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אֲבִיָּ֫הוּ

Abijah

BDB lists 9 entries for ‘Abijah’ fuller range ↓

H29 Strong's Hebrew
ʼĂbîyâh Transliteration
/ab-ee-yaw'/ Pronunciation
Usage in the Hebrew Bible 25 appearances

Compare with another word →

About this entry

At a glance — auto-summarized from this page’s data, not written by a person. Every figure links to its source below. This summary describes the numbers; it doesn’t interpret them.

The Hebrew name אביה centers on the idea of “Abijah.” The word gravitates to 2 Chronicles (60%), then 1 Chronicles and Nehemiah. It appears 25 verses across 5 books of the Hebrew Bible, among its uncommon vocabulary. Debuting at 1 Samuel 8:2, it then recurs through the corpus. Dig into 25-verse concordance and the renderings breakdown below.

Gloss history

Strong's 1890 vs modern scholarship

Strong's · 1890
Abiah
Modern gloss
Abijah
Strong's 1890 sometimes compressed multiple senses — or homonymous roots — under one number, and used 19th-century English phrasing that no longer carries the same connotation. The modern gloss reflects current BDB scholarship; open the Lexicon Entry tab for the full sense breakdown. Download share card

About this word

Strong's H29 catalogs a Hebrew word from the Hebrew Old Testament.

These counts are not copied from any lexicon or concordance. They are computed here, from the morphology-tagged Hebrew Old Testament. What Lemma adds →

25
distinct verses
The word appears in 25 distinct verses.
5 / 39
OT books
The word appears in 5 of 39 Old Testament books.
1 Samuel 8:2
first appearance
The earliest occurrence is in 1 Samuel 8:2.
Nehemiah 12:17
last appearance
The latest occurrence is in Nehemiah 12:17.
#1,282
by frequency
Top 2500 most frequent Hebrew words (rank 1,282 of 8,640 Hebrew words by occurrence).

View all 25 occurrences in the concordance →


Most concentrated in

By section of the Old Testament

  • Pentateuch 0 · 0%
  • Historical 25 · 100%
  • Wisdom 0 · 0%
  • Prophets 0 · 0%

By traditional corpus

Conventional, traditional groupings — biblical authorship is debated, so this is a traditional corpus grouping, not an authorship claim. Each share is this word’s portion of its verses in that division of the Hebrew canon. Each figure is a share of the word’s 25 distinct verses.

  • Writings (Ketuvim) 23 verses · 92%
  • Prophets (Nevi'im) 2 verses · 8%

How translations render this word

Counts come from each version’s own published word-to-Strong’s tagging or interlinear alignment — an approximate guide to how each version renders this word, not a word-level alignment the data otherwise carries. Because each total is that version’s own tagged count, the per-version totals vary from one another and need not match the appearance or distinct-verse counts above. These counts may also differ from a printed concordance because Lemma counts each distinctly tagged rendering and does not collapse phrase taggings into a single head-word total. This is a fixed set of word-tagged versions (KJV, ASV, BSB, ULT) and does not change with the reading translation you choose elsewhere. Each version’s license is shown beside its name below (and on Sources).

BDB lists this Strong’s number as 2 distinct words (homographs). Each count above pools all of them and is not split by sense — see the Senses section below. A low-frequency rendering may belong to a different one of those words, not the primary meaning.

  • King James Version: Abijah 17×, Abiah 4×
  • American Standard Version: Abijah 21×
  • Berean Standard Bible: Abijah 23×, Was abijah 2×
  • unfoldingWord Literal Text: Abijah 24×

King James Version Public Domain

Renders H29 across 25 tagged occurrences — most commonly:

  • “Abijah” 17×
  • “Abiah” 4×

Plus 4 renderings that appear only once — usually multi-word phrases or single function words the recovered tagging swept in, not distinct renderings.

American Standard Version Public Domain

Renders H29 across 25 tagged occurrences — most commonly:

  • “Abijah” 21×

Plus 4 renderings that appear only once — usually multi-word phrases or single function words the recovered tagging swept in, not distinct renderings.

Berean Standard Bible Public Domain

Renders H29 across 25 tagged occurrences — most commonly:

  • “Abijah” 23×
  • “Was abijah” 2×

unfoldingWord Literal Text CC BY-SA 4.0

Renders H29 across 25 tagged occurrences — most commonly:

  • “Abijah” 24×

Plus 1 rendering that appears only once — usually multi-word phrases or single function words the recovered tagging swept in, not distinct renderings.


8 senses and sub-senses in the full BDB

What do BDB’s symbols mean?

BDB uses these scholarly abbreviations:

Symbol Meaning
𝔊 the Septuagint (the ancient Greek translation, LXX)
𝔙 the Vulgate (the Latin translation)
𝔖 the Syriac version (the Peshitta)
𝔗 the Targum (the Aramaic translation)
ψ the Psalms
√ root (the underlying root or stem)
‖ parallel passage (a synonymous or contrasted parallel)
† the dagger: every passage where the word occurs is cited

The 8 senses and sub-senses the full Brown-Driver-Briggs lexicon distinguishes for this word, in lexicon order (not ranked by frequency), with BDB’s own verbatim wording and sub-sense lettering. Shown in Hebrew script with BDB’s own scholarly abbreviations. The condensed entry is in the Lexicon Entry tab. See also the Forms in the corpus table below.

Senses from the full Brown-Driver-Briggs lexicon (Brown, Driver, Briggs; Oxford 1906 — public domain), digitized via Sefaria, supplemented by the OpenScriptures HebrewLexicon (CC BY 4.0). Full attribution on Sources.


Word origin

I. n.pr.m. & f. (Yah(u) is (my) father)—so †2 Ch 13:20, 21 = אֲבִיָּם †1 K 14:31; 15:1, 7(×2), 8 (𝔊 Ἀβιου, Ἀβια); = אֲבִי †2 K 18:2 (𝔊 Ἀβου, Ἀβουθ); = אֲבִיָּה 1 S 8:2 + 22 times—

I. v. אֲבִיָּהוּ sub II. אבה.

— Brown-Driver-Briggs (Oxford 1906, public domain), digitized via Sefaria, supplemented by the OpenScriptures HebrewLexicon (CC BY 4.0). See Sources.

Derived from אב (ʼâb) (H1) — father.

Part of speech: Proper Name Masculine


Jastrow Dictionary

A second Hebrew/Aramaic lexicon for comparison, covering Aramaic and post-biblical (Talmudic, Targumic, Midrashic) usage that the biblical-Hebrew BDB does not. Matched by lemma rather than by Strong’s number, so a lemma may carry more than one Jastrow headword (shown separately below), and the entries cover usage well beyond the Bible.

אביה

  • , v. אכזווייא a. אַסְיָא.

A Dictionary of the Targumim, the Talmud Babli and Yerushalmi, and the Midrashic Literature (Marcus Jastrow; London, Luzac, 1903) — Public Domain. Digitized via Sefaria. Digitized via Sefaria. Full attribution on Sources.


Forms in the corpus

The 14 distinct written forms H29 takes in the Hebrew Bible, most frequent first — each parse links to that state’s occurrences in the concordance. Hebrew forms include their vowel points and cantillation, so a single lemma takes many written forms.

Form Parsing Example Uses
אֲבִיָּ֖ה Noun, Proper 2 Chronicles 13:1 5
אֲבִיָּ֥ה Noun, Proper 1 Chronicles 3:10 5
אֲבִיָּ֔ה Noun, Proper 1 Chronicles 2:24 2
אֲבִיָּ֜ה Noun, Proper 2 Chronicles 13:3 2
לַ/אֲבִיָּ֖ה Noun, Proper 1 Chronicles 24:10 2
אֲבִיָּ֑ה Noun, Proper 1 Samuel 8:2 1
אֲבִיָּ֑הוּ Noun, Proper 2 Chronicles 13:20 1
אֲבִיָּ֔הוּ Noun, Proper 2 Chronicles 13:21 1
אֲבִיָּ֗ה Noun, Proper 2 Chronicles 13:4 1
אֲבִיָּֽה Noun, Proper Nehemiah 12:4 1
אֲבִיָּה֙ Noun, Proper 2 Chronicles 11:20 1
אֲבִיָּה֮ Noun, Proper 2 Chronicles 13:19 1
וַ/אֲבִיָּ֔ה Noun, Proper 1 Chronicles 7:8 1
וַ/אֲבִיָּֽה Noun, Proper 1 Chronicles 6:28 1

Same root — word family

Other BDB entries built from the same root as H29, grouped by Strong’s listed origin. These share a root / origin per the lexicon — not necessarily a shared meaning. Each links to that word’s own entry.

Derives from

Shares the same root

Proper names from this root

People and places named from this root — a name, not an additional meaning of the word.

+6 more proper names from this root (not shown).

Compare all same-root words → Showing 4 of 35 — not the complete family. 31 of the same-root words are proper names (people or places). They share a root, not necessarily a meaning.


Bible dictionary

Public-domain dictionary articles matched to this entry by name (Abijah). A biblical name can be shared by more than one person or place, so an article may treat several.

Easton's Bible Dictionary · M. G. Easton, 1897

Father (i.e., "possessor or worshipper") of Jehovah. (1.) 1 Chr. 7:8. (2.) 1 Chr. 2:24.

(3.) The second son of Samuel (1 Sam. 8:2; 1 Chr. 6:28). His conduct, along with that of his brother, as a judge in Beer-sheba, to which office his father had appointed him, led to popular discontent, and ultimately provoked the people to demand a royal form of government.

(4.) A descendant of Eleazar, the son of Aaron, a chief of one of the twenty-four orders into which the priesthood was divided by David (1 Chr. 24:10). The order of Abijah was one of those which did not return from the Captivity (Ezra 2:36-39; Neh. 7:39-42; 12:1).

(5.) The son of Rehoboam, whom he succeeded on the throne of Judah (1 Chr. 3:10). He is also called Abijam (1 Kings 14:31; 15:1-8). He began his three years' reign (2 Chr. 12:16; 13:1, 2) with a strenuous but unsuccessful effort to bring back the ten tribes to their allegiance. His address to "Jeroboam and all Israel," before encountering them in battle, is worthy of being specially noticed (2 Chr. 13:5-12). It was a very bloody battle, no fewer than 500,000 of the army of Israel having perished on the field. He is described as having walked "in all the sins of his father" (1 Kings 15:3; 2 Chr. 11:20-22). It is said in 1 Kings 15:2 that "his mother's name was Maachah, the daughter of Abishalom;" but in 2 Chr. 13:2 we read, "his mother's name was Michaiah, the daughter of Uriel of Gibeah." The explanation is that Maachah is just a variation of the name Michaiah, and that Abishalom is probably the same as Absalom, the son of David. It is probable that "Uriel of Gibeah" married Tamar, the daughter of Absalom (2 Sam. 14:27), and by her had Maachah. The word "daughter" in 1 Kings 15:2 will thus, as it frequently elsewhere does, mean grand-daughter.

(6.) A son of Jeroboam, the first king of Israel. On account of his severe illness when a youth, his father sent his wife to consult the prophet Ahijah regarding his recovery. The prophet, though blind with old age, knew the wife of Jeroboam as soon as she approached, and under a divine impulse he announced to her that inasmuch as in Abijah alone of all the house of Jeroboam there was found "some good thing toward the Lord," he only would come to his grave in peace. As his mother crossed the threshold of the door on her return, the youth died, and "all Israel mourned for him" (1 Kings 14:1-18).

(7.) The daughter of Zechariah (2 Chr. 29:1; comp. Isa. 8:2), and afterwards the wife of Ahaz. She is also called Abi (2 Kings 18:2).

(8.) One of the sons of Becher, the son of Benjamin (1 Chr. 7:8). "Abiah," A.V.

Hitchcock's Bible Names Dictionary · Roswell D. Hitchcock, 1869

the Lord is my father

Classic public-domain reference works; full attribution on Sources.


Septuagint verse parallels

This word appears in 22 verses that also exist in the Greek Old Testament (Septuagint), out of the 25 Hebrew verses it occurs in. You can read those verses in Greek by switching the Old Testament edition to the Septuagint.

Read these verses in the Septuagint

This is a verse-level parallel only — the same verses exist in both the Hebrew and Greek Old Testaments. No word-level Hebrew↔Greek correspondence is claimed: the data carries no such alignment, so no Greek word is shown as this Hebrew word’s translation. Coverage is not total — the Septuagint omits the deuterocanon and renumbers the Psalms, so some Hebrew verses have no direct Greek parallel.

Reading settings

Reading text

Shown beneath each verse's original-language words.

Old Testament
Old Testament edition

Read the OT as the Masoretic Hebrew (MT) or the Greek Septuagint (LXX).

English shown for the Greek Septuagint (in the Hebrew ↔ Greek comparison).

Comparing translations? Open the Compare panel on any verse page to stack up to four side by side.