Name Meaning
- The salvation of the Lord
- Yah Has Saved, Set Free Of The Lord
- Saved by Jah; Jah has saved.
Etymology [1]
From the verb ישע (yasha’), to save, and יה (yah), the name of the Lord.
The name Hoshaiah consists of two elements, the final one being יה (Yah) = יהו (Yahu) = יו (Yu), which in turn are abbreviated forms of the Tetragrammaton יהוה, YHWH or Yahweh.
The first part of our name comes from the verb ישע (yasha’), meaning to save or deliver.
The verb ישע (yasha’) means to be unrestricted and thus to be free and thus to be saved (from restriction, from oppression and thus from ultimate demise).
A doer of this verb is a savior. Nouns ישועה (yeshua), ישע (yesha’) and תשועה (teshua) mean salvation.
Adjective שוע (shoa’) means (financially) independent, freed in an economic sense.
Verb שוע (shawa’) means to cry out (for salvation). Nouns שוע (shua’), שוע (shoa’) and שועה (shawa) mean a cry (for salvation).
Background [1:1]
There are two men named Hoshaiah in the Bible:
The father of Jezaniah, who was among the commanders that went to Jeremiah to see what YHWH wanted them to do, right after the renegade Ishmael’s killing spree (Jeremiah 42:1).
When Jeremiah is finished with his reply, the son of Hoshaiah is among those who insist that Jeremiah is lying (Jeremiah 43:2).
Curiously enough, the name of the son of Hoshaiah is now Azariah. It could be that Jezaniah and Azariah are brothers, and it might be that these are the two interchangeable names of the same man.
One of the leaders of Judah who participated in the dedication of the rebuilt wall of Jerusalem, in the time of Nehemiah (Nehemiah 12:32).
Again curiously, directly after Hoshaiah we meet another Azariah, but it’s unlikely that these Hoshaiah and Azariah are the same as the first two.
The dedication of the wall happened more than a century after the ministry of Jeremiah.