Azariah

A very common name—which means 'whom Yahweh helps' in Hebrew—of which at least eight individuals may be identified in the OT. We begin our examination with the more important figures.

1. The preferred name for King Uzziah in the book of Kings.

2. The son of Johanan who succeeded his grandfather Zadok as high priest in the reign of Solomon, with the honour of being one of the first to serve in the temple Solomon built (1 Ki 4:2; 1 Chron 6:9).

3. A priest during the reign of King Uzziah who led a group of eighty other priests to confront the king on the occasion when the king contemptuously entered the temple to burn incense on the altar and was afterwards afflicted with leprosy (2 Chron 26:16-20). This priest would have been the contemporary of Isaiah, Amos and Joel.

4. The son of Oded who, when "the Spirit of God came upon him" went to King Asa, confronted him with the dire state of the nation and encouraged him not to give up in his efforts to rule the nation well (2 Chron 15:1-7). Upon this, Asa "removed the detestable idols from the whole land of Judah and Benjamin and from the towns he had captured in the hills of Ephraim. He repaired the altar of the LORD that was in front of the portico of the Lord's temple" (v8) and stirred the people to a great national reformation (vv9-18).

5. The original name of Abednego.

6. Chief priest at the time of King Hezekiah's reign (2 Chron 31:10-13).

7. A priest (high priest?), the son of Ahimaaz, and grandfather of 2) above.

8. The priest (high priest?), the son of Hilkiah, great great great grandson of 2) above.

9. One of the sons of King Jehoshaphat (2 Chron 21:1); of him nothing else is known.

10. In addition to these, there are an indeterminable number of persons called Azariah who appear only as an item in a list of Levites, priests, or genealogy.