One other person, place or group in the registry answers to the name Ebed. Every Ebed in the Bible
- verses
- 5
- first named
- Judges 9:26
- last named
- Judges 9:35
- period
- before Israel's Monarchy
- role
- Man
Description
Who was Ebed?
Ebed is mentioned in the book of Judges as the father of Gaal, a man who opposed Abimelech's rule over Shechem. Abimelech was a son of Gideon, the judge who had delivered Israel from the Midianites.
After Gideon's death, Abimelech killed his seventy brothers and established himself as king over Shechem (Jdg.9.1-6). However, Gaal son of Ebed arrived in Shechem and gained the trust of the people (Jdg.9.26). Gaal openly challenged Abimelech's authority, questioning his claim to rule over the city (Jdg.9.28).
When Zebul, the ruler of the city and a supporter of Abimelech, heard of Gaal's words, he sent messengers to warn Abimelech (Jdg.9.30-31). Abimelech then devised a plan to attack the city and confront Gaal and his followers (Jdg.9.32-33).
In the ensuing battle, Abimelech defeated Gaal and his supporters, driving them out of the city (Jdg.9.35-41). Abimelech later destroyed the city and sowed it with salt, symbolizing its complete destruction (Jdg.9.45).
While Ebed himself is not mentioned beyond being identified as Gaal's father, his son's actions played a significant role in the narrative of Abimelech's reign and downfall. The story of Gaal's rebellion highlights the tensions and power struggles that existed during the period of the judges, as well as the consequences of Abimelech's ruthless ambition.
Relations
Direct connections
Every entity the graph places in a stated relation with this one, grouped by the kind of link. Each relation is authored once and its inverse derived, so both ends always agree. Rows marked “registry” come from the identity spine rather than from a verse, and a row marked “which bearer is the source’s decision” is one where the name could have meant more than one person. The last group is not a relation at all — it counts the events two entities stand in together.
Father of
- GaalregistryJudges 9:26Judges 9:28Judges 9:30 +2
Places
Where this happens
A person is placed by the events they take part in, and an event has to clear three things to place them: it must say where it happened, that place must be one the gazetteer can put a coordinate on, and the verse must report it rather than foretell, command or ask it. Nothing anchored here clears all three. Where the text names a setting no gazetteer surveys — a vineyard, a palace, a plot of ground — it is left off rather than guessed at; where a place is named only in a prophecy, the map does not draw what was said to be coming as though it had happened; and a place reached only through a relation is not inherited, because standing beside somebody is not being somewhere.
No verse Atlas has read as a report puts this person anywhere.
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Where to read it
Every verse of the text carried here that names this entity — 5, across 1 book.
Onward
Where this page goes
Not the direct relations above — these are one hop further out, ranked so that a rare shared connection outweighs a common one.
Sources