אֲחִיתֹ֫פֶל
Ahithophel
BDB lists 2 entries for ‘Ahithophel’ 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 H302 appears — 17 distinct verses across 2 books. 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 15 verses
- 2 Samuel 15:12 אֲחִיתֹ֨פֶל n Proper 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 15:31 אֲחִיתֹ֥פֶל אֲחִיתֹ֖פֶל n Proper n Proper One told David, saying, Ahithophel is among the conspirators with Absalom. David said, Yahweh, please turn the counsel of Ahithophel into foolishness.
- 2 Samuel 15:34 אֲחִיתֹֽפֶל n Proper but if you return to the city, and tell Absalom, I will be your servant, O king; as I have been your father's servant in time past, so will I now be your servant; then will you defeat for me the counsel of Ahithophel.
- 2 Samuel 16:15 וַ/אֲחִיתֹ֖פֶל conj + n Proper Absalom, and all the people, the men of Israel, came to Jerusalem, and Ahithophel with him.
- 2 Samuel 16:20 אֲחִיתֹ֑פֶל n Proper Then said Absalom to Ahithophel, Give your counsel what we shall do.
- 2 Samuel 16:21 אֲחִיתֹ֨פֶל֙ n Proper Ahithophel said to Absalom, Go in to your father's concubines, that he has left to keep the house; and all Israel will hear that you are abhorred of your father: then will the hands of all who are with you be strong.
- 2 Samuel 16:23 אֲחִיתֹ֗פֶל אֲחִיתֹ֔פֶל n Proper n Proper The counsel of Ahithophel, which he gave in those days, was as if a man inquired at the oracle of God: so was all the counsel of Ahithophel both with David and with Absalom.
- 2 Samuel 17:1 אֲחִיתֹ֖פֶל n Proper Moreover Ahithophel said to Absalom, Let me now choose out twelve thousand men, and I will arise and pursue after David this night:
- 2 Samuel 17:6 אֲחִיתֹ֔פֶל n Proper When Hushai was come to Absalom, Absalom spoke to him, saying, Ahithophel has spoken after this manner: shall we do [after] his saying? if not, speak up.
- 2 Samuel 17:7 אֲחִיתֹ֖פֶל n Proper Hushai said to Absalom, The counsel that Ahithophel has given this time is not good.
- 2 Samuel 17:14 אֲחִיתֹ֑פֶל אֲחִיתֹ֨פֶל֙ n Proper n Proper Absalom and all the men of Israel said, The counsel of Hushai the Archite is better than the counsel of Ahithophel. For Yahweh had ordained to defeat the good counsel of Ahithophel, to the intent that Yahweh might bring evil on Absalom.
- 2 Samuel 17:15 אֲחִיתֹ֨פֶל֙ n Proper Then said Hushai to Zadok and to Abiathar the priests, Thus and thus did Ahithophel counsel Absalom and the elders of Israel; and thus and thus have I counseled.
- 2 Samuel 17:21 אֲחִיתֹֽפֶל n Proper It happened, after they had departed, that they came up out of the well, and went and told king David; and they said to David, Arise you, and pass quickly over the water; for thus has Ahithophel counseled against you.
- 2 Samuel 17:23 וַ/אֲחִיתֹ֣פֶל conj + n Proper 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.
- 2 Samuel 23:34 אֲחִיתֹ֖פֶל n Proper Eliphelet the son of Ahasbai, the son of the Maacathite, Eliam the son of Ahithophel the Gilonite,
1 Chronicles 2 verses
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 אחיתפל centers on the idea of “Ahithophel.” The word gravitates to 2 Samuel (88%), then 1 Chronicles. It appears 17 verses across 2 books of the Hebrew Bible, among its uncommon vocabulary. Debuting at 2 Samuel 15:12, it then recurs through the corpus. Dig into 17-verse concordance and the renderings breakdown below.
Gloss history
Strong's 1890 vs modern scholarship
About this word
Strong's H302 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 →
- 17
- distinct verses
- The word appears in 17 distinct verses.
- 2 / 39
- OT books
- The word appears in 2 of 39 Old Testament books.
- #1,513
- by frequency
- Top 2500 most frequent Hebrew words (rank 1,513 of 8,640 Hebrew words by occurrence).
View all 17 occurrences in the concordance →
Most concentrated in
- 2 Samuel 15 verses 88%
- 1 Chronicles 2 verses 12%
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 17 distinct verses.
- Prophets (Nevi'im) 15 verses · 88%
- Writings (Ketuvim) 2 verses · 12%
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: Ahithophel 17×
- American Standard Version: Ahithophel 14×
- Berean Standard Bible: Ahithophel 18×
- unfoldingWord Literal Text: Ahithophel 20×
King James Version Public Domain
Renders H302 across 20 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.
American Standard Version Public Domain
Renders H302 across 20 tagged occurrences — most commonly:
Plus 6 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 H302 across 20 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 H302 across 20 tagged occurrences — most commonly:
Senses in BDB
The 2 senses BDB distinguishes for this word, in lexicon order (not ranked by frequency or importance). The full entry — with sub-senses — is in the Lexicon Entry tab.
- Ahithophel = "my brother is foolish (folly)"
- a counsellor of David…
Word origin
n.pr.m. (my brother is folly?) David’s trusted & traitorous counsellor 2 S 15:12, 31(×2), 34; 16:15, 20, 21, 23(×2); 17:1, 6, 7, 14(×2), 15, 21, 23; 23:34 1 Ch 27:33, 34.
— 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 10 distinct written forms H302 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 |
|---|---|---|---|
| אֲחִיתֹ֖פֶל | Noun, Proper | 2 Samuel 15:31 | 4 |
| אֲחִיתֹ֨פֶל֙ | Noun, Proper | 2 Samuel 16:21 | 3 |
| אֲחִיתֹ֑פֶל | Noun, Proper | 2 Samuel 16:20 | 2 |
| אֲחִיתֹ֔פֶל | Noun, Proper | 2 Samuel 16:23 | 2 |
| אֲחִיתֹ֗פֶל | Noun, Proper | 1 Chronicles 27:34 | 2 |
| אֲחִיתֹֽפֶל | Noun, Proper | 2 Samuel 15:34 | 2 |
| וַ/אֲחִיתֹ֖פֶל | Noun, Proper | 1 Chronicles 27:33 | 2 |
| אֲחִיתֹ֥פֶל | Noun, Proper | 2 Samuel 15:31 | 1 |
| אֲחִיתֹ֨פֶל | Noun, Proper | 2 Samuel 15:12 | 1 |
| וַ/אֲחִיתֹ֣פֶל | Noun, Proper | 2 Samuel 17:23 | 1 |
Same root — word family
Other BDB entries built from the same root as H302, 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
- אחימעץ ʼĂchîymaʻats H290 Ahimaaz
- 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
+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 (Ahithophel). 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 insipidity or impiety, a man greatly renowned for his sagacity among the Jews. At the time of Absalom's revolt he deserted David (Ps. 41:9; 55:12-14) and espoused the cause of Absalom (2 Sam. 15:12). David sent his old friend Hushai back to Absalom, in order that he might counteract the counsel of Ahithophel (2 Sam. 15:31-37). This end was so far gained that Ahithophel saw he had no longer any influence, and accordingly he at once left the camp of Absalom and returned to Giloh, his native place, where, after arranging his wordly affairs, he hanged himself, and was buried in the sepulchre of his fathers (2 Sam. 17:1-23). He was the type of Judas (Ps. 41:9).
Smith's Bible Dictionary · William Smith, 1863
(brother of foolishness), a native of Giloh, was a privy councillor of David, whose wisdom was highly esteemed, though his name had an exactly opposite signification. (2 Samuel 16:23) (B.C. 1055-1023.) He was the grandfather of Bathsheba. Comp. (2 Samuel 11:3) with 2Sam 23:34 Ahithophel joined the conspiracy of Absalom against David, and persuaded him to take possession of the royal harem, (2 Samuel 16:21) and recommended an immediate pursuit of David. His advice was wise; but Hushai advised otherwise. When Ahithophel saw that Hushai's advice prevailed, he despaired of success, and returning to his own home "put his household in order and hanged himself." (2 Samuel 17:1-23)
Hitchcock's Bible Names Dictionary · Roswell D. Hitchcock, 1869
brother of ruin or folly
Classic public-domain reference works; full attribution on Sources.
Septuagint verse parallels
This word appears in 17 verses that also exist in the Greek Old Testament (Septuagint), out of the 17 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.
