Man living at the time of Exile and Return
Kelaiah, also known as Kelita, was a Levite who had married a foreign woman and pledged to put her away during Ezra's reform.
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Also known as Kelita
Kelaiah, also known as Kelita, is mentioned in Ezr.10.23 as one of the Levites who had married foreign women during the time of Ezra. The context of the passage is Ezra's reform, where he addressed the issue of intermarriage between the Israelites and the pagan peoples of the land (Ezra 9-10).
Kelaiah is listed among the Levites who had taken foreign wives (Ezr.10.23). As part of the covenant made by the people to put away their foreign wives and children, Kelaiah would have been required to separate from his foreign wife (Ezr.10.10-11).
The name Kelaiah is used interchangeably with Kelita in this passage, indicating that they refer to the same person. The use of both names may suggest that Kelaiah was his given name, while Kelita was a surname or an alternative name.
Apart from this mention in the context of Ezra's reform, no other information is provided about Kelaiah's background, specific role, or the circumstances surrounding his marriage to a foreign woman.
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(swift messenger of Jehovah) = Kelita. (Ezra 10:23)
voice of the Lord; gathering together
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 H7041
Among the Levites: Jozabad, Shimei, Kelaiah (that is, Kelita), Pethahiah, Judah, and Eliezer.
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.