Gideon Gideon Gideon () or Gedeon, also named Jerubbaal, and Jerubbesheth, was a military leader, judge and prophet whose calling and victory over the Midianites are recounted in chapters 6 to 8 of the Book of Judges in the Hebrew Bible. Gideon was the son of Joash, from the Abiezrite clan in the tribe of Manasseh and lived in Ephra (Ophrah). As a leader of the Israelites, he won a decisive victory over a Midianite army despite a vast numerical disadvantage, leading a troop of 300 'valiant' men. The nineteenth-century Strong's Concordance derives the name "Jerubbaal" from "Baal will contend", in
Abimelech (Judges) Abimelech (Judges) Abimelech (; אֲבִימֶלֶךְ "’Ǎḇîmeleḵ") was a son of judge Gideon. His name can best be interpreted "my father is king", claiming the inherited right to rule. He is introduced in as the son of Gideon and his Shechemite concubine, and the biblical account of his reign is described in chapter nine of the Book of Judges. According to the Bible, he was an unprincipled, ambitious ruler, often engaged in war with his own subjects. According to the Book of Judges, Abimelech went to Shechem to meet with his mother's brethren and his mother's father, and claimed that he