(O·ba·diʹah) [Servant of Jehovah].

1. A family head in the tribe of Issachar; son of Izrahiah and descendant of Tola.​—1Ch 7:1-3.

2. A Zebulunite whose son was a prince of that tribe during David’s rule.​—1Ch 27:19, 22.

3. A mighty Gadite warrior who crossed the Jordan at flood stage and supported David when he lived as a fugitive from Saul’s wrath.​—1Ch 12:8, 9, 14, 15.

4. The household steward of King Ahab. Even though King Ahab and Jezebel practiced wickedness, Obadiah greatly feared Jehovah, hiding 100 prophets of Jehovah “by fifties in a cave” when Jezebel had ordered them all slaughtered. During the divinely imposed drought foretold by Elijah, Obadiah’s master Ahab divided certain territory with him, and each was searching for grass to feed the livestock when Elijah met up with Obadiah. Elijah had not been seen by Ahab during the drought, a period of some three years. Upon being told to inform Ahab that Elijah had returned, Obadiah, out of great fear, hesitated to go until given assurance that the prophet would not leave, for Ahab would surely kill his servant if this report proved false.​—1Ki 18:1-16.

5. A prince sent by Jehoshaphat to teach the law of Jehovah in the cities of Judah.​—2Ch 17:7, 9.

6. A distant descendant of Saul and Jonathan in the tribe of Benjamin.​—1Ch 8:33-38; 9:44.

7. A Merarite Levite, one of the overseers of the temple repairs that King Josiah ordered to be made.​—2Ch 34:8, 12.

 8. A prophet of Jehovah and writer of the fourth of the so-called minor prophetic books. (Ob 1) Nothing personal is known of this prophet of the seventh century B.C.E.​—See OBADIAH, BOOK OF.

9. A Levite who returned from Babylon and lived in Jerusalem. (1Ch 9:2, 3, 14, 16) He is evidently called Abda at Nehemiah 11:17. Possibly the same as No. 13.

10. A postexilic descendant of David.​—1Ch 3:5, 9, 10, 21.

11. Head of the paternal house of Joab who led 218 males of this family back to Jerusalem with Ezra in 468 B.C.E.; son of Jehiel.​—Ezr 8:1, 9.

12. One of the priests (or his descendant) who subscribed to the covenant of faithfulness made by the returned exiles under Nehemiah’s governorship.​—Ne 9:38; 10:1, 5, 8.

13. A Levite gatekeeper in the days of Nehemiah and Ezra. (Ne 12:25, 26) Possibly the same as No. 9.