BIBLE DICTIONARY + WORD STUDY
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How to read this: there is rarely one magic “true meaning” hidden behind an English word. A lexicon records a word’s semantic range. The intended meaning is narrowed by grammar, sentence, author, historical usage and context.
HEBREW / ARAMAIC · H5741
ad.ri.el — Adriel
A man living at the time of United Monarchy, first mentioned at 1Sa.18.19; son of: Barzillai (H1271H); married to Merab (H4764) § Adriel = "flock of God" son of Barzillai, and the man to whom Saul gave his daughter Merab in marriage although she was already promised to David
2 tagged verse occurrences · see every occurrence →Flock of God, the son of Barzillai, the Meholathite, to whom Saul gave in marriage his daughter Merab (1 Sam. 18:19). The five sons that sprang from this union were put to death by the Gibeonites (2 Sam. 21:8, 9. Here it is said that Michal “brought up” [R.V., “bare”] these five sons, either that she treated them as if she had been their own mother, or that for “Michal” we should read “Merab,” as in 1 Sam. 18:19).
Source: Easton’s Bible Dictionary (1897). Historical dictionary wording reflects the scholarship and language of its era.
Read the quoted verses in their chapters to evaluate the historical dictionary references.
But it came to pass at the time when Merab Saul’s daughter should have been given to David, that she was given unto Adriel the Meholathite to wife.
But the king took the two sons of Rizpah the daughter of Aiah, whom she bare unto Saul, Armoni and Mephibosheth; and the five sons of Michal the daughter of Saul, whom she brought up for Adriel the son of Barzillai the Meholathite:
And he delivered them into the hands of the Gibeonites, and they hanged them in the hill before the LORD: and they fell [all] seven together, and were put to death in the days of harvest, in the first [days], in the beginning of barley harvest.
