Ahimelech:
brother of the king, the son of Ahitub and father of Abiathar (1Sa 22:20-23). He descended from Eli in the line of Ithamar. In 1Ch 18:16 he is called Abimelech, and is probably the same as Ahiah (1Sa 14:3,18). He was the twelfth high priest, and officiated at Nob, where he was visited by David (to whom and his companions he gave five loaves of the showbread) when he fled from Saul (1Sa 21:1-9). He was summoned into Saul's presence, and accused, on the information of Doeg the Edomite, of disloyalty because of his kindness to David; whereupon the king commanded that he, with the other priests who stood beside him (86 in all), should be put to death. This sentence was carried into execution by Doeg in the most cruel manner (1Sa 22:9-23). Possibly Abiathar had a son also called Ahimelech, or the two names, as some think, may have been accidentally transposed in 2Sa 8:17; 1Ch 18:16, marg.; 24:3, 6, 31.
Ahimelech:
my brother is a king; my king's brother
Ahimelech:
a-him'-e-lek ('achimelekh, "brother of a king," or, "my brother is king," or, "king is brother"):
(1) The father of David's high priest Abiathar: son of Ahitub, the son of Phinehas, the son of Eli (1Sa 21:1,2,8; 22:9-20; 23:6; 30:7). Ahijah the son of Ahitub (1Sa 14:3,18) was either the same person under another name, or was Ahimelech's father or brother. See AHIJAH, 3. Ahimelech is an interesting person, especially because he stands for whatever information we have concerning the priestly office in Israel during the period between Eli and David. Whether the Deuteronomic law for a central sanctuary originated with Moses or not, its provisions were very imperfectly carried out during the times of the Judges. This was particularly the case after the capture of the ark by the Philistines, and the deaths of Eli and his sons. From that time to the middle of the reign of David the ark was in the custody of the men of Kiriath-jearim "in the hill," or "in Gibeah" (1Sa 7:1; 2Sa 6:2,3).
As a general proposition Israel "sought not unto it" (1Ch 13:3), though there is nothing to forbid the idea that it may, on occasion, have been brought out from its seclusion (1Sa 14:18). Before and after the accession of Saul some of the functions of the national sanctuary were transacted, of course very incompletely, at Gilgal (1Sa 10:8; 11:14,15; 13:7; 15:12,21,33). Whether there was a priesthood, with Ahitub the grandson of Eli as high priest, is a matter on which we have no information; but we may remind ourselves that the common assumption that such men as Samuel and Saul performed priestly offices is nothing but an assumption. After Saul has been king for a good many years we find Ahijah in his retinue, acting as priest and wearing priestly vestments. A few years later Ahimelech is at the head of the very considerable priestly establishment at Nob. The scale on which it existed is indicated by the fact that 85 robed priests perished in the massacre (1Sa 22:18).
They had families residing at Nob (1Sa 22:19). They were thought of as priests of Yahweh, and were held in reverence (1Sa 22:17). It was a hereditary priesthood (1Sa 22:11,15). Men deposited votive offerings there, the sword of Goliath, for example (1Sa 21:9). There seems to have been some kind of police authority, whereby a person might be "detained" (1Sa 21:7). It was customary to inquire of Yahweh there (1Sa 22:10,15). A distraction was made between the common and the holy (1Sa 21:4-6). The custom of the shewbread was maintained (1Sa 21:6). In fine, Jesus is critically correct in calling the place "the house of God" (Mr 2:26). The account does not say that the ark was there, or that the burnt-offering of the morning and evening was offered, or that the great festivals were held. The priestly head of the establishment at Nob is represented to have been the man who had the right to the office through his descent from Aaron. It is gratuitous to assume that there were other similar sanctuaries in Israel, though the proposition that there were none might be, like other negative propositions, hard to establish by positive proof.
(2) A son of Abiathar (2Sa 8:17; 1Ch 18:16; 24:6), and grandson of the above. In a list of the heads of departments under David, a list belonging later than the middle of David's 40 years, and in which David's sons appear, this Ahimelech, the son of David's friend, is mentioned as sharing with Zadok a high position in the priesthood. In this capacity, later, he shared with David and Zadok in the apportionment of the priests into 24 ancestral classes, 16 of the house of Eleazar, and 8 of the house of Ithamar (1Ch 24). In this account Ahimelech is mentioned three times, and with some detail. It is alleged as a difficulty that Abiathar was then living, and was high priest along with Zadok (1Ch 15:11; 2Sa 15:29; 19:11; 20:25; 1Ki 2:27,35; 4:4, etc.). But surely there is no improbability in the affirmation that Abiathar had a son named Ahimelech, or that this son performed prominent priestly functions in his father's lifetime.
Many regard "Ahimelech the son of Abiathar" (Mt gives Ahimelech) as an inadvertent transposition for "Abiathar the son of Ahimelech." This is rather plausible in the passage in 2Sa 8 and the duplicate of it in 1Ch 18:16, but it has no application in the detailed account in 1Ch 24. One must accept Ahimelech the son of Abiathar as historical unless, indeed, one regards the testimony of Ch to a fact as evidence in disproof of that fact. See ABIATHAR.
(3) A Hittite, a companion and friend of David, when he was hiding from Saul in the wilderness (1Sa 26:6).
Written by Willis J. Beecher
Ahimelech: 1. A High Priest, during the Reign of David
Called also AHIA.
Gives shewbread and the sword of Goliath to David,
1Sa 21; Mar 2:26.
Killed by the command of Saul,
1Sa 22:9-22.
Ahimelech: 2. A Hittite, and Friend of David
1Sa 26:6
Ahimelech:
(brother of the king).
(1.) Son of Ahitub (1 Samuel 22:11-12) and high priest of Nob in the days of Saul. He gave David the shewbread to eat, and the sword of Goliath; and for so doing was put to death, with his whole house, by Saul's order. Abiathar alone escaped. (B.C. 1085‐1060) SEE [ABIATHAR].
(2.) A Hittite (1 Samuel 26:6).
Ahijah:
a-hi'-ja ('achiyah or ‘achiyahu, "brother of Yahweh," "my brother is Yahweh," "Yah is brother." In the King James Version the name sometimes appears as Ahiah):
(1) One of the sons of Jerahmeel the great-grandson of Judah (1Ch 2:25).
(2) A descendant of Benjamin (1Ch 8:7).
(3) The son of Ahitub, priest in the time of King Saul (1Sa 14:3,18). Either he is the same with Ahimelech, who is mentioned later, or he is the father or brother of Ahimelech. He is introduced to us when Saul has been so long on the throne that his son Jonathan is a man grown and a warrior. He is in attendance upon Saul, evidently as an official priest, "wearing an ephod." When Saul wishes direction from God he asks the priest to bring hither the ark; but then, without waiting for the message, Saul counts the confusion in the Philistine camp a sufficient indication of the will of Providence, and hurries off to the attack. Some copies of the Greek here read "ephod" instead of "ark," but the documentary evidence in favor of that reading is far from decisive. If the Hebrew reading is correct, then the seclusion of the ark, from the time of its return from Philistia to the time of David, was not so absolute as many have supposed. See AHIMELECH, i.
(4) One of David's mighty men, according to the list in 1Ch 11:36. The corresponding name in the list in 2Sa 23:34 is Eliam the son of Ahithophel the Gilonite.
(5) A Levite of David's time who had charge of certain treasures connected with the house of God (1Ch 26:20). The Greek copies presuppose the slightly different text which would give in English "and their brethren," instead of Ahijah. This is accepted by many scholars, and it is at least more plausible than most of the proposed corrections of the Hebrew text by the Greek.
(6) Son of Sinsha and brother of Elihoreph (1Ki 4:3). The two brothers were scribes of Solomon. Can the scribes Ahijah and Shemaiah (1Ch 24:6) be identified with the men of the same names who, later, were known as distinguished prophets? Sinsha is probably the same with Shavsha (1Ch 18:16; compare 2Sa 8:17; 20:25), who was scribe under David, the office in this case descending from father to son.
(7) The distinguished prophet of Shiloh, who was interested in Jeroboam I. In Solomon's lifetime Ahijah clothed himself with a new robe, met Jeroboam outside Jerusalem, tore the robe into twelve pieces, and gave him ten, in token that he should become king of the ten tribes (1Ki 11:29-39). Later, when Jeroboam had proved unfaithful to Yahweh, he sent his wife to Ahijah to ask in regard to their sick son. The prophet received her harshly, foretold the death of the son, and threatened the extermination of the house of Jeroboam (1Ki 14). The narrative makes the impression that Ahijah was at this time a very old man (1Ki 14:4). These incidents are differently narrated in the long addition at 1Ki 12:24 found in some of the Greek copies. In that addition the account of the sick boy precedes that of the rent garment, and both are placed between the account of Jeroboam's return from Egypt and that of the secession of the ten tribes, an order in which it is impossible to think that the events occurred. Further, this addition attributes the incident of the rent garment to Shemaiah and not to Ahijah, and says that Ahijah was 60 years old.
Other notices speak of the fulfillment of the threatening prophecies spoken by Ahijah (2Ch 10:15; 1Ki 12:15; 15:29). In 2Ch "the prophecy of Ahijah the Shilonite" is referred to as a source for the history of Solomon (2Ch 9:29).
(8) The father of Baasha king of Israel (1Ki 15:27,33; 21:22; 2Ki 9:9).
(9) A Levite of Nehemiah's time, who sealed the covenant (Ne 10:26 the King James Version).
Written by Willis J. Beecher
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