Ahimelech
Bible Dictionary and Concordance:
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Ahimelech
("brother of the king'', or, "my brother is king'')
1. The son of Ahitub; he was the high priest of Nob. Unaware that David was in flight from Saul, Ahimelech gave him the showbread to eat and the sword that had belonged to Goliath (I Sam 21:1-9). When informed of this by Doeg the Edomite, Saul ordered him to kill Ahimelech and his family and the other priests of Nob. Abiathar was the only son of Ahimelech to escape the massacre of the 85 priests of Nob (I Sam 22:7-23). In Psalm 52 (title), David recalls this wicked act of Doeg the Edomite.
2. A Hittite in the service of David whom David asked to accompany him on his clandestine infiltration of Saul's camp at night.
3. The son of Abiathar and grandson of Ahimelech (above), a priest in the days of King David (II Sam 8:17; I Chr 24:3, 6, 31).
Concordance
AHIMELECH 1:
I Sam 21:1-2,8; 22:9, 11,14, 16, 20; 23:6; 30:7
AHIMELECH 2:
I Sam 26:6
AHIMELECH 3:
II Sam 8:17. I Chr 24:3, 6,31
Ahimelech (əhĭm'əlĕk), in the Bible. 1 Priest at Nob, brother of, or perhaps the same as, Ahijah b>2. He befriended David, and Saul had him killed. In some passages his name is reversed with that of his son, Abiathar. 2 Hittite in David's camp.
Wikipedia on Answers.com:
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Ahimelech
For other people named Ahimelech, see Achimelech.
Ahimelech (Hebrew: אחימלך "the [divine] king is brother"),[1] the son of Ahitub and father of Abiathar (1 Sam. 22:20-23), described in 2 Sam. 8:17 as the son of Abiathar and in four places in 1 Chronicles.[1] He descended from Eli in the line of Ithamar. In 1 Chr. 18:16 his name is Abimelech according to the Masoretic Text,[1] and is probably the same as Ahiah (1 Sam. 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 David fled from Saul (1 Sam. 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 slain with his family. This sentence was carried into execution by Doeg in the most cruel manner (1 Sam. 22:9-23). Possibly Abiathar had a son also called Ahimelech, or the two names, as some think, may have been accidentally transposed in 2 Sam. 8:17; 1 Chr. 18:16, marg.; 24:3, 6, 31. According to the Jewish Encyclopedia on David's descendant Joash (Jehoash of Judah), Rabbinical literature would deem the extermination of the male descendants of David as a divine retribution for David's action which led to the extermination of the priests by Saul (cf. David's remorse, 1 Sam 22:22), but Joash escaped death because in the latter case one priest, Abiathar, survived.[2] Part of the curse on the House of Eli – that none of Eli's male descendants would live to old age – was fulfilled with the death of Ahimelech; the other part of the Curse on the House of Eli – that the priesthood would pass out of his descendants – was fulfilled when Abiathar was deposed from the office of High Priest.
| Preceded by Ahijah |
High Priest of Israel | Succeeded by Abiathar |
References
This article incorporates text from Easton's Bible Dictionary (1897), a publication now in the public domain.
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