AHITUB:

  • 1. Father of Ahimelech, priest of Nob (I Sam. xxii. 9-19). The name Ahitub means, properly, "good friend," "good brother"; and is significant in connection with the fact that the house of Ahitub, through the acting priest, Ahimelech, was friendly to David at the risk of incurring King Saul's displeasure (ibid. 10). Ahitub was a son of Phinehas and an elder brother of Ichabod, of the house of Eli, and a direct descendant of Aaron (ibid. xiv. 3). It is doubtful whether Ahitub was ever high priest, since that is nowhere mentioned; but his house was certainly of high dignity—so much so that Saul, king of Israel, had to reckon with it—and it was a power in aiding David to secure the throne of the Hebrew nation.
  • 2. Possibly the same as No. 1. He is referred to in II Sam. viii. 17 as the father of Zadok, a priest in the time of David. Ahitub is mentioned in several genealogical lists as the son of Amariah and the father of Zadok (I Chron. v. 33, 34; ibid. xviii. 16; Ezra, vii. 2).
  • 3. A priest; descendant (in the seventh generation) of the preceding. He, also, had a son named Zadok (I Chron. v. 38, 39).
  • 4. A priest; father of Meraioth. In the time of Nehemiah he was "the ruler of the house of God" (I Chron. ix. 11, Neh. xi. 11).
  • 5. Ancestor of Judith (Judith, viii. 1, R. V.; A. V., "Acitho").
G. A. B.
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