Bilgah

Bilgah is the name of one — and possibly two — priests in the post-Davidic and post-exilic priestly registers. The name appears once in the Davidic course-list of 1 Chronicles 24 and twice in the priestly rosters of Nehemiah 12. A related form, Bilgai, surfaces once more among the priests who sealed Nehemiah's covenant; the possibility that Bilgai and Bilgah refer to the same figure has been raised without firm identification.

Head Of The Fifteenth Priestly Course

The first occurrence sits inside the Davidic organization of the priesthood by lot. The enumeration opens, "Now the first lot came forth to Jehoiarib, the second to Jedaiah" (1Ch 24:7), and proceeds in numbered sequence. Bilgah holds the fifteenth position: "the fifteenth to Bilgah, the sixteenth to Immer" (1Ch 24:14). Within the UPDV course-list, Bilgah is the head of the fifteenth shift, named only by lot-number and successor; no narrative attaches to him beyond the place his house holds in the rotation.

A Priest Returning With Zerubbabel

In Nehemiah's record of the post-exilic restoration, Bilgah reappears in the list of those "who went up with Zerubbabel the son of Shealtiel, and Jeshua: Seraiah, Jeremiah, Ezra" (Neh 12:1), where Bilgah is named alongside "Mijamin, Maadiah, Bilgah" (Neh 12:5). A few verses later, in the heads-of-fathers' houses registered "in the days of Joiakim" (Neh 12:12), the Bilgah course is represented by Shammua: "of Bilgah, Shammua; of Shemaiah, Jehonathan" (Neh 12:18). The name therefore designates a continuing priestly house — a course present at the return and still identifiable a generation later under the high priest Joiakim.

Bilgai And The Sealed Covenant

One further reference is noted for consideration. Among the priests who set their seal to the covenant under Nehemiah, the list reads "Maaziah, Bilgai, Shemaiah; these were the priests" (Neh 10:8). The form here is "Bilgai," not "Bilgah." The two are sometimes reported as perhaps identical; the UPDV text itself simply records the variant form in the sealing-list and does not equate the two. The reader is left with a probable but not asserted link between the Bilgah of the Zerubbabel and Joiakim rosters and the Bilgai of the covenant seal.