Abimelech

Abimelech (meaning my father a king or father of a king) functioned as a dynastic or royal title among Philistine kings, analogous to Pharaoh in Egypt. Two distinct Philistine kings of Gerar bear this name in the patriarchal narratives: one who took Sarah into his household in the time of Abraham and was warned by God in a dream (Genesis 20), and another in the time of Isaac with whom a covenant was made at Beer-sheba (Genesis 26).

The name is also borne by Abimelech the son of Gideon by a Shechemite concubine, who murdered seventy of his brothers to seize rule over Israel and reigned three years before being fatally wounded by a millstone dropped by a woman at Thebez (Judges 9)—a cautionary account of illegitimate kingship. The superscription of Psalm 34 uses the name for the Philistine king with whom David sought refuge.