JOAH

(Joʹah) [Jah is brother, perhaps in the sense of “helper”].

1. One of the Levitical gatekeepers assigned in David’s day to guard duty over the storehouses; the third son of Obed-edom.—1 Chron. 26:1, 4, 12-15.

2. A Levite descended from Gershom (Gershon); son of Zimmah. (1 Chron. 6:19b-21) He is possibly the same Joah who, with his son, helped dispose of the unclean objects that Hezekiah had removed from the temple at the beginning of his reign.—2 Chron. 29:1, 3, 12, 16.

3. One of the committee of three sent by King Hezekiah to the Assyrian messenger Rabshakeh, but who were not to answer his charges and brags. Joah and his two companions did, however, ask Rabshakeh to speak to them in the Syrian tongue, which they themselves understood, rather than the Jews’ language in the hearing of others on the city wall. With their clothes ripped apart, they reported his threats to Hezekiah. (2 Ki. 18:18, 26, 36, 37; Isa. 36:3, 11, 21, 22) The construction of the text, “Joah the son of Asaph the recorder,” allows for either Joah or Asaph to be “the recorder,” but it is more likely that Joah himself held this office, just as the two with him are also described by their office.

4. The recorder by whom King Josiah sent money to the workers to repair the temple; son of Joahaz.—2 Chron. 34:8-11.