Abimelech king of Gerar
- Name Meaning: "Melek is father" or "my father is king" (Literal Word app)
- Commander of his army: Phicol (Genesis 21:22)
Abimelech returns Abraham's wife after a dream from God
While Abraham sojourned in Gerar, he said Sarah was his sister, so Abimelech sent and took Sarah.
Then God came to Abimelech in a dream by night and said to him, “Behold, you are a dead man because of the woman whom you have taken, for she is a man's wife.” Abimelech had not approached her, so he said, “Lord, will you kill an innocent people? Did he not himself say to me, ‘She is my sister’? And she herself said, ‘He is my brother.’ In the integrity of my heart and the innocence of my hands I have done this.” Then God said, “Yes, I know that you have done this in the integrity of your heart, and it was I who kept you from sinning against me. Therefore I did not let you touch her. Now then, return the man's wife, for he is a prophet, so that he will pray for you, and you shall live. But if you do not return her, know that you shall surely die, you and all who are yours.”
So Abimelech rose early in the morning and called all his servants and told them everything, and they were afraid. Abimelech called Abraham and asked, "What have you done to us? And how have I sinned against you, that you have brought on me and my kingdom a great sin? You have done to me things that ought not to be done.” And, “What did you see, that you did this thing?”
Abraham replied, "I did it because I thought, ‘There is no fear of God at all in this place, and they will kill me because of my wife.’ 1Besides, she is indeed my sister, the daughter of my father though not the daughter of my mother, and she became my wife. 13 And when God caused me to wander from my father's house, I said to her, ‘This is the kindness you must do me: at every place to which we come, say of me, “He is my brother.”’”
Abimelech gave sheep, oxen, and male and female servants to Abraham, and he told Sarah, "Behold, I have given your brother a thousand pieces of silver. It is a sign of your innocence in the eyes of all who are with you, and before everyone you are vindicated."
Abraham prayed to God, and God healed Abimelech, and He healed his wife and female slaves so that they bore children after having had their wombs closed because of Sarah.
(Genesis 20)
Abraham and Abimelech's covenant
Abimelech and Phicol acknowledged that God was with Abraham and asked him to return their kindness to him and his descendants, and he swore to it. When Abraham reproved Abimelech about the well his servants seized, Abimelech claimed ignorance. Abraham gave him sheep and oxen and made a covenant, setting 7 ewe lambs apart as witness that he dug this well. The place was called Beersheba.
Abimelech and Phicol returned to Philistia.
(Genesis 21)
Abimelech the son of Jerubbesheth
Abimelech was a son of Gideon who was also known as Jerubbaal or Jerubbesheth. He had told his armor-bearer to kill him, "lest they say of me, 'a woman killed him'" (Judges 9:54), but this was said of him anyway.
(The ESV Study BibleTM, English Standard Version (ESV) by Crossway Bibles, 2007. Page 560)
Joab alludes to Abimelech's death near the wall
David sent word to Joab, "Send me Uriah the Hittite." Uriah returned to Joab with a letter in his hand, saying, "Set Uriah in the forefront of the hardest fighting, and then draw back from him, that he may be struck down, and die."
As Joab was besieging the city, he assigned Uriah to the place where he knew there were valiant men. The men came out and fought, and some servants of David fell, and Uriah died.
Joab instructed his messenger to David, "When you have finished telling all the news about the fighting to the king, then, if the king's anger rises, and if he says to you, 'Why did you go so near the city to fight? Did you not know that they would shoot from the wall? Who killed Abimelech the son of Jerubbesheth? Did not a woman cast an upper millstone on him from the wall, so that he died at Thebez? Why did you go so near the wall?' Then you shall say, 'Your servant Uriah the Hittite is dead also.'"