Ahishar (Hastings' Dictionary)

Super- intendent of Solomon's household (1 K 4'). AHITHOPHEL (^h-rw 'my brother is folly'— Oxf. Heb. Lex.), was a native of Giloh, a town in the south-western part of the highlands of Juda;a, identified uncertainly with a village three miles north-west of Halhul. He was a very inlluential counsellor of David, his reputation tor political sagacity being unrivalled ; but he was destitute of prmciple, a man of craft rather than of character (2 S 15"-17^, 1 Ch 27'^).

He joined the rebellion of Absalom, possibly through ambition, possibly out of sympathy with the resentment of his tribe of Judah at the decline of its tribal pre-eminence. It is supposed by some that he was al.so the grandfather of Bathsheba (cf. 2 S 23** with 1I») ; out the identification of her father with the son of A. is open to question, though certainly possible.

The policy he advised was that Absalom should take possession of his father's harem, thus showini; that no pardon could bo expected from David, and that he should proceed at once in pursuit of his father. When Hushai's counsel of delay prevailed, A. recognised the necessary failure of the enter- prise, withdrew to Giloh, and hanged himself (2 S 17"*). There is no other case of deliberate suicide, except in war, mentioned in the OT, and the parallel in the NT is the case of Judas.

Allusions to A. have been found in Ps 41' 55'^'" 59" and elsewhere ; but these must not be treated as designed, and no inference can be drawn from them OS to the authorship of the psalms. The Talnmd and Midrashim occasionally refer to him. In the latter he is classed with Hal.aam as an instance of the ruin which overtakes wisdom that is not the gift of Heaven ; and in the former (Baba bnthra 1.

7) the great les-son of his life is said to be, ' Be not in strife with the house of David, and break off from none of its rule.' K. W. Moss. AHITOB (B "AxfiTii/S, A 'Axir-, AV Achitob), 1 Es 8'. — An ancestor of Ezra, son of Amarios and father of Sadduk [Ahitub]. U. St. J. Thackeray. 58 AHITUB AIR