Ichabod

From Bible Exegesis

ik´a-bod, ī´ka-bod (אי־כבוד, 'ī-khā-bhōdh, “inglorious”; Codex Vaticanus, οὐαὶ βαρχαβώθ, ouaí bar-chabō̇th; Codex Alexandrinus, οὐαὶ χαβώθ, ouaí chabō̇th, Ἂτιμος, Átimos):

Son of Phinehas, Eli's son, slain at the battle of Aphek when the ark was taken. Ichabod was born after his father's death. His mother gave him this name on her death-bed to indicate that the “glory (had) departed from Israel” (1 Samuel 4:19). He was thus important as a symbol, though little is recorded of him as an individual. His nephew Ahijah was one of those who tarried with Saul and the six hundred at Gibeah just before Jonathan's brave attack upon the Philistines (1 Samuel 14:2 f).

When the tidings of the disastrous defeat of the Israelites in the battle against the Philistines near to Mizpeh were carried to Shiloh, the wife of Phinehas “was near to be delivered. And when she heard the tidings that the ark of God was taken, and that her father-in-law and her husband were dead, she bowed herself and travailed” (1 Samuel 4:19-22). In her great distress she regarded not “the women that stood by her,” but named the child that was born “Ichabod” i.e., no glory, saying, “The glory is departed from Israel;” and with that word on her lips she expired.