Midvash

עֹבַדְיָהʻÔbadyâh

proper name, masculine: servant of Yah

Pronunciation: o-bad-yaw' · Hebrew/Aramaic (Old Testament) · H5662

Meanings

I.

1. chief of Ahab's household (1 Kings 18:3; 1 Kings 18:4; 1 Kings 18:5)

2. father of one of the chiefs of Zebulun (1 Chronicles 27:19)

3. a Levite overseer in time of Josiah (2 Chronicles 34:12)

II.

1. the prophet (Obadiah 1:1)

2. a descendant of David (1 Chronicles 3:21)

3. chief of tribe of Issachar (1 Chronicles 7:3)

4. a Benjamite (1 Chronicles 8:38; 1 Chronicles 9:44)

5. a Levite (1 Chronicles 9:16; Nehemiah 11:17)

6. a Gadite chief (1 Chronicles 12:9)

7. a prince in time of Jehoshaphat (2 Chronicles 17:7)

8. priestly companion of Ezra (Ezra 8:9; Nehemiah 10:6)

9. a doorkeeper (Nehemiah 12:25)

Same root

Where it appears

Appears 20 times in the Bible.

  • 1 Kings 18:3 So Ahab summoned Obadiah, who was in charge of the palace. (Obadiah was a devoted follower of the Lord.
  • 1 Kings 18:4 Once when Jezebel had tried to kill all the Lord’s prophets, Obadiah had hidden 100 of them in two caves. He put fifty prophets in each cave and supplied them with food and water.)
  • 1 Kings 18:5 Ahab said to Obadiah, “We must check every spring and valley in the land to see if we can find enough grass to save at least some of my horses and mules.”
  • 1 Kings 18:6 So they divided the land between them. Ahab went one way by himself, and Obadiah went another way by himself.
  • 1 Kings 18:7 As Obadiah was walking along, he suddenly saw Elijah coming toward him. Obadiah recognized him at once and bowed low to the ground before him. “Is it really you, my lord Elijah?” he asked.
  • 1 Kings 18:16 So Obadiah went to tell Ahab that Elijah had come, and Ahab went out to meet Elijah.
See every passage

Source: Brown, Driver and Briggs, Hebrew and English Lexicon of the Old Testament (1906), public domain; markup by unfoldingWord, CC BY (github.com/unfoldingWord/Brown-Driver-Briggs-Enhanced).