Phichol

Biblical Record

Phichol is mentioned only three times, all in Genesis. In each instance he appears alongside Abimelech, king of Gerar, and bears the title "chief captain of his host," that is, the commander of the army. Scripture records no words or actions of Phichol apart from Abimelech, and it gives no information about his family, origins, or life.

• The covenant with Abraham (Genesis 21:22-32): Abimelech and Phichol came to Abraham and said, "God is with thee in all that thou doest," asking him to swear that he would not deal falsely with them. Abraham raised the matter of a well that Abimelech's servants had seized, and he gave seven ewe lambs as a witness that he had dug that well. The two men made a covenant at Beersheba (meaning "well of the oath"), after which Abimelech and Phichol returned to the land of the Philistines.
• The covenant with Isaac (Genesis 26:26-31): After Isaac had quarreled with the people of Gerar over wells and moved to Beersheba, Abimelech came to him with his friend Ahuzzath and Phichol, the chief captain of his army. When Isaac asked why they had come, since they had hated him and sent him away, they replied that they had seen that the LORD was with him and proposed a covenant. Isaac prepared a feast for them, and early the next morning they swore an oath to one another, and he sent them away in peace.

Significance Within Scripture

As the military commander of a foreign king, Phichol stands as a kind of witness in scenes where even Gentiles recognized that God was with the patriarchs. Some interpreters suggest that the presence of the army commander indicates that these covenants were not merely personal agreements but political and military pacts of nonaggression. Phichol is not mentioned in the New Testament.

Interpretation and Points of Discussion

• The same individual?: At least several decades pass between the events of chapter 21 and those of chapter 26. For this reason, some interpreters regard the Abimelech and Phichol of the two accounts as the same individuals, while others regard them as different people. Those who hold the latter view point to the possibility that "Abimelech" and "Phichol" were titles or family names passed down through generations, citing the superscription of Psalm 34, which calls Achish king of Gath "Abimelech." Some critical scholars regard the two narratives as variant forms of a single tradition.
• The term "Philistines": Archaeologists generally date the Philistine settlement of the Canaanite coast later than the patriarchal period. Accordingly, some hold that the term is an anachronism reflecting a later geographical designation, while others maintain that it refers to an earlier group of seafaring people.
• Meaning of the name: The etymology of "Phichol" is uncertain. It has been suggested that it may be a non-Semitic, foreign name, but there is no consensus.

In the Korean Church

Phichol himself is rarely the subject of sermons or Sunday school lessons. He is usually mentioned in passing in discussions of the covenants at Beersheba that Abraham and Isaac made with a foreign king, or of the story of Isaac's wells. The words of Genesis 21:22, "God is with thee," are often quoted in sermons on how a life lived with God becomes evident to one's neighbors.