Abishaq

A very beautiful younir Shunammitess who was brought to comfort David in his extreme old age, according to the advice of his servants, 1 K l^*-". After DaAdd's death, Abishag, as his father's widow, was asked in marriage by Adonijah; the request was refused by Solomon, who appears to have seen in it a renewal of Adonijah's claim to the throne, I K 2'2« ; cf. W. R. Smith, Kinship and Marriage, p. 89 f. G. B. Gray.

ABISHAI C^^-iK, but <i»3>i 2 S 10", 1 Ch 2" 11» 18" 19"- " ' My father is Jesse '). — A. appears from 1 Ch 2" to have been the eldest son of Zeruiah, David's sister. More impetuous than the crafty Joab, but equally implacable, ' hard' (2 S 3^ 19''-'), the first mention of Abishai (1 S 26') presents him to us as already one of the most daring and devoted of David's followers.

He volunteers to go down with David to Saul's camp by night, and is only prevented by David's veneration for the kings sacred office from smiting Saul ' to the earth at one stroke.' We next find him (2 S 2'«- ") with his two brothers at that battle of Gibeon which had such fatal results, first to Asahel, and ultimately to Abner, in whose treacherous murder by Joab, Abishai shared as joint avenger of blood (2 S 3S0.S9). The victory in the Valley of Salt ovei Edom (cf. 2 K 14'), which \a a.

scribed to David in 2 S 8" (Syrians), and to Joab in I's 60 title (1 K ll"-'«), is attributed to Abishai in 1 Ch 18>-. In the war that was caused by Hanun's insult to David's envoys, Joab ^ave Abishai command of the second division against the Ammonites, while he himself opposed the Syrians (2 S lO'"- '*).

Abishai's character is well brought out in the story of David's flight, when he retorts the abuse of Shimei in true Oriental style, and is impatient to slay the offender at once (2 S le*^")- Nor could Sliimei's subsequent abject submission induce Abishai to forgive the man that had ' cursed the Lord's anointed' (19-'). In the battle with Absalom, Abishai shared the command of David's army with Joab and Ittei (18, »-").

In 2 S 20' the name Joab should probably be substituted for that of Abishai (so Jos. Ant. VII. xi. 6, the Syr. vers., Wellhausen, Thenius, and Driver), and V.' read as in the LXX: 'And there went out after him Abishai and Joab's men,' etc It ia natural to suppose that Abishai connived at the murder of Amasa by Joab, 2 S 20'° (so Josephus). His special exploits were, rescuing David from Ishbi-benob, 2 S 21", and slaying three hundred men, 23".

These feats earned for him the first place 'of the three in the second rank' (1 Ch IP', RVm), the other two being probably Joab and Benaiah ; the first three being Jashobeam, Eleazar, and Shammah. Abishai probably died before the rebellion of Adonijah. If he had been alive, he must have been mentioned among the leaders of either side. N. J. D. White.