🔼The name Abdeel: Summary
- Meaning
- Servant of God
- Etymology
- From (1) the verb עבד ('abad), to work or serve, and (2) the word אל ('el), God.
🔼The name Abdeel in the Bible
The name Abdeel occurs only once in the Bible. He's mentioned in Jeremiah 36:26 as the father of Shelemiah, who is among the three men who are to arrest Baruch and Jeremiah.
🔼Etymology of the name Abdeel
The name Abdeel consists of two parts. The final part is אל (El), the common abbreviation of Elohim, the Hebrew word for God:
אל אלה
In names אל ('el) usually refers to אלהים ('elohim), that is Elohim, or God, also known as אלה ('eloah). In English, the words 'God' and 'god' exclusively refer to the deity but in Hebrew the words אל ('l) and אלה ('lh) are far more common and may express approach and negation, acts of wailing and pointing, and may even mean oak or terebinth.
And in that sense the name Abdeel is quite closely related to the name Obadiah, which consists of the same verb and the name Yah (the Lord) instead of El (God).
The first part of the name Abdeel comes from the root עבד ('abad), meaning servant or to serve:
עבד
The verb עבד ('abad) means to work or serve, and the noun עבד ('ebed) denotes someone who works: from a slave to a hired expert. The Greek equivalent of this noun is δουλος (doulos).
🔼Abdeel meaning
For a meaning of the name Abdeel, NOBSE Study Bible Name List reads Servant of God. Jones' Dictionary of Old Testament Proper Names does the same but makes no distinction between this name and the name Abdiel. BDB Theological Dictionary reads Servant of El.