Bible Dictionaries
Gedaliah

Holman Bible Dictionary

(gehd uh li' uh) Personal name meaning, “Yahweh has done great things.” 1. The son of Ahikam who was appointed ruler of Judah by Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon in 587 B.C. (2 Kings 25:22 ). Jerusalem had fallen to the Babylonians, and many of the residents of Judah had been deported. Ahikam, the father of Gedaliah, was an ally of the prophet Jeremiah (Jeremiah 26:24; Jeremiah 39:14 ), and Gedaliah may have been in sympathy with Jeremiah's political views. That could explain why Nebuchadnezzar selected Gedaliah to be governor. Gedaliah's time in office was brief. After only two months he was murdered by a group of fanatically zealous nationalists under the leadership of Ishmael (Jeremiah 40:1-41:18 ). 2 . A royal official under King Zedekiah (597-586 B.C.) who was with the group that got the king's permission to imprison Jeremiah in a cistern (Jeremiah 38:1 ). 3 . Temple singer and prophet who played the harp with his father Jeduthan and five brothers (1 Chronicles 25:3 ). He headed one of the twenty-four divisions of Temple servants (1 Chronicles 25:9 ).

An abbreviated form of the Hebrew name is given a priest with a foreign wife under Ezra (Ezra 10:18 ) and the grandfather of the prophet Zephaniah (Zephaniah 1:1 ).