אֲבִישַׁי
Abishai
BDB lists 2 entries for ‘Abishai’ 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 H52 appears — 24 distinct verses across 3 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.
1 Samuel 4 verses
- 1 Samuel 26:6 אֲבִישַׁ֨י אֲבִישַׁ֔י n Proper n Proper Then answered David and said to Ahimelech the Hittite, and to Abishai the son of Zeruiah, brother to Joab, saying, Who will go down with me to Saul to the camp? Abishai said, I will go down with you.
- 1 Samuel 26:7 וַ/אֲבִישַׁ֥י conj + n Proper So David and Abishai came to the people by night: and, behold, Saul lay sleeping within the place of the wagons, with his spear stuck in the ground at his head; and Abner and the people lay round about him.
- 1 Samuel 26:8 אֲבִישַׁי֙ n Proper Then said Abishai to David, God has delivered up your enemy into your hand this day: now therefore please let me strike him with the spear to the earth at one stroke, and I will not strike him the second time.
- 1 Samuel 26:9 אֲבִישַׁ֖י n Proper David said to Abishai, Don't destroy him; for who can put forth his hand against Yahweh's anointed, and be guiltless?
2 Samuel 15 verses
- 2 Samuel 2:18 וַ/אֲבִישַׁ֖י conj + n Proper The three sons of Zeruiah were there, Joab, and Abishai, and Asahel: and Asahel was as light of foot as a wild gazelle.
- 2 Samuel 2:24 וַ/אֲבִישַׁ֖י conj + n Proper But Joab and Abishai pursued after Abner: and the sun went down when they were come to the hill of Ammah, that lies before Giah by the way of the wilderness of Gibeon.
- 2 Samuel 3:30 וַ/אֲבִישַׁ֣י conj + n Proper So Joab and Abishai his brother killed Abner, because he had killed their brother Asahel at Gibeon in the battle.
- 2 Samuel 10:10 אַבְשַׁ֣י n Proper The rest of the people he committed into the hand of Abishai his brother; and he put them in array against the children of Ammon.
- 2 Samuel 10:14 אֲבִישַׁ֔י n Proper When the children of Ammon saw that the Syrians were fled, they likewise fled before Abishai, and entered into the city. Then Joab returned from the children of Ammon, and came to Jerusalem.
- 2 Samuel 16:9 אֲבִישַׁ֤י n Proper Then said Abishai the son of Zeruiah to the king, "Why should this dead dog curse my lord the king? Please let me go over and take off his head."
- 2 Samuel 16:11 אֲבִישַׁי֙ n Proper David said to Abishai, and to all his servants, Behold, my son, who came forth from my bowels, seeks my life: how much more [may] this Benjamite now [do it]? let him alone, and let him curse; for Yahweh has invited him.
- 2 Samuel 18:2 אֲבִישַׁ֤י n Proper David sent forth the people, a third part under the hand of Joab, and a third part under the hand of Abishai the son of Zeruiah, Joab's brother, and a third part under the hand of Ittai the Gittite. The king said to the people, I will surely go forth with you myself also.
- 2 Samuel 18:5 אֲבִישַׁ֤י n Proper The king commanded Joab and Abishai and Ittai, saying, Deal gently for my sake with the young man, even with Absalom. All the people heard when the king gave all the captains charge concerning Absalom.
- 2 Samuel 18:12 אֲבִישַׁ֤י n Proper The man said to Joab, Though I should receive a thousand [pieces of] silver in my hand, I still wouldn't put forth my hand against the king's son; for in our hearing the king charged you and Abishai and Ittai, saying, Beware that none touch the young man Absalom.
- 2 Samuel 19:21 אֲבִישַׁ֤י n Proper But Abishai the son of Zeruiah answered, Shall Shimei not be put to death for this, because he cursed Yahweh's anointed?
- 2 Samuel 20:6 אֲבִישַׁ֔י n Proper David said to Abishai, Now will Sheba the son of Bichri do us more harm than did Absalom: take your lord's servants, and pursue after him, lest he get him fortified cities, and escape out of our sight.
- 2 Samuel 20:10 וַ/אֲבִישַׁ֣י conj + n Proper But Amasa took no heed to the sword that was in Joab's hand: so he struck him therewith in the body, and shed out his bowels to the ground, and didn't strike him again; and he died. Joab and Abishai his brother pursued after Sheba the son of Bichri.
- 2 Samuel 21:17 אֲבִישַׁ֣י n Proper But Abishai the son of Zeruiah helped him, and struck the Philistine, and killed him. Then the men of David swore to him, saying, You shall go no more out with us to battle, that you don't quench the lamp of Israel.
- 2 Samuel 23:18 וַ/אֲבִישַׁ֞י conj + n Proper Abishai, the brother of Joab, the son of Zeruiah, was chief of the three. He lifted up his spear against three hundred and killed them, and had a name among the three.
1 Chronicles 5 verses
- 1 Chronicles 2:16 אַבְשַׁ֛י n Proper and their sisters were Zeruiah and Abigail. The sons of Zeruiah: Abishai, and Joab, and Asahel, three.
- 1 Chronicles 11:20 וְ/אַבְשַׁ֣י conj + n Proper Abishai, the brother of Joab, he was chief of the three; for he lifted up his spear against three hundred and killed them, and had a name among the three.
- 1 Chronicles 18:12 וְ/אַבְשַׁ֣י conj + n Proper Moreover Abishai the son of Zeruiah struck of the Edomites in the Valley of Salt eighteen thousand.
- 1 Chronicles 19:11 אַבְשַׁ֣י n Proper The rest of the people he committed into the hand of Abishai his brother; and they put themselves in array against the children of Ammon.
- 1 Chronicles 19:15 אַבְשַׁ֣י n Proper When the children of Ammon saw that the Syrians were fled, they likewise fled before Abishai his brother, and entered into the city. Then Joab came to Jerusalem.
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.
“Abishai” is the headline sense of the Hebrew name אבישי (ʼĂbîyshay). More than half of its appearances fall in 2 Samuel. The Hebrew Bible uses it across 24 verses — uncommon. Its earliest occurrence is 1 Samuel 26:6. See 24-verse concordance and the renderings breakdown below.
Gloss history
Strong's 1890 vs modern scholarship
About this word
Strong's H52 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 →
- 24
- distinct verses
- The word appears in 24 distinct verses.
- 3 / 39
- OT books
- The word appears in 3 of 39 Old Testament books.
- #1,282
- by frequency
- Top 2500 most frequent Hebrew words (rank 1,282 of 8,640 Hebrew words by occurrence).
View all 24 occurrences in the concordance →
Most concentrated in
- 2 Samuel 15 verses 63%
- 1 Chronicles 5 verses 21%
- 1 Samuel 4 verses 17%
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 24 distinct verses.
- Prophets (Nevi'im) 19 verses · 79%
- Writings (Ketuvim) 5 verses · 21%
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†: Abishai 23×
- American Standard Version†: Abishai 22×
- Berean Standard Bible†: Abishai 22×, Now abishai 2×
- unfoldingWord Literal Text†: Abishai 24×
King James Version Public Domain
Renders H52 across 25† 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 H52 across 25† 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 H52 across 25† 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.
unfoldingWord Literal Text CC BY-SA 4.0
Renders H52 across 25† 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 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.
- Abishai = "my father is Jesse" or " my father is a gift"
- grandson of Jesse, nephew of David via his sister Zeruiah, brother of Joab
Word origin
I. n.pr.m. (my father is Jesse; LagBN 75 thinks from אֲבֶן (= בֶּן) + ישׁי cf. 𝔊 Ἀβεσσα[ι] 1 S 26:6)—א׳ 1 S 26:6(×2) + 17 times 1 & 2 S = אַבְשַׁי 2 S 10:10 + 5 times 1 Ch.—grandson of Jesse; son of Zeruiah & brother of Joab 1 S 26:6(×2), 7, 8, 9 2 S 2:18, 24 + 20:6 (where read יואב 𝔖 Th We Dr) + 12 times 2 S + 20:7 (where insert אבישׁי 𝔊 We Dr) + 5 times 1 Ch.
II. v. אֲבִירָם, אֲבִישַׁי 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.
Forms in the corpus
The 13 distinct written forms H52 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 |
|---|---|---|---|
| אֲבִישַׁ֤י | Noun, Proper | 2 Samuel 16:9 | 5 |
| אֲבִישַׁ֔י | Noun, Proper | 1 Samuel 26:6 | 3 |
| אַבְשַׁ֣י | Noun, Proper | 1 Chronicles 19:11 | 3 |
| אֲבִישַׁי֙ | Noun, Proper | 1 Samuel 26:8 | 2 |
| וְ/אַבְשַׁ֣י | Noun, Proper | 1 Chronicles 11:20 | 2 |
| וַ/אֲבִישַׁ֖י | Noun, Proper | 2 Samuel 2:18 | 2 |
| וַ/אֲבִישַׁ֣י | Noun, Proper | 2 Samuel 3:30 | 2 |
| אֲבִישַׁ֖י | Noun, Proper | 1 Samuel 26:9 | 1 |
| אֲבִישַׁ֣י | Noun, Proper | 2 Samuel 21:17 | 1 |
| אֲבִישַׁ֨י | Noun, Proper | 1 Samuel 26:6 | 1 |
| אַבְשַׁ֛י | Noun, Proper | 1 Chronicles 2:16 | 1 |
| וַ/אֲבִישַׁ֞י | Noun, Proper | 2 Samuel 23:18 | 1 |
| וַ/אֲבִישַׁ֥י | Noun, Proper | 1 Samuel 26:7 | 1 |
Same root — word family
Other BDB entries built from the same root as H52, 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.
- אבי ʼĂbîy H21 Abi
- אביאל ʼĂbîyʼêl H22 Abiel
- אביאסף ʼĂbîyʼâçâph H23 Abiasaph
- אבי גבעון ʼĂbîy Gibʻôwn H25 father of Gibeon
- אביגיל ʼĂbîygayil H26 Abigail
- אבידן ʼĂbîydân H27 Abidan
- אבידע ʼĂbîydâʻ H28 Abida
- אביה ʼĂbîyâh H29 Abijah
- אביהוא ʼĂbîyhûwʼ H30 Abihu
- אביהוד ʼĂbîyhûwd H31 Ahihud
- אביהיל ʼĂbîyhayil H32 Abihail
- אביטוב ʼĂbîyṭûwb H36 Abitub
- אביטל ʼĂbîyṭâl H37 Abital
- אבים ʼĂbîyâm H38 Abijam
- אבימאל ʼĂbîymâʼêl H39 Abimael
- אבימלך ʼĂbîymelek H40 Abimelech
- אבינדב ʼĂbîynâdâb H41 Abinadab
- אבינעם ʼĂbîynôʻam H42 Abinoam
- אביעזר ʼĂbîyʻezer H44 Abiezer
- אביעלבון ʼĂbîy-ʻalbôwn H45 Abialbon
- אבירם ʼĂbîyrâm H48 Abiram
- אבישג ʼĂbîyshag H49 Abishag
- אבישוע ʼĂbîyshûwaʻ H50 Abishua
- אבישור ʼĂbîyshûwr H51 Abishur
+6 more proper names from this root (not shown).
Compare all same-root words → Showing 4 of 34 — not the complete family. 30 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 (Abishai). 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 of (i.e., "desirous of") a gift, the eldest son of Zeruiah, David's sister. He was the brother of Joab and Asahel (2 Sam. 2:18; 1 Chr. 2:16). Abishai was the only one who accompanied David when he went to the camp of Saul and took the spear and the cruse of water from Saul's bolster (1 Sam. 26:5-12). He had the command of one of the three divisions of David's army at the battle with Absalom (2 Sam. 18:2, 5, 12). He slew the Philistine giant Ishbi-benob, who threatened David's life (2 Sam. 21:15-17). He was the chief of the second rank of the three "mighties" (2 Sam. 23:18, 19; 1 Chr. 11:20, 21); and on one occasion withstood 300 men, and slew them with his own spear (2 Sam. 23:18). Abishai is the name of the Semitic chief who offers gifts to the lord of Beni-Hassan. See illustration facing page 10.
Hitchcock's Bible Names Dictionary · Roswell D. Hitchcock, 1869
the present of my father
Classic public-domain reference works; full attribution on Sources.
Septuagint verse parallels
This word appears in 24 verses that also exist in the Greek Old Testament (Septuagint), out of the 24 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.
