At Luke 3:1 we are told that in the fifteenth year of Tiberius Caesar (28/29 C.E.) the district was ruled by Lysanias. This fact is confirmed by an inscription found at Abila in connection with a temple dedication dating from the reign of Tiberius and which inscription bears the name “Lysanias the tetrarch.” Prior to this, Abilene had formed part of the kingdom of Herod the Great, but following his death, about the year 1 B.C.E., it was included in the province of Syria. Josephus records that the “tetrarchy of Lysanias” was joined to Palestine, in 37 C.E., under Herod Agrippa I and that it was thereafter bestowed upon Herod Agrippa II by Claudius, in 53 C.E.

Still to be seen around the site of Abila are the ruins of temples, tombs, aqueducts and roads evidencing its Greco-Roman culture. The so-called ‘tomb of Abel’ is located in Abila, but this tradition is doubtless the result of confusing the name of Cain’s brother (Heʹvel, Hebrew) with ʼa·velʹ, “a meadow.”

ABIMAEL

(A·bimʹa·el) [my father is God; God is father].

A descendant of Shem through Arpachshad. His father was Joktan, whose brother, Peleg, was an ancestor of Abraham. (Gen. 10:28; 1 Chron. 1:17-27) It is likely that Abimael and his twelve brothers were the sources from which thirteen different Arabian tribes developed, settling in the Arabian peninsula.

ABIMELECH

(A·bimʹe·lech) [my father is Melek (king)].

Either a personal name or an official title of several Philistine kings, similar to the title “Pharaoh” among the Egyptians and “Caesar” among the Romans.

1. The king of the city of Gerar, where Abraham and Sarah took up temporary residence in 1919 B.C.E. Thinking the couple were brother and sister, he took Sarah to become his wife, but, providentially, did not touch her. Sarah was probably already in her first months of pregnancy with Isaac at this time. Warned by Jehovah in a dream, the king returned Sarah to Abraham together with compensation consisting of livestock and slaves, and, in addition, a thousand shekels of silver ($475) as a guarantee of Sarah’s chastity. Sometime later this king concluded a covenant of peace and mutual confidence with Abraham at Beer-sheba.—Gen. 20:1-18; 21:22-34.

2. Possibly another king of Gerar at the time Isaac went there because of a famine. This was after the death of Abraham in 1843 B.C.E. Isaac, like his father Abraham, attempted to pass Rebekah off as his sister but when the king, by accident, discovered she was Isaac’s wife, he issued a public decree granting them protection. Isaac’s God-given prosperity, however, became the object of envy, and so the king requested Isaac to move out. Sometime later this king of Gerar concluded a covenant of peace with Isaac similar to the one his predecessor had made with Abraham.—Gen. 26:1-31.

3. The Philistine king of the city of Gath in David’s day.—Psalm 34, superscription.

4. A son of Judge Gideon born to his concubine at Shechem. After his father’s death, Abimelech with presumptuous impudence sought to make himself king. Cunningly, he appealed to the landowners of Shechem through his mother’s influential family. Upon obtaining their financial support he hired some ruffians, went to his father’s house at Ophrah and there massacred his seventy half brothers upon a single stone, with only the youngest, Jotham, escaping the slaughter.

Abimelech was then proclaimed king, but Jehovah allowed a bad spirit to develop between the Shechemites and their new “king,” in order to avenge the bloodguilt of all those connected with the conspiracy. A revolt was organized by Gaal. Abimelech quickly crushed it, captured and destroyed the city of Shechem and sowed it with salt. Then he attacked the vault or sanctuary of the house of El-berith and set it afire, and in the conflagration about a thousand of his previous collaborators, the landowners of the tower of Shechem who had taken refuge there, were burned to death. Immediately Abimelech followed up this success by attacking Thebez to the north, only to have a woman on the city tower hurl an upper millstone down upon his head. Abimelech’s three-year “reign” came to an end when his armor bearer, in compliance with his dying request, ran him through with the sword, so that it could not be said that a woman had killed him.—Judg. 8:30, 31; 9:1-57; 2 Sam. 11:21.

5. The Authorized Version reads “Abimelech” in 1 Chronicles 18:16, due to a copyist’s error, for the Septuagint, Vulgate, Syriac Peshitta and twelve Hebrew manuscripts read “Ahimelech,” and this is in agreement with 2 Samuel 8:17.

ABINADAB

(A·binʹa·dab) [my father is noble, father of liberality].

1. An inhabitant of the city of Kiriath-jearim in the territory of Judah about eight miles northwest of Jerusalem, in whose home the ark of the covenant was kept for a time. When the sacred Ark was brought up from Beth-shemesh after its disastrous seven-month sojourn among the Philistines, it was deposited in the home of Abinadab, and his son Eleazar was sanctified to guard it. Here in this home the Ark remained for some seventy years, until David arranged to transfer it to Jerusalem. During the transfer another of Abinadab’s sons, Uzzah, dropped dead in his tracks when Jehovah’s anger blazed against him, due to touching the Ark in disregard of the command at Numbers 4:15.—1 Sam. 6:20–7:1; 2 Sam. 6:1-7; 1 Chron. 13:6-10.

2. The second son of Jesse, and one of David’s three older brothers who went to war with Saul against the Philistines.—1 Sam. 16:8; 17:13.

3. One of the sons of King Saul who was slain by the Philistines at Mount Gilboa.—1 Sam. 31:2; 1 Chron. 9:39.

4. The father of one of King Solomon’s twelve food-supply deputies. This deputized “son of Abinadab,” who is also called Ben-abinadab, married Solomon’s daughter Taphath, and was assigned to provide food for Solomon’s household one month out of the year from all the mountain ridge of Dor.—1 Ki. 4:7, 11.

ABINOAM

(A·binʹo·am) [father of pleasantness].

The father of Judge Barak, and a descendant of Naphtali. He was evidently a resident of the refuge city of Kedesh in the territory of Naphtali.—Judg. 4:6, 12; 5:1, 12.

ABIRAM

(A·biʹram) [father of elevation, pride or lordliness; proud].

1. A Reubenite, the son of Eliab and brother of Dathan and Nemuel. He was a family head and one of the principal men in Israel at the time of the exodus from Egypt.—Num. 26:5-9.

Abiram and his brother Dathan supported Korah the Levite in his rebellion against the authority of Moses and Aaron. A third Reubenite, named On, is also included in the initial stage of the rebellion but thereafter receives no mention. (Num. 16:1) Having gathered a group of 250 chieftains, who were “men of fame,” these men accused Moses and Aaron of arbitrarily elevating themselves over the rest of the congregation. (Vss. 1-3) From Moses’ words to Korah it is clear that Korah and his followers among the Levites sought the priesthood that had been conferred on Aaron (Vss. 4-11); but this was evidently not the case with Abiram and Dathan, who were Reubenites. Moses dealt separately with them, and their rejection of his call for them to appear before him contains accusations directed solely against Moses with no mention made of Aaron. They decried Moses’ leadership of the nation and said that he was ‘trying to play the prince over them to the limit,’ and that he had failed in making good the promise of leading them into any land flowing with milk and honey. Moses’ prayer to Jehovah in answer to these accusations likewise contains a defense of his own actions, not those of Aaron.—Vss. 12-15.

From this it would appear that the rebellion was two-pronged and aimed not only at the Aaronic priesthood but also at Moses’ position as administrator of God’s instructions. (Ps. 106:16) The situation may have seemed opportune for organizing popular sentiment toward a change, since shortly before this the people had severely complained against Moses, had talked of appointing a new head to lead the nation back to Egypt, and had even talked of stoning Joshua and Caleb for upholding Moses and Aaron. (Num. 14:1-10) Reuben was Jacob’s firstborn son but lost his right to the inheritance as such because of wrong action. (1 Chron. 5:1) Thus, Dathan and Abiram may have been expressing resentment at Moses the Levite’s exercise of authority over them, because of desiring to regain the lost primacy of their forefather. Numbers 26:9, however, shows that their struggle was not only against Moses and Aaron but also “a struggle against Jehovah,” who had divinely commissioned Moses and Aaron to occupy positions of authority.

Since the family of the Kohathites (in which Korah’s family was included) encamped on the S side of the tabernacle, the same side as did the Reubenites, it is possible that Korah’s tent was nearby those of Dathan and Abiram. (Num. 2:10; 3:29) At the time of God’s expression of judgment, Dathan and Abiram stood at the entrances of their tents, while Korah and two hundred and fifty rebel supporters were gathered at the entrance of the tent of meeting with their incense holders in their hands. Then, following Moses’ call to the rest of the people to withdraw from around the tents of the three ringleaders of the rebellion, God manifested his condemnation of their disrespectful course by causing the ground to open up beneath the tents of these men, swallowing up Dathan and Abiram, and their households. (Num. 16:16-35; Deut. 11:6; Ps. 106:17) Korah’s household, with the exception of his sons, likewise perished. Korah himself died with the two hundred and fifty rebels, destroyed by fire before the tabernacle. (Num. 16:35; 26:10, 11) Thus the rebellion against divinely assigned authority came to a swift termination and, for his share in it, Abiram’s name was wiped out of Israel.

2. The firstborn son of Hiel the Bethelite. At Joshua 6:26 Joshua’s oath is recorded concerning the destroyed city of Jericho, foretelling that whoever should rebuild it would do so at the loss of his firstborn son. Abiram’s father Hiel, ignored this oath and, during the reign of King Ahab (940-919 B.C.E.) some five centuries after Joshua’s time, he laid Jericho’s foundations. Abiram, his son, died, evidently prematurely as a historically recorded fulfillment of the prophecy.—1 Ki. 16:34.

ABISHAG

(Abʹi·shag) [father of error or levity].

A young virgin from the town of Shunem, N of Jezreel and Mount Gilboa, in the territory of Issachar. (Josh. 19:17-23) She was “beautiful in the extreme,” and was chosen by David’s servants to become the nurse and companion of the king during his final days. (1 Ki. 1:1-4) David was now about seventy years of age (2 Sam. 5:4, 5), and the rigors of his eventful life had evidently left him greatly debilitated so that he had little body heat. Abishag waited on him during the day, doubtless brightening the surroundings with her youthful freshness and beauty and at night she ‘lay in the king’s bosom’ to give him warmth, but “the king himself had no intercourse with her.” Nevertheless, the attitude later manifested by Solomon regarding her indicates that Abishag was viewed as being in the position of wife or concubine of David. As such, by ancient custom, she would become the property of David’s heir at the time of his death.

The account concerning Abishag directly precedes the account of the attempt at gaining the crown by the one who was probably David’s oldest surviving son, Adonijah, and would seem to be so placed to give understanding to Adonijah’s subsequent action during Solomon’s reign. Solomon, after ascending the throne, had placed Adonijah on conditional pardon. Now Adonijah persuaded Solomon’s mother, Bath-sheba, to ask Solomon to give him Abishag as his wife. Solomon, convinced that Adonijah’s request was not due alone to Abishag’s beauty but, rather, indicated a subtle effort to strengthen Adonijah’s claim to the throne, reacted angrily, revoked Adonijah’s pardon and ordered his death. (1 Ki. 2:13-25) No further mention is made of Abishag, but it is probable that she continued as one of Solomon’s wives.—See ADONIJAH No. 1.

ABISHAI

(A·bishʹai) [my father is Jesse, father of a gift, i.e., probably, generous].

The son of David’s sister Zeruiah and brother of Joab and Asahel. (2 Sam. 2:18; 1 Chron. 2:15, 16) Abishai came to be more distinguished for his prowess than the thirty mighty warriors over whom he served as chief, his reputation even rivaling those of David’s three most mighty men, for he once struck down 300 of the enemy single-handed, but “to the rank of the first three he did not come.”—2 Sam. 23:18, 19.

Abishai loyally supported his uncle David in all his military campaigns, but tended to be impulsive and ruthless, and, on occasions had to be restrained. For example, when he and David stole into Saul’s military camp by night he would have pinned sleeping Saul, the “anointed of Jehovah,” to the earth with Saul’s own spear had not David restrained him. (1 Sam. 26:6-9) When Absalom rebelled, Abishai had to be held back twice from beheading king-cursing Shimei. However, David was not able to prevent Abishai from collaborating in the death of Abner.—2 Sam. 3:30; 16:9-11; 19:21-23.

Abishai was noted for his taking the lead in striking down 18,000 Edomites and, again, in leading in the rout of the Ammonites. He also cooperated in putting down the rebellion of Sheba, a good-for-nothing Benjaminite. In David’s last recorded battle had it not been for Abishai, he would have lost his life at the hand of an overtowering Philistine.—1 Chron. 18:12; 19:11-15; 2 Sam. 20:1, 6; 21:15-17.

ABISHALOM

See ABSALOM.

ABISHUA

(Ab·i·shuʹa) [father of safety or welfare].

1. A Benjamite of the family of Bela. (1 Chron. 8:1-4) Though he appears to be a son of Bela, the variance between the accounts at Numbers 26:40, 1 Chronicles 7:7, and 1 Chronicles 8:1-4 cause some to believe the word “sons” may mean, rather, “descendants.”

2. The son of Phinehas and a great-grandson of Aaron. He was the father of Bukki. (1 Chron. 6:4, 5, 50, 51) At Ezra 7:1-5 he is shown to have been one of Ezra’s forefathers. Josephus (Antiquities of the Jews, Book V, chap. XI, par. 5; Book VIII, chap. I, par. 3) refers to Abishua (called Abiezer in Book V) as the high priest, which, if accepted, would make him the fourth high priest of Israel. This would harmonize with Jehovah’s promise made to Abishua’s father, Phinehas, that the priesthood would remain in his family.—Num. 25:11-13.

ABISHUR

(A·biʹshur) [the father is a wall].

A descendant of Judah through the family line of Hezron, of the house of Jerahmeel. He was evidently the second son of Shammai and became the father of two sons by his wife Abihail.—1 Chron. 2:28, 29.

ABITAL

(A·biʹtal) [the father is dew].

One of six wives through whom David had sons during the seven and a half years he reigned in Hebron (1077-1070 B.C.E.). Her son was named Shephatiah.—2 Sam. 3:4; 1 Chron. 3:3.

ABITUB

(A·biʹtub) [the father is goodness; or, father of goodness].

A Benjamite, evidently the son of Shaharaim by his wife Hushim. (1 Chron. 8:8, 11)