AZMAVETH ăz’ mə vĕth (עַזְמָ֖וֶת, Mot is fierce (?) LXX: Ασμωθ). 1. A member of David’s military elite known as the Thirty. He came from Bahurim (2 Sam 23:31; 1 Chron 11:33).

2. The father of the two warriors named Jeziel and Pelet from the tribe of Benjamin. Both men were ambidexterous stone slingers and archers. They joined David at Ziklag while David was fleeing from Saul (1 Chron 12:3). He may be the same man as # 1. above.

3. A descendant of Jonathan, the son of Saul. His father’s name was Jehoaddah (1 Chron 8:36) but 1 Chronicles 9:42 gives Jarah as his father.

4. David set this son of Adiel over the royal treasuries in Jerusalem in a list of his officers (27:25).

5. A town prob. identified with modern el Hizmeh, c. five m. NNE of Jerusalem. It is called Beth-azmaveth (Neh 7:28). Returning with Zerubbabel were forty-two men from this town (Ezra 2:24), while Nehemiah 12:29 records the fact that this town supplied some of the singers for the dedication of the second Temple.

Bibliography K Elliger, “Die 30 Helden Davids” PJB, 31 (1935), 53f.; J. Simons, The Geographical and Topographical Texts of OT, Leiden (1959), 379.