Rachel in Jewish, Christian and Islamic tradition. He was the founder of the Israelite Tribe of Benjamin. In the Biblical account, unlike Rachel's first son, Joseph, Benjamin was born in Canaan. He died in Egypt on...

    . (1 Chr. 7:8)
  3. The second son of Samuel. (1 Samuel
    Books of Samuel
    The Books of Samuel in the Jewish bible are part of the Former Prophets, , a theological history of the Israelites affirming and explaining the Torah under the guidance of the prophets.Samuel begins by telling how the prophet Samuel is chosen by...

     8:2; 1 Chr. 6:28) His conduct, along with that of his brother, as a judge in Beer-sheba, to which office his father had appointed him, led to popular discontent, and ultimately provoked the people to demand a monarchy
    Monarchy
    A monarchy is a form of government in which the office of head of state is usually held until death or abdication and is often hereditary and includes a royal house. In some cases, the monarch is elected...

  4. A descendant of Eleazar
    Eleazar
    Eleazar , was a priest in the Hebrew Bible, the second Kohen Gadol - succeeding his father Aaron. He was a nephew of Moses.-Life:...

    , the son of Aaron
    Aaron
    In the Hebrew Bible and the Qur'an, Aaron : Ααρών ), who is often called "'Aaron the Priest"' and once Aaron the Levite , was the older brother of Moses, and a prophet of God. He represented the priestly functions of his tribe, becoming the first High Priest of the Israelites...

    , a chief of one of the twenty-four orders into which the priesthood was divided by David (1 Chr. 24:10). The order of Abijah was one of those that did not return from the Captivity. (Ezra
    Book of Ezra
    The Book of Ezra is a book of the Hebrew Bible. Originally combined with the Book of Nehemiah in a single book of Ezra-Nehemiah, the two became separated in the early centuries of the Christian era...

     2:36-39; Nehemiah
    Book of Nehemiah
    The Book of Nehemiah is a book of the Hebrew Bible. Told largely in the form of a first-person memoir, it concerns the rebuilding of the walls of Jerusalem by Nehemiah, a Jew who is a high official at the Persian court, and the dedication of the city and its people to God's laws...

     7:39-42; 12:1)
  5. A son of Jeroboam
    Jeroboam
    Jeroboam was the first king of the northern Israelite Kingdom of Israel after the revolt of the ten northern Israelite tribes against Rehoboam that put an end to the United Monarchy....

    , the first king of Israel. On account of his severe illness when a youth, his father sent his wife to consult the prophet Ahijah regarding his recovery. The prophet, though blind with old age, knew the wife of Jeroboam as soon as she approached, and under a divine impulse he announced to her that inasmuch as in Abijah alone of all the house of Jeroboam there was found "some good thing toward the Lord," he only would come to his grave in peace. As his mother crossed the threshold of the door on her return, the youth died, and "all Israel mourned for him." (1 Kings
    Books of Kings
    The Book of Kings presents a narrative history of ancient Israel and Judah from the death of David to the release of his successor Jehoiachin from imprisonment in Babylon, a period of some 400 years...

     14:1-18)
  6. The head of the eighth of the twenty-four courses into which David
    David
    David was the second king of the united Kingdom of Israel according to the Hebrew Bible and, according to the Gospels of Matthew and Luke, an ancestor of Jesus Christ through both Saint Joseph and Mary...

     divided the priests, and an ancestor of Zecharias
    Zechariah (priest)
    In the Bible, Zechariah , is the father of John the Baptist, a priest of the sons of Aaron, a prophet in , and the husband of Elisabeth who is the cousin of Mary the mother of Jesus.In the Qur'an, Zechariah plays a similar role as the father of John the Baptist and ranks him as a prophet alongside...

     the priest, who was the father of John the Baptist
    John the Baptist
    John the Baptist was an itinerant preacher and a major religious figure mentioned in the Canonical gospels. He is described in the Gospel of Luke as a relative of Jesus, who led a movement of baptism at the Jordan River...

    .

'

References

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