Abihu

Abihu was the second son of Aaron by Elisheba — younger brother of Nadab, older brother of Eleazar and Ithamar — and one of the first four men ordained as priests of Israel. His Hebrew name means He is Father, referring to God.

He is named in two significant scenes before his death. At Sinai he ascended the mountain with his father, his brother Nadab, Moses, and the seventy elders of Israel, where they saw the God of Israel and ate and drank in his presence (Exodus 24:1, 9–11) — an extraordinary covenant meal at the top of the world. Soon after, he was consecrated to the priesthood alongside his brothers in the eight-day ordination of Leviticus 8.

Within days of the tabernacle's opening, Abihu and Nadab took their censers, filled them with strange fire which the LORD commanded them not, and offered it before the sanctuary. Fire came out from the LORD and consumed them, and they died before him (Leviticus 10:1–2). Moses's terse explanation to the grieving Aaron — this is what the LORD spake, saying, I will be sanctified in them that come nigh me — sets the priesthood's stakes for the rest of Israel's history. Abihu died childless (Numbers 3:4); the priesthood went through Eleazar and Ithamar.