Man living at the time of Exile and Return
Kallai was a priest who served during the time of Joiakim, the son of Jeshua, after the Babylonian exile.
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Kallai is mentioned in Neh.12.20 as one of the priests who served during the time of Joiakim, the son of Jeshua. The context of the passage is the list of priests and Levites who served in the temple after the Babylonian exile (Neh.12.1-26).
Kallai is listed as the head of the priestly family of Sallai (Neh.12.20). This suggests that he was a prominent priest who led his family in their service at the temple during the post-exilic period.
The mention of Kallai in this list highlights the importance of the priestly families and their organization in the restored community of Israel. It also demonstrates the continuity of priestly service and the significance of the temple in the religious life of the people after the exile.
Apart from this brief mention in Nehemiah, no other information is provided about Kallai's life, specific role, or the duration of his service as a priest.
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(swift servant of Jehovah), a priest in the days of Joiakim the son of Jeshua. He represented the family of Sallai. (Nehemiah 12:20) (B.C. after 536.)
light; resting by fire; my voice
KAL'LAI (swift runner of Jehovah), a priest, a chief of the fathers in the days of Joiakim. Neh 12:20.
KAL'LAI (swift runner of Jehovah), a priest, a chief of the fathers in the days of Joiakim. Neh 12:20.
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.
1 verse in 1 book · English text: BSB (change it from the menu at the top) · Strong’s H7040
of Sallai, Kallai; of Amok, Eber;
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.