🔼The name Ahimoth: Summary
- Meaning
- My Brother Is Death, Brother Of Death
- Etymology
- From (1) the noun אח ('ah), brother, and (2) the verb מות (mut), to die.
🔼The name Ahimoth in the Bible
The name Ahimoth occurs just once in the Bible. He's mentioned as the son of Elkanah, son of Kohath, son of Levi, son of Jacob (1 Chronicles 6:25).
🔼Etymology of the name Ahimoth
The name Ahimoth consists of two elements. The first part comes from the Hebrew word אח ('ah), meaning brother:
אח
The noun אח ('ah) means brother, or more broadly: a fellow member of a social economic node (a "house") within a broader economic whole.
This word's lavish inclusion in names strongly suggests that the deity was reckoned by this word — in modern times we mostly speak of Our Father in Heaven but in antiquity the deity appears to have also been addressed as Our Brother. The New Testament appears to entertain that dynamic in the tenet that the Word is God's Son, and all who have the Word are godly brothers. Also note the similarity with the verb חוה (hawa), to show, tell, make known.
The noun אחוה ('ahawa) means brotherhood and אחות ('ahot) means sister.
The second part of the name Ahimoth comes from the grim verb מות (mut), meaning to die:
מות
The verb מות (mut) means to die or kill. Nouns מות (mawet), ממות (mamot), and תמותה (temuta) mean death. In a theology that operated perpendicularly upon that which worshipped life, death was venerated under the names Mot and Mawet.
The noun מת (mat) is a word for man, and particularly a man capable of combat and exerting death.
🔼Ahimoth meaning
For a meaning of the name Ahimoth, BDB Theological Dictionary and NOBSE Study Bible Name List both read My Brother Is Death. Jones' Dictionary of Old Testament Proper Names has Brother Of Death.
But a Hebrew audience would probably interpret this name as Love To Kill, or perhaps Deadly Ally.