Gedaliah

Gedalja ben Achikam ( Hebrew גְּדַלְיָהוּ בֶן-אֲחִיקָם, "Yahweh is great / has proven himself great") was Babylonian governor in the province of Judas . He was after the conquest of Jerusalem (around July 29, 587 BC) by the Babylonians under Nebuchadnezzar II. 587 BC. Used. His father was Achikam, his grandfather Schafan, so he belonged to the Schafaniden clan, which advocated accepting the Babylonian occupation ( Jer 26.24  EU , Jer 29.3  EU , Jer 36.10  EU ).

He resided in the city of Mizpah, which remained undestroyed in the course of the Babylonian conquest . After only seven months in office, he was killed in an assassination attempt by Ishmael ben Netanya. This belonged to the army of the just fallen royal house of the Davidids , which previously ruled the kingdom of Judah . Most of the Jews who had not yet been deported then fled to Egypt out of fear of the Babylonians (cf. 2nd Book of Kings 25: 22-26).

Religious Jews commemorate his murder on the 3rd of Tishri with a day of fasting, Zom Gedalja .

Web links

• Hermann-Josef Stipp:  Gedalja. In: Michaela Bauks, Klaus Koenen, Stefan Alkier (Eds.): The Scientific Biblical Lexicon on the Internet (WiBiLex), Stuttgart 2006 ff.

literature

Edward R. Dalglish: Gedaliah (Person) 1 . In: Anchor Bible Dictionary . Volume 2, Yale University Press, New Haven 1992, ISBN 0-385-19360-2 , page 923.
Robert Althann: Gedaliah (Person) 2-5 . In: Anchor Bible Dictionary . Volume 2, Yale University Press, New Haven 1992, ISBN 0-385-19360-2 , pp. 923–9.