עַתְלַי
Athlai, an Israelite
Definition
עַתְלַי (ʻAthlay) is a proper noun referring to an Israelite man named Athlai, who is mentioned only once in the Old Testament. He was among the men who had married foreign women during the post-exilic period and was compelled by Ezra to divorce his foreign wife as part of the community's covenant renewal and purification (Ezra 10:28). The name itself is of uncertain meaning but is likely derived from a root connoting constriction or compression. As a proper name, it serves solely to identify this individual within the historical narrative of Ezra's reforms.
Biblical Usage
This word is used exactly once in the Old Testament, in Ezra 10:28. It appears in a list of men from the family of Bebai who had taken foreign wives. The usage is purely identificatory within a specific historical and religious context: the crisis addressed by Ezra regarding intermarriage with the surrounding peoples, which was seen as a threat to Israel's religious identity after the return from exile.
Etymology
The name עַתְלַי (ʻAthlay) is derived from an unused Hebrew root, likely meaning 'to compress' or 'to be constringent.' This suggests a possible original meaning related to constriction or binding. As a proper name, its etymological sense is opaque and not directly informative about the biblical character, which is common for many Hebrew personal names.
Semantic Range
While the name Athlai itself is not theologically loaded, its single biblical occurrence is theologically significant. It places an individual within the narrative of Ezra's drastic reforms (Ezra 9-10), which highlight the themes of covenant faithfulness, separation from pagan influences, and the seriousness of maintaining communal holiness after the exile. Understanding that this name represents a real person affected by these reforms personalizes the cost and conviction of this controversial biblical event.
In its cultural context, this name identifies a member of the post-exilic Jewish community grappling with identity and assimilation. The action taken against Athlai—divorcing his foreign wife—reflects the intense communal pressure and legal interpretation of the time to preserve ethnic and religious purity by severing ties with non-Israelites, a practice that modern readers must understand within its specific historical moment.
Word Details
How this works
Hebrew definitions are from Brown-Driver-Briggs (1906) and Strong's Exhaustive Concordance (1890), both public domain. BDB was groundbreaking for its era but reflects 19th-century assumptions about Semitic etymology. Modern scholarship (HALOT, DCH) has revised many entries. Use these definitions as a starting point for exploration, not as the final word on a term's meaning in context.
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