ABIMELECH. – A proper name which in Hebrew means: “the Father” or: “my father (a divine name?) is king.” From the El-Amarna letters, Abimiliki of Tyre (14th cent. B.C.) is known. The Bible mentions:
1. ABIMELECH, king of Gerara, who appears in the history of Abraham and Isaac. When he went to Gerara, Abraham concealed the fact that Sarah was his wife, calling her his sister (she was so only on her father’s side, cf. Gen. 20:12), so that A. was able to take her away in good faith; but, warned by a dream followed by an illness, he returned Sarah to her husband with assurances of compensation and esteem (Gen. 20). Later, at Bersabea, having settled a dispute over a well, he entered into a solemn alliance with Abraham (Gen. 21:22-33).
In the history of Isaac, another king of Gerara of the same name appears; without having committed the abduction as in the previous case, he reproaches Isaac for a similar concealment (Gen. 26:7-22), and later, again at Bersabea, after further disputes concerning wells, makes a pact with Isaac (Gen. 26:28-31). Chronological considerations seem to exclude the possibility that this was one and the same person; A. may have been a customary name in the dynasty ruling in Gerara. Critics of the Wellhausen school see in these two episodes a single event transmitted with confusion of names, in two redactions, the first in the Elohistic document and the other in the Yahwistic (duplicates). Against this assertion, it suffices to observe that the static character of patriarchal civilization makes the recurrence of circumstances, places, and persons plausible; moreover, the theory of duplicates admits that the Yahwistic document repeats itself, since the similar episode in Gen. 12:10-20 is attributed to the same document (cf. A. Bea, De Pentatencho, 2nd ed., Rome 1933, p. 81).
2. ABIMELECH, son of Gideon (Iude. 8:31-9:57). After his father’s death, with the help of his mother’s relatives living in Sichem, he killed his 70 brothers, regarded as dangerous rivals, and had himself proclaimed king. He ruled in Sichem for three years, but following IOATHAM (v.), the only son of Gideon to escape the massacre, he cruelly suppressed the Sichemites, led by Gaal, destroying the city and setting the surrounding lands on fire. But shortly afterward he was mortally wounded by a stone hurled by a woman during the siege of nearby Tebes, and had himself killed by his armor-bearer. He should be regarded less as a judge than as the first person to attempt to organize a kingdom in Israel.
BBL.: L. Desnoyers, Histoire du Peuple Hébreu, I, Paris 1922, pp. 171-77, 392-97; G. Ricciotti, Storia d'Israele, I, 4th ed., Turin 1941, pp. 155, 301-303. Enrico Galbiati