Zebidah

Biblical Record

Zebidah appears once, in 2 Kings 23:36. The verse records that Jehoiakim became king at the age of twenty-five and reigned eleven years in Jerusalem. It gives his mother's name and identifies her as "the daughter of Pedaiah of Rumah." Just before this, 2 Kings 23:34 introduces Jehoiakim as "Eliakim the son of Josiah" and records that Pharaoh Necho, king of Egypt, made him king and changed his name to Jehoiakim. Zebidah can therefore be regarded as a wife of King Josiah. The text does not say, however, whether she was an official queen, when she married Josiah, or what kind of life she led.

The location of Rumah, the hometown of her father Pedaiah, is uncertain. The name Zebidah is sometimes interpreted to mean "gift" or "one who is given."

Significance in the Bible

The books of Kings frequently record the name and origin of a Judean king's mother at his accession, and Zebidah's name appears within this formula. Another wife of Josiah, Hamutal, was the mother of Jehoahaz and Zedekiah (2 Kings 23:31; 24:18). After Josiah's death, the people first made the twenty-three-year-old Jehoahaz king. The king of Egypt later deposed Jehoahaz and placed Zebidah's son Jehoiakim, who was older, on the throne. This account shows that in Judah's final years the throne passed between brothers born to different mothers. The parallel account in 2 Chronicles 36:5 does not give the mother's name, and Zebidah is not mentioned in the New Testament.

Interpretation and Debate

The Hebrew Masoretic Text is known to preserve two spellings of this name, and translations therefore differ. The English King James Version renders it "Zebudah," while many modern translations use "Zebidah." The Korean Korean Revised Version and New Korean Revised Version render it "Seubida."

Scholars hold differing views on why the mother's name was included in the royal record. Some take it as evidence that the king's mother held an official position at court; others regard it simply as a convention for indicating lineage. The text says nothing about any role Zebidah herself played. Accounts of her character or of her influence on the conduct of her son Jehoiakim are later speculation, not part of the biblical text.

In the Korean Church

In Korean churches, Zebidah is rarely treated as a subject in her own right in sermons or Sunday school. She is mentioned mainly in passing, as the mother of Jehoiakim, during through-the-Bible reading programs or Bible studies that examine the line of Judah's last kings and the history leading up to the Babylonian exile.