Pileha is a name found in the King James Bible, appearing 1 time in the text.
Who This Was
Pileha was one of the leaders of Israel who put his seal to a written covenant during the governorship of Nehemiah, after the Jews had returned from exile in Babylon and rebuilt the wall of Jerusalem. The covenant is recorded in Nehemiah 10, where the people bound themselves with a curse and an oath to walk in God’s law, to keep all the commandments of the LORD, and to observe specific obligations concerning marriages, the Sabbath, and the support of the temple and its service.
Pileha’s name appears in a list of those who signed and sealed this agreement. The document was sealed by Nehemiah the governor and by a company of priests, Levites, and heads of the people. Pileha is named among the chiefs of the people in Nehemiah 10:24, in a roster that includes Hallohesh and Shobek alongside him. These were not priests or Levites but lay leaders, men of standing whose public endorsement gave weight to the pledge of the whole community.
Scripture records nothing else about Pileha—no words, no deeds beyond this single appearance. His significance lies entirely in the act of sealing the covenant: he staked his name and his honor on a promise to obey God. He is one of a handful of otherwise unknown men whose only memorial in Scripture is that they publicly committed themselves, and those they led, to faithfulness.
The Name
The name Pileha is a Hebrew name, but its meaning is not clearly recoverable from the biblical text or from standard Hebrew lexicons. No reliable etymology is well established, and it would be speculation to assign it a definite sense. Like several of the names in Nehemiah’s covenant list, it survives as a personal name without a transparent root meaning that can be confidently stated.
A Closing Thought
Most of us will never be remembered by name in a great document or a public record. Pileha is remembered for exactly one thing: he signed his name to a promise to follow God. There is quiet encouragement in that. Faithfulness is often unseen and uncelebrated, yet God keeps the record. A single act of honest commitment, made before Him and kept by His grace, is not a small thing. Pileha sealed a covenant and vanished from the story; but the God who saw him seal it did not forget.
At a Glance
- Gender: Male
- Testament: Old
- Mentions in the KJV: 1
Where It Appears in Scripture
- Nehemiah 10:24 — Hallohesh, Pileha, Shobek,