JERUB-BAAL (See Gideon)

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JERUBBAAL jĕr’ ə bāl (יְרֻבַּ֣עַל, let Baal contend, or let Baal show increase). The name given to Gideon when he destroyed his father’s Baal altar at Ophrah. The text says, “Therefore on that day he was called Jerubbaal, that is to say, ‘Let Baal contend against him,’ because he pulled down his altar” (Judg 6:32). Some suggest that this had been his name, reflecting the syncretism which then prevailed among the Israelites, but his act of iconoclasm gave it a new significance. Later, when the name Baal was regarded as shameful, the name Jerubbaal was altered to Jerubbesheth (besheth-shame, 2 Sam 11:21), after the analogy of “Ishbosheth” and “Mephibosheth.”

International Standard Bible Encyclopedia (1915)

jer-u-ba’-al, je-rub’-a-al (yerubba`al, "let Baal contend"): The name given to Gideon by his father, Joash, and the people in recognition of his destruction of the altar of Baal at Ophrah (Jud 6:32). For this name the form "Jerubbesheth" (2Sa 1:21) was substituted after the analogy of "Ishbosheth" and "Mephibosheth," in which bosheth, the Hebrew word for "shame," displaced the word ba`al, no doubt because the name resembled one given in honor of Baal.

See Gideon.