GO'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 property of the members of his tribe; if an Israelite is forced to sell himself as a slave, a relative of his, or he himself, if he manages to procure the necessary money, has the right of redemption (gê'ullâh), restoring the purchase price in proportion to the years during which he has rendered service (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 bound to avenge a deliberate homicide committed against one of his relatives, but only in the case where the authority has ruled that it truly was deliberate homicide, 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.; trans. and note on p. 431). Three cities of refuge in Cisjordan offered to involuntary homicide the possibility of escaping the unreasonable vengeance of the avenger of blood (Deut. 19:1 ff.; cf. Josh. 20:1 ff.).
Gâ'al, referred to God (about 40 times), means not to buy back, but to liberate. God is g. insofar as he is savior and mofia'. God redeems from the slavery of Egypt (Ex. 6:6), from that of Babylon and from the hand of the strong (Jer. 31:11; Mic. 4:10). Men saved from the danger of losing their way in the desert and from diseases that threatened them are called "redeemed" by the Lord. While 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 (7 times the two terms are found joined), and the Lord redeems out of love and pity for men (Isa. 63:9).
The concept of redemption is linked in particular 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, blotting out sins, which in the Targumim also replaces the roots pdh and jt', which goes to show how broad a meaning this verb has assumed.
In rabbinic language, the verb gâ'al preserves the sense of liberation, and is applied more particularly to the liberation from Egyptian servitude and to the final liberation that will precede the definitive restoration, that is, the messianic one. Contemporary Jewish theologians, e.g. Klausner, Neumarek, use gê'ullâh currently to designate the whole messianic process.
Bibliography5 works
Eugenio Zolli