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Meaning, origin and etymology of the name Michaiah


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Michaiah (Micaiah) Michaiah

The names Michaiah and Micaiah are really quite the same and here at Abarim Publications we can't help wondering how the writers of the English Bible imagined to evoke differences in pronunciation by changing a ch for a c.

The first time this name occurs is in Judges 17:1 but after the introduction the name is carried on as Micah, and no translation names this man anything else in the first verse. Then there is a lady Michaiah who is the wife of king Rehoboam (2 Chr 13:2), a prophet whose prophesies were not to Ahab's liking (1 Ki 22:8), a teacher (2 Chr 17:7), the father of one of king Josiah's adjutants who is also known as Micah (2 Chr 34:20 & 2 Ki 22:12), a contemporary ofJeremiah (Jer 36:11 - 6th century BC), and a priest in Nehemiah's time (Neh 12:41).

The name Michaiah consists of three parts:
1) mi (mi 1189), the common inquisitive particle that seeks after identity: who?
2) ke (ke 937), common particle of comparison: like, as.
3) yah (Yah 484b), the abbreviate form of YHWH, or YHWH

The name Michaiah (Who Is Like Yah) and the name Michael (Who Is Like El) are thus quite similar and it is peculiar why Michael became such a popular name in modern times while Michaiah is largely forgotten. Perhaps this is because of Michael the famous archangel, and the fact that not many people know that the name Micah is the accepted abbreviated form of Michaiah (much like our Bill for William).

'To the Lord of God they will comes in dread,
and they will be afraid before Thee.
Who is a God like Thee, who pardons iniquity...?'
- Micah 7:17-18




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