Gaal

Fausset's Bible Dictionary

Ebed's son. He emboldened the Shechemites to rebel against Abimelech ( Judges 9:26). "Gaal came with his brethren and went over to Shechem, and the lords of Shechem (Hebrew) put their confidence in him." He apparently was captain of a band of freebooters; and the Shechemites who were dissatisfied with Abimelech's rule hoped Gaal would help them against him. Already they had "set liers in wait for Abimelech in the tops of the mountains" (Ebal and Gerizim, between which Shechem was situated), who robbed all passers by. By organized robbery they brought Abimelech's government into discredit, and probably sought to waylay and kill himself. Gaal developed their brigandage into open revolt.

At the vintage ingathering feast they made praise offerings" ( Hillulim ), KJV made merry, margin songs; compare  Isaiah 15:9-10) of their fruits, which newly planted vineyards bore in the fourth year, eating and drinking in the house of their god Baal-berith ("Baal in covenant"), answering to Jehovah's feast ( Leviticus 19:2; Leviticus 19:3-35). At the feast Gaal said, "Who is Abimelech and who is Shechem that we should serve him? is not he son of Jerubbaal?" i.e., he is son of the man who pulled down Baal's altar at Shechem and restored Jehovah's worship, for which the Shechemites themselves had tried to slay him ( Judges 6:27-32). Who is "Zebul his officer"? explains the previous "who is Shechem?"

The might of Shechem does not consist in the might of Zebul its prefect, Abimelech's officer. To the one officer of Abimeleeh Gaal opposes, "serve the men of Hamor the father of Shechem " the patricians of the ancient line whom the Shechemites should serve; Humor was the Hivite prince who founded Shechem ( Genesis 33:19;  Genesis 34:2;  Joshua 24:32). The rebellion sought to combine the aboriginal Shechemites with the idolatrous Israelites against the anti-Baalite family of Gideon. Heated with wine Gaal vaunted that he, if made leader of the Shechemites, would soon overcome and "remove Abimelech."

Zebul, jealous of Gaal, privately (literally, with deceit, i.e. feigning assent to Gaal while planning his overthrow) sent information to Abimelech, who (margin,  Judges 9:37) came "by way of the wizards' terebinths," and "chased Gaal" in battle; and "Zebul thrust out him and his brethren that they should not dwell in Shechem." In  Judges 9:39 it is translated: "Gaal went out in the sight of the lords of Shechem," not at their head, but leading his own men; not until the "morrow" did the Shechemites go out. (For The Issue, See Abimelech.) We know no more of Gaal. Foolhardy boasting, which he failed to make good in action, was his fault.

Hastings' Dictionary of the Bible

GAAL , son of Ebed (  Judges 9:26 ff.), organized the rising against Abimelech by the discontented in Shechem. Zebul, Abimelech’s officer there, warned his master, who came with a strong force, and defeated the rebels under Gaal outside the city. Gaal and his brethren were driven out of Shechem, and terrible vengeance was taken upon the disaffected city. See Abimelech, 2.

W. Ewing.

American Tract Society Bible Dictionary

 Judges 9:26-41 , son of Ebed, perhaps a descendant of Hamor, the father of Shechem,  Genesis 34:2-6 . He joined the Shechemites when revolting against Aimelech, son of Gideon, inflamed their passions, and led them to battle, but was defeated, and excluded from the city.

People's Dictionary of the Bible

Gaal ( Gâ'Al ), Loathing, the son of Ebed, led a revolt against Abimelech, king or the Shechemites.  Judges 9:26-46. He was defeated and his partisans were scattered.

Morrish Bible Dictionary

Son of Ebed: he led the Shechemites against Abimelech.  Judges 9:26-41 .

Holman Bible Dictionary

 Judges 9:26-41

Easton's Bible Dictionary

 Judges 9:26-46

Cyclopedia of Biblical, Theological and Ecclesiastical Literature

(Heb. id. גִּעִל , Loathing; Sept. Γαάλ , Josephus Γαάλης ), son of Ebed ( Judges 9:26 sq.). He went to Shechem with his brothers when the inhabitants became discontented with Abimelech, and so engaged their confidence that they placed him at their head. He does not seem to have been a native of Shechem nor specially interested in the revolution, but rather one of a class of Condottieri, who at such a period of anarchy would be willing to sell their services to the highest bidder (compare Josephus, Ant. 5:7, 3 and 4). At the festival at which the Shechemites offered the first-fruits of their vintage in the temple of Baal, Gaal, by apparently drunken bravadoes, roused the valor of the people, and strove yet more to kindle their wrath against the absent Abimelech. It would seem as if the natives had been in some way intimately connected with, or descended from the original inhabitants; for Gaal endeavored to awaken their attachment to the ancient family of Hamor, the father of Shechem, which ruled the place in the time of Abraham ( Genesis 34:2;  Genesis 34:6), and which seems to have been at this time represented by Gaal and his brothers. This appeal to anteIsraelitish traditions ( Judges 9:28), together with the re-establishment of idolatry at Shechem, shows that the movement in which be took part was a reactionary one, and proceeded upon the principle of a combination of the aborigines with the idolatrous Israelites against the iconoclastic family of Gideon as represents ed by Abimtelech. Although deprived of Shechem the family appears to have maintained itself in some power in the neighborhood which induced the Shechemites to look to Gaal when they became tired of Abimelech. Whether he succeeded in awakening among them a kind feeling towards the dscendants of the ancient masters of the place does not appear; but eventually they went out under his command, and assisted doubtless by his men, to intercept and give battle to Abimelech when hue appeared before the town. He, however, fled before Abimelech, and his retreat into Shechem being cut off by Zebumi, the commandant of that place, he went to his home, and we hear of him no more. The account of this attempt is interesting, chiefly from the slight glimpse it affords of the position, at this period, of what had been one of the reigning families. of the Eland before its invasion by the Israelites. B.C. 1319. (See Abimelech).

Kitto's Popular Cyclopedia of Biblial Literature

Ga´al (miscarriage), son of Ebed. He went to Shechem with his brothers when the inhabitants became discontented with Abimelech, and so engaged their confidence that they placed him at their head. At the festival at which the Shechemites offered the first-fruits of their vintage in the temple of Baal, Gaal, by apparently drunken bravadoes, roused the valor of the people, and strove yet more to kindle their wrath against the absent Abimelech. It would seem as if the natives had been in some way intimately connected with, or descended from, the original inhabitants; for Gaal endeavored to awaken their attachment to the ancient family of Hamor, the father of Shechem, which ruled the place in the time of Abraham , and which seems to have been at this time represented by Gaal and his brothers. Although deprived of Shechem, the family appears to have maintained itself in some power in the neighborhood; which induced the Shechemites to look to Gaal when they became tired of Abimelech. Whether he succeeded in awakening among them a kind feeling towards the descendants of the ancient masters of the place does not appear; but eventually they went out under his command, and assisted doubtless by his men, to intercept and give battle to Abimelech, when he appeared before the town. He, however, fled before Abimelech, and his retreat into Shechem being cut off by Zebul, the commandant of that, place, he went to his home, and we hear of him no more. The account of this attempt is interesting, chiefly from the slight glimpse it affords of the position, at this period, of what had been one of the reigning families of the land before its invasion by the Israelites B.C. 1026.

International Standard Bible Encyclopedia

gā´al ( גּעל , ga‛al , "rejection," or "loathing"; according to Wellhausen, "beetle," HPN , 110): A man of whose antecedents nothing is known, except that his father's name was Ebed. He undertook to foment and lead a rebellion on the part of the inhabitants of Shechem against Abimelech, son of Gideon, and his rebellion failed (Jdg 9:26-45). See also Abimelech .