Meholathite

The Meholathite is the gentilic by which Adriel — son of Barzillai and husband of Saul's daughter — is identified in the Samuel narratives. The term marks his town of origin and appears only in the two notices that mention him.

Adriel the Meholathite

Adriel surfaces first in the Saul–David marriage account, where Saul's elder daughter Merab, originally promised to David, is given instead to him: "But it came to pass at the time when Merab, Saul's daughter, should have been given to David, that she was given to Adriel the Meholathite as wife" (1 Samuel 18:19).

The second notice falls in the account of David handing Saul's heirs over to the Gibeonites, naming Adriel by patronym alongside the gentilic: "But the king took the two sons of Rizpah the daughter of Aiah, whom she bore to Saul, Armoni and Mephibosheth; and the five sons of Michal the daughter of Saul, whom she bore to Adriel the son of Barzillai the Meholathite:" (2 Samuel 21:8).

In both notices the gentilic identifies the same man, fixing him by his hometown and tying his line — through five sons — into the dispossessed branches of Saul's house.