Person Old Testament
Habaiah
Also known as Habaiah =ESV, KJV; Hobaiah =ESV, NIV; Habaiah =KJV
Habaiah was a priest whose descendants were excluded from the priesthood due to insufficient genealogical records. Mentioned in 2 verses across 2 books, first at Ezra 2:61.
Why it matters. A priest whose descendants were unable to prove their lineage.
- Primary passages
- Last reviewed
- 2026-08-30 by the FaithGraph team
About Habaiah
Habaiah is mentioned in Ezr.2.61 and Neh.7.63 as one of the priests who returned from the Babylonian exile to Jerusalem. However, when the genealogies of the priests were examined, the descendants of Habaiah were unable to prove their priestly lineage. As a result, they were considered unclean and were excluded from serving as priests. The governor ordered them not to eat from the most holy things until a priest with the Urim and Thummim could resolve the matter. The Urim and Thummim were sacred objects used to determine the will of God. The fact that the descendants of Habaiah could not provide clear genealogical records suggests that their priestly lineage may have been lost or compromised during the exile.
Description from STEPBible TIPNR (Tyndale House, Cambridge), CC BY 4.0, lightly reformatted. This is background reference material, not Scripture and not a FaithGraph editorial claim.
Connections
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Appears in Scripture
Named in 2 verses across 2 books. Occurrence data from STEPBible TIPNR (CC BY 4.0); references only, no translation text.