ACHIOR. - Name of two biblical figures.
1. Supreme military commander of the Ammonites. To Holofernes, the Assyrian general, who was asking him for information about the people of Israel against whom he was marching, A. frankly showed — recounting their history (Judith 5:5-25) — that they were a people protected by a God who made them invincible, whenever Israel was faithful to him. Holofernes, who expected anything but this from a military commander, treated A. as a traitor and handed him over to the Hebrews, near Bethulia which he was besieging, in order to kill him afterward, as soon as the city was 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, worshiped the God of Israel; as an exception to the prohibition of Deut. 23:3, he was admitted to circumcision (Judith 5; 6; 13:27-31; 14:6).
2. Friend and cousin of Tobit, who congratulated him for the benefits granted him by God (Tob. 11:20 ff., Vulgate). He was of the tribe of Naphtali, among those deported by Shalmaneser to Nineveh. The Septuagint calls him Ἀγιέξαρος and says he was chief cupbearer at the court of Sennacherib and Esarhaddon (v. AHQAR).