Adriel

Biblical Account

Adriel is named twice in the Bible, and both times he is introduced as "the son of Barzillai the Meholathite." No other deeds or words of his are recorded.

• 1 Samuel 18:17-19: Saul promised to give his elder daughter Merab to David on the condition that David fight against the Philistines. But when the time came for Merab to be given to David, Saul instead gave her as a wife to Adriel the Meholathite. The account that immediately follows tells how Saul's younger daughter Michal came to love David (1 Samuel 18:20).
• 2 Samuel 21:1-9: During David's reign there was a famine for three years. When its cause was revealed to be Saul's slaughter of the Gibeonites, David, at the Gibeonites' demand, handed over seven of Saul's descendants, whom the Gibeonites hanged. Five of the seven were Adriel's sons; the other two were sons whom Saul's concubine Rizpah had borne to him.

Significance within Scripture

Adriel is not the central figure of a story of his own; he appears in scenes that illustrate the relationship between Saul and David. In 1 Samuel he serves to show that Saul went back on his promise to David. In 2 Samuel his sons are among those caught up in the tragic end of Saul's house. Adriel is not mentioned in the New Testament. His Hebrew name is sometimes interpreted as meaning roughly "God is my help."

Interpretive Issues

• Michal or Merab?: The Masoretic Text of 2 Samuel 21:8 names the mother of Adriel's five sons as "Michal the daughter of Saul." Adriel's wife, however, was Merab (1 Samuel 18:19), and Michal is recorded as having had no child to the day of her death (2 Samuel 6:23). For this reason, some Hebrew manuscripts and some manuscripts of the Septuagint read "Merab" instead. Many scholars and modern translations likewise read Merab, and Korean translations are divided, some rendering the name as Michal and others as Merab. Jewish tradition (the Talmud) explains that Michal raised the sons of her sister Merab and was therefore called their mother, though the text itself does not say this.
• Two Barzillais: Adriel's father, "Barzillai the Meholathite," is generally regarded as a different person from "Barzillai the Gileadite," who aided David during Absalom's rebellion (2 Samuel 17:27; 19:31). Some scholars connect "Meholathite" with Abel-meholah, the hometown of Elisha, though this identification is not certain.
• Punishment of descendants: Interpreters differ on how to reconcile the events of 2 Samuel 21 with the law forbidding children to be put to death for the sins of their fathers (Deuteronomy 24:16).

In the Korean Church

Adriel is rarely treated on his own in sermons or Sunday school. He is generally mentioned only in passing, when explaining the passage in which Saul broke his marriage promise to David or the account of the famine and Rizpah in 2 Samuel 21.