ABDI

(Abʹdi) [probably, a contracted form of “servant of Jah”].

1. A Levite of the house of Merari. He was the father of Kishi and probably a contemporary of Saul whose reign ran from 1117 to 1077 B.C.E.—1 Chron. 6:31, 33, 39, 44.

2. Also a Levite of the house of Merari. He was the father of Kish. (2 Chron. 29:12) Because of the similarity of their sons’ names some Bible dictionaries represent this Abdi and the one described above as being the same person. However, the fact that this second Abdi’s son, Kish, lived in the time of King Hezekiah some 250 years after David’s time, makes such a conclusion illogical. This second Abdi was probably a contemporary of Kings Jotham and Ahaz, whose reigns cover the period from 777 B.C.E. to 745 B.C.E.

3. One of six sons of Elam who lived in postcaptivity times. (Ezra 10:26) They were among those Israelites who had taken foreign wives but who put them away in response to Ezra’s exhortation following his return to Jerusalem in the seventh year of King Artaxerxes I (468 B.C.E.).—Ezra 7:8; 10:1-4, 10-12, 26, 44.