NADAB
“generous”
(a) Firstborn of Aaron’s four sons (Ex. 6:23; Num. 3:2; 26:60; 1 Chron. 6:3; 24:1). Nadab and Abihu were privileged to come to Jehovah on Sinai (Ex. 24:1); later they were consecrated to the priesthood (Ex. 28:1).
However, the Lord put them to death for offering a “strange” fire before Him that had not been commanded (Lev. 10:1-7; Num. 26:61). Immediately after this tragedy, Jehovah gave Aaron a law that was to be in perpetual force for all priests: the prohibition of drinking wine, or any other fermented drink, before entering the sanctuary.
This prohibition allows the deduction that Nadab and Abihu were under the influence of alcohol at the time they committed the desecration that cost them their lives (Lev. 10:9); the two culprits had no children (Num. 3:4; 1 Chron. 24:2).
(b) A man of Judah, of the family of Hezron and of the house of Jerameel (1 Chr. 2:25-28).
(c) Benjamite, son of Gibeon and Maacah (1 Chr. 8:30; 9:36).
(d) Son of Jeroboam I and his successor to the throne of Israel. Nadab began to reign around 910 BC. and, like his father, he practiced the cult of the golden calf. During Nadab’s siege of Gibbethon, Baasha killed him, later seizing the crown, and killing all of Jeroboam’s descendants.
Baasha was the instrument of judgment that Jehovah had passed on Jeroboam and his house. Nadab’s reign did not last two full years (1 Kings 14:10, 11, 20; 15:25, 30).