Abiezer

Abiezer (meaning father of help), the eldest son of Gilead and a descendant of Manasseh, gave his name to the Abiezrite clan that settled in the hill country of Ephraim during the Israelite conquest of Canaan. His lineage is recorded in Joshua 17:2 and 1 Chronicles 7:18 among the allotments given to the half-tribe of Manasseh west of the Jordan. The town of Ophrah in Abiezrite territory became the home of Joash son of Abiezer, and it was beneath the oak at Ophrah that the angel of the LORD called Joash's son Gideon to deliver Israel from Midianite oppression (Judges 6:11).

Abiezer's most lasting significance is as the ancestral clan of Gideon, one of Israel's greatest judges. When the Spirit of the LORD clothed Gideon, he mustered his own clan first: "the Abiezrites were called out to follow him" (Judges 6:34). The name also appears among David's mighty men — an Abiezrite named Abi-albon or Abiezer served among the thirty (2 Samuel 23:27; 1 Chronicles 27:12), indicating that the clan continued to produce notable warriors into the monarchic period.