Ahijah

The name—meaning "brother of Yahweh" (i.e., someone close to or special to Yahweh)—was very common in ancient Israel, and at least seven individuals may be identified though there is very little to say about most of them.

1. A priest and "son of Ichabod's brother Ahitub son of Phinehas, the son of Eli, Yahweh's priest in Shiloh," who was serving with Saul during the war with the Philistines when Jonathan, Saul's son, took the initiative and sent the enemies into a rout (1 Sam 14).

2. The "prophet of Shiloh" or simply "the Shilonite" who, during the reign of Solomon, found Jeroboam son of Nebat and predicted to him that Yahweh would tear apart Solomon's kingdom and give him ten of the twelve tribes (1 Ki 11:29-39). Jeroboam would later send his wife to enquire of Ahijah concerning his son who was sick, and it would now be Ahijah's responsibility to pronounce Yahweh's judgment on him for the idolatry he had exposed the nation to by his establishment and encouragement of the cult of the golden calves at Dan and Bethel (1 Ki 14). He would long afterwards be remembered for the credibility of his prophecies (1 Ki 15:29; 2 Chron 10:15); he seemed also to have left behind a written record of events known as the "prophecy of Ahijah the Shilonite" (1 Chron 9:29).

3. Father of the 3rd king of Israel, Baasha, who murdered Nadab, son of Jeroboam son of Nebat, and usurped the throne of Israel to himself (1 Ki 15:27). Nothing else is known about him except that he was of the tribe of Issachar.

4-5. Two persons listed in the genealogy that opens the book of Chronicles; one is of the tribe of Judah (1 Chron 2:25), the other of Benjamin (8:7).

6. "Ahijah the Pelonite," one of David's "mighty men" (1 Chron 11:10).

7. One of the secretaries serving in Solomon's court (1 Ki 4:3).