Hephzibah Meaning in the Bible

Hephzibah (Hebrew חֶפְצִי־בָהּ) is a whole sentence: chephtsi, 'my delight,' plus bah, 'in her' — 'my delight is in her.' Hebrew names often work this way, packing a clause into a word.

Historically she is the wife of Hezekiah and the mother of Manasseh: 'Manasseh was twelve years old when he began to reign... and his mother's name was Hephzibah' (2 Kings 21:1). The reign that followed was the worst in Judah's history, and Kings records her name without comment on that.

Isaiah lifts the name out of the palace and gives it to Jerusalem: 'Thou shalt no more be termed Forsaken... but thou shalt be called Hephzibah, and thy land Beulah: for the LORD delighteth in thee' (Isaiah 62:4). It is a renaming after exile — the abandoned city told that God takes pleasure in her as a bridegroom in a bride. Read alongside Azubah, 'forsaken,' the pair forms one of Scripture's clearest reversals.

The name had a real revival among Victorian nonconformists and still appears in Britain, the Caribbean and parts of Africa. Hepzi, Hephzi and Zibby all work in English, and the meaning survives translation better than most.