Wikipedia's first sentence called it “hebrew female name”. Today it says “hebrew given name of old testament origin”.
Measured, not asserted. Every count, date and revision on this page was taken from Wikipedia's own history and checked against the live article. The words quoted are theirs.
Machine-checked against the full current article on 2026-08-03.
We saved snapshots of this article over twenty years; you are reading the 2015 one. Red dashes: removed from Wikipedia since.Pale dots: rewritten; the numbered note shows what it says now.Red text: written in or rewritten since the previous snapshot.1 tap a number or a side note to jump between them
The opening as it read in 2015
Avital ( ) is a Hebrew female name which means my father is [the] dew .1( ab-i means my father ; -i is possessive pronoun for "my".) The fifth wife of King David (2 Samuel 3:4) was called Abital, and was the mother of David's son Shephatiah . According to the grammatical structure, the fifth one is Shephatiah, the son, not Abital, the mother. Because "ha-chamischi schpathiah" is a nominal-phrase, meaning "the fifth ((son) was) Schepatja". If the translation "the fifth wife" was correct, "h-chamischi" had to be related to "abital" and had another position in the phrase, possibly behind abital. The correct information is: The wife of King David (2 Samuel 3:4) was called Abital, and was the mother of David's fifth son Shepatiah.2
This is Wikipedia's own text, saved in our repository. Their copy of it is revision 642157266.
The opening as it stood in 2010
Abital or Avital ( ) is a Hebrew female name. It translates as father of dew i.e., "fresh". The grammatically correct translation of the name is dew is my father . ab-i means my father , -i is possessive pronoun for "my". The fifth wife of King David (2 Samuel 3:4) was called Abital, and was the mother of David's son Shephatiah .
Red text was written in or rewritten since the previous snapshot. Their copy is revision 349184946.
The opening as it stood in 2020 4 passages from the previous snapshot no longer appear
Hebrew female name Abital or Avital ( ’Ăḇîṭāl ) is a Hebrew female name which means my father is [the] dew .( ab-i means my father ; -i is possessive pronoun for "my".) Abital is mentioned in the Bible as one of King David 's wives (2 Samuel 3:4), the mother of David's fifth son Shephatiah .A Dictionary of First Names .
Red text was written in or rewritten since the previous snapshot. Their copy is revision 948952094.
The opening as it stood on October 6, 2023 3 passages from the previous snapshot no longer appear
Hebrew name Avital ( ’Ăḇîṭāl ) is a Hebrew given name of Old Testament origin.Traditionally a female given name, its modern usage is unisex .Avital is also used as a surname .
Red text was written in or rewritten since the previous snapshot. Their copy is revision 1167817030.
The opening as it stood in 2025
Hebrew name Avital ( Hebrew : אֲבִיטַל ’Ăḇîṭāl ) is a Hebrew given name of Old Testament origin. Traditionally a female given name, its modern usage is unisex . Avital is also used as a surname .
Red text was written in or rewritten since the previous snapshot. Their copy is revision 1254691645. This is our newest snapshot; the live article may have moved again since.
Today
Wikipedia's first sentence called it “hebrew female name”. Today it says “hebrew given name of old testament origin”. Read the current article and compare.
2010
2015
2020
Oct '23
2025
Counts in the opening at each snapshot. Green: the word gained ground. Red: it was cut. Grey: no change.
What Wikipedia says this is
Every article opens by defining its subject. This one was redefined since 2010, and today's defining sentence is their current revision.
Then
hebrew female name
Now
hebrew given name of old testament origin
Struck red text is no longer in the article; dotted amber text was rewritten. Every revision id links to Wikipedia's copy; the text shown is our own saved copy. Data: /data. Wikipedia text is CC BY-SA; quoted for the record; not affiliated with Wikipedia.
