Bible Person

Ebed

Meaning: a servant; laborer · Male · 5 cross references

Ebed is remembered as the father of Gaal in the Shechem rebellion against Abimelech. His own role is indirect, but his name remains attached to one of Judges' most unstable local uprisings. First appears in Judg 9:26.1

AI summary: Ebed matters because the cross references preserve him as the named father behind Gaal's attempt to seize influence in Shechem. In a chapter already full of opportunism and violent ambition, even this brief patronymic helps locate Gaal within a remembered family identity. Ebed himself does not act, but his name stands inside the social texture of the revolt. Taken together, the material presents Ebed as a minor ancestral figure tied to the Shechemite unrest in Judges.1

Central Figure

Ebed

Meaning: a servant; laborer

Slave, the father of Gaal, in whom the men of Shechem “put confidence” in their conspiracy against Abimelech (Judg.