🔼The name Piltai: Summary
- Meaning
- Secure, Deliverance Of Yah
- Etymology
- From (1) the verb פלט (palat), to escape, save or deliver, and possibly (2) יה (yah), the shortened name of the Lord.
🔼The name Piltai in the Bible
The name Piltai occurs only once in the Bible, but note that it is spelled the same as the name Palti. Why people started pronouncing these names different is unknown, but the authors of the Septuagint chose to spell the Hebrew name פלטי as Φαλτι in Numbers 13:9 and 1 Samuel 25:44, and as Φελητι in Nehemiah 12:17. The Masoretes also chose to subscribe these names differently, and modern English translations duly follow suit.
And hence, the one and only Piltai of the Bible is mentioned by Nehemiah as the chief of the family of Moadiah in the time of Joiakim, who was the high priest after the return from the Babylonian exile (Nehemiah 12:17).
🔼Etymology of the name Piltai
The name Piltai comes from the verb פלט (palat), meaning to bring into security:
פלט
The verb פלט (palat) means to bring into security, cause to escape, or to deliver. Noun פלט (pallet) means deliverance. Nouns פליט (palit) and פליט (palet) mean fugitive. Noun פליטה (peleta) means escape or deliverance. Noun מפלט (miplat) describes an agent or place of escape or deliverance.
The letter י (yod) upon which our name ends, may either create an adjective (secure), a possessive form (my deliverance), or may be a remnant of יה (Yah), which is short for יהוה, which is the name YHWH, or Yahweh.
🔼Piltai meaning
For a meaning of the name Piltai, NOBSE Study Bible Name List reads Yahweh Delivers. Jones' Dictionary of Old Testament Proper Names lists Piltai under Palti and reads Deliverance Of The Lord for both. BDB Theological Dictionary doesn't translate either name but lists the two of them under the verb פלט (palat), meaning to bring into security.