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Person Old Testament

Adriel

Adriel married Saul's daughter Merab and had five sons. Mentioned in 2 verses across 2 books, first at 1 Samuel 18:19.

Why it matters. Saul's son-in-law; husband of Merab

Last reviewed
2026-08-30 by the FaithGraph team

About Adriel

Adriel was the son of Barzillai the Meholathite. King Saul had promised his eldest daughter Merab to David, but instead gave her in marriage to Adriel. Merab bore Adriel five sons. During David's reign, these five sons were handed over to the Gibeonites and put to death to avenge Saul's earlier massacre of the Gibeonites, with whom Israel had a treaty. (1Sa.18.19; 2Sa.21.8).

Description from STEPBible TIPNR (Tyndale House, Cambridge), CC BY 4.0, lightly reformatted. This is background reference material, not Scripture and not a FaithGraph editorial claim.

Connections

No reviewed connections yet.

Family

Family links from STEPBible TIPNR (CC BY 4.0). Where the dataset marks an identification as uncertain, the mark is kept. Matthew and Luke give different genealogies for Jesus; see the Lineage page, which never merges them.

Parents
Barzillai
Spouse
Merab

Appears in Scripture

Named in 2 verses across 2 books. Occurrence data from STEPBible TIPNR (CC BY 4.0); references only, no translation text.

  • 1 Samuel (1 verse)

    18:19

  • 2 Samuel (1 verse)

    21:8

Record type: Person. FaithGraph explanations on this page are editorial and are not Scripture.