Ichabod ( ''ʾĪḵāḇōḏ'', "without glory", or "where is the glory?") is mentioned in the

first Book of Samuel The Book of Samuel () is a book in the Hebrew Bible, found as two books (1–2 Samuel) in the Old Testament. The book is part of the Deuteronomistic history, a series of books (Joshua, Judges, Samuel, and Kings) that constitute a theological ...

as the son of

Phinehas According to the Hebrew Bible, Phinehas (also spelled Phineas, ; , ''Phinees'', ) was a priest during the Exodus. The grandson of Aaron and son of Eleazar, the High Priests (), he distinguished himself as a youth at Shittim with his zeal again ...

, a priest at the biblical shrine of Shiloh, who was born on the day that the

Israelite Israelites were a Hebrew language, Hebrew-speaking ethnoreligious group, consisting of tribes that lived in Canaan during the Iron Age. Modern scholarship describes the Israelites as emerging from indigenous Canaanites, Canaanite populations ...

s' Ark of God was taken into Philistine captivity. His mother went into labour due to the shock of hearing that her husband and

Eli Eli most commonly refers to: * Eli (name), a given name, nickname and surname * Eli (biblical figure) Eli or ELI may also refer to: Film * ''Eli'' (2015 film), a Tamil film * ''Eli'' (2019 film), an American horror film Music * ''Eli'' (Jan ...

, her father-in-law, had died and that the Ark had been captured. He is also named later as the brother of Ahitub.

Etymology

The First Book of Samuel () tells how Ichabod's mother named him because ''the glory has departed from Israel'', because of the loss of the Ark to the

Philistines Philistines (; LXX: ; ) were ancient people who lived on the south coast of Canaan during the Iron Age in a confederation of city-states generally referred to as Philistia. There is compelling evidence to suggest that the Philistines origi ...

, and perhaps also because of the deaths of Eli and Phinehas. She repeats the phrase "The glory has departed from Israel, for the ark of God has been captured", to show her piety, and to express that the public and spiritual loss lay heavier upon her spirit than her personal or domestic calamity. Yairah Amit suggests that his name indicates "the fate of this newborn child who would have no parents, no grandfather and not even God, because even the glory has departed from the place". Biblical commentator Donald Spence Jones states that

the meaning of the term I-chabod is much disputed, owing to the doubt which hangs over the first syllable, "I", followed by "chabod". It is usually taken to mean a simple negative: "not": chabod signifying "glory", I-chabod thus represents "not glory", ''i.e.'', there is no glory. Others render the "I" syllable as a rhetorical question, "Where?", "Where is the glory?", the answer, of course, being, "It is nowhere". But the best rendering seems to be to understand the syllable "I" as an exclamation of bitter sorrow, "Alas!": the name then could be translated, ''"Alas! the glory."''

The

Septuagint The Septuagint ( ), sometimes referred to as the Greek Old Testament or The Translation of the Seventy (), and abbreviated as LXX, is the earliest extant Greek translation of the Hebrew Bible from the original Biblical Hebrew. The full Greek ...

states that Ichabod's name was a complaint: ''Uaebarchaboth'', ''woe to the glory of Israel''.1 Samuel 4:21: Brenton's Septuagint Translation
/ref> The

Codex Vaticanus Graecus 1209 The Codex Vaticanus (Vatican Library, The Vatican, Vatican Library, Bibl. Vat., Vat. gr. 1209), is a manuscript of the Greek Bible, containing the majority of the Old Testament and the majority of the New Testament. It is designated by Scribal ab ...

also refers to Ichabod as ''ouai barchaboth'', i.e. as ''I Bar Chabod'' - ''I, son of Chabod'' or ''No, son of Glory''. According to textual scholars,''Jewish Encyclopedia'', ''Books of Samuel'' this section of the Book of Samuel, the ''sanctuaries source'', derives from a fairly late source compared with other parts, and hence this justification of his name may simply represent a

folk etymology Folk etymology – also known as (generative) popular etymology, analogical reformation, (morphological) reanalysis and etymological reinterpretation – is a change in a word or phrase resulting from the replacement of an unfamiliar form by a mo ...

. While the Hebrew Bible barely mentions Ichabod, the fact that Ahitub is elsewhere referred to as the brother of Ichabod, rather than as son of Phinehas (or of anyone else), has led textual scholars to suspect that Ichabod was considered a significant individual in the time of

Samuel Samuel is a figure who, in the narratives of the Hebrew Bible, plays a key role in the transition from the biblical judges to the United Kingdom of Israel under Saul, and again in the monarchy's transition from Saul to David. He is venera ...

(11th century BCE).

References and notes

{{JewishEncyclopedia, url=http://www.jewishencyclopedia.com/view.jsp?letter=I&artid=73, article=Ichabod 11th-century BC clergy Jewish priests Family of Eli (biblical figure)