Hodijah

Hodijah (meaning majesty of Jehovah or Yah is glory) was the name of several individuals in the post-exilic community. The most prominent was a Levite who assisted Ezra in expounding the Law during the great public reading described in Nehemiah 8, standing on a wooden platform before the Water Gate and helping the people understand the text. The same Hodijah (or a closely related individual) also led the congregation in confession and praise during the covenant renewal ceremony of Nehemiah 9.

The name appears again among those who set their seal to the solemn covenant in Nehemiah 10, where two individuals named Hodijah are listed—one apparently a Levite and one a lay leader. The frequency of the name in this post-exilic period suggests it expressed the community's renewed emphasis on the honor and majesty of God after the trauma of exile. Hodijah represents the cadre of Levitical teachers who made the Torah accessible to the returned community and facilitated the spiritual renewal that Nehemiah's memoir describes.