Kelaiah
“Possibly 'swift for Yah' or 'lightly esteemed of Yah'”
Summary
A Levite who divorced his foreign wife after the Babylonian exile and assisted Ezra in teaching the law to the people, also known as Kelita.
☩Identity and Service
Kelaiah was a Levite who lived during the time of Ezra's reforms after the Babylonian exile. He is noted as one of those who had married a foreign wife and agreed to put her away in obedience to Ezra's call for separation from the surrounding peoples. He is also called Kelita, which may have been an alternate name or surname. A Kelita (possibly the same person) is later mentioned among those who helped expound the law when Ezra read it publicly to the assembled people, and also among those who sealed the covenant made to follow God's law. The dual naming pattern appears in both biblical and apocryphal accounts of this period.
References
- 1.John McClintock and James Strong, "Kelaiah," in Cyclopedia of Biblical, Theological and Ecclesiastical Literature, vol. V (Harper & Brothers, 1867–1887).
- 2.James Orr (ed.), "Kelaiah," in International Standard Bible Encyclopedia, vol. III (Howard-Severance Company, 1915).
- 3.F. N. Peloubet & M. A. Peloubet (ed.), "Kelaiah," in Smith's Bible Dictionary (Porter & Coates, 1884).
- 4.Andrew Robert Fausset, "Kelaiah," in The Englishman's Critical and Expository Bible Cyclopædia (Hodder & Stoughton, 1878).