AHIMELECH ə him’ ə lək (אֲחִימֶ֜לֶכְ, brother [God] rules, or my brother is king). 1. The father of Abiathar, David’s high priest; son of Ahitub, the son of Phinehas, the son of Eli (1 Sam 21:1, 2, 8; 22:9ff.; 23:6; 30:7). This priest of Nob gave assistance to David by offering him the showbread (21:6) and when Saul learned of this aid, it cost Ahimelech his life (22:11-19). Ahijah, the son of Ahitub, (14:3, 18), is either a (1) short form for Ahimelech, (2) another name for Ahimelech, or (3) Ahimelech’s father in a fuller genealogy (see Ahijah). One of the eight fugitive Psalms (title of Ps 52) refers to the evil use of the tongue by Doeg, the Edomite, against Ahimelech.

2. A Hitt. who followed David while he was a fugitive in the wilderness hiding from Saul (1 Sam 26:6).

3. A son of Abiathar is also called Ahimelech (2 Sam 8:17 and 1 Chron 18:16) and a grandson of 1 above. Most scholars regard this as an inadvertent transposition for “Abiathar the son of Ahimelech.” While this is likely enough, the detailed account of 1 Chronicles 24:3, 6, 31 would seem to rule against it. One has only to look at the Phoen. lists of names in C.I.S. for the phenomena of patronymics where father, grandson, and greatgreat-grandson all share the name “A” while son and great-grandson share the name “B,” e.g. the patrilineal pattern of “A” begets “B” begets “A” begets “B” begets “A.”

Bibliography W. F. Albright, Archaeology and the Religion of Israel, (1956), 201, 202.