Man living at the time of the Patriarchs
Phicol, the commander of the army of Abimelech, the Philistine king of Gerar, who accompanied Abimelech in making treaties with Abraham and Isaac.
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Also known as Phichol
Phicol was the commander of the army of Abimelech, the Philistine king of Gerar. He is mentioned twice in the book of Genesis, both times in the context of treaties made between Abimelech and the patriarchs.
In Gen.21.22-32, Phicol accompanied Abimelech when they approached Abraham to make a treaty, acknowledging that God was with Abraham in all that he did. As part of the treaty, Abraham set apart seven ewe lambs as a witness that he had dug a well, which was named Beersheba.
Later, in Gen.26.26, Phicol again accompanied Abimelech, along with Ahuzzath, Abimelech's advisor, when they came to make a treaty with Isaac. This event took place after Isaac had reopened the wells dug by his father, Abraham, and had settled in Beersheba.
Phicol's presence in these narratives suggests that he was a trusted official in Abimelech's court and played a significant role in diplomatic relations with the patriarchs.
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Great, the chief captain of the army of Abimelech, the Philistine king of Gerar. He entered into an alliance with Abraham with reference to a certain well which, from this circumstance, was called Beersheba (q.v.), “the well of the oath” (Gen. 21:22, 32; 26:26).
Easton (1897), Smith (1863), Hitchcock (1869), Hastings (1898) and Schaff are in the public domain. Parsed text: neuu-org/bible-dictionary-dataset (CC BY 4.0). Headwords and whitespace normalised for this site.
3 verses in 1 book · English text: BSB (change it from the menu at the top) · Strong’s H6369
At that time Abimelech and Phicol the commander of his army said to Abraham, “God is with you in all that you do.
After they had made the covenant at Beersheba, Abimelech and Phicol the commander of his army got up and returned to the land of the Philistines.
Later, Abimelech came to Isaac from Gerar, with Ahuzzath his adviser and Phicol the commander of his army.
Names, family links and references: STEPBible TIPNR (Tyndale House Cambridge, CC BY 4.0). Short descriptions were drafted with AI assistance by STEPBible. Family links follow STEPBible’s scholarly decisions where genealogies are ambiguous.