Ahitub

AHITUB (a-hī'tŭb, Heb. ’ăhîtûb, brother of goodness)

2. Father to Zadok, the high priest during the time of David (2 Sam 8:17; 1 Chron 6:7, 8, 52; 18:16 and Ezra 7:2) but grandfather according to 1 Chronicles 9:11; Nehemiah 11:11. The best explanation of this phenomenon is to study the methods employed by the Scripture writers of genealogies whereby they selectively draw out names from a genealogy for their immediate contextual purposes and employ the word “son of” or “father of” to connect these links as is permissible in the range of meanings for these terms.

3. Using the numbers available to us, the seventh generation from Ahitub (2 above) another priest named Ahitub appears (1 Chron 6:11, cf. also 1 Esd 8:2; 2 Esd 1:1, Achitob, Achito, Ahitob).

4. An ancestor of Judith (Judg 8:1).

International Standard Bible Encyclopedia (1915)

(’achiTubh, "brother of goodness," i.e. "good brother," or, "my brother is goodness"):

(1) The brother of Ichabod and son of Phinehas the son of Eli (1Sa 14:3; 22:9,11,12,20), According to 1Ch 24 he and his line were descended from Aaron through Ithamar. The record implies that he was born while his father and grandfather were priests at Shiloh, and it says that he was the father and grandfather of priests; but it is silent as to his own exercise of the priestly office. We have no information concerning the office from the time when the Philistines captured the ark till Saul became king. See Ahijah; Ahimelech; Abiathar.

(3) In the genealogies, in the seventh generation from Ahitub, the descendant of Eleazar, appears another Ahitub, the son of another Amariah and the father (or grandfather) of another Zadok (1Ch 6:11; 9:11, Ne 11:11). The list in Ezr 7 omits a block of names, and the Ahitub there named may be either 2 or 3. He is mentioned in 1 Esdras 8:2 and 2 Esdras 1:1, and the name occurs in Judith 8:1. In these places it appears in the English versions in the various forms: Ahitub, Ahitob, Achitob, Acitho.

Willis J. Beecher

International Standard Bible Encyclopedia (1915)

The name in the King James Version of an ancestor of Judith (Judith 8:1).