Abijah

For other uses, see Abia (disambiguation).

Abijah or Abiah or Abia, modern Hebrew Aviya, is a Biblical unisex name that means "my Father is Yahweh". In the Old Testament the name Abijah was borne by several characters:

Women

1. Abijah (queen), the daughter of Zechariah (2 Chr. 29:1; compare Isaiah 8:2), who married King Ahaz of Judah. She is also called Abi. (2 Kings 18:2) She was the mother of King Hezekiah. (2 Chr. 29:1)
2. A wife of Hetzron, one of the grandchildren of Judah. (1 Chr. 2:24)

Men

1. Abijah (king) of the Kingdom of Judah, also known as Abijam, who was son of Rehoboam and succeeded him on the throne of Judah. (1 Chr. 3:10, Matt. 1:7, 1 Kings 14:31)
2. A son of Becher, the son of Benjamin. (1 Chr. 7:8)
3. The second son of Samuel. (1 Samuel 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
4. A descendant of Eleazar, the son of Aaron, 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 2:36-39; Nehemiah 7:39-42; 12:1)
5. A son of Jeroboam, 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 14:1-18)
6. The head of the eighth of the twenty-four courses into which David divided the priests, and an ancestor of Zecharias the priest, who was the father of John the Baptist. (1Chronicles 24:10, Luke 1:5, Luke 1:13)

References

• This article incorporates text from Easton's Bible Dictionary (1897), a publication now in the public domain.

See also

• List of minor Biblical figures