the Week of Proper 28 / Ordinary 33
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Bible Dictionaries
Jedidiah
Fausset's Bible Dictionary
or Jedid-Jah, ("darling of Jehovah"), name given by God through Nathan the prophet to Solomon (2 Samuel 12:25) combining David's own name (Jedid akin to David "beloved") and Jehovah's; a pledge of David's restoration to God's favor after his fall in the matter of Bathsheba, implying the union of the earthly and the heavenly king. David himself had first given him the name Solomon "the man of peace," because he regarded his birth as a token of his restored peace with God, and also of God'S promise to give peace and rest to Israel in his days (2 Chronicles 22:9). God commissioned Nathan, and Nathan called his name Jedidiah "because of Jehovah," i.e. because Jehovah loved him; the fact of Jehovah's love (in contrast to the firstborn child, the fruit of sin, therefore taken away in God's just displeasure), not the mere name, was the object of the commission. Jedidiah was not therefore his ordinary name, but Solomon. The practice still exists in the East of giving a second name, indicative of relation to God, besides the birth name.
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Fausset, Andrew R. Entry for 'Jedidiah'. Fausset's Bible Dictionary. https://www.studylight.org/dictionaries/eng/fbd/j/jedidiah.html. 1949.
