JERUBBAAL

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 (Judges 6:32). For this name the form "Jerubbesheth" (2 Samuel 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 .

From the International Standard Bible Encyclopedia
Edited by James Orr, published in 1939 by Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Co.