Eliezer

ELIEZER el-i-e'-zer, e-li-e'-zer ('eli`ezer; Eliezer, "God is help"):

(1) The chief servant of Abram (Genesis 15:2); the American Standard Revised Version "Eliezer of Damascus," the English Revised Version "Dammesek Eliezer." The Hebrew is peculiar:

literally, "And the son of the possession (mesheq) of my house is Dammeseq (of) Eliezer." A possible but unlikely meaning is that his property would become the possession of Damascus, the city of Eliezer. Targum Syriac (Revised Version margin) read "Eliezer the Damascene": this supposes a reading, "Eliezer ha- dammasqi" or "mid-dammeseq." The text may be corrupt: the assonance between mesheq and Dammeseq is suspicious. Abram calls Eliezer "one born in my house" i.e. a dependant, a member of his household, and so regards him as his heir, Lot having gone from him (Genesis 13). Eliezer is probably the servant, "the eider of his house, that ruled over all that he had," of

Genesis 24.

(2) The 2nd son of Moses and Zipporah, called thus for "the God of my father was my help, and delivered me from the sword of Pharaoh" (Exodus 18:4; 1 Chronicles 23:15).

(3) A son of Becher, one of the sons of Benjamin (1 Chronicles 7:8).

(4) A priest who assisted in bringing up the ark from the house of Obed-edom to Jerusalem (1 Chronicles 15:24).

(5) The son of Zichri, ruler over the Reubenites in the time of David (1 Chronicles 27:16).

(6) The son of Dodavahu of Mareshah who prophesied the destruction of the ships which Jehochaphat, king of Judah, built, because he had done so in cooperation with Ahaziah, king of Israel (2 Chronicles 20:35).

(7) One of the messengers whom Ezra sent to Iddo, the chief at Casiphia, with the request for ministers for the Temple (Ezra 8:16).

(8, 9, 10) A priest, a Levite, and one of the sons of Harim who had married non-Israelitish women (Ezra 10:18,23,11).

(11) An ancestor of Jesus in the genealogy given by Luke (Luke 3:29).

S. F. Hunter

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Bibliography Information

Orr, James, M.A., D.D. General Editor. "Entry for 'ELIEZER'".  "International Standard Bible Encyclopedia".  1915.