Eliab

E'liab

[usually Eli'ab] (Heb). Eliab', אֶלַיאָב, to whom God is father; Sept. Ε᾿λιάβ, Vulg. Eliab), the name of seven men.

1. A Reubenite, son of Pallu or Phallu, whose family was one of the principal in the tribe, and father or progenitor of Dathan and Abiram, the leaders in the revolt against Moses (Nu 26:8-9; Nu 16:1,12; De 11:6). B.C. post. 1856. Eliab had another son named Nemuel; and the record of Numbers 26 is interrupted expressly to admit a statement regarding his sons.

2. A son of Helen, and phylarch of the tribe of Zebulun at the time of the census in the wilderness of Sinai (Nu 1:9; Nu 2:7; Nu 7:24,29; Nu 10:16). B.C. 1657.

3. An ancestor of Samuel (q.v.) the prophet, being a Kohathite Levite, son of Nahath and father of Jeroham (1Ch 6:27 [12]). B.C. cir. 1250. In the other statements of the genealogy this name appears to be given as ELIHU SEE ELIHU (1Sa 1:1) and ELIEL SEE ELIEL (1Ch 6:34 [19]).

4. The eldest son of Jesse and brother of David (1Sa 16:6; 1Sa 17:13; 1Ch 2:13). It was he that made the contemptuous inquiry, by which he sought to screen his own cowardice, when David proposed to fight Goliath, "With whom hast thou left those few sheep in the wilderness?" (1Sa 17:28.) B.C. 1063. His daughter Abihail married her second cousin Rehoboam, and bore him three children (2Ch 11:18); although, taking into account the length of the reigns of David and Solomon, it is difficult not to suspect that the word "daughter" is here used in the less strict sense of granddaughter or descendant. In 1Ch 27:18, we find mention of "ELIHU, of the brethren of David," as "ruler" (נָגַיד) or "prince" (שִׂר) of the tribe of Judah. According to the ancient Hebrew tradition preserved by Jerome (Quaest. Hebr. ad loc.), this Elihu was identical with Eliab. "Brethren" is, however, often used in the sense of kinsman, e.g. 1Ch 12:2.

5. The third of the Gadite heroes who joined David in his stronghold in the wilderness (1Ch 12:9). B.C. 1061;

6. A Levite in the time pf David, who was both a "porter" (שׁוֹעֵר, shoer, i.e. a door-keeper) and a musician on the "psaltery" (1Ch 15:18,20; 1Ch 16:5). B.C. 1013.

7. Son of Nathanael, one of the forefathers of Judith, and therefore belonging to the tribe of Simeon (Judith 8:1).