ABIMELECH. - A proper name, which in Hebrew means: "the Father" or: "my father (divine name?) is king." From the El-Amarna letters, Abimiliki of Tyre is known (14th century B.C.). In the Bible the following are recalled:
1. ABIMELECH king of Gerar, who appears in the story of Abraham and Isaac. Having gone to Gerar, Abraham concealed that Sarah was his wife, calling her his sister (she was such only on her father's side, cf. Gen. 20:12), so that A. could carry her off in good faith but, warned by a dream followed by an illness, he returned Sarah to her husband with protests of reparation and esteem (Gen. 20). Later, at Beersheba, having settled a dispute over a well, he made a solemn alliance with Abraham (Gen. 21:22-33).
In the story of Isaac there again appears a king of Gerar of the same name who, without having committed the abduction as in the previous case, reproaches Isaac for a similar concealment (Gen. 26:7-22), and later, again at Beersheba, after further controversies concerning wells, makes a pact with Isaac (Gen. 26:28-31). Chronological reasons seem to exclude that this is a single person; A. could have been a common name in the dynasty ruling in Gerar. The critics of the school of Wellhausen see in these two episodes a single event transmitted with a confusion of names, in two redactions, the first in the Elohist document, the other in the Yahwist (duplicates). Against such an assertion it suffices to observe that the static character of patriarchal civilization makes a repetition of circumstances, places and persons plausible; moreover, the theory of duplicates admits that the Yahwist document repeats itself, since the similar episode of 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 (Judg. 8:31-9:57). After his father's death, with the help of his mother's relatives dwelling in Shechem, he killed his 70 brothers, considered dangerous rivals, and had himself proclaimed king. He reigned in Shechem for three years, but following a rebellion stirred up by Jotham (v.), the only son of Gideon who escaped the slaughter, he cruelly repressed the Shechemites, led by Gaal, destroying the city and burning the lands. But shortly afterward he was mortally wounded by a stone hurled by a woman in the siege of nearby Thebez, and he had himself killed by his armor-bearer. More than as a judge, he must be considered as the first who attempted 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