Adriel
A'driel (Heb. Adriel',עדרַיאֵל, flock of God; Sept. Α᾿δριήλ, Ε᾿δριήλ), a son of Barzillai the Meholathite. Saul gave him in marriage his daughter Merab, who had been originally promised to David (1Sa 18:19), B.C. cir. 1062. The five sons sprung from this union were taken to make up the number of Saul's descendants, whose lives, on the principle of blood- revenge, were required by the Gibeonites to avenge the cruelties which Saul had exercised toward their race (2Sa 21:8). SEE GIBEONITE. In this passage the name of Michal occurs as the mother of these sons of Adriel; but as it is known that Merab was the wife of Adriel, and that Michal never had any children (2Sa 6:23), there only remains the alternative of supposing either that Michal's name has been substituted for Merab's by some ancient copyist, or that the word which properly means bare (י3לדָה, yaledah', Sept. ἔτεκε, Vulg. genuerat) should be rendered brought up or educated, as in the Auth. Vers. after the Targum. The Jewish writers conclude that Merab died early, and that Michal adopted her sister's children, and brought them up for Adriel (Bab. Talm. Sanhed. 19, 2); but the word י3לדָה will not bear this interpretation. — Kitto, s.v. See MICHAL.
