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Bible Dictionaries
Adriel
Fausset's Bible Dictionary
or Son of Barzillai the Meholathite, to whom Saul gave Merab his daughter in marriage, previously promised to David (1 Samuel 18:19). Five sons from this union were of the seven slain as a blood satisfaction to the Gibeonites whose blood Saul had, in violation of Israel's covenant (Joshua 9:15), shed. 2 Samuel 21:8; "Michal brought up for Adriel:" namely, Merab the mother died young, and her sister brought up her five nephews, as if she were their own mother. The Jewish targums favor this view. But as the Hebrew yalad means to bring forth or bear children, and Michal seems to have had no children (2 Samuel 6:23), perhaps Michal is a transcriber's error for Merab. Still the term "bare" (margin) may mark how completely Michal, evidently a woman of strong affections (1 Samuel 19:11-12; 2 Samuel 3:16), acted as a true mother to them.
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Fausset, Andrew R. Entry for 'Adriel'. Fausset's Bible Dictionary. https://www.studylight.org/dictionaries/eng/fbd/a/adriel.html. 1949.
