Hebrew word · H29
אֲבִיָּ֫הוּ, אֲבִיָּה
'aviyah
Abijah
A personal name built from 'av' (father) and the short form of God's name, Yah. It means 'my father is Yah' or 'Yah is father'. Several people in the Hebrew Bible bear it, including a king of Judah. Here it names a priestly family line.
Appears 25 times in 25 verses of the Hebrew Old Testament. ·
What it means
A king of the tribe of Judah living at the time of Divided Monarchy, first mentioned at 1Ki.14.31;
son of: Rehoboam (H7346) and Maacah (H4601K);
brother of: Attai (H6262I), Ziza (H2124H) and Shelomith (H8019);
father of: Asa (H0609);
half-brother of: Jeush (H3266K), Shemariah (H8114H) and Zaham (H2093); also called Abijam (KJV: Abia) at 1Ki.14.31; 15.1,7,8;
§ Abia or Abiah or Abijah = "Jehovah is (my) father"
1) king of Judah, son and successor of Rehoboam
2) second son of Samuel
3) son of Jeroboam the first, king of Israel
4) son of Becher, a Benjamite
5) head of a priestly house (one of the 24 Levite groups)
6) head of a priestly house (after the exile)
7) wife of Hezron
8) mother of Hezekiah (cf H021)
Abridged from Brown, Driver and Briggs, A Hebrew and English Lexicon of the Old Testament (1906), via STEPBible.org (CC BY 4.0).
In depth
From the study of Nehemiah 12:17
- Range of meaning
A personal name built from 'av' (father) and the short form of God's name, Yah. It means 'my father is Yah' or 'Yah is father'. Several people in the Hebrew Bible bear it, including a king of Judah. Here it names a priestly family line.
- Against the English
All English versions transliterate it as 'Abijah'. Nothing is lost, except that English readers do not hear the confession of faith inside the name.
- Used elsewhere in the period
1 Chronicles 24:10 makes Abijah the eighth of the 24 rotating priestly divisions that served in the temple. Nehemiah 10:7 and 12:4 list it among the returning and covenant-signing priests. Luke 1:5 places Zechariah, father of John the Baptist, 'of the division of Abijah' (Greek ephēmeria Abia), which shows the house was still a recognised unit in the first century.
Where it appears
1 Samuel · 1
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1 Samuel 8:2 אֲבִיָּ֑ה [was] Abijah
The name of his firstborn son was Joel, and the name of his second was Abijah. They were judges in Beersheba.
1 Kings · 1
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1 Kings 14:1 אֲבִיָּ֥ה Abijah
At that time Abijah son of Jeroboam became ill,
1 Chronicles · 5
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1 Chronicles 2:24 אֲבִיָּ֔ה Abijah
After Hezron died in Caleb-ephrathah, his wife Abijah bore to him Ashhur the father of Tekoa.
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1 Chronicles 3:10 אֲבִיָּ֥ה Abijah
Solomon’s son was Rehoboam: Abijah was his son, Asa his son, Jehoshaphat his son,
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1 Chronicles 6:28 וַאֲבִיָּֽה׃ ס and Abijah
The sons of Samuel: Joel his firstborn and Abijah his second son.
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1 Chronicles 7:8 וַאֲבִיָּ֔ה and Abijah
The sons of Becher: Zemirah, Joash, Eliezer, Elioenai, Omri, Jeremoth, Abijah, Anathoth, and Alemeth; all these were Becher’s sons.
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1 Chronicles 24:10 לַאֲבִיָּ֖ה to Abijah
the seventh to Hakkoz, the eighth to Abijah,
2 Chronicles · 15
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2 Chronicles 11:20 אֲבִיָּה֙ Abijah
After her, he married Maacah daughter of Absalom, and she bore to him Abijah, Attai, Ziza, and Shelomith.
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2 Chronicles 11:22 אֲבִיָּ֥ה Abijah
Rehoboam appointed Abijah son of Maacah as chief prince among his brothers, intending to make him king.
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2 Chronicles 12:16 אֲבִיָּ֥ה Abijah
And Rehoboam rested with his fathers and was buried in the City of David. And his son Abijah reigned in his place.
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2 Chronicles 13:1 אֲבִיָּ֖ה Abijah
In the eighteenth year of Jeroboam’s reign, Abijah became king of Judah,
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2 Chronicles 13:2 אֲבִיָּ֖ה Abijah
and he reigned in Jerusalem three years. His mother’s name was Micaiah daughter of Uriel; she was from Gibeah. And there was war between Abijah and Jeroboam.
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2 Chronicles 13:3 אֲבִיָּ֜ה Abijah
Abijah went into battle with an army of 400,000 chosen men, while Jeroboam drew up in formation against him with 800,000 chosen and mighty men of valor.
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2 Chronicles 13:4 אֲבִיָּ֗ה Abijah
Then Abijah stood on Mount Zemaraim in the hill country of Ephraim and said, “Hear me, O Jeroboam and all Israel!
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2 Chronicles 13:15 אֲבִיָּ֖ה Abijah
and the men of Judah raised the battle cry. And when they raised the cry, God routed Jeroboam and all Israel before Abijah and Judah.
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2 Chronicles 13:17 אֲבִיָּ֥ה Abijah
Then Abijah and his people struck them with a mighty blow, and 500,000 chosen men of Israel fell slain.
Here: King of Judah, son of Rehoboam. Kings calls him Abijam. Chronicles uses the form whose name contains God's name, which fits its picture of him as a king who speaks for the LORD (vv.4–12).
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2 Chronicles 13:19 אֲבִיָּה֮ Abijah
Abijah pursued Jeroboam and captured some cities from him: Bethel, Jeshanah, and Ephron, along with their villages.
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2 Chronicles 13:20 אֲבִיָּ֑הוּ Abijah
Jeroboam did not again recover his power during the days of Abijah, and the LORD struck him down and he died.
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2 Chronicles 13:21 אֲבִיָּ֔הוּ Abijah
But Abijah grew strong, married fourteen wives, and became the father of twenty-two sons and sixteen daughters.
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2 Chronicles 13:22 אֲבִיָּ֔ה Abijah
Now the rest of the acts of Abijah, along with his ways and his words, are written in the Treatise of the Prophet Iddo.
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2 Chronicles 14:1 אֲבִיָּ֜ה Abijah
Then Abijah rested with his fathers and was buried in the City of David. And his son Asa reigned in his place, and in his days the land was at peace for ten years.
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2 Chronicles 29:1 אֲבִיָּ֖ה [was] Abijah
Hezekiah was twenty-five years old when he became king, and he reigned in Jerusalem twenty-nine years. His mother’s name was Abijah, the daughter of Zechariah.
Nehemiah · 3
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Nehemiah 10:7 אֲבִיָּ֖ה Abijah
Meshullam, Abijah, Mijamin,
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Nehemiah 12:4 אֲבִיָּֽה׃ Abijah
Iddo, Ginnethon, Abijah,
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Nehemiah 12:17 לַאֲבִיָּ֖ה of Abijah
of Abijah, Zichri; of Miniamin and of Moadiah, Piltai;
Here: The prefix la- means 'for' or 'belonging to'. It marks Abijah as the name of a priestly family house, not a living person. This is the same Abijah house listed among the priests who returned with Zerubbabel (12:4), and the eighth priestly division of 1 Chronicles 24:10.
Word data: STEPBible.org (CC BY 4.0), main text only.