*RELATIVES*
*ALLIES*
*NON-BELIEVERS*
*FAMOUS AHINOAMS*
*SONGS FOR AHINOAM*
***GOLD STANDARD***
(“ahinoam” (Hebrew: אחינועם) is a hebrew name literally meaning brother of pleasantness, thus meaning pleasant)
(there are two references in the ‘bible’ to people who bear that name)
(some scholars suggest that the two may be, in fact, one person)
(in “2 Samuel 12:8”, God tells ‘David’ through the prophet ‘Nathan’, “I gave your master’s house to you, and your master’s wives into your arms”)
(‘Jon Levenson’ suggests that this implies ‘David’ took ‘Ahinoam’ from ‘Saul’)
(‘Levenson’ goes on to note that ‘Ahinoam’ is always mentioned before ‘Abigail’ and that she bears ‘David’ a son before ‘Abigail’ does, and concludes from this that “she was already married to David when the conflict with ‘Nabal’ erupted”)
(however, with ‘Jonathan’ about the same age as, if not older than, ‘David’, ‘Ahinoam’, the wife of ‘Saul’, would be too old to give birth to David’s first-born son, ‘Amnon’)
(another objection is that the marriage of ‘Ahinoam’ and ‘David’ occurred during ‘The Civil War’ between the ‘House of David’ and the ‘House of Saul’)
(nevertheless, when ‘David’ had run away from ‘Saul’ and dwelt with ‘Achish’, king of ‘Gath’, he had his 2 wives ‘Ahinoam’ and ‘Abigail’ with him as per ‘1 Samuel 27:3’)
(the term “your master’s wives” would actually imply that David inherited Saul’s harems, as was common among the kings of ancient time)
(adherents of source criticism suggest that references to a woman called Ahinoam being Saul’s wife belong to the account of the republican source of the ‘Books of Samuel’, while in the passages ascribed to the monarchial source, the only mention of a woman called Ahinoam is the description of her as a wife of ‘David’)
(since Ahinoam’s name usually precedes that of ‘Abigail’, it has been suggested that David married ‘Ahinoam’ before he married ‘Abigail’)
(however, if her son ‘Amnon’ was David’s firstborn son, then the order of their names might indicate Ahinoam’s status as the crown prince’s mother)
(‘Ahinoam’ is with ‘David’ during his stay with ‘King Achish’ of ‘Gath’, and is taken captive when ‘Amalekites’ raid ‘Ziklag’, David’s ‘Philistine’ base)
(she is among those who go with ‘David’ to ‘Hebron’ when he becomes king over ‘Judah’ (‘2 Sam 2:2’))