Noadiah

Two figures of the postexilic period bear the name Noadiah — a Levite of Ezra's caravan and a prophetess who tried to intimidate Nehemiah. The name's two carriers stand on opposite sides of the same restoration generation.

Noadiah the Levite

When Ezra's returning company finally reaches Jerusalem, the silver, gold, and temple vessels carried up from Babylon are formally weighed and signed over to the priests. Noadiah is one of the two Levites who handle the count: "And on the fourth day the silver and the gold and the vessels were weighed in the house of our God into the hand of Meremoth the son of Uriah the priest (and with him Eleazar the son of Phinehas: and with them Jozabad the son of Jeshua, and Noadiah the son of Binnui, the Levites)--" (Ezr 8:33).

Noadiah the Prophetess

A different Noadiah surfaces in Nehemiah's wall-building memoir. In a list of opponents who tried to break Nehemiah's nerve, she stands beside Tobiah and Sanballat: "Remember, O my God, Tobiah and Sanballat according to these works of theirs, and also the prophetess Noadiah, and the rest of the prophets, that would have put me in fear" (Neh 6:14). She is grouped with "the rest of the prophets" who served the intimidation campaign rather than the rebuilding.