Abidan, Son of Gideoni

“So Moses and Aaron took these men who had been designated by name.” (Numbers 1:17, NASB95)Abidan ben Gideoni was the representative of the tribe of Benjamin.  In these two names we only see two familiarities, the first being the personal pronoun in both names, and the second being Ab as in Eliab of the tribe of Zebulun.  If you remember from our study of Eliab, and from a familiar New Testament passage, Ab means “father.”  So Ab-i-dan will be “My father is dan.” Since Abidan is of the tribe of Benjamin, we know that Dan is not his real father.  Dan, in addition to being the name of one of the tribes, means judge.  When the Israelites come to the promised land, they will rejoice that “My Father is Judge!”Gideoni sounds familiar to us because of Gideon, which means the Hewer or one who cuts down. That is, God will be One who cuts down in the wilderness but will become my Father the judge in the promised land!In His Grace,Dr. Randy White