1 Samuel 14:3 — meaning, Hebrew and Greek word study, commentary
1 Samuel 14:3
And Ahiah, the son of Ahitub, Ichabod’s brother, the son of Phinehas, the son of Eli, the LORD’s priest in Shiloh, wearing an ephod. And the people knew not that Jonathan was gone.
a son (as a builder of the family name) · noun, common masculine singular construct
Ahitub
אֲחִט֡וּב'a.chi.Tuv
H285
Achitub · proper noun, a man's name
I-chabod’s
אִיכָב֣וֹד'i.kha.Vod
H350
Ikabod · proper noun, a man's name
brother
אֲחִ֡י'a.Chi
H251
a brother (used in the widest sense of literal relation… · noun, common masculine singular construct
son
בֶּןben-
H1121
a son (as a builder of the family name) · noun, common masculine singular construct
Phinehas
פִּינְחָ֨סpin.Chas
H6372
Pinechas · proper noun, a man's name
son
בֶּןben-
H1121
a son (as a builder of the family name) · noun, common masculine singular construct
Eli
עֵלִ֜י'e.Li
H5941
Eli · proper noun, a man's name
LORD’s
יְהוָ֛הYah.weh
H3068
Jehovah · proper noun, a title
priest
כֹּהֵ֧ןko.Hen
H3548
literally one officiating · noun, common masculine singular construct
Shiloh
בְּשִׁל֖וֹbe.shi.Lo
H7887
Shiloh · preposition + proper noun, a place name
wearing
נֹשֵׂ֣אno.Se'
H5375
to lift · verb, qal active participle, masculine singular absolute
ephod
אֵפ֑וֹד'e.Fod
H646
a girdle · noun, common masculine singular absolute
people
וְהָעָם֙ve.ha.'Am
H5971
a people (as a congregated unit) · conjunction + definite article + noun, common masculine singular absolute
knew
יָדַ֔עya.Da'
H3045
to know (properly · verb, qal perfect, 3rd person masculine singular
Jonathan
יוֹנָתָֽןyo.na.Tan
H3129
Jonathan · proper noun, a man's name
gone
הָלַ֖ךְha.Lakh
H1980
to walk (in a great variety of applications · verb, qal perfect, 3rd person masculine singular
Strong's Exhaustive Concordance (James Strong, 1890/1894), public domain; digitized by Open Scriptures (CC BY-SA). KJV word tagging: eBible.org (public domain). Original-language text, parsing and brief lexicon: STEPBible.org data from Tyndale House, Cambridge (CC BY 4.0).
Cross-references
1 Samuel 2:28 And did I choose him out of all the tribes of Israel to be my priest, to offer upon mine altar, to burn incense, to wear an ephod before me?…
1 Samuel 4:21 And she named the child I-chabod, saying, The glory is departed from Israel: because the ark of God was taken, and because of her father in…
1 Samuel 22:20 And one of the sons of Ahimelech the son of Ahitub, named Abiathar, escaped, and fled after David.
1 Samuel 22:9-12 Then answered Doeg the Edomite, which was set over the servants of Saul, and said, I saw the son of Jesse coming to Nob, to Ahimelech the so…
Exodus 28:26-32 And thou shalt make two rings of gold, and thou shalt put them upon the two ends of the breastplate in the border thereof, which is in the s…
Cross-references from OpenBible.info (CC BY), in the lineage of the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge (public domain).
Commentary
Matthew Henry on 1 Samuel 14:1-15
We must here take notice,
I. Of the goodness of God in restraining the Philistines, who had a vast army of valiant men in the field, from falling upon that little handful of timorous trembling people that Saul had with him, whom they would easily have swallowed up at once. It is an invisible power that sets bounds to the malice of the church's enemies, and suffers them not to do that which we should think there is nothing to hinder them from.
II. Of the weakness of Saul, who seems here to have been quite at a loss, and unable to help himself. 1. He pitched his tent under a tree, and had but 600 men with him, Sa1 14:2. Where were now the 3000 men he had chosen, and put such a confidence in? S…
Saul tarried in the uttermost part of Gibeah--Hebrew, "Geba"; entrenched, along with Samuel and Ahiah the high priest, on the top of one of the conical or spherical hills which abound in the Benjamite territory, and favorable for an encampment, called Migron ("a precipice").
Adam Clarke on 1 Samuel 14:3
Ahiah, the son of Ahitub - Phinehas, son of Eli the high priests had two sons, Ahitub and I-chabod; the latter was born when the ark was taken, and his mother died immediately after. Ahiah is also called Ahimelech, Sa1 22:9.
Wearing an ephod - That is, performing the functions of the high priest. This man does not appear to have been with Saul when he offered the sacrifices, Sa1 13:9, etc.
John Gill on 1 Samuel 14:3
And Ahiah the son of Ahitub, Ichabod's brother,.... Ichabod was the child that Phinehas's wife bore prematurely on hearing the news of the ark being taken and of the death of her husband and father-in-law, which name she gave him on that account, and died; see 1 Samuel 4:19, he, it seems, had an elder brother, called Ahitub, who died young, and this Ahiah was the son of him; for not he, but Ahitub, was Ichabod's brother:
the son of Phinehas; so Ichabod was:
the son of Eli; so Phinehas was:
the Lord's priest in Shiloh; this refers not to Ahiah for he was not now priest in Shiloh, which was destroyed: and besides, he was now in the camp of Saul; but to Eli, who when living exercised the pri…
The Church Fathers
We said above that by this number strong men are designated in good work, who are reported to be with the king: because through their zeal for good work, they are in harmony with the life of their teacher. But the preachers of the Church have under them not only those who do great things, but also fellow ministers of the word who teach the highest truths. They have leaders who strengthen those burning for battle, they have those who run boldly, they have those who protect powerfully. Therefore it is well added: (Verse 3.) Ahiah the son of Ahitub, brother of Ichabod, the son of Phinehas, who had been born from Eli the priest of the Lord in Shiloh. He was wearing the Ephod. For Achias in our language means "shade" [umbraculum]. But what is designated by "shade" in this place, if not protection? Those therefore who in holy Church protect any of the lesser ones from hidden adversaries are rightly designated by the shade. But one who sits under a shade cannot feel the heat of the sun. Why indeed are shades spoken of in sacred eloquence, unless because they also point to a wicked sun, by which the freshness of the mind is scorched? Of this sun indeed the Truth speaks in the division of the seeds: 'When the sun rose, they withered' (Matt. 13:6). For the burning heat of desire is a sun, which gleams as if with light, but which scorches the mind upon which it shines. Therefore, when by the exhortations of our superiors we reject the enticements of all desires, where else are we sheltered but under a pleasant shade, where we may escape the fires of temptations? But diminutively the minister of the Church is called a shade, so that no one may be compared to the Redeemer. For of His protection the bride glories in the Canticles, saying: 'Under the shadow of him whom I had desired, I sat' (Song of Sol. 2:3). And the Psalmist entreating says: 'Under the shadow of your wings protect me' (Ps. 16:9). But whence this great Achias comes forth is explained, because he is recorded as the son of Achitob. Achitob means "my brother is good." Who then is understood as this good brother, if not our Redeemer? A brother indeed, because He is a partaker of our nature; but good, because He freed our nature, which He assumed, from eternal death. Or good, because we are all evil, as He Himself says: 'If you, being evil, know how to give good gifts to your children' (Matt. 7:11). Achias…
The Church Fathers: public-domain translations (Ante-Nicene and Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers), verse-indexed by SermonIndex (CC BY 4.0).
Dictionary and topics
Ahiah, Or Ahijah — (friend of Jehovah).
Ahijah — Brother (i.e., “friend”) of Jehovah. (1.) One of the sons of Bela (1 Chr. 8:7, R.V.). In A.V. called “Ahiah.” (2.) One of the five sons of Jerahmeel, who was great-grandson of Judah (1 Chr. 2:25).…
Ahimelech — Brother of the king, the son of Ahitub and father of Abiathar (1 Sam. 22:20-23). He descended from Eli in the line of Ithamar. In 1 Chr. 18:16 he is called Abimelech, and is probably the same as…
Ahitub — Brother of goodness = good. (1.) The son of Phinehas. On the death of his grandfather Eli he succeeded to the office of high priest, and was himself succeeded by his son Ahijah (1 Sam. 14:3; 22:9,…
High priest — Aaron was the first who was solemnly set apart to this office (Ex. 29:7; 30:23; Lev. 8:12). He wore a peculiar dress, which on his death passed to his successor in office (Ex. 29:29, 30). Besides…
Moabite — The designation of a tribe descended from Moab, the son of Lot (Gen. 19:37). From Zoar, the cradle of this tribe, on the south-eastern border of the Dead Sea, they gradually spread over the region on…
Philistines — (Gen. 10:14, R.V.; but in A.V., “Philistim”), a tribe allied to the Phoenicians. They were a branch of the primitive race which spread over the whole district of the Lebanon and the valley of the…
Phinehas — Mouth of brass, or from old Egypt, the negro. (1.) Son of Eleazar, the high priest (Ex. 6:25). While yet a youth he distinguished himself at Shittim by his zeal against the immorality into which the…
Thummim — Perfection (LXX., “truth;” Vulg., “veritas”), Ex. 28:30; Deut. 33:8; Judg. 1:1; 20:18; 1 Sam. 14:3, 18; 23:9; 2 Sam. 21:1. What the “Urim and Thummim” were cannot be determined with any certainty.…
Urim And Thummim — (light and perfection). When the Jewish exiles were met on their return from Babylon by a question which they had no data for answering, they agreed to postpone the settlement of the difficulty till…
Jonathan's heroic act. - With strong faith and confidence in the might of the Lord, that He could give the victory even through the hands of very few, Jonathan resolved to attack the outpost of the Philistines at the pass of Mukhmas, accompanied by his armour-bearer alone, and the Lord crowned his enterprise with a marvellous victory.
Sa1 14:1-2
Jonathan said to his armour-bearer, "We will go over to the post of the Philistines, that is over there." To these words, which introduce the occurrences that followed, there are attached from וּלאביו to Sa1 14:5 a series of sentences introduced to explain the situation, and the thread of the narrative is resumed in Sa1 14:6 by a repetition of Jonath…
Ahijah the priest was an adviser who could give Saul divine guidance through the ephod (14:18-19; see also 2:18 and corresponding study note; 23:9-10). • son of Eli: Saul, the rejected king (13:13-14), kept in his company a priest from the rejected priesthood (2:27-36). • Ichabod: See 4:21.
Ahijah · .Was priest in Saul’s reign — .Was priest in Saul’s reign
Ahitub · 1. High priest, father of Ahiah — 1. High priest, father of Ahiah
Ephod, The · Worn by: The high priest — Worn by: The high priest
I-Chabod · General references — General references
Jonathan · .Victory of, over the Philistines at Michmash — .Victory of, over the Philistines at Michmash
Philistines · Jonathan and his armour-bearer smote a garrison of, at the passages — Jonathan and his armour-bearer smote a garrison of, at the passages
Dictionary: Easton's (1897) and Smith's (1863), public domain. Topics: Nave's Topical Bible (1896) and Torrey's Topical Textbook (1897), public domain. Both as parsed by NEUU (CC BY 4.0).
