'Father' in the Bible

When you leave me today, you will find two men by Rachel's tomb in the territory of Benjamin at Zelzah. They'll tell you, "The donkeys you went to look for have been found. Now your father has stopped worrying about the donkeys and he's anxious about you. He's asking, "What will I do about my son?'

A man from there answered: "Now who is their father?" Therefore it became a proverb, "Is Saul also among the prophets?"

One day Jonathan told his armor bearer, "Come, let's go over to the Philistine garrison which is on the other side," but he did not tell his father.

But Jonathan had not heard that his father had required the army to swear an oath, so he stretched out the end of the staff that was in his hand and dipped it in the honeycomb. He brought it back to his mouth and his eyes brightened.

Then one of the people responded: "Your father strictly ordered the army to take an oath. That's why he said, "Cursed is the person who eats food today,' and so the army is exhausted."

Jonathan said, "My father has troubled the land. See how my eyes have brightened because I tasted a little of this honey.

Saul's father Kish and Abner's father Ner were sons of Abiel.

David told Saul, "Your servant has been a shepherd for his father. When a lion or bear came and took a lamb from the flock,

So Jonathan told David, "My father Saul is trying to kill you. In the morning be careful and stay hidden in a secret place.

I'll go out and stand by my father in the field where you are. I'll speak to my father about you. If I find out what he intends to do, I'll tell you."

Jonathan spoke to his father Saul favorably about David. "The king shouldn't wrong his servant David because he has not wronged you and because what he has done has been very beneficial for you.

David fled from Naioth in Ramah. He came to Jonathan and said, "What have I done? What is my crime, and how have I wronged your father so that he's determined to kill me?

Jonathan told him, "Far from it! You won't die. Look, my father never does anything, great or small, without telling me; so why should my father hide this thing from me? It's not like that!"

David again took an oath: "Your father certainly knows that I've found favor with you, and so he told himself, "Jonathan must not know this so he won't be upset.' But as certainly as the LORD is alive and living, and as certainly as I'm alive and living, too, there is only a step between me and death."

If your father actually notices that I'm not there, then you are to say, "David urgently requested that I allow him to run to his hometown of Bethlehem because the yearly sacrifice for the entire family was taking place there.'

Now, show gracious kindness to your servant because you have entered into a sacred covenant with your servant. If there is iniquity in me, then kill me yourself why should you bring me to your father?"

"Nonsense!" Jonathan replied. "If I actually knew that my father intended evil against you, wouldn't I tell you about it?"

Then David told Jonathan, "Who will tell me if your father answers you harshly?"

Jonathan told David, "The LORD God of Israel is my witness that I'll carefully question my father by tomorrow or the next day. And if the response is favorable for David, will I not then send word to you and let you know?

But if my father intends to harm you, may the LORD strike me dead if I don't let you know and send you away so you may go safely. May the LORD be with you as he has been with my father.

Jonathan asked his father Saul, "Why should he be killed? What did he do?"

Then Saul threw the spear that was beside him to strike Jonathan down. So Jonathan realized that his father was determined to kill David.

So on the second day of the New Moon Jonathan angrily got up from the table without eating because he was upset about David, and because his father had humiliated him.

David went from there to Mizpah of Moab, and he told the king of Moab, "Please let my father and mother come and stay with you until I know what God is going to do for me."

Jonathan told him, "Don't be afraid. My father Saul won't find you, and you will be king over Israel. I'll be your second-in-command. My father Saul also knows this."

Looke, my father, look! The corner of your robe is in my hand. Indeed, by my cutting off the corner of your robe and not killing you, you may know and understand that I have no evil intent or transgression I haven't wronged you, even though you are hunting me to take my life.

What Ish-bosheth said made Abner furious, so he replied, "A dog's head for Judah is that what I am? Up until today I've kept on showing loyalty to your father Saul's dynasty, to his relatives and friends, and I haven't turned you over to David, but you're charging me today with moral guilt regarding this woman!

But David replied to Michal, "It was in front of the LORD, who appointed me to replace your father and his entire household by selecting me as Commander-in-Chief over Israel, the people of the LORD, that I danced in front of the LORD.

I will be a father to him, and he will be to me a son who, when he commits iniquity, I will discipline with the rod wielded by armies and with wounds inflicted by human beings.

"Don't be afraid," David reassured him, "because I'm going to show gracious love to you in memory of your father Jonathan. I'm going to restore to you all the land that belonged to your grandfather Saul, and you'll always have a place at my table!"

so David told himself, "I will be loyal to Nahash's son Hanun, since in his loyalty his father showed gracious love to me." So David sent a delegation to Hanun to console him about his loss of his father.

But when David's delegation arrived in Ammonite territory, the Ammonite officials asked their lord Hanun, "Do you think that because David has sent a delegation of consolers to you that he is honoring your father? His delegation has arrived intending to search, scout the land, and then overthrow it, hasn't it?"

Jonadab advised him, "Lie down and pretend to be sick. When your father visits you, ask him, "Please let my sister Tamar come and give me something to eat that she prepares especially for me, and after she makes dinner for me, let her feed it to me personally.'"

So go back to the city and tell Absalom, "I'll be your servant, your majesty! Just as I served your father in the past, I can be your servant now.' That way you can manipulate Ahithophel's advice to my benefit.

Besides, who else should I be serving? Why not the son? The same way I served your father, I'll serve you."

Ahithophel responded, "Go inside and have sex with your father's mistresses, whom he left to keep the palace in order. Then everyone in Israel will hear how your father has come to hate you and everyone who has joined you will be emboldened to act."

"You know how strong your father and his men are. They're as mad as a bear robbed of her cubs! Furthermore, your father is a skilled warrior. He won't stay with his army at night.

Then even men who would otherwise be as brave as lions will be scared, because every Israeli knows your father is a mighty man, and they know his men are valiant!

Please let your servant return so I can die in my own home town near the grave of my father and mother. Meanwhile, here is your servant Chimham! Let him accompany your majesty the king. Please do for him whatever seems best to you."

and they buried Saul's bones and his son Jonathan's bones in the territory of Benjamin in Zela, in the tomb of Saul's father Kish. After they had done everything that the king commanded, God responded to prayers for the land.

His father had never challenged him at any time during his life by asking him, "Why are you acting like this?" Adonijah was very handsome and had been born after Absalom.

Solomon then assumed his father David's throne, and his kingdom was firmly established.

Now therefore, as the LORD lives, who has established me and set me on the throne of my father David, and who has established a dynasty, just like he promised, Adonijah will surely be executed today."

The king also told Abiathar the priest, "Go home to Anathoth. You deserve to die, but I won't kill you today, because you carried the ark of the Lord GOD before my father David and because you shared all the troubles that my father went through."

The LORD will repay him for his bloodshed because, without my father David's consent he attacked and murdered two men more righteous and better than he, Ner's son Abner, the commander of Israel's army and Jether's son Amasa, commander of Judah's army.

The king also reminded Shimei, "You know all the evil things that you admit you did to my father David. Therefore the LORD is going to repay you for all of your evil.

Solomon loved the LORD, and lived according to the statutes that his father David obeyed, except that he sacrificed and burned offerings at the high places.

"You have demonstrated abundant gracious love to your servant David, my father, as he lived in your presence truthfully, righteously, and uprightly in his heart. In addition, you have kept on showing this abundant gracious love by giving him a son to sit on his throne today. Now, LORD my God, you have set me as king to replace my father David, but I'm still young. I don't have any leadership skills.

If you will live life my way, keeping my statutes and my commands, just like your father David did, I'll also increase the length of your life."

King Hiram of Tyre sent his servants to Solomon when he learned that Solomon had been anointed king to replace his father, because Hiram had been David's lifelong friend.

"You know that my father David was unable to build a temple dedicated to the LORD his God because he was busy fighting wars all around him until the LORD defeated his enemies.

So now I'm planning to build a temple dedicated to the LORD my God, just as the LORD told my father when he said, "Your son, whom I will set on your throne to replace you, will build the Temple dedicated to me.'

"Concerning this Temple that you're building, if you live your life according to my statutes, carry out my ordinances, and keep all of my commands, and live according to them, then I will do what I promised to your father David.

the son of a widow from the tribe of Naphtali, whose father was from Tyre. A bronze worker, he was wise, knowledgeable, and was skilled in all sorts of bronze working. He went to King Solomon and did all of his work.

Thus all the work that King Solomon performed in the LORD's Temple was finished. Then Solomon brought in the articles that had been dedicated by his father David, including silver, gold, and other utensils, and he placed them into storage in the treasuries of the LORD's Temple.

Then Solomon prayed: "Blessed is the LORD God of Israel, who made a commitment to my father David and then personally fulfilled what he had promised when he said:

"My father David wanted to build a temple for the name of the LORD God of Israel.

The LORD told my father David:

"The LORD has brought to fulfillment what he promised, and now here I stand, having succeeded my father David to sit on the throne of Israel, as the LORD promised. I have built the Temple for the name of the LORD God of Israel.

"LORD God of Israel, there is no one like you, God in heaven above or on the earth below, who watches over his covenant, showing gracious love to your servants who live their lives in your presence with all their hearts. It is you, LORD God, who have kept your promise to my father, your servant David, that you made to him. Indeed, you made a commitment to my father David and then personally fulfilled what you had promised today.

"Now therefore, LORD God of Israel, keep your promise that you made to my father, your servant David, when you said, "You will not lack a man to sit on the throne of Israel, if only your descendants will watch their lives, to live in my presence just as you have lived in my presence.'

"Now therefore, God of Israel, may your promise that you made to your servant David my father be fulfilled"

"Now as for you, if you commune with me like your father did, with an upright heart of integrity and doing everything that I've commanded you and keeping my statutes and ordinances,

then I'll make your royal throne secure forever, just as I agreed to do so for your father David when I said, "You are to not lack a man on the throne of Israel.'

because as Solomon grew older, his wives turned his affections away after other gods, and his heart was not fully as devoted to the LORD his God as his father David's heart had been.

Solomon practiced what the LORD considered to be evil by not fully following the LORD, as had his father David.

I'm not going to do this during your lifetime, for the sake of your father David, but I will tear it out of your son's control.

and this is why he rose in rebellion against the king: Solomon had built up the terrace ramparts in the city of his father David in order to repair a weakness.

I'm doing this because they have abandoned me and worshipped that Sidonian goddess Astarte, the Moabite god Chemosh, and the Ammonite god Milcom. They haven't lived my way by doing what I consider to be right and observing my statutes and my ordinances, like his father David did.

Then Solomon died, as had his ancestors, and he was buried in the city of his father David. His son Rehoboam reigned in his place.

"Your father made our burdens unbearable. Therefore lighten your father's requirements and his heavy burdens that he placed on us, and we'll serve you."

while King Rehoboam conferred with his advisors who had worked for his father Solomon during his administration. He asked them, "What is your advice as to how I should respond to these people?"

As a result, he asked them, "What's your advice so that we can give an answer to these people who have asked me, "Please lighten the burden that your father put on us.'?"

"This is what you should tell these people who asked you "Your father made our burden heavy, but you must make it lighter for us!'" the young men who grew up with Rehoboam replied. "Tell them, "My little finger will be thicker than my father's whole body!

Not only that, but since my father loaded you down heavily, I'm going to add to that burden. My father disciplined you with whips, but I'm going to discipline you with scorpions!'"

Instead, Rehoboam spoke to them along the lines of what the younger men suggested. He told them, "My father burdened you heavily, but I will add to that burden. If my father disciplined you with whips, I'm going to discipline you with scorpions!"

"Which way did he go?" their father asked him, since his sons had observed the way that the man of God had taken to return to Judah from Bethel.

He practiced the same sins that his father committed before he was born. Unlike his ancestor David, his heart never became devoted to the LORD his God.

Asa brought into the LORD's Temple the things that his father had dedicated, as well as his own dedicated gifts such as silver, gold, and temple service implements.

"Let's make a treaty between you and me," he said, "just like the one between my father and your father. Notice that I've sent you silver and gold to break your treaty with King Baasha of Israel, so he'll retreat from his attack on me."

practicing what the LORD considered to be evil, living the way his father did, committing sins, and leading Israel to sin.

He abandoned the oxen, ran off to follow Elijah, and asked him, "Please, let me kiss my mother and father good-bye, and then I'll come after you." "Go back again," Elijah replied. "What have I done to you?"

Ben-hadad made this promise to Ahab: "I will restore the cities that my ancestors took from your ancestors. You'll be able to build streets named after yourself in Damascus, as my father did in Samaria." "With this promise I will release you," Ahab replied. So Ahab made a treaty with Ben-hadad and let him go.

He lived like his father Asa and never abandoned that life. He did what the LORD considered to be right. Nevertheless, the high places were not demolished, and the people continued to sacrifice and burn incense on the high places.

He also eliminated the male cult prostitutes who still remained from the time of his father Asa.

He practiced what the Lord considered to be evil by living life like his father and mother did. He lived like Nebat's son Jeroboam, who led Israel into sin.

He served Baal, worshipped him, and provoked the LORD God of Israel to anger, in accordance with everything his father had done.

As Elisha continued to watch, he cried out, "My father! My father! The chariots of Israel and its cavalry!" Then he did not see Elijah anymore.

practicing evil in the LORD's presence, only not to the extent that his mother and father had done he forced abolition of the sacred pillar to Baal that his father had crafted.

After the child had grown up a bit, one day he went out to visit his father, who was with the harvesters.

He told his father, "My head! My head!"

So his father ordered his servant, "Carry him over to his mother!" So the servant carried him over to his mother, where he rested on her lap until mid-day, and then he died.

But then his servants approached him and spoke with him. They said, "My father, had the prophet only asked of you something great, you would have done it, wouldn't you? Yet he told you, "Bathe, and be clean"!'"

When the king of Israel saw Elisha, he asked him, "Shall I execute them, my father?"

After this, Jehu called out to Bidkar, his third in command, "Pick up Joram's body and throw it in the field, the property that belonged to Naboth the Jezreelite, because you and I remember how when we were riding together in pursuit of his father Ahab, that the LORD pronounced this oracle against him:

When Elisha fell ill with the sickness from which he was about to die, King Joash of Israel came down to see him, wept in his presence, and told him, "My father, Israel's chariots and horsemen!"

At that time, Jehoahaz's son Jehoash recaptured from Hazael's son Ben-hadad the cities that Hazael had captured through warfare from the control of Jehoahaz, Jehoash's father. Joash defeated and recovered cities of Israel from Ben-hadad three times.

He practiced what the LORD considered to be right, but not like his ancestor David did. He acted as his father Joash had done,

Later on, as soon as he was in firm control of his kingdom, he executed the servants who had murdered his father the king,

All the people of Judah took Azariah, who was sixteen years old, and installed him as King to take the place of his father Amaziah.