2 Samuel 23:34

Hebrew (Westminster Leningrad Codex)

English Translation

Eliphelet the son of Ahasbai, the son of the Maacathite, Eliam the son of Ahithophel the Gilonite,

World English Bible · Public Domain

Highlights

1 hapax legomenon — only here in the Hebrew Bible
1 first appearance in the Hebrew Bible

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אֲחַסְבַּ֖י

ʼĂchaçbay

H308

“Ahasbai”

Noun, Proper

Appears 1× in the Hebrew Bible
First appears here

Full BDB Definition

Origin: of uncertain derivation

TWOT: None

Ahasbai = "brother of my encompassers" - father of Eliphelet, one of David's heroes

About this verse

These counts appear in no published source. They are computed here, from the morphology-tagged text and Lemma’s own curated glosses. What Lemma adds →

9: words
7: distinct lemmas
Historical: section

Notable vocabulary

1 hapax legomenon — a word that appears only here in the entire Hebrew Bible:

אֲחַסְבַּ֖י Ahasbai H308

First appearance in Scripture

This word makes its first canonical appearance in the Hebrew Bible here:

אֲחַסְבַּ֖י Ahasbai H308

Shared distinctive vocabulary

אֱלִיעָ֥ם Eliam H463 occurs in 2 verses of the Hebrew Bible. Also found in:

2 Samuel 11:3

Grammatical profile

9 nouns

Repetition

A word recurs within this verse — often emphatic in Hebrew:

בֶּן son H1121 ×3

Hebrew & Septuagint length

In English translation the verse runs 17 words from the Hebrew and 17 from the Septuagint (LXX English) — the same length.

A rough comparison of the two English renderings, which tokenize alike — not a word-level alignment.

Word counts can differ between the Hebrew and the Greek without any difference in meaning — e.g. the Hebrew direct-object marker אֵת has no separate Greek word, and Greek often adds the article ὁ.

In the original languages it is 9 Hebrew tokens and 12 Greek tokens — but the two are counted differently (Hebrew bundles its prefixes and suffixes into one token; the Greek is in lemma form), so that isn’t a like-for-like length.

Cross-references

Topical passages linked to 2 Samuel 23:34 in the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge — connected by theme and wording, ordered by reader-vote popularity; previews shown in the World English Bible.

2 Samuel 11:3 David send and inquired after the woman. One said, Is not this Bathsheba, the daughter of Eliam, the wife of Uriah the Hittite?
2 Samuel 15:12 Absalom sent for Ahithophel the Gilonite, David's counselor, from his city, even from Giloh, while he was offering the sacrifices. The conspiracy was strong; for the people increased continually with Absalom.
2 Samuel 10:6 When the children of Ammon saw that they were become odious to David, the children of Ammon sent and hired the Syrians of Beth Rehob, and the Syrians of Zobah, twenty thousand footmen, and the king of Maacah with one thousand men, and the men of Tob twelve thousand men.
2 Samuel 10:8 The children of Ammon came out, and put the battle in array at the entrance of the gate: and the Syrians of Zobah and of Rehob, and the men of Tob and Maacah, were by themselves in the field.
2 Samuel 15:31 One told David, saying, Ahithophel is among the conspirators with Absalom. David said, Yahweh, please turn the counsel of Ahithophel into foolishness.
2 Samuel 17:23 When Ahithophel saw that his counsel was not followed, he saddled his donkey, and arose, and got him home, to his city, and set his house in order, and hanged himself; and he died, and was buried in the tomb of his father.
1 Chronicles 27:33–34 Ahithophel was the king's counselor: and Hushai the Archite was the king's friend:

Cross-references courtesy of OpenBible.info (CC BY 4.0).

Hebrew and Greek witnesses Masoretic Hebrew ↔ Greek Septuagint

The same verse in the two great witnesses to the Old Testament, shown verse-for-verse.

These are two independent witnesses, not word-aligned to each other, and the Septuagint is shown in lemma (dictionary) form.

Hebrew 2 Samuel 23:34 Masoretic · Westminster Leningrad Codex

אֱלִיפֶ֥לֶט בֶּן אֲחַסְבַּ֖י בֶּן הַמַּֽעֲכָתִ֑י אֱלִיעָ֥ם בֶּן אֲחִיתֹ֖פֶל הַגִּלֹנִֽי

Eliphelet the son of Ahasbai, the son of the Maacathite, Eliam the son of Ahithophel the Gilonite,

World English Bible · Public Domain

Greek LXX 2 Samuel 23:34 Septuagint · lemma form

αλιφαλεθ υἱός ὁ ασβίτης υἱός ὁ μααχατι ελιαβ υἱός αχιτοφελ ὁ γελωνίτης

Aliphaleth the son of Asbites, the son of the Machachachite; Eliab the son of Achitophel the Gelonite.

LXX2012 (modern English Septuagint) · Public Domain

Hebrew: Westminster Leningrad Codex (CC BY 4.0). Greek: Septuagint (public domain); English from LXX2012 (modern English Septuagint) (Public Domain). How the Septuagint differs from the Hebrew →

Targum (Aramaic paraphrase)

The Targum is the ancient Jewish Aramaic paraphrase of the Hebrew Scriptures — an interpretive translation, not the Hebrew text itself. Onkelos (literal) and Pseudo-Jonathan (expansive) render the Torah, and Jonathan the Prophets. Coverage is partial: where no permissively-licensed English translation exists for a verse, only the Aramaic is shown. This is verse-level text, not a word-by-word alignment to the Hebrew.

Targum Jonathan Prophets (Joshua–Malachi)

אֶלִיפֶלֶט בַּר אֲחַסְבִּי בַּר מַעֲכָת אֱלִיעָם בַּר אֲחִיתוֹפֶל גִלוֹנָאָה:

(no public-domain English translation for this verse)

Targum Jonathan — Aramaic: “Mikraot Gedolot” (public domain). English: “Sefaria Community Translation” (CC0 1.0 (public-domain dedication)); “London "Chaldee Paraphrase," 1871” (public domain). Text via Sefaria.

Commentary

Notes on 2 Samuel 23:34 from classic Christian and Jewish commentators (each source and its license shown beneath its notes). The classic Christian expositions comment on the surrounding passage and are grouped to its opening verse, so a note may address several verses; the Jewish commentaries on the Tanakh (Rashi and others) are per-verse, so they appear only where the commentator wrote on this verse.

Lemma curates 59 commentaries, every one of them public domain or Creative Commons licensed, each selected and text-cleaned for this edition rather than reprinted as found. About our sources →

Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers

(34) Eliphelet the son of Ahasbai.—The reading in Chronicles is quite different: “Eliphal the son of Ur, Hepher the Mecherathite,” thus making two heroes instead of the one given here. So, also, instead of “Eliam the son of Ahithophel the Gilonite,” Chronicles has Ahijah the Pelonite. In the latter case it seems likely that different persons are intended, one being mentioned in one list and the other in the other. It is interesting to know that a son of David’s astute but treacherous counsellor was among his thirty heroes.

A Bible Commentary for English Readers, edited by Charles John Ellicott (1878–1897) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges

gen. ed. J. J. S. Perowne

34. Here the text of 1Ch_11:35-36 diverges widely, and in place of the names in this verse reads “Eliphal the son of Ur, Hepher the Mecherathite, Ahijah the Pelonite.”

the son of the Maachathite] Better, the Maachathite, a member of the clan or family of Maachah, settled at Abel-beth-Maachah (ch. 2Sa_20:14 ff.); or possibly a native of the Syrian kingdom of Maachah (ch. 2Sa_10:6).

Eliam] Son of David’s clever but treacherous counsellor (ch. 2Sa_15:12); supposed by some to be the father of Bath-sheba. But the identification is doubtful: see note on ch. 2Sa_11:3.

The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges (gen. ed. J. J. S. Perowne; Cambridge University Press, 1878–1918) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

John Gill's Exposition

Eliphelet the son of Ahasbai, the son of the Maachathite,.... In Ch1 11:35, he is called Eliphal the son of Ur:

Eliam the son of Ahithophel the Gilonite; David's counsellor, that went off to Absalom, Sa2 15:12; Eliam his son is supposed, by the Jews, to be the father of Bathsheba, the wife of Uriah, Sa2 11:3; according to Hillerus (q), he is the same with Ahijah the Pelonite, Ch1 11:36.

(q) Onomastic. Sacr. p. 906.

John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible (1746–1763) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

Haydock's Catholic Bible Commentary

Eliphelet, &c., or Eliphal, the son of Ur; Hepher, a Macherathite; Ahia, a Phelonite; Hesro, a Carmelite. See 1 Paralipomenon xi. 35.

George Leo Haydock (1774–1849), Haydock's Catholic Family Bible and Commentary, 1859 edition — public domain. Excludes Psalms (Douay-Rheims chapter numbering differs from Protestant) and Deuterocanonical books (Catholic canon only).

The Pulpit Commentary

Eliphelet the son of Ahasbai, the son of the Maachathite. In Chronicles this becomes "Elipha the son of Ur, Hepher the Mecherathite." If the text here is correct, Eliphelet must be a native of Beth-Maachah, a town in Naphtali. (2Sa_20:14) Eliam the son of Ahithophel the Gilonite. Instead of this, we find "Ahijah the Pelonite" in 1Ch_11:36. Eliam is supposed by many to have been Bathsheba"s father. (see note on 2Sa_11:3; and for Ahithophel the Gilonite, note on 2Sa_15:12)

The Pulpit Commentary (1880–1919), ed. H.D.M. Spence-Jones & Joseph S. Exell — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Lesson kit

Teaching starters — assembled from the data on this page, not authored interpretation. Every prompt links to the verse data it draws on. Edit before teaching.

2 Samuel, in the Historical, opens this verse with 9 words (7 distinct Hebrew lemmas). Its most distinctive word is ʼĂchaçbay (“Ahasbai”). A historical commentator’s framing appears above. Read the whole chapter for the surrounding context.

Discussion questions

How does “Ahasbai” (ʼĂchaçbay) shape what this verse is saying?
1 word here appears nowhere else in the Hebrew Bible. Why might the author reach for such rare wording?
This is the first place “Ahasbai” appears in Scripture (first appears here). What does its debut here establish?
How does 2 Samuel 11:3, which shares the word «Eliam», read alongside this verse?
What does the repetition of “son” (3× in this one verse) do in this verse?
The translations on this page render this verse differently — a whole-verse word diff, not a word-by-word alignment. What might account for the different wordings?
Compare how Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers and The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges read this verse. Where do they agree or differ?

Things to notice

1 word in this verse appears nowhere else in the Hebrew Bible.
1 word makes its first canonical appearance in Scripture here.
This verse counts 9 Hebrew ↔ 12 Greek words.
These translations choose different wording for 2 words in this verse.
“son” occurs 3× in this single verse.