Hebrew word · H27

אֲבִידָן

'avidan

Abidan

Made of ʾāḇ, "father", with the connecting vowel -î (which may also mean "my"), and dān, from the verb dîn, "to judge, to plead someone's case, to vindicate". So: "my Father is judge" or "(my) Father has judged / vindicated".

Appears 5 times in 5 verses of the Hebrew Old Testament. ·

What it means

A man living at the time of Egypt and Wilderness, first mentioned at Num.1.11;

son of: Gideoni (H1441)

§ Abidan = "my father is judge"

a prince (ruler) of Benjamin

Abridged from Brown, Driver and Briggs, A Hebrew and English Lexicon of the Old Testament (1906), via STEPBible.org (CC BY 4.0).

In depth

From the study of Numbers 1:11

Range of meaning

Made of ʾāḇ, "father", with the connecting vowel -î (which may also mean "my"), and dān, from the verb dîn, "to judge, to plead someone's case, to vindicate". So: "my Father is judge" or "(my) Father has judged / vindicated".

Against the English

Every English version transliterates it as "Abidan". Nothing is mistranslated. The meaning is simply hidden from readers without Hebrew.

Used elsewhere in the period

Found only in Numbers, always for this same Benjamite chief: 1:11; 2:22 (head of Benjamin's camp, west of the tabernacle under Ephraim's banner); 7:60, 65 (he brings Benjamin's dedication offering on the ninth day); 10:24 (he leads Benjamin's division on the march). The same root appears in Dan ("God has judged me", Genesis 30:6) and Daniel ("God is my judge"). Names built on "father" (Abiel, Abiram, Abijah) are common in the ancient Near East. Studies of personal names such as Noth's often take "father" in these names to refer to God as the family's divine kinsman, though a human or ancestral father can't be ruled out.

Where it appears

Numbers · 5

  1. Numbers 1:11 אֲבִידָ֖ן Abidan

    from Benjamin, Abidan son of Gideoni;

    Here: The personal name of Benjamin's appointed chief. It probably means "my Father judges" or "my Father has vindicated". Here it names the man who will stand with Moses and Aaron to oversee Benjamin's count.

  2. Numbers 2:22 אֲבִידָ֖ן [was] Abidan

    Next will be the tribe of Benjamin. The leader of the Benjamites is Abidan son of Gideoni,

  3. Numbers 7:60 אֲבִידָ֖ן Abidan

    On the ninth day Abidan son of Gideoni, the leader of the Benjamites, drew near.

  4. Numbers 7:65 אֲבִידָ֖ן Abidan

    and a peace offering of two oxen, five rams, five male goats, and five male lambs a year old. This was the offering of Abidan son of Gideoni.

  5. Numbers 10:24 אֲבִידָ֖ן Abidan

    and Abidan son of Gideoni was over the division of the tribe of Benjamin.

Word data: STEPBible.org (CC BY 4.0), main text only.