Elioenai

Elioenai ("my eyes are toward Yahweh") is the name borne by several otherwise unrelated Israelites scattered across the genealogies and post-exilic registers of Chronicles, Ezra, and Nehemiah. A closely parallel form, Eliehoenai, appears in two further passages and is treated by the older topical tradition as the same name.

Son of Becher

In the tribal lists of Benjamin, Elioenai stands among the sons of Becher: "And the sons of Becher: Zemirah, and Joash, and Eliezer, and Elioenai, and Omri, and Jeremoth, and Abijah, and Anathoth, and Alemeth. All these were the sons of Becher" (1Ch 7:8).

A Chief of Simeon

Among the heads of fathers' houses in Simeon whose lands expanded toward Gedor in the days of Hezekiah, Elioenai is named in the roster: "and Elioenai, and Jaakobah, and Jeshohaiah, and Asaiah, and Adiel, and Jesimiel, and Benaiah" (1Ch 4:36).

A Priest among the Sons of Pashhur

In Ezra's list of priests who had married foreign women and bound themselves to put them away, Elioenai appears in the priestly division of Pashhur: "And of the sons of Pashhur: Elioenai, Maaseiah, Ishmael, Nethanel, Jozabad, and Elasah" (Ezr 10:22). A priest of the same name stands with the trumpeters at the dedication of the wall of Jerusalem under Nehemiah: "and the priests, Eliakim, Maaseiah, Miniamin, Micaiah, Elioenai, Zechariah, and Hananiah, with trumpets" (Neh 12:41), and may be the same man.

An Israelite of the Sons of Zattu

A second Elioenai in the same chapter of Ezra is listed not among the priests but among the lay Israelites who had taken foreign wives: "And of the sons of Zattu: Elioenai, Eliashib, Mattaniah, and Jeremoth, and Zabad, and Aziza" (Ezr 10:27).

Son of Neariah in the Davidic Line

In the post-exilic continuation of David's genealogy through Zerubbabel, Elioenai is the firstborn of Neariah and himself the head of a numerous house: "And the sons of Neariah: Elioenai, and Hizkiah, and Azrikam, three. And the sons of Elioenai: Hodaviah, and Eliashib, and Pelaiah, and Akkub, and Johanan, and Delaiah, and Anani, seven" (1Ch 3:23-24).

Eliehoenai

Two further passages use the longer form Eliehoenai for the same name. A Korahite Levite of the doorkeeper courses, descended from Meshelemiah, is the seventh son in his order: "Elam the fifth, Jehohanan the sixth, Eliehoenai the seventh" (1Ch 26:3). And among those who returned with Ezra, "Of the sons of Pahath-moab, Eliehoenai the son of Zerahiah; and with him two hundred males" (Ezr 8:4).