Elnathan

Elnathan, whose name means God hath given, appears in several distinct contexts in the Old Testament. The most historically significant was the son of Achbor, a court official sent by King Jehoiakim to Egypt to extradite the prophet Uriah, who had fled there after prophesying against Jerusalem. Elnathan carried out the mission, returning Uriah to Judah where he was executed. Yet this same Elnathan, along with other officials, urged the king not to burn Jeremiah's scroll—a gesture of restraint that the king ignored.

Another Elnathan was the father of Nehushta, the mother of King Jehoiachin, making him the maternal grandfather of a king of Judah. Ezra records three men of the name among the leading men and Levites gathered at the Ahava River before the second return from exile. The name was evidently common enough in late preexilic and postexilic Judah to be borne by multiple unrelated individuals.