MORTALITY.
GAAL (ga'al), (Heb. 17r4 gah'al, miscarriage, loathing), son of Ebed.
He went to Shcchem with his brothers when the inhabitants became discontented with Abim elech, and so engaged their confidence that they placed him at their head. At the festival at which the Shechemites offered the first-fruits of their vintage in the temple of Baal, Gaal, by apparently drunken bravadoes, roused the valor of the peo ple, and strove yet more to kindle their wrath against the absent Abimelech. It would seem as if the natives had been in some way intitnately connected with, or descended from, the original inhabitants; for Gaal endeavored to awaken their attachment to the ancient family of Hamor, the father of Shechem, which ruled the place in the time of Abraham (Gen. xxxiv :2, 6), and which seems to have been at this time represented by Gaal and his brothers. Although deprived of Shechem, the family appears to have maintained itself in some power in the neighborhood ; which induced the Shechemites to look to Gaal when thcy became tired of Abimelech. Whether lie suc
ceeded in awakening among them a kind feeling towards the descendants of the ancient masters of the place, does not appear ; but eventually they went out under his command, being assisted doubtless by his men, to intercept and give battle to Abimelech, when he appeared before the town. Gaal, however, fled before Abimelech, arid his re treat into Shechem being cut off by Zebu!, the commandant of that place, he went to his home, and we hear of him no more. The account of this attempt is interesting, chiefly from the slight glimpse it affords of the position, at this period, of what had been one of the reigning families of the land before its invasion by the Israelites (Judg. ix :26-48). (B. C. 1319.)