Jaazaniah
Jaazaniah [Heb. ya’azanyah, “Yahweh hears”]. A personal name.
1. One of the Judean army commanders who warned Gedaliah of an assassination plot on his life at the time when the Babylonians had placed him over the remaining Jews at Mizpah. Gedaliah subsequently died at the hands of an assassin along with “the Jews, as well as the Chaldeans who were with him at Mizpah” (2 Kgs 25:25). A seal bearing the inscription “Belonging to Jaazaniah, servant of the king” was found in a sixth-century BC tomb at Tell en-Nasbeh, the site identified with the biblical Mizpah. This discovery may indicate that Jaazaniah was among those killed with Gedeliah and then buried at Mizpah with his seal.
2. Son of Jeremiah, the son of Habazziniah. He and his family were tested by the prophet Jeremiah, who offered them wine to drink (Jer 35). They refused to drink because their forefather, Jonadab of Rechab, forbade them to drink wine. Jeremiah referred to the obedience of the Rechabites to highlight Israel’s disobedience to the Lord. The Israelites were to be judged by God, and the Rechabites were promised long lineage (vv. 17–19).
3. Son of Shaphan, one of the seventy elders of Israel seen by Ezekiel in a vision (Ezek 8:11). The seventy elders were involved in idolatrous worship in the Temple. Jaazaniah was probably their leader because he alone is mentioned by name.
4. Son of Azzur, an elder of the people of Judah (Ezek 11:1). The Lord showed Ezekiel that Jaazaniah and twenty-five other leaders were to be judged and condemned for leading God’s people astray with false prophecies and for conforming to the customs of the Gentiles (v. 12).
