king of Gerar Gen 20:2-21; Genesis 26:1-31.
Abimelech (Heb. ‘Abîmelek, “my Father is king” or “father of the king”; Amarna Letters, Abi-milki; ugar, and sudar. ‘blk). 1 and 2. Name or official title of the kings of Gerar (cf Psa_34, title) and of the 2 with whom Abiahan and Isaac were related (Gen_0;21:22-34; 26). 3. Son of Gideon with a concubine from Shechem. With the help of the Shechemites, after the death of his father, he killed 70 of his brothers on a stone in Ofra; Jotham was the only one who escaped. Abimelech was made king and ruled “Israel” for 3 years, at the end of which the Shechemites, under the leadership of Gaal, rebelled against him. The rebellion was crushed and the city and its fortified temple were destroyed. Shortly afterwards, Abimelech perished during the siege of Thebes, who had joined the rebellion. A millstone, thrown by a woman from the top of the wall of the besieged city, fell on his head and seriously injured him. So that no one would say that a woman had killed him, Abimelech asked his assistant to put an end to his life (Jdg_9; 2 Sam. 11:21). 4. Name that appears in the title of the Psa_4 Perhaps it is another name for Achish, the Philistine king to whom David went when fleeing from Saul (1Sa 21:10-15). 5. Priest and son of Abiathar (1Ch 8:16). It is generally believed that here it should read Ahimelech (according to the LXX), as Abiathar’s son is called in 24:6 (cf 2Sa 8:17).
Source: Evangelical Bible Dictionary
also Abimelech, the Father is King. Male name. 1. King of Gerar, who took Sarah, believing her to be Abraham’s sister; but the Lord in a dream revealed the truth to him, and A. returned Sarah Gn 20. Later, A. and Abraham then made an alliance, Gn 21, 22-32. ® War. 2. Gn 26, 31 speaks of A., possibly the same one mentioned above or a son of him, king of Gerar, who tried to take Rebekah, believing her to be Isaac’s sister, but, learning the truth, rebuked him and ordered him walk away. Later, the two made an alliance at Beersheba. 3. Son of Gideon and the concubine he had in Shechem Jc 8, 31. After his father died, supported by the Shechemites, A. paid mercenaries, with money from the temple of Baal Berit, he went to Ophra, a city where he had born his father, Yerubaal in the narrative, and slew his seventy brothers. Of them, Jotham, the youngest, hid himself and saved his life from slaughter. Later, A. proclaimed himself king by the oak of the stele in Shechem. He ruled Israel for three years, and the Shechemites betrayed him and revolted against him, led by Gaal, but A. defeated them and razed the city to the ground. He then marched against the city of Thebes and took it, but there a woman threw a millstone at him from a tower that shattered his skull and he died Jc 9.
Digital Bible Dictionary, Grupo C Service & Design Ltda., Colombia, 2003
Source: Digital Bible Dictionary
(Heb., †™avimelekh, the father is a king, or the father of a king).
1. Name (or title of a dynasty) of a Philistine king of Gerar to whom Abraham told that Sarah was his sister. Impressed by her beauty, Abimelech took her away to marry her, but warned by God he immediately returned her to Abraham (Gen 20: 1-18). Later, when her servants were fighting over a well, the two men made a pact (Gen 21: 22-34).
2. Second king of Gerar, probably the son of the first Abimelech. At his court Isaac attempted to pass off his wife as his sister (Gen 26:1-11). Afterward his servants quarreled, and made a covenant, as Abraham and the first Abimelech had done.
3. Son of Gideon by a concubine (Jdg 8:31; Jdg 9:1-57). After Gideon died and wishing to be king, he killed his father’s 70 sons. Only Jotham escaped. Abimelech became king of Shechem. After three years, there was a rebellion against him; he attacked and destroyed his own city of Shechem. He was later killed when he attacked Thebes.
4. Philistine king mentioned in the title of Psalm 34. Probably the same as Achish, king of Gath (1Sa 21:10—1Sa 22:1), with whom David took refuge when fleeing from Saul.
5. Priest in the days of David, son of Abiathar; also called Ahimelech (1Ch 18:16; 1Ch 24:6).
Source: Hispanic World Bible Dictionary
(My father is king). Name of people from the OT. Possibly this term rather indicated the position of king among the Philistines, as can be seen in the title of Ps. 34, where the Philistine king Achish is called A.
1. Philistine contemporary of Abraham. He was king in †¢Gerar. He took † ¢ Sarah when Abraham said that she was his sister, but God spoke to him in a dream and so he returned her (Gen 20: 1-14). Then A. made a covenant with Abraham, after discussing a well that Abraham’s servants had dug, because he saw that God was with him (Gen 21:22-32).
. Probably son of the previous one. He met Isaac when he was forced to live in † ¢ Gerar because of a famine. Isaac also said that his wife † ¢ Rebekah was her sister, but this A. did not take her, but admonished Isaac when he caught him caressing Rebekah and then made a pact with Isaac (Gen. 26).
. Son of †¢Gideon, by a Canaanite concubine, from †¢Shechem (Jdg 8:31). At the death of Gideon, he made a conspiracy with the help of the inhabitants of † ¢ Shechem and killed all his brothers, who were seventy, except † ¢ Jotham. When the Israelites offered Gideon the title of king, he rejected it, saying: “I will not rule over you, neither will my son rule over you: the Lord shall rule over you” (Judges 8:23). A., however, made himself king over Shechem, but after three years the citizens of that city rebelled against him. A certain †¢Gaal, who at first pretended to be A.’s friend, later betrayed him. Finally A. fought and destroyed Shechem, including a famous tower, which he burned with those who took refuge in it. He then besieged †¢ Thebes, where he was killed when a woman dropped a millstone from the wall on his head (Judges 9:1-57).
. Priest son of Abiathar, from the days of David (1Ch 18:16). = †¢Ahimelech #2.
Source: Christian Bible Dictionary
tip, BIOG SACE REYE HOMB HOAT HNHA FUNC
see, ABIATHAR “Father of the king.” There are several who bear this name: (a) King of Gerar. Believing Sarah to be Abraham’s sister, he took her for her harem; warned by God, he returned Sarah, calling Abraham brother, by way of reproach (Gen. 20). (b) A similar thing happened to Isaac and Rebekah under another king of the same name, this name being a title of the Philistine kings, as Pharaoh was the title of the king of Egypt (Gen. 26:1-16). (c) Son of Gideon with a Shechemite concubine. He induced the men of Shechem to elect him as their king, and then slew 70 of his brothers. Only Jotham escaped, putting a curse on the assassins. This curse was fulfilled by the death of many of the men of Shechem, and by the death of Abimelech himself, caused by a woman at the siege of Thebes (Judges 8:31; 9; 2 Sam. 11:21). (d) Priest in the time of David (1 Chr. 18:16), also called AHIMELEC (2 Sam. 8:17). (See ABIATAR)
Source: New Illustrated Bible Dictionary
(My Father is King).
Personal name or official title of various Philistine kings, possibly akin to “pharaoh” in the Egyptian world and “caesar” in the Roman world.
1. King of the city of Gerar, where Abraham and Sarah fixed their temporary residence around the year 1919 a. EC Thinking they were brothers, he took Sarah to be her wife, but, providentially, he did not touch her. Warned by Jehovah in a dream, the king returned Sarah to her husband along with compensation consisting of cattle, slaves, and a thousand shekels of silver (c. $2,200) as a guarantee of Sarah’s chastity. Some time later, this king made a covenant of peace and mutual trust with Abraham at Beer-sheba. (Ge 20:1-18; 21:22-34)
2. Possibly another king of Gerar when Isaac moved there due to famine. That happened after Abraham’s death in 1843 B.C. EC Like his father, Isaac tried to pass Rebekah off as her sister, but when the king accidentally discovered that she was Isaac’s wife, he issued a public decree guaranteeing the couple’s protection. However, the prosperity with which God blessed Isaac became an object of envy, which is why the king asked him to leave. Sometime later, this king of Gerar made a peace covenant with Isaac similar to the one his predecessor had made with Abraham. (Ge 26:1-31.)
3. Philistine king of the city of Gath in the days of David. (Ps 34, heading; see AKí S.)
4. Son of judge Gideon that his concubine gave birth to him in Shechem. After the death of his father, Abimelech, with presumptuous impudence, sought to make himself king. He cunningly appealed to the landowners of Shechem through his mother’s influential family, and when he gained their financial support, he hired thugs, went to his father’s house in Ophrah, and there murdered his half-brothers on a stone. Of the seventy half brothers, he alone escaped the slaughter Jotham, the youngest.
Abimelech was proclaimed king, but Jehovah allowed “an evil spirit to develop” between the Shechemites and their new “king” in order to avenge the bloodguilt of all who had a part in the conspiracy. Gaal staged a revolt, but Abimelech quickly crushed it, capturing and destroying the city of Shechem and sowing it with salt. Then he went against the vault or crypt of the house of El-berit (or temple of El-berit) and set it on fire, dying in that fire about a thousand of his former collaborators, the landowners of the tower of Shechem who They had taken refuge there. Abimelech wanted to reinforce this victory with the attack on Tebez to the north, but a woman who was in the tower of the city threw an upper millstone on his head. Abimelech’s three-year †reign† ended when the servant who bore his arms, fulfilling his last words, pierced him with the sword so that it could not be said that a woman had killed him. (Jg 8:30, 31; 9:1-57; 2Sa 11:21)
5. The Masoretic text reads Abimelech in 1 Chronicles 18:16. However, the Greek Septuagint, the Latin Vulgate, the Syriac Peshitta Version, and twelve Hebrew manuscripts read “Ahimelech,” which is in harmony with 2 Samuel 8:17.
Source: Dictionary of the Bible
(heb. ˒aḇı̂meleḵ, ‘the (divine) king is my father’). 1. Philistine kings of Gerar bearing this name figure in episodes involving Abraham (Gen. 20.1–18) and Isaac (Gen. 26.1–33). The similarities between the stories have led many scholars to suppose that they are doublets, but Abimelech may have been a cognoment of Philistine kings (cf. the “Pharaoh” egp.); furthermore, there are significant differences in the accounts (and note the relevance of Gn. 20.13 for both Abraham and Isaac). Nor is it necessary to suppose that the reference to the presence of the Philistines in Canaan in the days of the patriarchs is anachronistic, since “Philistine” may mean that the Gerarians were an advance party of the…