Elah

The name Elah attaches to one place and seven different men in the UPDV. The place is a Philistine-frontier valley remembered for one combat. The men are spread across Edomite chief-lists, Calebite and Benjamite genealogies, Solomon's district administration, the northern monarchy's middle stretch, and the patronymic of the last king of Israel. Nothing in the UPDV ties these bearers of the name to one another; they share only the word.

The Valley of Elah

The valley of Elah is the staging ground for the Philistine-Israelite confrontation in which David fights Goliath. Saul and Israel encamp there in battle order: "And Saul and the men of Israel were gathered together, and encamped in the valley of Elah, and set the battle in array against the Philistines" (1Sa 17:2). The narrator restates the location at the moment David arrives: "Now Saul, and they, and all the men of Israel, were in the valley of Elah, fighting with the Philistines" (1Sa 17:19).

The valley is named once more, retrospectively, when David seeks bread and a weapon from Ahimelech at Nob. Goliath's sword has been kept at the sanctuary, and the priest identifies it by where the killing happened: "The sword of Goliath the Philistine, whom you slew in the valley of Elah, look, it is here wrapped in a cloth behind the ephod" (1Sa 21:9). The valley functions in the UPDV as a single fixed referent — the place where David slew Goliath — and the sword in the ephod chamber is the relic that carries the place-name forward.

Chief Elah of Edom

In the Edomite chief-lists Elah appears once in Genesis and once in Chronicles, in identical position between Oholibamah and Pinon. Genesis lists "chief Oholibamah, chief Elah, chief Pinon" (Gen 36:41); Chronicles repeats the line word-for-word: "chief Oholibamah, chief Elah, chief Pinon" (1Ch 1:52). Elah here is a clan-chief of Edom, named only as a member of the sequence.

Elah Son of Caleb

In the Judahite genealogy of Caleb son of Jephunneh, Elah is given as a son and as a father in the same verse: "And the sons of Caleb the son of Jephunneh: Iru, Elah, and Naam; and the sons of Elah; and Kenaz" (1Ch 4:15). Nothing further is said about him; the line moves immediately to Kenaz.

Ela, Father of Shimei

In Solomon's roster of twelve district officers, Benjamin's officer is identified by his patronymic alone: "Shimei the son of Ela, in Benjamin" (1Ki 4:18). The UPDV spells the name "Ela" at this single occurrence. The father is named only to fix the identity of the son who held the Benjamin district.

Elah Son of Baasha, King of Israel

Elah son of Baasha is the only bearer of the name whose own reign the UPDV narrates. He inherits the northern throne in the closing-notice of his father: "And Baasha slept with his fathers, and was buried in Tirzah; and Elah his son reigned in his stead" (1Ki 16:6). The accession formula is then synchronized to the south: "In the twenty and sixth year of Asa king of Judah, Elah the son of Baasha began to reign over Israel in Tirzah, [and reigned] two years" (1Ki 16:8).

The reign is interrupted by a coup in its second year. Elah is in Tirzah, off-duty: "And his slave Zimri, captain of half his chariots, conspired against him. Now he was in Tirzah, drinking himself drunk in the house of Arza, who was over the household in Tirzah: and Zimri went in and struck him, and killed him, in the twenty and seventh year of Asa king of Judah, and reigned in his stead" (1Ki 16:9-10). Zimri then exterminates the whole house of Baasha — "he left him not one urinating against a wall, neither of his kinsfolks, nor of his companions" — fulfilling the word of Yahweh by Jehu the prophet against Baasha and against Elah's house (1Ki 16:11-12).

The narrator's verdict joins father and son in a single sin-formula: "for all the sins of Baasha, and the sins of Elah his son, which they sinned, and with which they made Israel to sin, to provoke Yahweh, the God of Israel, to anger with their vanities" (1Ki 16:13). The closing notice follows the standard royal pattern: "Now the rest of the acts of Elah, and all that he did, are they not written in the Book of the Chronicles of the Kings of Israel?" (1Ki 16:14).

Elah, Father of Hoshea

A different Elah supplies the patronymic of Hoshea, the last king of Israel. Hoshea son of Elah seizes the throne by conspiracy: "And Hoshea the son of Elah made a conspiracy against Pekah the son of Remaliah, and struck him, and slew him, and reigned in his stead, in the twentieth year of Jotham the son of Uzziah" (2Ki 15:30). His own accession formula follows in the next chapter: "In the twelfth year of Ahaz king of Judah, Hoshea the son of Elah began to reign in Samaria over Israel, [and reigned] nine years" (2Ki 17:1). The father Elah is named only as patronymic; the UPDV says nothing else of him.

Elah the Benjamite Resettler

In the Chronicler's list of those who lived in Jerusalem after the return, a Benjamite named Elah is given a four-generation pedigree among the resettlers: "and Ibneiah the son of Jeroham, and Elah the son of Uzzi, the son of Michri, and Meshullam the son of Shephatiah, the son of Reuel, the son of Ibnijah" (1Ch 9:8). He is one of the chief Benjamite householders by genealogy; nothing is said of his deeds.