Hephzibah

Hephzibah was the wife of King Hezekiah and the mother of King Manasseh of Judah. The name is also used symbolically by the prophet Isaiah to describe the restored Jerusalem, signifying that God would once again take delight in His people and their land after a period of desolation and exile.

Etymology & Roots

Hephzibah is a compound Hebrew name: חֶפְצִי (cheptsi), meaning "my delight" or "my desire," combined with בָהּ (bah), a feminine third-person suffix meaning "in her." The full form חֶפְצִי־בָהּ therefore renders as "my delight is in her." The root חָפֵץ (chaphets) means to take pleasure in or to desire; it appears frequently in wisdom literature to describe God's delight in the righteous. The hyphenated compound structure in the Masoretic text preserves the name as a single unit of meaning.

This grammatical construction — personal pronoun + preposition + object — is characteristic of Hebrew naming as theological declaration, making the name itself a statement of divine affection.

Biblical Bearers

Two distinct bearers of the name Hephzibah appear in Scripture. The first is the wife of King Hezekiah and mother of King Manasseh, mentioned in 2 Kings 21:1. She stands in the shadow of her son's notoriously wicked fifty-five year reign, the longest in Judah, providing a poignant contrast between her name's tender meaning and her son's apostasy.

The second use is not a person but a prophetic name given to restored Jerusalem in Isaiah 62:4, where God declares that the city once called "Forsaken" will be renamed Hephzibah, signifying his renewed delight in Zion after exile.

Theological Significance

Hephzibah captures one of the most intimate dimensions of biblical theology: God's delight in his people. In Isaiah 62:4, the name is paired with Beulah ("married"), and together they reverse the shameful names of abandonment and desolation. The prophet declares that God will rejoice over Jerusalem as a bridegroom over his bride, a metaphor that anticipates the New Testament image of Christ and the church.

The fact that Hezekiah's queen bore this name suggests an environment of faith in which such a declaration could be made over a child — yet even within a godly home, the covenant name could not guarantee the son's faithfulness, underscoring that divine delight must be received personally.

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