🔼The name Jahzeiah: Summary
- Meaning
- Yah Sees
- Etymology
- From (1) יה (yah), the shortened name of the Lord, and (2) the verb חזה (haza), to see or have [a] vision.
🔼The name Jahzeiah in the Bible
The name Jahzeiah (older Bible versions may have Jahaziah) occurs one time in the Bible. He is a son of Tikvah, and one of the four men who oppose the ludicrous idea that the men of Israel who had acquired foreign wives could mend their mistake by divorcing them (Ezra 10:15).
instead of remembering how for instance Boaz, the ancestor of David, had dealt with his foreign wife Ruth, the reformer Ezra leads the ex-exiles from cooking pan into the fire. Jahzeiah and his three friends Jonathan son of Asahel, and Meshullam and Shabbethai, oppose the ensuing inquisition to no avail, and countless innocent women and children are sent on their way (also see Matthew 5:32).
🔼Etymology of the name Jahzeiah
The name Jahzeiah consists of two elements. The first part of Jahzeiah comes from the verb חזה (haza):
חזה
The verb חזה (haza) means to see or behold. Noun חזה (hozeh) means seer or visionary. Nouns חזות (hazot), חזות (hazut), חזיון (hizzayon) and מחזה (mahazeh) mean vision, anything between the mere act of seeing to experiencing a prophetic apparition. The noun מחזה (meheza) literally describes a place or instrument of vision and is the word for window.
It may be that the verb חזה (haza) originated in the idea of being or looking forward, which would explain the noun חזה (hazeh), which describes the breast of an animal. It may also be that this noun derives from a second verb חזה (haza), to be in front.
The second part of the name Jahzeiah is the appellative יה (Yah) = יהו (Yahu) = יו (Yu), which in turn are abbreviated forms of the Tetragrammaton; the name of the Lord: YHWH.
🔼Jahzeiah meaning
For a meaning of the name Jahzeiah, NOBSE Study Bible Name List proposes Yahweh Sees. BDB Theological Dictionary, endearingly calls Jahzeiah a "prince of the restoration" and translates his name with a similar Yah Sees. Jones' Dictionary of Old Testament Proper Names reads He Will See The Lord.