Ahimaaz

AHIMAAZ (a-hĭm'ā-ăz, Heb. ’ăhîma‘ats, brother of anger)

The father of Ahinoam, wife of King Saul (1Sam.14.50).Son of Zadok the high priest (1Chr.6.8). During Absalom’s rebellion he and Jonathan, son of Abiathar, served as messengers between David and Hushai, David’s counselor and spy. They brought to David Hushai’s news that Ahithophel had urged Absalom to make an immediate attack and Hushai’s warning that David should cross the Jordan at once (2Sam.15.24-2Sam.15.27; 2Sam.17.15-2Sam.17.22). David’s estimate of Ahimaaz appears in his remark at his approach after the battle: “He’s a good man...He comes with good news” (2Sam.18.27). Ahimaaz announced the victory but evaded the question concerning Absalom’s fate, wishing to spare the feelings of the king. While he was still in David’s presence the Cushite arrived and unfeelingly broke the news concerning Absalom’s death. Comparing 1Kgs.4.2 with 1Chr.6.8-1Chr.6.10, some infer that Ahimaaz died before he attained the priesthood and before the death of his father Zadok, who was succeeded by Ahimaaz’s son, Azariah.One of Solomon’s twelve commissary officers (1Kgs.4.15). He married Basemath, the daughter of Solomon. Some suggest that he should be identified with the son of Zadok.

3. The son-in-law of Solomon who married his daughter Basemath and was one of the king’s twelve officers in charge of the food service for the royal household as financed by the eighth assigned district of Naphtali (1 Kings 4:15). Some, however, apparently still looking for a trace of Ahimaaz, the son of Zadok (see 2 above) conjecture that the name of the man who married Basemath has dropped out of the text and therefore only the name of the husband’s father has remained.

International Standard Bible Encyclopedia (1915)

a-hi-ma’-az, a-him’-a-az (’achima`ats, perhaps "my brother is rage," or "brother of rage"):

(1) Father of Ahinoam the wife of King Saul (1Sa 14:50).

(2) The son of Zadok the high priest (1Ch 6:8,9,53). With his father he remained loyal to David in the rebellions both of Absalom and of Adonijah. With Jonathan the son of Abiathar he carried information to Dared when he fled from Absalom (2Sa 15:27,36; 17:17,20). At his own urgent request he carried tidings to David after the death of Absalom (2Sa 18:19 ff). He told the king of the victory, and also, through his reluctance to speak, informed him of Absalom’s death. By his reluctance and his sympathy he softened a little the message, which the Cushite presently repeated more harshly.

That Ahimaaz did not succeed his father as high priest has been inferred from the fact that in the Solomon list of heads of departments (1Ki 4:2) Azariah the son of Zadok is mentioned as priest. It is assumed that this Azariah is the one who appears in the genealogy as the son of Ahimaaz, and that for some reason Ahimaaz was left out of the succession. These inferences are not Justified by the record, though possibly the record does not absolutely disprove them. As the list stands it makes Zadok and Abiathar the high priests. Azariah and Zabud, the son of Nathan (1Ki 4:2,5), are spoken of as holding priestly offices of a different kind. Ahimaaz may have died early, or may have followed some other career, but the simple fact is that we do not know.

(3) Ahimaaz, in Naphtali, was one of Solomon’s twelve commissary officers (1Ki 4:15), who married Basemath the daughter of Solomon. It is not impossible that he was Ahimaaz the son of Zadok, though there is no proof to that effect.

Willis J. Beecher