Gedaliah [Gĕda lī'ah]—jehovah is great.

1. A son of Ahikam and grandson of Shaphan, king Josiah’s secretary and Governor of Mizpah (2 Kings 25:22-25; Jer. 39:14; 40:5-16; 41; 43:6). This Judean of high birth was the one who protected Jeremiah, whose views he shared, from the anti-Chaldeans. Nebuchadnezzar made him governor over “the poor people left in the land.” He only ruled however, for two months. The anniversary of his treacherous murder is observed as one of the four Jewish feasts (Zech. 7:5; 8:19).
2. A priest, of the sons of Jeshua, who had taken a strange wife during the exile (Ezra 10:18).
3. Grandfather of the prophet Zephaniah (Zeph. 1:1).
4. One of the six sons of Jeduthun, a harper and head of the second of twenty-four companies or twelve musicians (1 Chron. 25:3, 9).
5. A son of Pashur and the prince who caused Jeremiah to be imprisoned (Jer. 38:1, 4).