Achbor

Achbor is the name attached to three different men in the UPDV. One sits in the king-list of Edom as the father of Baal-hanan. One stands in Josiah's reform cabinet, sent with Hilkiah and Shaphan to inquire of Huldah. One is the father of Elnathan, the courtier Jehoiakim used as an extradition agent and as one of the princes who heard Baruch's scroll. They are listed as three numbered persons under the same headword. The biblical material lets each of them be sketched only in the action that names him.

Father Of Baal-Hanan In The Edomite King-List

The earliest Achbor sits in the genealogy of Esau's descendants. In the verses gathered under this man's name he appears as the father of an Edomite king. Genesis closes its survey of the kings who reigned in Edom before any king reigned over Israel by noting that "Baal-hanan the son of Achbor died, and Hadad reigned in his stead: and the name of his city was Pau; and his wife's name was Mehetabel, the daughter of Matred, the daughter of Me-zahab" (Gen 36:39). The Chronicler preserves the same line in the same order: "And Shaul died, and Baal-hanan the son of Achbor reigned in his stead" (1Ch 1:49). The two notices give Achbor no act of his own in their wording; he appears as the patronymic of an Edomite ruler whose own reign opens onto Hadad's.

One Of Josiah's Courtiers Sent To Huldah

The second Achbor enters the narrative of Josiah's reform. After the book of the law is found in the temple, the king assembles a small commission of priest, princes, and scribe. The Kings account names them by office and patronymic: "And the king commanded Hilkiah the priest, and Ahikam the son of Shaphan, and Achbor the son of Micaiah, and Shaphan the scribe, and Asaiah the king's slave, saying" (2Ki 22:12). Their charge is the most consequential question Josiah can ask. "Go⁺, inquire of Yahweh for me, and for the people, and for all Judah, concerning the words of this book that was found; for great is the wrath of Yahweh that is kindled against us, because our fathers haven't listened to the words of this book, to do according to all that which is written concerning us" (2Ki 22:13).

The Huldah narrative places Achbor at the doorway of the prophetess herself. "So Hilkiah the priest, and Ahikam, and Achbor, and Shaphan, and Asaiah, went to Huldah the prophetess, the wife of Shallum the son of Tikvah, the son of Harhas, keeper of the wardrobe (now she dwelt in Jerusalem in the second quarter); and they communed with her" (2Ki 22:14). The Chronicler's parallel to this same scene drops Achbor's personal name and uses a variant: "And the king commanded Hilkiah, and Ahikam the son of Shaphan, and Abdon the son of Micah, and Shaphan the scribe, and Asaiah the king's slave, saying" (2Ch 34:20). This Abdon in 2Ch 34:20 is gathered under the same Achbor headword, with the two readings treated as the same courtier under two names.

A Member Of A Mostly Male Embassy To A Prophetess

This same scene is what the WOMEN material keeps reaching for. It cites 2Ki 22:14 twice — once under "A Devotional Spirit," once under "PROPHETESSES" — and on both passes the verse text it preserves names Achbor among the four men sent to Huldah. The interest is Huldah's office, not Achbor's; he appears here only as one of the king's men crossing into a woman's house to receive Yahweh's word. Achbor's role in the scene, on the surface text, is to be present and to commune with her. The Chronicler's parallel HULDAH row, which speaks of "those whom the king had commanded" going to "Huldah the prophetess … keeper of the wardrobe" and reports that "they spoke to her to that effect" (2Ch 34:22), corroborates the embassy without re-listing the names.

Father Of Elnathan In Jehoiakim's Court

The third Achbor is known through his son Elnathan, who turns up twice in Jeremiah. The first time is the Uriah episode. Uriah son of Shemaiah had prophesied against Jerusalem, "and when Jehoiakim the king, with all his mighty-men, and all the princes, heard his words, the king sought to put him to death; but when Uriah heard it, he was afraid, and fled, and went into Egypt" (Jer 26:21). The king's response was an extradition party led by Achbor's son: "and Jehoiakim the king sent men into Egypt, [namely], Elnathan the son of Achbor, and certain men with him, into Egypt" (Jer 26:22). The mission did what it was sent to do — "and they fetched forth Uriah out of Egypt, and brought him to Jehoiakim the king, who slew him with the sword, and cast his dead body into the graves of the common people" (Jer 26:23).

Elnathan reappears in the scroll-burning episode of Jeremiah 36. Micaiah son of Gemariah had heard Baruch read out the scroll (Jer 36:11) and reported it to the princes. "He went down into the king's house, into the scribe's chamber: and, look, all the princes were sitting there, [to wit,] Elishama the scribe, and Delaiah the son of Shemaiah, and Elnathan the son of Achbor, and Gemariah the son of Shaphan, and Zedekiah the son of Hananiah, and all the princes" (Jer 36:12). When the king was burning Jeremiah's roll, Achbor's son was among those who tried to stop him: "Moreover Elnathan and Delaiah and Gemariah had made intercession to the king that he would not burn the roll; but he would not hear them" (Jer 36:25). The patronymic "son of Achbor" is the line connecting this third Achbor to the page in these verses; his presence is felt entirely through what his son does in front of Jehoiakim.

Synthesis

The three Achbors of this headword sit at three different points of the canon and do three different things on the page. The first is a name in an Edomite genealogy whose son was once king. The second is a member of Josiah's inner circle who carries the king's question to Huldah and stands in her doorway when the verdict is given. The third is the father of Elnathan, whose son extradites a prophet from Egypt for execution and later pleads with the king not to burn another prophet's scroll. The Huldah and Women materials hold the second of these by name; the genealogy notices in Genesis and Chronicles and the Jeremiah scenes through Elnathan are the supplement that lets the other two men keep their distinct outlines.