Dodo

Dodo is a personal name borne by at least three different men in the Hebrew Scriptures, and the variant form Dodai surfaces alongside it in the parallel records of David's military establishment. In every case the name appears only as a patronymic — a father identified so that a more prominent son or grandson can be placed in his line. The umbrella gathers a judge's grandfather from Issachar, the father of one of David's mightiest warriors, and a Bethlehemite whose son Elhanan stood among the Thirty.

Dodo of Issachar

The first Dodo named in Scripture is the grandfather of the minor judge Tola. After the death of Abimelech, "there arose to save Israel Tola the son of Puah, the son of Dodo, a man of Issachar; and he dwelt in Shamir in the hill-country of Ephraim" (Jud 10:1). The name surfaces only as a link in the genealogy that anchors Tola's tribal identity, locating his line in Issachar even as his judgeship is exercised from the hill country of Ephraim.

Dodo the Ahohite, Father of Eleazar

A second Dodo — also written Dodai — is named as the father of Eleazar, one of the three chief warriors of David. The Samuel record calls him "Eleazar the son of Dodai the son of an Ahohite, one of the three mighty men with David, when they defied the Philistines who were there gathered together to battle, and the men of Israel had gone away" (2Sa 23:9). The Chronicler, retelling the same roster, gives the form Dodo: "And after him was Eleazar the son of Dodo, the Ahohite, who was one of the three mighty men" (1Ch 11:12).

The same Ahohite reappears in the organization of David's monthly courses, where the variant Dodai is again preserved: "And over the course of the second month was Dodai the Ahohite, and his course; and Mikloth the leader: and in his course were twenty and four thousand" (1Ch 27:4). Whether the form is Dodo or Dodai, the man is identified by his clan (Ahohite) and by his son Eleazar, whose stand against the Philistines secured him a place among the elite three.

Dodo of Bethlehem, Father of Elhanan

A third Dodo is the Bethlehemite whose son Elhanan was numbered among the Thirty. In the catalog of David's mighty men, immediately after Asahel the brother of Joab, the record names "Elhanan the son of Dodo of Beth-lehem" (2Sa 23:24). The Chronicler's parallel list opens its enumeration the same way: "Also the mighty men of the armies: Asahel the brother of Joab, Elhanan the son of Dodo of Beth-lehem," (1Ch 11:26). The town distinguishes this Dodo from his Ahohite contemporary, and the patronymic is the only trace he leaves in Scripture — a Bethlehemite father whose son fought beside David's nephew in the king's standing roster.