Bible Names

Joab: meaning of the name

Joab means “paternity; voluntary.”
Hitchcock's Bible Names Dictionary (1869)boy name

Joab in Hebrew and Greek

יוֹאָב H3097

Yôwʼâb (yo-awb') — Joab, the name of three Israelites

from H3068 (יְהֹוָה) and H1 (אָב); Jehovah-fathered;

People named Joab in the Bible

Joab in Scripture

“Joab” appears in 125 verses of the King James Version; here are the first 8.

  • 1 Samuel 26:6

    Then answered David and said to Ahimelech the Hittite, and to Abishai the son of Zeruiah, brother to Joab, saying, Who will go down with me to Saul to the camp? And Abishai said, I will go down with thee.

  • 2 Samuel 2:13

    And Joab the son of Zeruiah, and the servants of David, went out, and met together by the pool of Gibeon: and they sat down, the one on the one side of the pool, and the other on the other side of the pool.

  • 2 Samuel 2:14

    And Abner said to Joab, Let the young men now arise, and play before us. And Joab said, Let them arise.

  • 2 Samuel 2:18

    And there were three sons of Zeruiah there, Joab, and Abishai, and Asahel: and Asahel was as light of foot as a wild roe.

  • 2 Samuel 2:22

    And Abner said again to Asahel, Turn thee aside from following me: wherefore should I smite thee to the ground? how then should I hold up my face to Joab thy brother?

  • 2 Samuel 2:24

    Joab also and Abishai pursued after Abner: and the sun went down when they were come to the hill of Ammah, that lieth before Giah by the way of the wilderness of Gibeon.

  • 2 Samuel 2:26

    Then Abner called to Joab, and said, Shall the sword devour for ever? knowest thou not that it will be bitterness in the latter end? how long shall it be then, ere thou bid the people return from following their brethren?

  • 2 Samuel 2:27

    And Joab said, As God liveth, unless thou hadst spoken, surely then in the morning the people had gone up every one from following his brother.