Meremoth
From BibleEncyclopedia.Net
Exaltations, heights, a priest who returned from Babylon with Zerubbabel (Neh_12:3), to whom were sent the sacred vessels (Ezr_8:33) belonging to the temple. He took part in rebuilding the walls of Jerusalem (Neh_3:4).
mer´ḗ-moth, me-rē´moth (מרמות, merēmōth, “heights”; Μερειμώθ, Mereimṓth):
(1) Son of Uriah (Ezr_8:33), who was head of the 7th course of priests appointed by David (1Ch_24:10, Hakkoz = Koz; compare Neh_3:4, Neh_3:21). The family of Koz were among those unable to prove their pedigree on the return from Babylon, and were therefore deposed as polluted (Ezr_2:61, Ezr_2:62). Meremoth's division of the family must, however, have been scatheless, for he is employed in the temple after the return as weigher of the gold and the vessels (Ezr_8:33), a function reserved for priests alone (Ezr_8:24-28). He takes a double part in the reconstruction under Nehemiah, first as a builder of the wall of the city (Neh_3:4), then as a restorer of that part of the temple abutting on the house of Eliashib the priest (Neh_3:21); “Marmoth” in 1 Esdras 8:62.
(2) A member of the house of Bani, and, like so many of that house, among those who married and put away foreign wives (Ezr_10:36). He seems to be named Carabasion (!) in the corresponding list of 1 Esdras 9:34.
(3) The name occurs in Neh_10:5 among those who “seal the covenant” with Nehemiah (Neh_10:1). It may there be the name of an individual (in which case there were 4 of the name), or it may be a family name. Certainly a “Meremoth” came back under Zerubbabel 100 years before (Neh_12:3), and the signatory in question may be either a descendant of the same name or a family representative. The name recurs later in the same list (Neh_12:15) as “Meraioth” through a scribal error confusing the two Hebrew letters yōdh (y) and ḥōlem (o) for mem (m). A comparison of Neh_12:1-3 and Neh_12:12-15 shows clearly that it is the same person. Note that in Neh_12:15 “Helkai” is the name of the contemporary leader.
(4) For Meremoth (1 Esdras 8:2 the King James Version). See Memeroth.
