The name, which means "whom God has given," appears 7x in the Old Testament; from these at least two persons can be identified with certainty and two or three 'perhapses.'
1) Elnathan son of Achor was an official in King Jehoiakim's court who first comes to attention when he was sent by the king to Egypt to bring back Uriah, the prophet who had upset the king by his oracles, to be punished (Jer 26:22). He reappears again when he and the other officials heard about the scroll from which Baruch had read out Jeremiah's oracles asked Baruch to read it out aloud to them. Having heard its content they reported to Jehoiakim who then asked for it to be read to him. After every three or four columns of the scroll had been read, Jehoiakim had it cut off and burned in the brazier. Elnathan and some of the officials urged the king not to do that but their counsel fell on deaf ears (Jer 36:12, 25). Apart from these we hear no more of him.
2) Jehoiachin's maternal grandfather. His daughter was Nehushta who was married to Jehoiakim.
3) Ezra 8 lists the family heads and those registered with them to return to Jerusalem with Ezra. When they were assembled Ezra found there were no Levites among them. Ezra, accordingly, sent a team to the city of Casiphia to see if they could locate any Levites there to join them in their venture back to Jerusalem. V3 lists three Elnathan's among the delegation. Whether the three names represent three different individuals of the same name or they are just scribal errors cannot be ascertained.
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