אֲחִימַ֫עַץ
Ahimaaz
BDB lists 4 entries for ‘Ahimaaz’ fuller range ↓
Full lexicon entry — Brown-Driver-Briggs (BDB)
From Brown-Driver-Briggs (BDB)
Where this word appears
Grammar key — what these labels mean
Part of speech
- Noun
- A naming word — a person, place, thing, or idea.
Noun type
- Proper
- A name of a specific person, place, or people (e.g. Abraham, Zion, Israel).
Every verse where H290 appears in the Book of 2 Samuel — 10 distinct verses. Click any verse to open its interlinear word-by-word view. Verse text shown in the World English Bible for context — . Each verse’s Hebrew form is shown with its reference; the English is not keyword-highlighted, since the data carries no word-level English alignment. Use “Compare translations” on any verse to read it across multiple English versions. This concordance covers the Hebrew Bible; Septuagint (Greek Old Testament) occurrences are not indexed here.
2 Samuel
- 2 Samuel 15:27 וַ/אֲחִימַ֨עַץ conj + n Proper The king said also to Zadok the priest, "Aren't you a seer? Return into the city in peace, and your two sons with you, Ahimaaz your son, and Jonathan the son of Abiathar.
- 2 Samuel 15:36 אֲחִימַ֣עַץ n Proper Behold, they have there with them their two sons, Ahimaaz, Zadok's son, and Jonathan, Abiathar's son; and by them you shall send to me everything that you shall hear.
- 2 Samuel 17:17 וַ/אֲחִימַ֜עַץ conj + n Proper Now Jonathan and Ahimaaz were staying by En Rogel; and a maid-servant used to go and tell them; and they went and told king David: for they might not be seen to come into the city.
- 2 Samuel 17:20 אֲחִימַ֨עַץ֙ n Proper Absalom's servants came to the woman to the house; and they said, Where are Ahimaaz and Jonathan? The woman said to them, They have gone over the brook of water. When they had sought and could not find them, they returned to Jerusalem.
- 2 Samuel 18:19 וַ/אֲחִימַ֤עַץ conj + n Proper Then said Ahimaaz the son of Zadok, Let me now run, and bear the king news, how that Yahweh has avenged him of his enemies.
- 2 Samuel 18:22 אֲחִימַ֤עַץ n Proper Then said Ahimaaz the son of Zadok yet again to Joab, But come what may, Please let me also run after the Cushite. Joab said, Why will you run, my son, seeing that you will have no reward for the news?
- 2 Samuel 18:23 אֲחִימַ֨עַץ֙ n Proper But come what may, [said he], I will run. He said to him, Run. Then Ahimaaz ran by the way of the Plain, and outran the Cushite.
- 2 Samuel 18:27 אֲחִימַ֣עַץ n Proper The watchman said, I think the running of the foremost is like the running of Ahimaaz the son of Zadok. The king said, He is a good man, and comes with good news.
- 2 Samuel 18:28 אֲחִימַ֗עַץ n Proper Ahimaaz called, and said to the king, All is well. He bowed himself before the king with his face to the earth, and said, Blessed be Yahweh your God, who has delivered up the men who lifted up their hand against my lord the king.
- 2 Samuel 18:29 אֲחִימַ֡עַץ n Proper The king said, Is it well with the young man Absalom? Ahimaaz answered, When Joab sent the king's servant, even me your servant, I saw a great tumult, but I don't know what it was.
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.
At its core, אחימעץ (ʼĂchîymaʻats) means “Ahimaaz.” Its uses cluster heavily in 2 Samuel (67% of all occurrences). With 15 verses in 4 books, it is an uncommon word in the Hebrew Bible. Scripture first uses it in 1 Samuel 14:50. Dig into 15-verse concordance and the renderings breakdown below.
Gloss history
Strong's 1890 vs modern scholarship
About this word
Strong's H290 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 →
- 15
- distinct verses
- The word appears in 15 distinct verses.
- 4 / 39
- OT books
- The word appears in 4 of 39 Old Testament books.
- #1,836
- by frequency
- Top 2500 most frequent Hebrew words (rank 1,836 of 8,640 Hebrew words by occurrence).
View all 15 occurrences in the concordance →
Most concentrated in
- 2 Samuel 10 verses 67%
- 1 Chronicles 3 verses 20%
- 1 Samuel 1 verse 7%
By section of the Old Testament
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 15 distinct verses.
- Prophets (Nevi'im) 12 verses · 80%
- Writings (Ketuvim) 3 verses · 20%
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).
- King James Version: Ahimaaz 13×
- American Standard Version: Ahimaaz 12×
- Berean Standard Bible: Ahimaaz 13×
- unfoldingWord Literal Text: Ahimaaz 14×
King James Version Public Domain
Renders H290 across 15 tagged occurrences — most commonly:
Plus 2 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 H290 across 15 tagged occurrences — most commonly:
Plus 3 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 H290 across 15 tagged occurrences — most commonly:
Plus 2 renderings that appear only once — usually multi-word phrases or single function words the recovered tagging swept in, not distinct renderings.
unfoldingWord Literal Text CC BY-SA 4.0
Renders H290 across 15 tagged occurrences — most commonly:
Plus 1 rendering that appears only once — usually multi-word phrases or single function words the recovered tagging swept in, not distinct renderings.
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 2 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.
- 1. son of Zadok 2 S 15:27, 36; 17:17, 20; 18:19, 22, 23, 27, 28, 29 1 Ch 5:34 (אֲחִימָ֑עַץ) v 35; 6:38; perhaps also 1 K 4:15 (son-in-law of Sol.) e.g. 2 Samuel 15:27
- 2. אֲחִימָ֑עַץ, father-in-law of Saul 1 S 14:50. e.g. 1 Samuel 14:50
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
n.pr.m. (my brother is wrath)
— Brown-Driver-Briggs (Oxford 1906, public domain), digitized via Sefaria, supplemented by the OpenScriptures HebrewLexicon (CC BY 4.0). See Sources.
Derived from אח (ʼâch) (H251) — brother.
Forms in the corpus
The 13 distinct written forms H290 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 |
|---|---|---|---|
| אֲחִימַ֣עַץ | Noun, Proper | 2 Samuel 15:36 | 2 |
| אֲחִימַ֨עַץ֙ | Noun, Proper | 2 Samuel 17:20 | 2 |
| אֲחִימַ֖עַץ | Noun, Proper | 1 Kings 4:15 | 1 |
| אֲחִימַ֗עַץ | Noun, Proper | 2 Samuel 18:28 | 1 |
| אֲחִימַ֡עַץ | Noun, Proper | 2 Samuel 18:29 | 1 |
| אֲחִימַ֤עַץ | Noun, Proper | 2 Samuel 18:22 | 1 |
| אֲחִימַ֥עַץ | Noun, Proper | 1 Chronicles 6:53 | 1 |
| אֲחִימָ֑עַץ | Noun, Proper | 1 Samuel 14:50 | 1 |
| אֲחִימָֽעַץ | Noun, Proper | 1 Chronicles 6:8 | 1 |
| וַ/אֲחִימַ֜עַץ | Noun, Proper | 2 Samuel 17:17 | 1 |
| וַ/אֲחִימַ֤עַץ | Noun, Proper | 2 Samuel 18:19 | 1 |
| וַ/אֲחִימַ֨עַץ | Noun, Proper | 2 Samuel 15:27 | 1 |
| וַ/אֲחִימַ֨עַץ֙ | Noun, Proper | 1 Chronicles 6:9 | 1 |
Same root — word family
Other BDB entries built from the same root as H290, 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.
- אחאב ʼAchʼâb H256 Ahab
- אחבן ʼAchbân H257 Ahban
- אחוח ʼĂchôwach H265 Ahoah
- אחומי ʼĂchûwmay H267 Ahumai
- אחי ʼĂchîy H277 Ahi
- אחיאם ʼĂchîyʼâm H279 Ahiam
- אחיה ʼĂchîyâh H281 Ahijah
- אחיהוד ʼĂchîyhûwd H282 Ahihud
- אחיו ʼAchyôw H283 Ahio
- אחיחד ʼĂchîychud H284 Ahihud
- אחיטוב ʼĂchîyṭûwb H285 Ahitub
- אחילוד ʼĂchîylûwd H286 Ahilud
- אחימות ʼĂchîymôwth H287 Ahimoth
- אחימלך ʼĂchîymelek H288 Ahimelech
- אחימן ʼĂchîyman H289 Ahiman
- אחין ʼAchyân H291 Ahian
- אחינדב ʼĂchîynâdâb H292 Ahinadab
- אחינעם ʼĂchîynôʻam H293 Ahinoam
- אחיסמך ʼĂchîyçâmâk H294 Ahisamach
- אחיעזר ʼĂchîyʻezer H295 Ahiezer
- אחיקם ʼĂchîyqâm H296 Ahikam
- אחירם ʼĂchîyrâm H297 Ahiram
- אחירע ʼĂchîyraʻ H299 Ahira
- אחישחר ʼĂchîyshachar H300 Ahishahar
+2 more proper names from this root (not shown).
Compare all same-root words → Showing 4 of 31 — not the complete family. 26 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 (Ahimaaz). 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
Brother of anger = irascible. (1.) The father Ahinoam, the wife of Saul (1 Sam. 14:50).
(2.) The son and successor of Zadok in the office of high priest (1 Chr. 6:8, 53). On the occasion of the revolt of Absalom he remained faithful to David, and was of service to him in conveying to him tidings of the proceedings of Absalom in Jerusalem (2 Sam. 15:24-37; 17:15-21). He was swift of foot, and was the first to carry to David tidings of the defeat of Absalom, although he refrained, from delicacy of feeling, from telling him of his death (2 Sam. 18:19-33).
Smith's Bible Dictionary · William Smith, 1863
(brother of anger).
+ Son of Zadok the high priest in David's reign, and celebrated for his swiftness of foot. During Absalom's rebellion he carried to David the important intelligence that Ahithophel had counselled an immediate attack upon David and his followers. (2 Samuel 15:24-37; 17:15-22) Shortly afterwards he was the first to bring to the king the good news of Absalom's defeat. (2 Samuel 18:19-33) (B.C. 972-956.) + Saul's wife's father. (1 Samuel 14:50) (B.C. before 1093.) + Solomon's son-in-law. (1 Kings 4:15) (B.C. after 1014.)
Hitchcock's Bible Names Dictionary · Roswell D. Hitchcock, 1869
a brother of the council
Classic public-domain reference works; full attribution on Sources.
Septuagint verse parallels
This word appears in 15 verses that also exist in the Greek Old Testament (Septuagint), out of the 15 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.
