GÔ'EL. – A Hebrew-biblical term roughly equivalent to “avenger” and “redeemer.” The concept originated in the family and tribal setting, in which the g. has the legal duty to defend the freedom, life, and possessions of the members of his tribe; if an Israelite is forced to sell himself into slavery, one of his relatives—or he himself, if he manages to obtain the necessary money—has the right of redemption (gê'ullâh), returning the purchase price in proportion to the years during which he has served (Lev. 25, 47 ff.; Ruth 2, 20; 3, 9; 4, 1.14).
The g. had-dâm, on the other hand, is the “avenger of blood,” that is, the one who is obliged to avenge the intentional murder of one of his relatives, but only if the authorities have established that it was truly intentional murder, so that “vengeance is not only restrained, but reduced to having more the appearance than the reality of private execution” (A. Vaccari, La S. Bibbia, I, Rome 1942, on Num. 35, 18 ff.; translation and note on p. 431). Three cities of refuge in Cisjordan offered the involuntary murderer the possibility of escaping the unreasonable vengeance of the avenger of blood (Deut. 19, 1 ff.; cf. Ios. 20, 1 ff.).
Gâ'al, when referred to God (approximately 40 times), means not to buy back, but to deliver. God is g. insofar as he is savior and mofia'. God redeems from Egyptian slavery (Ex. 6, 6), from Babylonian slavery, and from the hand of the strong (Ier. 31, 11; Mich. 4, 10). Those saved from the danger of losing their way in the wilderness and from diseases that threatened them are called “redeemed” by the Lord. Whereas in Ezekiel God acts out of regard for His holy name, and not out of pity for sinful Israel, in Isaiah the g. is at the same time the Holy One of Israel (the two terms are found together seven times), and the Lord redeems out of love and pity for human beings (Is. 63, 9).
The concept of redemption is linked particularly to that of the “remnant” of Israel.
In Aramaic, the root gâ'al is replaced by the root prq, used in the Old Testament in the sense of separating and wiping out sins, which in the Targumim also replaces the roots pdh and jt', demonstrating the broad meaning this verb has acquired.
In rabbinic language, the verb gâ'al retains the meaning of deliverance and is applied more particularly to deliverance from Egyptian servitude and to the final deliverance that will precede the definitive restoration, that is, the messianic one. Contemporary Jewish theologians, for example Klausner and Neumarek, commonly use gê'ullâh to designate the entire messianic process.