Woman living at the time of United Monarchy
Eglah was one of David's wives and the mother of his son Ithream, born in Hebron.
🗺 Places mentioned alongside Eglah on the map →
Eglah is mentioned in 2Sa.3.5 and 1Ch.3.3 as one of King David's wives. She is specifically identified as the mother of David's son Ithream, who was born to David while he was reigning in Hebron.
The context of these passages is the listing of David's sons born to him in Hebron, where he reigned over Judah for seven years and six months before becoming king over all Israel (2Sa.5.5). Eglah is mentioned alongside David's other wives, such as Ahinoam, Abigail, Maacah, and Haggith, each of whom bore him a son during this period.
Interestingly, Eglah is the only one of David's wives mentioned in this list who is not given a descriptive title or background information. The other wives are identified as the daughter of a king or the widow of a notable figure, but Eglah is simply mentioned by name.
Some scholars suggest that Eglah may have been another name for Michal, David's first wife and the daughter of King Saul. However, this is not stated explicitly in the text, and there is no conclusive evidence to support this theory.
Apart from being listed as the mother of Ithream, no further information is provided about Eglah in the biblical text. Her mention in these genealogies serves to highlight David's family structure and the sons born to him during his reign in Hebron.
More background: search Wikipedia ↗
A heifer, one of David’s wives, and mother of Ithream (2 Sam. 3:5; 1 Chr. 3:3). According to a Jewish tradition she was Michal.
(a heifer), one of David’s wives during his reign in Hebron. (2 Samuel 3:5; 1 Chronicles 3:3) (B.C. 1055.)
heifer; chariot; round
EG'LAH (a heifer), one of David's wives. 2 Sam 3:5.
EG'LAH (a heifer), one of David's wives. 2 Sam 3:5.
Easton (1897), Smith (1863), Hitchcock (1869), Hastings (1898) and Schaff are in the public domain. Parsed text: neuu-org/bible-dictionary-dataset (CC BY 4.0). Headwords and whitespace normalised for this site.
2 verses in 2 books · English text: BSB (change it from the menu at the top) · Strong’s H5698
and his sixth was Ithream, by Davidʼs wife Eglah. These sons were born to David in Hebron.
the fifth was Shephatiah by Abital; and the sixth was Ithream by his wife Eglah.
Names, family links and references: STEPBible TIPNR (Tyndale House Cambridge, CC BY 4.0). Short descriptions were drafted with AI assistance by STEPBible. Family links follow STEPBible’s scholarly decisions where genealogies are ambiguous.