Kelaiah

Kelaiah is a Levite of the post-exilic period, also known by the name Kelita, who appears across the records of the return as one of the men involved in the reform of mixed marriages, the public reading of the law, and the renewed covenant.

Identity and the second name

Kelaiah is introduced in the Ezra catalogue with his alternate name in the same breath: "And of the Levites: Jozabad, and Shimei, and Kelaiah (the same is Kelita), Pethahiah, Judah, and Eliezer." (Ezr 10:23). The parenthetical fixes the equation — Kelaiah and Kelita are one man — so that subsequent references under the shorter form belong to the same Levite.

Putting away the foreign wife

The verse that names him in Ezr 10:23 sits in the list of those Levites who, under Ezra's reform, separated themselves from their Gentile wives. Kelaiah is grouped with Jozabad, Shimei, Pethahiah, Judah, and Eliezer in that act of obedience.

Expounding the law with Ezra

When Ezra reads the law to the assembly, Kelita is among the Levites who help the people understand it: "Also Jeshua, and Bani, and Sherebiah, Jamin, Akkub, Shabbethai, Hodiah, Maaseiah, Kelita, Azariah, Jozabad, Hanan, Pelaiah, and the Levites, caused the people to understand the law: and the people [stood] in their place." (Ne 8:7). The bracketed [stood] is a UPDV insertion supplying the implied verb. Kelita's role here is teaching — making the law's meaning intelligible to the people who have just heard it read.

Sealing the covenant

When the renewed covenant is committed to writing, Kelita is named again among its Levitical signatories: "and their brothers, Shebaniah, Hodiah, Kelita, Pelaiah, Hanan," (Ne 10:10). The same man appears at all three turning points of the post-exilic reform — the marriage purification, the public exposition of the law, and the sealing of the covenant.