🔼The name Hazaiah: Summary
- Meaning
- Yah Has Seen
- Etymology
- From (1) the verb חזה (haza), to see or have [a] vision, and (2) יה (yah), the shortened name of the Lord.
🔼The name Hazaiah in the Bible
There's only one Hazaiah in the Bible. He is the great-grandfather of a man named Maaseiah, who was among the men of Judah who repeopled Jerusalem after the return from the Babylonian exile (Nehemiah 11:5).
🔼Etymology of the name Hazaiah
The name Hazaiah consists of two elements, the final one being יה (Yah) = יהו (Yahu) = יו (Yu), which in turn are abbreviated forms of the Tetragrammaton יהוה, YHWH, or Yahweh.
The first part of our name comes from the verb חזה (haza I), meaning to look or see:
חזה
The verb חזה (haza) means to see or behold. Noun חזה (hozeh) means seer or visionary. Nouns חזות (hazot), חזות (hazut), חזיון (hizzayon) and מחזה (mahazeh) mean vision, anything between the mere act of seeing to experiencing a prophetic apparition. The noun מחזה (meheza) literally describes a place or instrument of vision and is the word for window.
It may be that the verb חזה (haza) originated in the idea of being or looking forward, which would explain the noun חזה (hazeh), which describes the breast of an animal. It may also be that this noun derives from a second verb חזה (haza), to be in front.
🔼Hazaiah meaning
For a meaning of the name Hazaiah, NOBSE Study Bible Name List reads Yahweh Has Seen and BDB Theological Dictionary has the similar Yah Hath Seen. Jones' Dictionary of Old Testament Proper Names proposes Seen Of The Lord, and adds "i.e. watched over by Him".