(Abʹdi) [shortened form of Abdiel].

1. A Levite of the house of Merari. He was the father of Kishi and probably a contemporary of Saul, whose reign ran from 1117 to 1078 B.C.E.​—1Ch 6:31, 33, 39, 44.

2. Also a Levite of the house of Merari. He was the father of Kish. (2Ch 29:12) Because of the similarity of their sons’ names, this Abdi and the one described above are represented in some Bible dictionaries as being the same person. However, the fact that this second Abdi’s son, Kish, lived in the time of King Hezekiah some 250 years after David’s time, makes such a conclusion illogical. This second Abdi was probably a contemporary of Kings Jotham and Ahaz, whose reigns cover the period from 777 B.C.E. to about 746 B.C.E.

3. A man of the family of Elam who lived in postexilic times. (Ezr 10:26) He was among those Israelites who had taken foreign wives but who put them away in response to Ezra’s exhortation following his return to Jerusalem in the seventh year of King Artaxerxes (Longimanus) (468 B.C.E.).​—Ezr 7:8; 10:1-4, 10-12, 26, 44.