(Heb. Mahalel', מִהֲלִלְאֵל, praise of God; Sept. and N.T. Μαλελεήλ ), the name of two men.
1. The son of the antediluvian patriarch Cainan, of the line of Seth, born when his father was seventy years old; he became the father of Jared at sixty-five years of age, and lived to the age of eight hundred and; sixty-five years (Genesis 5:12-17; 1 Chronicles 1:2; Luke 3:37 in which last passage the name is Anglicized "Maleleë l"). B.C. 3777-2881. "Ewald recognizes in Mahalaleel the sun-god, or Apollo of the antediluvian mythology, and in his son Jared the god of water, the Indian Varuna (Gesch. 1:357), but, his assertions are perfectly arbitrary."
2. A Judiate of the family of Pharez, father of Shephatiah, and ancestor of one Athaiall, who resided at Jerusalem after the exile (Nehemiah 11:4). . B.C. much ante 536.