‘ And Gaal, the son of Ebed, came with his brothers, and went over to Shechem, and the men of Shechem put their confidence in him.'
Many of the chief men of Shechem were now aware that Abimelech was planning to interfere with their secret activities, and information concerning this seems to have been carried to a man called Gael, who was the son of Ebed (‘servant'), who possibly carried on similar activities further down the trail. He was also possibly a Habiru. So he came over to Shechem with ‘his brothers' to discuss this new state of affairs and in discussions won the confidence of the chief men of Shechem. Gaal was possibly descended from the family of Hamor, the father of Shechem, in whose day disaster came on Shechem through Simeon and Levi (Judges 9:28 compare Genesis 34). If he was he would thus have another reason for wanting to be in Shechem