Abihail

Abihail (Heb. av-hayil, father of might or whose father is strength) is the name of five distinct individuals in scripture — three men and two women, spread from the wilderness period to the Persian court.

**1. Father of Zuriel, the Merarite (Numbers 3:35).** This Abihail was the head of the Merarite branch of the Levites in the wilderness; his son Zuriel was named chief of the Merarite house under Moses. The Merarites carried the heavy structural elements of the tabernacle — the boards, bars, pillars, and sockets — during Israel's marches.

**2. Wife of Abishur (1 Chronicles 2:29).** A descendant of Jerahmeel of the tribe of Judah; she bore Abishur two sons, Ahban and Molid. Nothing else is recorded.

**3. Son of Huri, of the tribe of Gad (1 Chronicles 5:14).** Listed in the genealogy of the Gadites who settled the high country east of the Jordan; the chronicler places him by the reign of Jotham of Judah.

**4. Wife of Rehoboam (2 Chronicles 11:18).** Daughter of Eliab — David's eldest brother — and therefore a grand-niece of David. She married Solomon's son Rehoboam, who took her along with eighteen other wives and sixty concubines, and bore him at least three sons.

**5. Father of Queen Esther (Esther 2:15; 9:29).** The most-cited of the five. Abihail was a Benjamite of the line of Kish, brother to Mordecai's father — making Mordecai his nephew and Esther, Abihail's daughter, Mordecai's cousin. Esther 2:7 records that Mordecai raised Esther after her parents' death.