Mention is made in the history of Davnd's flight from the presence of Absalom of a " Shobi. the son of Na- hash of Rabbah of the children of Ammon," coming along with others to David at Mahanaim, with food and refreshments (2 Sam. xvii, 27-29). It is possible that this was a son of Nahash, the former king, though it cannot be regarded as at all certain. That an Am- monite, however, should at such a time have so readily proffered his liberality to David is a striking proof that even after the terrible Ammonitish war there still were bosoms among the children of Ammon Avhich stood well affected to the person and the cause of David (Fair- bairn; Smith). See Shobi.
2. A person mentioned once oidy (2 Sam. xvii, 25) in stating the parentage of Amasa, the commander-in-chief of Absalom's army. Amasa is there said to hare been
NAHATH
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NAIIOR
the son (perhaps illegitimate) of a certain Ithra, by Abifjail, '• daughter of Naliash, and sister (Alex. Sept. brother) to Zeriiiah." B.C. ante 1023. IJy the gen- ealogy of 1 Chron. ii, 16 it appears that Zeriiiah and Abigail were sisters of David and the other cliildren of Jesse. The <iucstion then arises, How could Abigail have been at ihe same time daughter of Nahash and sister to the children of Jesse? To this four answers may be given :
1. The universal tradition of the rabbins is that Na- hash and Jesse were identical (see the citations from the Talmud in Meyer, Seder Oliim, 569; also Jerome, Qu(r!i/. Jlebr. ad loc). " Nahash," says Solomon Jarclii (in his commentary on 2 Sam. xvii, Id), " was Jesse the fatlier of David, because he died without sin, by the counsel of the serpent" (iiachush) ; i. e. by the iiilirmity of liis fallen human nature only.
2. The explanation first put forth by Prof. Stanley {Hist, of the Jewish Church, ii, 50), that Nahash was the king of the Ammonites, and that the same woman had first been his wife or concubine — in which capacity she had given birth to Abigail and Zeruiah— and after- wards wife to Jesse, and the mother of his children. In this manner Abigail and Zeruiah would be sisters to David, without being at the same time daughters of Jesse. This has in its favor the guarded statement of 1 Chron. ii, 16 that the two women were not them- selves Jesse's children, but sisters of his children ; and the improbability (otherwise extreme) of so close a con- nection between an Israelite and an Ammonitish king is alleviated by Jesse's known descent from a Moabitess, and by the connection which has been shown above to have existed between David and Nahash of Ammon.
3. A third possible explanation is that Nahash was the name, not of Jesse, nor of a former husband of his wife, but of his wife herself. There is nothing in the name to prevent its being borne equally by either sex, and other instances may be quoted of women who are given in the genealogies as the daughters, not of their fatlitrs, but of their mothers: e. g. Mehetabel, daughter of 3Iatrcd, daughter of Mezahab. Still it seems very improbable that Jesse's wife would be suddenly intruded into tiie narrative, as she is if this hypothesis be adopt- ed (Smith, s. v.).
4. The most natural supposition under all the circum- stances is that Abigail and Zeruiah were sisters of Da- vid merely on tlie mother's side; and that the mother, before she became the wife of Jesse, had been married to some person (apparently an Israelite, but otherwise unknown) named Nahash, to whom she had borne Abi- gail and Zeruiah. This seems to be countenanced by the peculiar manner in which they are mentioned in the genealogy of Chronicles — not as Jesse's daughters, but as David's sisters — as if their relationship to him were what alone entitled them to a place in it (Fair- bairn, s. v.).
Na'hath (Ilcb. Nach'uth, rn3, rest, as often), the name of three men.
1. (Sept. Nnx''^j ^'Cii. xxxvi, 13; 'Sax^^. ib. 17; 'Saxt^, 1 Chron. i, 37.) The first named of the four sons of Kenel, the son of Esau, and a prince (A. V. "duke") among the Edomites (Gen. xxxvi, 13, 17). B.C. cir. I«tt0.
2. (Sept. Kaiva^ v. r. Kvci^, Na«S.) A Kohath- ite Levite, son of Zophai or Ziiph, and ancest(tr of Sam- uel the prophet (1 Cliron. vi, 26). B.('. cir. 1280. He is the same with Toah (1 Chron. vi, 34) and Tonu (1 Sam. i, 1).
3. (Sept. NnfS^.) A Levite, appointed by Hezekiah one of the overseers of sacred offerings in the Temple under Cononiah and Shimei (2 Chron. xxxi, 13). B.C. cir. 725.
Nahavendi, Bf.njamin bkn-Mosks 02 'p^*i:3 'I'ir'n; n'l*"). a celebrated Jewish commentator of the Karaite sect, nourished about A.D. 800, and derived his