The Philistines play an outsized role in Jewish history, from the times of the Patriarchs down to the era of King David, and it all starts with their king, Abimelech, and his interactions with Abraham and Sarah, and (either his or his son’s1) with Isaac and Rebecca. In particular, Abimelech’s treaties with the Patriarchs continued to have aftereffects centuries later. Who was this king, and how did he become so significant? Read on to see how he is treated in Scripture and the writings of the sages.
Name and Nation
The name Abimelech (אֲבִימֶלֶךְ Avimelech) literally means “father-king,” and seems to have been the hereditary title of the Philistine monarchs.2 (We later find it borne by Jews as well: a son of Gideon who forced his way to the throne,3 and a High Priest.4)
The original Philistine nation sprang from an amalgamation between two Egyptian tribes, the Pathrusim and Casluhim.5 In the Patriarchal era they seem to have been largely a pastoral people, with their capital at the inland town of Gerar,6 while beginning from the era of Joshua we find them as a warlike nation, with their main center of power being a council of five lords (seranim)7 each of whom ruled one of their main cities, located along the coast from Gaza to Ashdod and further inland.8 The centuries between had in fact seen a population replacement, with invaders from Caphtor (a Mediterranean island9 or coastal area10) subduing the Philistines11 and assuming their ethnic name.
Abimelech’s First Encounter With Abraham and Sarah
Abimelech is introduced into the Torah’s narrative without preamble, when he takes Sarah to his palace. So let us first explore the background to this event.
Today, we take it almost as a given that newcomers are to be treated hospitably and fairly. This is one of the many aspects of Western civilization traceable to Judaism.12 In Philistia, as in other pagan societies of that time, strangers from outside one’s clan were often exposed to mistreatment,13 and the husband of a beautiful woman still more so: any of the locals might well kill the husband and force his widow into marriage with them.
Abraham, well aware of this possibility, had developed a counter-strategy: anytime he and Sarah arrived in a new location, she presented herself as Abraham’s sister, so that any prospective suitor would have to negotiate with him for her hand, thus buying precious time.14 Along with this, Abraham worked to change the culture, teaching people wherever he went that their first question to newly arrived guests should be whether they need food and supplies, not about a woman’s marital status.15
The first time that Abraham and Sarah (at that time Abram and Sarai) claimed to be brother and sister was in Egypt, where it was the king himself, Pharaoh, who had Sarai brought to his palace. G‑d struck him with severe plagues until he had no choice but to return her to her husband.16
A quarter-century later, Abraham and Sarah were temporarily17 residing near Gerar, and while the locals seemed to be more honorable people, Abraham realized that their morality was entirely subjective and hence could be easily subverted by temptation—in short, that “there is no fear of G‑d18 in this place.”19 If any evidence was needed, it came when their first, inappropriate, question was about whether Sarah was married,20 which would not occur to a truly G‑d-fearing nation to even ask.21
And so Abraham again found it necessary to present her as his sister, despite her misgivings;22 her servants and other household staff followed suit.23
King Abimelech thus heard about Sarah (still beautiful at 89 years old24) and her apparently unmarried status, and abducted her—though unlike his Egyptian counterpart, he immediately crowned her as his queen,25 and may have even been motivated by a wish to be related by marriage to the righteous Abraham.26
Nonetheless, G‑d promptly intervened on Sarah’s behalf, striking Abimelech and his entire entourage with a disease that completely blocked all of their procreative or excretory organs; “Even a hen in Abimelech’s household could not lay an egg.”27 Abimelech himself attempted to grope Sarah28 and was struck by leprosy.29
However, since Abimelech and his people were, in comparison to the Egyptians, decent people,30 G‑d then sent Abimelech a dream31 in which He warned him to set things right.32 He was told that he must return Sarah to Abraham immediately and beg Abraham to pray for him, or face death for the double crimes of adultery and kidnapping.33
While Abimelech tried to argue that he had acted in innocence, genuinely believing Sarah to be unmarried and simply following the accepted practice of kings at that time,34 G‑d sternly called him a fool for not being satisfied with what he already had,35 informed him that ignorance of the law is no excuse (especially in view of Abraham’s campaign to change the culture, as above),36 and reminded him that Abraham was a prophet and would know that Abimelech had not in fact violated Sarah.37
The next morning, when Abimelech related his dream to his ministers, they all had good reason to be afraid, realizing that they might suffer the same fate as the recently destroyed Sodom.38
And so, Abimelech called for Abraham, at first angrily accusing him of deceit, but then catching himself and asking more respectfully why Abraham had misled him,39 to which Abraham explained himself as above. After returning Sarah to her husband, Abimelech compensated Abraham with rich gifts, including giving him his own daughter as a maidservant40—thus making it clear that he had not simply abused Sarah and dismissed her.41 As for Sarah herself, he offered her a royal garment so that in the future that robe, rather than her beauty, would draw attention,42 though in this, too, he had an ulterior motive: to drive a wedge between her and Abraham by drawing attention to his generosity towards her.43 In addition, he blamed her for “covering his eyes” to the truth and hoped that her future children would suffer from such an ailment—and decades later, when her son Isaac went blind in his old age,44 Abimelech’s curse was one of the contributing factors.45
Finally, Abimelech pointed out to Sarah that it would be best if she and Abraham stop the subterfuge of presenting themselves as siblings: it had proven to be counterproductive46 and, in view of the publicity engendered by the entire affair, was no longer necessary.47
Further Dealings With Abraham
Unlike Pharaoh, who had directed Abram and Sarai to leave his country after her abduction and safe return,48 Abimelech now invited them to settle in his land.49 A relevant factor was that, as above, in his estimation his people were better behaved than the Egyptians; another was that Abimelech recognized the value of having the righteous Abraham as his neighbor.50
Abraham accepted the offer, but, seeing in the Philistine psyche a strong tendency towards leitzanut (mockery and scorn of things that ought to be taken seriously),51 he preferred to settle in an outlying area.52 Abraham and Sarah went on to live there for 26 years.53
Shortly after settling in Abimelech’s land, their son Isaac was born. With Sarah and Abraham having been childless for so many years, and her bearing a child only after her abduction by Abimelech, tongues began to wag (an example of leitzanut) with rumors that the father was not Abraham but Abimelech. G‑d quelled these rumors by making Isaac’s facial features closely resemble those of Abraham.54 (Among the actual reasons for Sarah’s becoming pregnant at this juncture was that Abraham had forgiven Abimelech and prayed for his family to regain their normal bodily functions, including procreation, and “when one is in need of something, and he prays on behalf of someone else [who needs the same], he is answered [by G‑d] first.”55)
Abimelech was one of the honored guests56 at the celebratory feast that Abraham held in honor of Isaac’s birth.57
The Covenant
Not long afterwards, Abimelech paid Abraham a state visit, this time accompanied by Phicol,58 his top general. They realized that with Abraham now having an heir (Isaac), the Divine promise that his descendants would possess the Land of Israel would in fact eventually come to pass,59 and they wished to set up a non-aggression pact: in consideration of the Philistines’ hospitality towards Abraham, he would swear that his descendants would leave the Philistines, down to Abimelech’s grandchildren, unharmed.60
Abraham agreed in principle, but first had to point out that Abimelech and his men had not in fact treated him quite so hospitably:61 they had illegally seized control of a well that Abraham had previously dug (and Abraham’s earlier report of this to Abimelech had been disregarded62). And so, said Abraham, it would be only fair that Abimelech make the deal a reciprocal one, by swearing that he and his retainers would no longer harass Abraham.63 Much like the earlier episode with Sarah, Abimelech disclaimed any knowledge of the entire matter, and tried to shift the blame: (to Abraham) “I do not know who did this,” (to Phicol) “and you did not inform me,” (Phicol’s response) “I have heard of it only today.”64
With the Philistines continuing to claim that the well belonged to them, Abraham’s herdsmen proposed a test: they and their Philistine counterparts would each bring a flock of animals to the well, and G‑d would demonstrate its true ownership by causing the water to rise for the herds of the rightful owner. Sure enough, the water rose for Abraham’s sheep.65 To seal their agreement, Abraham gave seven of those sheep to Abimelech—seven being considered a sacred number in both Judaism (for the seven days of Creation) and in contemporary society (as the number of wandering heavenly bodies),66 and they declared their respective oaths. Afterwards Abimelech traveled throughout Philistia to inform the public of the covenant.67 The well itself (and later the city that grew up in the area68) was named Be’er Sheva (Beersheba), meaning both “well of the oath” and “well of the seven.”69
G‑d, however, viewed their pact with displeasure, since Abraham ought to have first consulted with Him.70 This had fateful consequences in later Jewish history when the Philistines (in flagrant disregard of their side of the covenant) subjugated the Jewish people, bringing about the deaths of seven of their great leaders,71 and capturing the Ark of the Covenant and holding on to it for seven months.72
Abimelech, Isaac, and Rebecca
Eventually, Abraham moved away from the Gerar-Beersheba area, lived his final decades in Hebron, and passed away at age 175. The Philistines, making the excuse that the wells that Abraham had dug (and even named) could be exploited by invading armies,73 filled the wells with earth. Their real intention was to erase any memory of Abraham, including the Seven Noahide Laws that he had taught during his stay there.74
What happened with Abimelech in the interim is uncertain, though one source says that he died and was succeeded by his son Nimloch, who assumed the regnal name Abimelech.75
Years later, with the Land of Israel gripped by famine, Isaac intended (as his father Abraham had done) to relocate to Egypt, the breadbasket of the region. G‑d, however, instructed him to remain in the Land, and so he settled in Gerar. The people there were still asking the same prying questions about Rebecca as they had about Sarah, though at least they seem to have learned their lesson and did not actually try to molest her.76 Nonetheless, Isaac, not wanting to rely on miracles,77 found it expedient to use the same stratagem as his father had, and to claim that Rebecca was his sister. This time, like his subjects, Abimelech—whether still the same one as in Abraham’s times, or his successor—was also more circumspect, and made no attempt to take Rebecca.
Eventually, Abimelech discovered—some say using sorcery78—that they were husband and wife. As with Abraham, Abimelech remonstrated with Isaac for having deceived him, yet this entire affair resulted in Isaac receiving greater honor, with Abimelech issuing an edict to his people not to meddle with Isaac or Rebecca at all.79 At the same time, it seems that he also continued to bear a grudge against them, suggesting that the Philistines institute an economic boycott against Isaac.80
At any rate, Isaac remained in Gerar and took up farming, at which he was spectacularly successful and had a bumper crop (despite this being a year of drought, and the area itself less fertile than the Land of Israel proper81), while the Philistine farmers, meanwhile, were having quite a poor harvest.82 While some of them admired Isaac and started saying that the manure from Isaac’s mules was worth more to them than Abimelech’s silver or gold, others—including Abimelech himself—took up the classic antisemitic canard that he was enriching himself at their expense.83 While Abimelech refrained from taking the extreme step of confiscating Isaac’s wealth,84 he ordered Isaac and his family to leave the area.
And so they relocated to the Valley of Gerar, which, despite its name, was some distance from the capital.85 Isaac had to endure several more clashes with the Philistines over wells that he had dug, and eventually moved to more distant Beersheba. On the one hand, it was a larger city, where he would have more opportunity to spread the message of One G‑d;86 on the other, it showed that Isaac had had enough of the Philistines and was no longer interested in living among them at all.87
Abimelech, meanwhile, had been having a rough time of it: his own palace had been raided by bandits, who had personally threatened him, and he was suffering from a skin ailment too,88 all of which he saw as Divine punishment for his treatment of Isaac. Having already violated his side of the earlier covenant with Abraham by driving Isaac away, he had good reason to be concerned that Isaac might reciprocate and attack him, and so wished to reaffirm it with a more solemn oath.89 He was also concerned that the earlier covenant with Abraham might contain legal loopholes.90 And so he, again accompanied by Phicol and this time also by a group of his friends, came to Isaac with the rather hypocritical claim that they had “sent him off in peace” without actually harming him, pointing out that Isaac had actually gained greatly by his stay in Philistia.91
Isaac may have decided that they had a point,92 or on the contrary, he may have thought that their argument was nonsensical but did not want to bother arguing with them.93 He hosted them hospitably and invited them to stay overnight. In the morning Isaac and Abimelech reaffirmed the non-aggression treaty, with Isaac giving a tangible sign of his commitment—a piece of his donkey’s bridle.94
With this, Abimelech disappears from the Torah’s narrative.
Later Repercussions
The Philistines of Abraham and Isaac’s times were eventually conquered by Mediterranean invaders. Some of the original people remained, as a distinct element in the population.95 At some point, a descendant of Abimelech named Jebus moved to Jerusalem and founded a colony there, with his descendants taking the name Jebusites.96
Some of Abimelech’s grandchildren turned out to be quite long-lived. At least one of them lived in Philistia, and so during the Exodus, G‑d refrained from having the Israelites—descendants of Abraham and Isaac—pass through that area,97 in keeping with the treaty.98 Others of Abimelech’s descendants lived in Jerusalem, and so when the tribes of Judah and Benjamin, whose assigned portions of the Land were straddled by that city, conquered parts of Jerusalem, they left the Jebusite colony alone.99 In Philistia proper, the Judahites took control of the Philistine towns of Gaza, Ashkelon, and Ekron,100 making the inhabitants tributary to them, but—again honoring the covenant—not displacing them as they had done with the Canaanites.101
With time the Philistines gained power, and eventually began to menace the tribes of Israel. By the time of Samson, some 700 years after Abraham and Isaac’s era, it could quite well be said that the Philistines had broken their part of the oath and that the Jews were fully in the right to attack them,102 as indeed Samson did repeatedly.103 The Philistines did maintain a degree of respect for the Israelites, and generally did not act too overbearingly towards them; thus when they pursued Samson into the territory of Judah, they negotiated with them to hand over Samson rather than invading and capturing him themselves.104
By the time of King David, Abimelech’s grandchildren were long gone, yet both the Philistines and the Jebusites continued to claim that the treaties were still in effect. The Philistines, with their capital at Gath, still held on to the piece of the bridle that Isaac had given them. The Jebusites had carved the texts of the treaties onto brass statues of blind and lame people105 (representing, respectively, the children of the Patriarchs who had made the covenant: Isaac, who had become blind in his old age,106 and Jacob, who limped after his contest with an angel107), and taunted David that he was thus precluded from even entering the city. David would have none of that, especially in view of the Philistines’/Jebusites’ repeated perfidy, and wrested both cities from them, destroying those idols and retaking the bridle.108
And with that ends the legacy of Abimelech, a complex figure who describes himself as “righteous”109 and to whom G‑d concedes that he had acted “with innocence of heart,”110 but whose actions, as we have seen, did not comport with even basic morality. He and his people serve as an object lesson that good intentions are not enough; there is an objective standard of Divine morality to which all must hew.111
