Idbash is a name found in the King James Bible, appearing 1 time in the text.
Who This Was
Idbash was a descendant of Judah whose name appears in the tribal genealogies recorded in 1 Chronicles. He is listed among “the sons of the father of Etam”—that is, the descendants or clan associated with Etam, a town in the territory of Judah. Alongside him in this record are Jezreel and Ishma, and the text notes that their sister was named Hazelelponi. The passage identifies this group as belonging to the broader family line of Judah, the fourth son of Jacob.
The setting of this mention is a genealogical record. The Chronicler, writing after the Babylonian exile, gathered the family lines of Israel to show how the tribes were preserved and how the land and its towns were connected to ancestral clans. Etam itself appears elsewhere in Judah’s records as a place tied to this family. Idbash’s name is preserved as part of that settlement and kinship network.
Scripture says nothing further about Idbash. We are not told of his deeds, his character, his occupation, or the length of his life. He appears once, in a list, and then the record moves on. What we know of him is essentially this: he was a son of Judah, connected to Etam, brother to Jezreel and Ishma, and brother to Hazelelponi. His significance in the biblical text is his place in the family of God’s covenant people, not any act he performed.
The Name
The Hebrew name Idbash (אִדְבָּשׁ) is generally understood to be related to the Hebrew word for honey, debash, giving a sense such as “honeyed” or “sweet.” Some reference works suggest a meaning along the lines of “sweet as honey” or “flowing with honey.” Because the name is rare and appears only here in Scripture, certainty is not absolute, and the exact nuance in this personal name is not fully settled. What can be said is that the honey association is the most commonly proposed, and it is not an invented meaning.
A Closing Thought
Most of us will never be remembered in a list that survives for thousands of years. Yet Idbash’s single verse is enough: he belonged to Judah, he had a family, he had a place. God’s story is carried not only by the famous but by ordinary people whose names He still saw fit to keep. If your life feels small and unrecorded, take heart—your place in His family is not measured by how much is written about you. He knows your name, and that is enough.
At a Glance
- Gender: Male
- Testament: Old
- Mentions in the KJV: 1
Where It Appears in Scripture
- 1 Chronicles 4:3 — And these were of the father of Etam; Jezreel, and Ishma, and Idbash: and the name of their sister was Hazelelponi: