Ichabod

is mentioned in the first Book of Samuel as the son of Phinehas, a priest at the biblical shrine of Shiloh, who was born on the day that the Israelites' Ark of God was taken into Philistine captivity.

[1] The First Book of Samuel (4:21–22) tells how Ichabod's mother named him because the glory has departed from Israel, because of the loss of the Ark to the Philistines, and perhaps also because of the deaths of Eli and Phinehas.

She repeats the phrase "The glory has departed from Israel, for the ark of God has been captured", to show her piety,[2] and to express that the public and spiritual loss lay heavier upon her spirit than her personal or domestic calamity.

[3] Yairah Amit suggests that his name indicates "the fate of this newborn child who would have no parents, no grandfather and not even God, because even the glory has departed from the place".

Biblical commentator Donald Spence Jones states that the meaning of the term I-chabod is much disputed, owing to the doubt which hangs over the first syllable, "I", followed by "chabod".