• Abigail
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    • Version (Lagardian edition) has “Jesse” instead of “Nahash” in this verse. A number of modern translations also read this way. (See AT; JB; NC [Spanish].) However, it is noteworthy that the record at 1 Chronicles 2:13-16 does not call Abigail and Zeruiah ‘daughters of Jesse’ but rather “sisters” of Jesse’s sons, including David. This allows for the possibility that their mother had first been married to a man named Nahash, to whom she bore Abigail and Zeruiah before becoming Jesse’s wife and the mother of his sons. It cannot, therefore, be stated dogmatically that Abigail was the daughter of Jesse.

      Abigail, David’s sister, is mentioned as giving birth to only one son Amasa. Her husband is referred to as Ithra the Israelite at 2 Samuel 17:25 but elsewhere is called Jether (1 Ki. 2:5, 32) and at 1 Chronicles 2:17 is spoken of as “Jether the Ishmaelite.” (See JETHER.) It is possible that Abigail contracted marriage with Jether during the time Jesse and his family were dwelling in the land of Moab. (1 Sam. 22:3, 4) Her son, Amasa, received no apparent attention during David’s reign until Absalom’s rebellion. His cousin Absalom then made him the head of his armed forces. Nevertheless, following Absalom’s death, Abigail’s brother, King David, dealt with her son Amasa in obtaining support for his return to the throne, and thereafter made Amasa the head of the army, replacing Joab. (2 Sam. 19:11-14) This appointment soon brought death to Abigail’s son, at the hands of his embittered cousin Joab.—2 Sam. 20:4-10.

  • Abihail
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    • ABIHAIL

      (Abʹi·hail) [father is strength; or, possessor of might].

      A name used in the Bible for three men and two women.

      1. A man of the tribe of Levi and of the family (or clan) of Merari. He was the father of Zuriel, chieftain of the paternal house of the clan at the time of the exodus.—Num. 3:35.

      2. The wife of Abishur, who was of the tribe of Judah. (1 Chron. 2:29) She had two sons, Ahban and Molid.

      3. A man of the tribe of Gad who settled in Bashan and Gilead. He was the son of Huri and a family chief or head.—1 Chron. 5:14-17.

      4. The daughter of Eliab, David’s oldest brother. (Though the Hebrew word bath [daughter] at 2 Chronicles 11:18 may also mean “granddaughter.”)

      The Authorized Version at 2 Chronicles 11:18 says: “And Rehoboam took him Mahalath the daughter of Jerimoth the son of David to wife, and Abihail the daughter of Eliab the son of Jesse.” This would make Abihail appear to be the second wife of Rehoboam. However, the original Hebrew allows for a different rendering and hence many modern translations here read: “Mahalath the daughter of Jerimoth the son of David, and of Abihail the daughter of Eliab the son of Jesse.” (See RS, AT, JP, NW, JB.) Concerning this, the Soncino Books of the Bible, page 212 says in its footnote on 2 Chronicles: “The conjunction is implied. Mahalath was the daughter of Jerimoth and Abihail. Some commentators regard Abihail as the name of another of Rehoboam’s wives.” The singular pronouns used in the following verses (19, 20) support the view that only one wife of Rehoboam is meant in verse 18. It therefore appears most probable that Abihail was the mother of Rehoboam’s wife Mahalath.

      5. The father of Queen Esther and a descendant of Benjamin. He was the uncle of Esther’s cousin, Mordecai. (Esther 2:5, 15; 9:29) Esther 2:7 indicates that he and his wife died when their daughter Esther was quite young and thus sometime before her marriage to King Ahasuerus (c. 480 B.C.E.).

  • Abihu
    Aid to Bible Understanding

    • ABIHU

      (A·biʹhu) [father of him; my father is he].

      One of Aaron’s four sons by his wife Elisheba; the brother of Nadab, Eleazar and Ithamar. (Ex. 6:23; 1 Chron. 6:3; 24:1) Born in Egypt, Abihu, as the second son of Aaron, was a mature man by the time of the exodus, his father then being eighty-three.—Num. 33:39.

      As older sons, Nadab and Abihu were permitted by Jehovah to accompany their father and seventy of the older men of Israel in approaching Mount Sinai and there to see from a distance a magnificent vision of God’s glory. (Ex. 24:1, 9-11) Jehovah honored Aaron’s sons, appointing them to serve as priests with their father, the high priest, and ordaining that from among them should come Aaron’s eventual successor. They would wear priestly robes and headgears “for glory and beauty.” Moses was to “anoint them and fill their hand with power and sanctify them” for their service to God. (Ex. 28:1, 40-43) The priesthood would become theirs “as a statute to time indefinite.” (Ex. 29:8, 9) Thereafter they were continually included in God’s instructions regarding the priesthood and its functions. (Ex. 29:10-46; 30:26-38) Also, God emphatically impressed upon them, as well as upon the entire nation, the vital importance of respecting the sanctity of the things related to his worship, including the altar of incense and incidental equipment. Their lives depended upon their respecting the divine regulations.

      Now, one year from the start of the exodus, came the time for setting up of the tabernacle and the installation of the priesthood (1512 B.C.E.). The entire nation assembled before the entrance of the tent of meeting for the installation ceremonies and saw Aaron and Abihu and his brothers, washed and turbaned, receive the anointing as priests of God to represent the nation before him. Thereafter the newly installed priests remained at the entrance of the tent of meeting for seven days to complete their installation and, as Moses said, “‘to fill your hand with power.’ . . . And Aaron and his sons proceeded to do all the things that Jehovah had commanded by means of Moses.”—Lev. 8:1-3, 13-36.

      On the eighth day Aaron began to officiate, with Abihu and his brothers assisting. (Lev. 9:1-24) They witnessed the glorious manifestation of God’s presence. But, evidently before the day was over, the account says that “Nadab and Abihu [the oldest of the four sons] took up and brought each one his fire holder and put fire in them and placed incense upon it, and they began offering before Jehovah illegitimate fire, which he had not prescribed for them. At this a fire came out from before Jehovah and consumed them, so that they died before Jehovah.” (Lev. 10:1, 2) Their corpses were carried outside the camp by Aaron’s cousins at Moses’ instruction. Their father and remaining brothers were instructed by God to refrain from any display of grief over their being cut off thus from the congregation.—Lev. 10:4-7.

      Immediately thereafter God gave Aaron a warning against the use of intoxicating liquor by him or his sons at the time of serving at the tabernacle, “that you may not die.” Commenting on this verse, The Pentateuch and Haftorahs, edited by J. H. Hertz (Leviticus, p. 446), says: “The Rabbis connected the incident of Nadab and Abihu with this injunction against intoxicating liquors before officiating in the Sanctuary.” So, the matter of intoxication may have been involved in their grave sin but the actual cause of their death was the violation of God’s requirement for pure worship by offering “illegitimate fire, which he had not prescribed for them.”

      Abihu enjoyed great honor from God and outstanding prominence before all the nation for a short while; but, whether from ambition, an inflated ego, or due to a trifling attitude toward God’s instructions, his privileges were short-lived, and he died childless.—Num. 3:2-4; 26:60, 61; 1 Chron. 24:1, 2.