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Discover the meanings of thousands of Biblical names in Abarim Publications' Biblical Name Vault: Abdi

Abdi meaning

Abdi in Biblical Hebrew
עבדי
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Source: https://www.abarim-publications.com/Meaning/Abdi.html

🔼The name Abdi: Summary

Meaning
My Servant, Servile, Servant of Yah
Etymology
From the verb עבד ('abad), to work or serve, possibly extended with the name of the Lord: יה (yah).
Related names
• Via עבד ('abad): Abda, Abdeel, Abdiel, Abdon, Abed-nego, Bedeiah, Ebed, Ebed-melech, Obadiah, Obed, Obed-edom
• Via יה (yah): See the 'browse by form' menu for a long list of yah-names.

🔼The name Abdi in the Bible

There are two men named Abdi in the Bible, both relatively late in the narrative:

  • The first Abdi is a son of Malluch of the tribe of Levi (1 Chronicles 6:44). His son is called Kish or Kishi (2 Chronicles 29:12).
  • The other Abdi is a son of Elam and is among those who divorced their foreign wives during the purge of Ezra (Ezra 10:26).

🔼Etymology of the name Abdi

The name Abdi is constructed from the root עבד ('abad), meaning servant or to serve:

Excerpted from: Abarim Publications' Biblical Dictionary
עבד

The verb עבד ('abad) means to work or serve, and the noun עבד ('ebed) denotes someone who works: from a slave to a hired expert. The Greek equivalent of this noun is δουλος (doulos).

— See the full Dictionary article —

The final letter yod may be a possessive, rendering Abdi the meaning of My Servant or Servile. The name Abdi may also be seen as a truncated form of עבדיה (Obadiah), which means that the final yod is a remnant of יה (Yah) = יהו (Yahu) = יו (Yu), which in turn are abbreviated forms of the Tetragrammaton יהוה, YHWH or Yahweh.

🔼Abdi meaning

BDB Theological Dictionary reads Servant of Yah, and NOBSE Study Bible Name List reads Servant Of Yahweh. Alfred Jones (Dictionary of Old Testament Proper Names) is a bit more proper and reads Servant, i.e. of God