🔼The name Eliahba: Summary
- Meaning
- God Hides
- Etymology
- From (1) the word אל ('el), God, and (2) the verb חבא (haba'), to hide.
🔼The name Eliahba in the Bible
There's only one man named Eliahba in the Bible. He is a Shaalbonite and one of David's celebrated mighty-men, and that's all we know about this man. No further details are told (2 Samuel 23:32, 1 Chronicles 11:33).
🔼Etymology of the name Eliahba
The name Eliahba consists of two elements. The first part comes from אל ('el), the prominent Canaanite deity whose name became applied to the God of Israel, or the common abbreviation of Elohim, the genus God:
אל אלה
In names אל ('el) usually refers to אלהים ('elohim), that is Elohim, or God, also known as אלה ('eloah). In English, the words 'God' and 'god' exclusively refer to the deity but in Hebrew the words אל ('l) and אלה ('lh) are far more common and may express approach and negation, acts of wailing and pointing, and may even mean oak or terebinth.
The second part of our name derives from the verb חבא (haba'), meaning to hide:
חבא
The verb חבא (haba') means to hide, usually out of fear of death. Nouns מחבא (mahabe') and מחבא (mahabo') mean hiding place.
Verb חבה (haba) is probably a variant spelling of the previous and means the same. Noun חביון (hebyon) means a hiding.
Verb חוב (hub) means to be guilty. Noun חוב (hob) means debt.
🔼Eliahba meaning
For a meaning of the name Eliahba, NOBSE Study Bible Name List reads God Conceals. Jones' Dictionary of Old Testament Proper Names proposes Whom God Hides. And BDB Theological Dictionary has God Hides.