(a-vi-me-lek)
This common name, meaning "my father is king," is represented by possibly five individuals in the OT:
1) The Philistine king of Gerar whom Abraham met, and fearing for his life, and for a second time, passed his wife Sarah off as his sister (Gen 20:2ff). Abimelech took Sarah into his harem but was warned by God in a dream that she was in fact Abraham's wife. In fear Abimelech returned Sarah to Abraham and enriched him greatly, offering him to live where he wished in Gerar (v15). In answer to Abraham's prayer God healed Abimelech, his wife and slave girls so that they could again have children. With Abimelech too Abraham made a covenant of peace and a treaty at Beersheva (Gen 21:22-32), which seemed to have kept even into the next generation.
2) The Philistine king of Gerar in the time of Isaac, possibly the son of 1) above. Isaac, like his father, had passed off Rebekah as his sister though, this time, she was not taken into his harem (Gen 26:7). Abimelech realized the truth only when he incidentally saw Isaac caressing Rebekah and (vv8-9). While protected by Abimelech, the relationship between them soured and a number of disputes broke out between their men until another treaty was needed to mend things between them (vv12-26)
3) The son of Gideon by an unnamed concubine, who, after the death of his father, murdered all but one of his seventy-one siblings (Judg 9:18) in order to establish a dynasty (which his father had rejected) with the help of his mother's kinsmen from Shechem (Judg 9:1). After three years his relationship with the Shechemites soured. In a siege of one of the cities his head was fractured by a mill-stone thrown from the city wall; knowing he would not live he killed himself. His death fulfilled what Jotham, the sibling who escaped his fratricide, had said in scorn about him at the beginning of his reign (9:7-20). The story of his reign, set amidst all the other judges, is narrated in a style that stresses all that a judge was not; his was the "parable" of the 'anti-judge'.
4) An otherwise unknown king or noble mentioned in the title to Psm 34, before whom David was supposed to have acted insanely. The historical narrative reports an incident of such behaviour by David in the presence of Achish; Abimelech may have been one of Achish's other name or a scribal error may have interchanged the two names.
5) A son of Abiathar reported in the list of David's administration as a priest (1 Chron 18:16). Nothing else is known about him.
©ALBERITH