ACHIOR. - The name of two biblical personages.
1. Supreme military leader of the Ammonites. To Holofernes, the Assyrian general, who asked him for information about the people of Israel against whom he was advancing, A. frankly demonstrated—by recounting their history (Iud. 5, 5-25)—that it was a people protected by a God who rendered it invincible whenever Israel was faithful to him. Holofernes, who had expected something quite different from a military leader, treated A. as a traitor and delivered him into the hands of the Hebrews, near Bethulia, which he besieged, intending to kill him once the city had been taken. A. was well treated by the Hebrews. When Judith showed him the head of Holofernes, A. learned of the rout of the Assyrians and, after a momentary dismay, worshipped the God of Israel; as an exception to the prohibition of Deut. 23, 3, he was admitted to circumcision (Iud. 5; 6; 13, 27-31; 14, 6).
2. Friend and cousin of Tobias, who congratulated him on the benefits granted him by God (Tob. 11, 20 ff., Vulgate). He was of the tribe of Nephtali among those deported by Shalmaneser to Nineveh. The Septuagint calls him Ἀγιέξαρος and says that he was chief cupbearer at the court of Sennacherib and Asarhaddon (v. AHQAR).