Who is…
Seraiah

Meaning: soldier of Jehovah

Seraiah is the name of 9 biblical men.

1. Seraiah, the father of Joab (1 Chronicles 4:13-14)

2. Seraiah, the grandfather of Jehu (1 Chronicles 4:35)

3. Seraiah, one of David's scribes or secretaries (2 Samuel 8:17)

4. Seraiah, a Netophathite (Jeremiah 40:8), a chief priest of the time of Zedekiah

   He was carried captive by Nebuchadnezzar to Babylon and there put to death (2 Kings 25:18, 23).

5. Seraiah mentioned in Ezra 2:2

6. Seraiah, father of Ezra the scribe (7:1)

7. Seraiah, a ruler of the temple (Neh. 11:11).

8. Seraiah, a priest in the days of Jehoiakim (Neh. 12:1, 12)

9. Seraiah, a quartermaster at the time of Jeremiah, and son of Neriah

   When Zedekiah made a journey to Babylon to do homage to Nebuchadnezzar, Seraiah had charge of the royal gifts to be presented on that occasion. Jeremiah took advantage of the occasion, and sent with Seraiah a word of cheer to the exiles in Babylon, and an announcement of the doom in store for that guilty city. The roll containing this message (Jeremiah 50:1-8) Seraiah was to read to the exiles, and then, after fixing a stone to it, was to throw it into the Euphrates, uttering, as it sank, the prayer recorded in Jeremiah 51:59-64. Babylon was at this time in the height of its glory, the greatest and most powerful monarchy in the world.

   Scarcely 70 years elapsed when the words of the prophet were all fulfilled.

   Jeremiah 51:59 is rendered in the Revised King James Version, “Now Seraiah was chief chamberlain,” instead of “was a quiet prince,” as in the King James Version. The New King James Version, the New American Standard Bible (NASB), and ESV say Seraiah was the “quartermaster.”