Person Old Testament
Abital
Abital was one of King David's wives and the mother of his son Shephatiah. Mentioned in 2 verses across 2 books, first at 2 Samuel 3:4.
Why it matters. One of David's wives; mother of Shephatiah
- Primary passages
- Last reviewed
- 2026-08-30 by the FaithGraph team
About Abital
Abital was one of the wives of King David, the second king of Israel. She is mentioned in the lists of David's wives and children in both 2Sa.3.4 and 1Ch.3.3. Abital gave birth to one of David's sons, named Shephatiah.
The biblical text does not provide any further information about Abital's background, her relationship with David, or her role in the royal household. She is one of several wives mentioned in the genealogies, highlighting David's practice of polygamy, which was common among kings in the ancient Near East.
Abital's son Shephatiah is listed among David's sons born in Hebron, where David reigned over Judah for seven years before becoming king over all Israel (2Sa.2.11; 5.5).
Description from STEPBible TIPNR (Tyndale House, Cambridge), CC BY 4.0, lightly reformatted. This is background reference material, not Scripture and not a FaithGraph editorial claim.
Connections
No reviewed connections yet.
Family
Family links from STEPBible TIPNR (CC BY 4.0). Where the dataset marks an identification as uncertain, the mark is kept. Matthew and Luke give different genealogies for Jesus; see the Lineage page, which never merges them.
- Spouse
- David
- Children
- Shephatiah
Appears in Scripture
Named in 2 verses across 2 books. Occurrence data from STEPBible TIPNR (CC BY 4.0); references only, no translation text.