Bible Dictionaries
Hodaviah

Holman Bible Dictionary

(hoh duh vi' uh) Personal name meaning, “praise Yah.” The longer form Hodaviahu appears in the scribal marginal note correcting the Hebrew text of 1 Chronicles 3:24 . See 1 Chronicles 3:24 ). He appears to have been born about 420 B.C. The listing of seven brothers may be a cryptic note of hope in the Davidic dynasty for the Jewish community after the Exile. 2. Original ancestor of clan in half-tribe of Manasseh living east of the Jordan (1 Chronicles 5:24 ). The list leads to an explanation of Israel's loss of land east of the Jordan because of sin and idolatry. 3. A member of tribe of Benjamin (1 Chronicles 9:7 ). 4 . A clan of Levites who returned to Judah under Zerubbabel about 537 B.C. (Ezra 2:40 ). He was kin to the leading priest Joshua or to a Levite with the same name (compare Ezra 2:2 ,Ezra 2:2,2:36 ). Ezra 3:9 reads Judah instead of Hodaviah, probably a copyists' change from the less familiar to the more familiar word. Similarly, in Hebrew Nehemiah 7:43 has Hodevah, a copyist omitting one letter.