Bedeiah is a name found in the King James Bible, appearing 1 time in the text.
Who This Was
Bedeiah was an Israelite man living in the time of Ezra, after the return of the exiles from Babylon to Jerusalem. He is named only once in Scripture, in a list of men who had taken foreign wives, a matter that Ezra the priest and scribe treated as a serious covenant violation. The setting is the post-exilic community, a people seeking to rebuild their life and worship around the law of God after decades of captivity.
Bedeiah appears in Ezra 10:35, in a roster of descendants of Bani who had married women from the surrounding nations. This list was compiled as part of a confession and reform movement. The people had acknowledged their sin, and a process was established to deal with the unlawful marriages. Bedeiah is simply listed by name among the guilty: “Benaiah, Bedeiah, Chelluh.” No further detail is given about him—no family history beyond his clan, no words of his own, no account of what happened to him afterward.
What Scripture says of him is therefore brief but weighty: he was among those who had broken faith by marrying foreign wives. His inclusion in the list means he was counted among the offenders, and presumably he was subject to the same resolution as the others—putting away these wives and offering a guilt offering. Beyond this, the text is silent. His story is one of a name preserved in a record of communal repentance, a single line in a long list of men whose lives were touched by this crisis.
The Name
The Hebrew name Bedeiah (בְּדֵיָה) is not one whose meaning is clearly established. Scholars have proposed various possibilities, often connecting it to roots related to “servant” or “worshiper” of Yah (the LORD), but these suggestions are tentative. The name appears only here in the Hebrew Bible, and without a clear etymology given in the text itself or confirmed by related forms, its precise meaning cannot be stated with confidence. It is better to acknowledge this uncertainty than to assign a meaning that the evidence does not support.
A Closing Thought
Bedeiah’s name is preserved not for a triumph but for a failure—a single entry in a list of men who had wandered from God’s design for His people. Yet even this brief mention is a kind of grace: it testifies that no one is beyond the reach of repentance, and that God’s records include those who stumbled and were called back. His story invites us to examine our own lives honestly, to confess what needs confessing, and to trust that the Lord receives those who turn to Him, even when their only legacy is a name in a list of the forgiven.
At a Glance
- Gender: Male
- Testament: Old
- Mentions in the KJV: 1
Where It Appears in Scripture
- Ezra 10:35 — Benaiah, Bedeiah, Chelluh,