Reelaiah

Reelaiah is one of the men who returned from captivity in Babylon with Zerubbabel. The Ezra register names him in the head of the company; the parallel Nehemiah register supplies him under a second name, Raamiah.

A Returned Captive from Babylon

The Ezra list places him among the leadership of the return: "who came with Zerubbabel, Jeshua, Nehemiah, Seraiah, Reelaiah, Mordecai, Bilshan, Mispar, Bigvai, Rehum, Baanah" (Ezr 2:2). The position in the sequence — early, just after Zerubbabel, Jeshua, Nehemiah, and Seraiah — marks him as one of the recognized heads.

Called Raamiah in Nehemiah

The same return is registered again in Nehemiah, with a small but consistent shift in some of the names: "who came with Zerubbabel, Jeshua, Nehemiah, Azariah, Raamiah, Nahamani, Mordecai, Bilshan, Mispereth, Bigvai, Nehum, Baanah" (Ne 7:7). The two lists pair off across their length, so Reelaiah of Ezr 2:2 corresponds to Raamiah of Ne 7:7 — one returning leader recorded under two forms of the name.