Bible Dictionaries
Jeshua

Holman Bible Dictionary

(jeh sshyoo' uh) Personal name spelled in Hebrew the same as Joshua and meaning, “Yahweh is salvation.” 1. Leader of the ninth course of priests under David (1 Chronicles 24:11 , sometimes transliterated as Jeshuah). 2. Priest under Hezekiah (715-686 B.C.) who helped distribute food collected in tithes and offerings to the priests living in the Levitical cities outside Jerusalem (2 Chronicles 31:15 ). 3 . High priest taken into the Exile by King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon in 586 B.C. He returned to Jerusalem with Zerubbabel about 537 B.C. (Ezra 2:2 ). Descendants of his family or of 1. above also returned (Ezra 2:36; compare Ezra 2:40 ). He led in rebuilding the altar and restoring sacrifice in Jerusalem (Ezra 3:2-6 ). They also began building the Temple but quit when strong opposition arose and appealed to King Artaxerxes (Ezra 3:8-4:24 ). Later correspondence led King Darius to recover Cyrus' proclamation authorizing the rebuilding of the Temple. This came after Jeshua followed the prophetic preaching of Zechariah and Haggai and renewed efforts to rebuild the Temple (Ezra 5:2-6:15; Haggai 1:1 , Haggai 1:12-14; Haggai 2:4 ), finally finishing in 515 B.C. Still, some of his sons married foreign women and had to follow Ezra's teaching and divorce them (Ezra 10:18-19 ). Zechariah had a vision featuring Jeshua in which God announced the full cleansing of the high priest, preparing him to lead in the atonement rites for the people and pointing to the day when Messiah would come and provide complete and eternal atonement for God's people (Zechariah 3:1 ). Jeshua was apparently one of the two anointed ones of Zechariah's vision (Zechariah 4:14; compare Zechariah 6:12-13 ).

4. A clan related to the Pahath-moab or governor of Moab, some of whose members returned from Exile with Zerubbabel (Ezra 2:6 ). 5 . Father of Exer, the Jewish governor of the district of Mizpah under Persian rule (Nehemiah 3:19 ). 6 . A Levite who signed Nehemiah's covenant to obey God's law (Nehemiah 10:9 ). 7 . A clan of Levites in the postexilic community, probably having some connection with the clan of 1. 8. Name for conquest hero Joshua, son of Nun (Nehemiah 8:17 ). See Joshua .

9. Village in Judah where some Jews lived after returning from Exile (Nehemiah 11:26 ). It may be modern tell es-Sawi, northeast of Beersheba.