Vaniah

Vaniah is named once in scripture, in the post-exilic roster of Israelites who had married foreign women under Ezra.

Among the Sons of Bani

After the return from Babylon, Ezra confronts the assembly: "You⁺ have trespassed, and have married foreign women, to increase the guilt of Israel. Now therefore make confession to Yahweh, the God of your⁺ fathers, and do his pleasure; and separate yourselves from the peoples of the land, and from the foreign women" (Ezr 10:10-11). The chapter then records the men, family by family, who had done so.

Vaniah belongs to the section "Of the sons of Bani: Maadai, Amram, and Uel, Benaiah, Bedeiah, Cheluhi, Vaniah, Meremoth, Eliashib, Mattaniah, Mattenai, and Jaasu" (Ezr 10:34-37). The chapter closes with the summary, "All these had taken foreign wives; and some of them had wives by whom they had sons" (Ezr 10:44).

The text supplies nothing further about Vaniah personally — no patronymic beyond the clan of Bani, no later mention, no individual word about his household. He is named because the roll of those caught up in the post-exilic separation preserves him.