High Priest living at the time of United Monarchy
Ahitub was the father of Ahimelech, the High Priest at Nob who was killed by Saul for aiding David.
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Ahitub was the father of Ahimelech, who served as the priest at Nob during the reign of King Saul. Ahitub's other son, Ahijah, also served as a priest and wore an ephod, indicating his priestly role. (1Sa.14.3). He is not specifically named as a High Priest but he is the gradson of High Priest Eli and father of High Priest Ahimelech.
When David fled from Saul, he came to Ahimelech at Nob seeking help. Ahimelech provided David with the consecrated bread and the sword of Goliath. (1Sa.21.1-9) However, Doeg the Edomite, one of Saul's servants, witnessed this interaction and reported it to Saul. (1Sa.22.9-10).
Saul summoned Ahimelech and the other priests, accusing them of conspiring with David against him. Despite Ahimelech's defense of his actions, Saul ordered the execution of the priests. Doeg carried out the order, killing Ahimelech, along with eighty-four other priests who were from the family of Ahitub. (1Sa.22.11-19)
Only Abiathar, Ahimelech's son, escaped the massacre and fled to David, bringing with him the ephod. (1Sa.22.20-23) The tragedy that befell Ahitub's family highlights the tension between Saul and David and the consequences faced by those caught in the middle of their conflict.
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Brother of goodness = good. (1.) The son of Phinehas. On the death of his grandfather Eli he succeeded to the office of high priest, and was himself succeeded by his son Ahijah (1 Sam. 14:3; 22:9, 11, 12, 20). (2.) The father of Zadok, who was made high priest by Saul after the extermination of the family of Ahimelech (1 Chr. 6:7, 8; 2 Sam. 8:17).
Easton (1897), Smith (1863), Hitchcock (1869), Hastings (1898) and Schaff are in the public domain. Parsed text: neuu-org/bible-dictionary-dataset (CC BY 4.0). Headwords and whitespace normalised for this site.
5 verses in 1 book · English text: BSB (change it from the menu at the top) · Strong’s H0285
including Ahijah, who was wearing an ephod. He was the son of Ichabodʼs brother Ahitub son of Phinehas, the son of Eli the priest of the LORD in Shiloh. But the troops did not know that Jonathan had left.
But Doeg the Edomite, who had stationed himself with Saulʼs servants, answered: “I saw the son of Jesse come to Ahimelech son of Ahitub at Nob.
Then the king sent messengers to summon Ahimelech the priest, the son of Ahitub, and his fatherʼs whole family, who were priests at Nob. And all of them came to the king.
“Listen now, son of Ahitub,” said Saul. “Here I am, my lord,” he replied.
But one of the sons of Ahimelech son of Ahitub escaped. His name was Abiathar, and he fled to David.
Names, family links and references: STEPBible TIPNR (Tyndale House Cambridge, CC BY 4.0). Short descriptions were drafted with AI assistance by STEPBible. Family links follow STEPBible’s scholarly decisions where genealogies are ambiguous.