Abimelech (also spelledAbimelek orAvimelech;Hebrew:אֲבִימֶלֶךְ /אֲבִימָלֶךְ,Modern ʼAvīméleḵ /ʼAvīmáleḵTiberian ʼAḇīmeleḵ /ʼAḇīmāleḵ, "my father is a king"/"my father reigns") was the generic name given to allPhilistine kings in theHebrew Bible from the time ofAbraham throughKing David.[1] In theBook of Judges,Abimelech, son ofGideon,[2] of theTribe of Manasseh, is proclaimed king ofShechem after the death of his father.[3]
The name or titleAbimelech is formed from Canaanite words for "father" and "king," and may be interpreted in a variety of ways, including "Father-King", "My father is king," or "Father of a king."[4] In the Pentateuch, it is used as a title for kings in the land of Canaan.[5]
Abimelech can be translated in Arabic as well into "My father is king", "My father is owner" or "Father of a king," whereAbi (Arabic:أبي) means father or my father whilemalek (Arabic:ملك) means king ormālek (Arabic:مالك) for owner.
At the time of theAmarna tablets (mid-14th century BC), there was an Egyptian governor ofTyre similarly namedAbimilki,who is sometimes speculated to be connected with one or more of the biblical Abimelechs.[citation needed]
Abimelech was most prominently the name of a polytheistic[6][7] king ofGerar who is mentioned in two of the threewife–sister narratives in the Book of Genesis, in connection with bothAbraham[8] andIsaac.[9]
King Abimelech of Gerar also appears in an extra-biblical tradition recounted in texts such as theArabic Apocalypse of Peter, theCave of Treasures and theConflict of Adam and Eve with Satan, as one of twelve regional kings in Abraham's time said to have built the city ofJerusalem forMelchizedek.
TheBook of Judges mentions Abimelech, son ofjudgeGideon (also known as Jerubbaal). According to the biblical narrative, Abimelech was an extremely conniving and evil person. He persuaded his mother's brothers to encourage the people ofShechem to back him in a plot to overthrow his family rule and make him sole ruler.
After slaying all but one of his seventy brothers, Abimelech was crowned king. The brother who escaped, Jotham youngest son of Jerrubaal, made a pronouncement against Abimelech and those who had crowned him.The curse was that if they had not dealt righteously with the family of Jerrubaal, then fire would come against Abimelech from the people of Shechem and fire would come out of Abimelech against the people who had backed him in this bloody coup.
After Abimelech ruled for three years, the pronouncement came through. The people of Shechem set robbers to lie in wait of any goods or money headed to Abimelech and steal everything.Then Gaal Son of Ebed went to Shechem and drunkenly bragged that he would remove Abimelech from the throne. Zebul, ruler of Shechem, sent word to Abimelech along with a battle strategy. Once Zebul taunted Gaal into fighting Abimelech, he shut Gaal and his brethren out of the city.
Abimelech then slew the field workers that came out of the city of Shechem the next day. When he heard that the people of Shechem had locked themselves in a strong tower, he and his men set fire to it, killing about a thousand men and women.
After this, Abimelech went to Thebez and camped against it. When he went close to the tower in Thebez to set it on fire, a woman dropped an uppermillstone on Abimelech's head. He did not want to be known as having been killed by a woman, so he asked his armour bearer to run him through with a sword. His place of death is cited as being Thebez.[10]
Avimelekh (Russian:Авимеле́х) is a Russian malefirst name derived from Abimelech.[11] It was included into various, often handwritten, church calendars throughout the 17th–19th centuries, but was omitted from the officialSynodalMenologium at the end of the 19th century.[12]
Apart from the king (or kings) of Gerar, the Bible also records this name for:
Other literary references include:
This article incorporates text from a publication now in thepublic domain: Easton, Matthew George (1897). "Abimelech".Easton's Bible Dictionary (New and revised ed.). T. Nelson and Sons.
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