• Jahath
    Aid to Bible Understanding

    • JAHATH

      (Jaʹhath) [perhaps, he (God) will snatch up].

      1. A descendant of Judah. Jahath’s two sons founded the families of the Zorathites.—1 Chron. 4:1, 2.

      2. A Levite descended from Gershon (Gershom) through Libni, and an ancestor of Asaph.—Ex. 6:17; 1 Chron. 6:1, 20, 39-43.

      3. Another Levite descended from Gershon, but through Gershon’s other son, Shimei. Jahath was the head over his brothers, and his sons became a paternal house.—1 Chron. 23:6, 7, 10, 11.

      4. A Levite during David’s reign; a descendant of Kohath’s son Izhar through Shelomoth.—1 Chron. 6:18; 24:22.

      5. One of four Levites, a Merarite, assigned to oversee the temple repair work that King Josiah promoted.—2 Chron. 34:12.

  • Jahaz
    Aid to Bible Understanding

    • JAHAZ

      (Jaʹhaz) [perhaps, a trodden or open place].

      A city E of the Jordan and evidently situated N of the Arnon. It was probably wrested from the Moabites by Amorite King Sihon. (Num. 21:23-26) At Jahaz the Israelites defeated the forces of Sihon, and the city itself became a Reubenite possession. (Deut. 2:32, 33; Josh. 13:15, 18, 23; Judg. 11:20, 21) Subsequently Jahaz was designated as a Levite city for the Merarites. (Josh. 21:34, 36) Later in Israel’s history the city came under Moabite control. On the Moabite Stone King Mesha boasted of having taken Jahaz from the king of Israel with two hundred warriors. Also, the prophets Isaiah and Jeremiah mention the city in pronouncements Against Moab.—Isa. 15:1, 4; Jer. 48:1, 34.

      Although geographers have suggested several possible sites for ancient Jahaz, its precise location remains unknown.

  • Jahaziel
    Aid to Bible Understanding

    • JAHAZIEL

      (Ja·ha·ziʹel) [God sees].

      1. Third-listed son of Hebron, a Kohathite of the tribe of Levi.—1 Chron. 23:6, 12, 19; 24:23.

      2. One of the mighty men who joined David at Ziklag.—1 Chron. 12:1, 4.

      3. One of the priests with trumpets stationed before the ark of the covenant after David had it brought to Jerusalem.—1 Chron. 16:1, 6.

      4. The Levite who was empowered by Jehovah’s spirit to speak words of encouragement to King Jehoshaphat and the congregation when they were threatened by a superior force of the enemy. “Here is what Jehovah has said to you, ‘Do not you be afraid or be terrified because of this large crowd,’” Jahaziel declared, “ ‘for the battle is not yours, but God’s. . . . You will not need to fight in this instance. Take your position, stand still and see the salvation of Jehovah in your behalf.’” (2 Chron. 20:14-17) Jahaziel was the son of Zechariah, a descendant of Asaph of the Gershom (Gershon [Gen. 46:11]) family of Levites, hence not a priest.—1 Chron. 6:39-43.

      5. The father of Shecaniah, who was one of those returning to Jerusalem with Ezra in 468 B.C.E.—Ezra 8:1, 5.

  • Jahdiel
    Aid to Bible Understanding

    • JAHDIEL

      (Jahʹdi·el) [God gives joy].

      One of the household heads of the half tribe of Manasseh residing E of the Jordan; a valiant, mighty man. Jahdiel’s descendants “began to act unfaithfully” toward Jehovah, leading to eventual exile by the Assyrians.—1 Chron. 5:23-26.

  • Jahzeiah
    Aid to Bible Understanding

    • JAHZEIAH

      (Jah·zeiʹah) [Jah sees].

      One who apparently opposed Ezra’s proposal that the sons of Israel send away their foreign wives and the children born to them; son of Tikvah. (Ezra 10:3, 10, 11, 15) One commentary contends that this opposition of Jahzeiah and Jonathan was not against Ezra’s suggestion but against the procedure adopted for carrying it out. According to the Septuagint and Vulgate, Jahzeiah and the others assisted rather than opposed Ezra. Hence, an alternate rendering of verse 15 says that Jonathan and Jahzeiah “were the ones that acted representatively in this behalf.”—NW, 1955 ed., ftn. a; AV; AS, margin; Dy; Knox.

  • Jailer
    Aid to Bible Understanding

    • JAILER

      One having in his custody persons accused of breaking the law; a prison keeper. Two Greek words are translated in the Scriptures as jailer: ba·sa·ni·stesʹ, meaning “tormentor” or “torturer,” and de·smo·phyʹlax, a compound of de·smosʹ (band, fetter) and phyʹlax (guard or keeper).

      Jailers often inflicted cruel tortures on prisoners, hence were called ba·sa·ni·stesʹ. For example, debtors were sometimes thrown into prison for failing to pay what they owed. There the jailer might scourge and torture them and they would not be released until, as Jesus said, they “paid over the last coin of very little value.” (Matt. 5:25, 26) This also was the point of Jesus’ illustration about the unmerciful slave. When the master learned what his ungrateful slave had done, he “delivered him to the jailers [ba·sa·ni·staisʹ], until he should pay back all that was owing.”—Matt. 18:34, 35.

      If the prisoners escaped, jailers were held liable for the penalty imposed on the escapee, according to Roman custom. Hence, when Peter was set free from prison by an angel, we read that Herod “examined the guards and commanded them to be led off to punishment.”—Acts 12:19.

      In Philippi Paul and Silas were dragged before the civil magistrates, who commanded that they be beaten with rods, and “after they had inflicted many stripes upon them, they threw them into prison, ordering the jailer [de·smo·phyʹla·ki] to keep them securely. Because he got such an order, he threw them into the inner prison and made their feet fast in the stocks.” (Acts 16:22-24) Then in the middle of the night a great earthquake opened all the prison doors. This caused the jailer to imagine the prisoners had escaped, and realizing what severe punishment would be meted out to him if this were so, he was about to