Abimael

Smith's Bible Dictionary

Abim'a-el. (father of Mael). A descendant of Joktan,  Genesis 10:28;  1 Chronicles 1:22, and probably the progenitor of an Arab tribe (Mali).

Hastings' Dictionary of the Bible

Abimael (perhaps = ‘father is God’). One of the Joktanids or S. Arabians (see art. Joktan),   Genesis 10:28 (J [Note: Jahwist.] ),   1 Chronicles 1:22 .

Fausset's Bible Dictionary

Descendant of Joktan ( Genesis 10:28;  1 Chronicles 1:22). The name is preserved in Μali in Arabia Aromatifera (Theophrastus).

Morrish Bible Dictionary

Descendant of Joktan.  Genesis 10:28;  1 Chronicles 1:22 .

Easton's Bible Dictionary

 Genesis 10:28 1 Chronicles 1:22

Holman Bible Dictionary

 Genesis 10:28

Cyclopedia of Biblical, Theological and Ecclesiastical Literature

(Heb. Abimael', אֲבַימָאֵל , father of Mael; Sept. Ἀβιμαέλ, Ἀβιμιεήλ , Josephus Ἀβιμάηλος), one of the sons of Joktan in Arabia ( Genesis 10:28;  1 Chronicles 1:22). B.C. post 2414. (See Arabia). He was probably the father or founder of an Arabian tribe called Maal (מָאֵל, of unknown origin), a trace of which Bochart (Phaleg, 2:24) discovers in Theophrastus (Hist. Plant. 9:4), where the name Mali (Μάλι ) occurs as that of a spice-bearing region. Perhaps the same is indicated in Eratosthenes (ap. Strabo, 16:1112) and Eustathius (ad Dionys. Periegetes, p. 288, ed. Bernhardy) by the Mincei (Μειναῖ oi). So Diodorus Siculus (3, 42); but Ptolemy (6:7) distinguishes the Manitae (Μανῖται ) from these, and at the same time refers to a village called Manialia (Μάμαλα κώμη) on the shore of the Red Sea. Hence Schneider proposes to read Mamali (Μαμάλι ) in the above passage of Theophrastus; perhaps we should rather read Mani (Μάνι ), a natural interchange of liquids; and then we may compare a place mentioned by Abulfeda (Arabia, ed. Gaguier, p. 3, 42), called Mlinay, 3 miles from Mecca (Michaelis, Spicileg. 2:179 sq.).

International Standard Bible Encyclopedia

a -bim´a -el , ab -i -mā´el ( אבימאל , 'ăbhı̄mā'ēl , "my father is God," or "God is father"): The ninth of the thirteen sons of Joktan, who was descendant of Shem, and son of Eber, and brother of Peleg in whose days the earth was divided ( Genesis 10:25-29;  1 Chronicles 1:19-23 ). Like some of the other names in this list, the name is linguistically south Arabian, and the tribes indicated are south Arabians. On the Arabic elements in Hebrew proper names see Halévy, Mélanges d'épigraphie et d'archéologie sémitiques  ; Zdmg , especially early in 1883; D. H. Müller, Epigraphie Denkmaler aus Arabien  ; Glaser, Skizze der Gesch. und Geog. Arabiens  ; and by index Hommel, Ancient Hebrew Tradition  ; and Gray, Hebrew Proper Names  ; and F. Giesebrecht, Die alttestamentliche Schatzung des Gottesnamens .