Darda

Darda — also spelled Dara — is named in two places in scripture, once as a benchmark of pre-Solomonic wisdom and once in the genealogy of Judah. The two passages line up the same four names beside him, marking him as a remembered sage of the early monarchic era.

A Wise Man Surpassed by Solomon

Darda's name is set as a measuring rod for Solomon's wisdom: "For he was wiser than all of man; than Ethan the Ezrahite, and Heman, and Calcol, and Darda, the sons of Mahol: and his fame was in all the nations round about" (1 Kgs 4:31). The four — Ethan, Heman, Calcol, Darda — are the standard against which Solomon is declared greater.

In the Line of Zerah

The genealogy of Judah lists the same four names with the spelling Dara: "And the sons of Zerah: Zimri, and Ethan, and Heman, and Calcol, and Dara; five of them in all" (1 Chr 2:6). The Zerahite line places Ethan, Heman, Calcol, and Dara/Darda in Judah, naming them as sons of Zerah rather than as sons of Mahol — the same recurring foursome that 1 Kings invokes for Solomon's comparison.