Ahitofel

Ahitofel hangs himself, from a manuscript in the world chronicle of Rudolf von Ems, 14th century

Ahitofel also Ahitophel ( Hebrew אֲחִיתֹפֶל) is a man from the Old Testament of the Bible . It is said to have been around the year 1000 BC. Chr. Lived.

Ahithophel lived in the time of David , the king of Israel , and was one of the counselors. According to the biblical account , his advice was so accurate that it was compared with the advice of God ( 2 Sam 16:23  ELB ). It is believed that he was the grandfather of Bathsheba , whose husband Uriah was sent to his death by David. In 2 Sam 23.34  ELB Ẹliam is mentioned as the son of Ahithọphel and in 2 Sam 11.3  ELB Bathsheba as the daughter of Ẹliam.

Ahithophel allied himself with David's son Absalom to overthrow the king. So he advised Absalom, the ten concubines David left behind when he fled from Absalom, to take public possession of his own. This should make the relationship of Absalom to David clear as irreconcilable. He also suggested to Absalom that he would immediately pursue David with 12,000 soldiers and kill him while he was still tired. Absalom rejected this advice because he preferred Hushai's advice . However, he was a spy of King David and betrayed David Ahitofel's plans through the priests Zadok and Abiathar . When Ahitofel realized that his advice was not being followed, he went home, made his last will, and hanged himself.

Web links

Commons : Ahitophel  - collection of images, videos and audio files

• Stefan Seiler:  Ahitofel. In: Michaela Bauks, Klaus Koenen, Stefan Alkier (Eds.): The Scientific Biblical Lexicon on the Internet (WiBiLex), Stuttgart 2006 ff.