Bible Person

Ater

Meaning: left hand; shut · Male · 2 cross references

This Ater entry refers to the ancestral or house-name associated with Hezekiah in the returnee lists, not to the gatekeeper family of the same name. It belongs to the broader family-based repopulation of Judah after exile. First appears in Ezra 2:16.1

AI summary: This Ater matters because the cross references place the house within the core return lists that make restoration social and concrete. Even without a narrative scene, the family contributes to the repopulating of the land and the re-forming of community identity after Babylon. Taken together, the material presents this Ater as a returnee house woven into the demographic recovery of Judah.1

Central Figure

Ater

Meaning: left hand; shut

Ezra 2:16.