Zebadiah זְבַדְיָהוּ

Who is Zebadiah in the Bible?

Zebadiah was a priest during the time of Ezra who had married a foreign woman in violation of Mosaic law (Ezra 10:20). After the Jewish people returned from Babylonian exile, Ezra discovered that many Israelites, including priests and Levites, had intermarried with neighboring peoples, which threatened the spiritual purity of the community. In response to Ezra's call for repentance, Zebadiah joined other offending priests in confessing their sin and agreeing to separate from their foreign wives, offering a ram as a guilt offering for their transgression. His case illustrates the post-exilic community's struggle to maintain religious boundaries and the serious consequences of violating covenant law, even among the priestly class who were meant to uphold it.