Name of two men: a rebel against Moses, and a son of Hiel who died when Jericho was rebuilt; meaning 'My father is exalted'
ʾĂḇîrām (ab + rāmāh, 'to be exalted') is the name of two men: (1) Abiram the Reubenite, son of Eliab, who along with Dathan and Korah led the rebellion against Moses and Aaron (Numbers 16). God's judgment was spectacular: the earth opened and swallowed them alive. (2) The firstborn son of Hiel the Bethelite, who died when Hiel relaid the foundations of Jericho (1 Kings 16:34), fulfilling Joshua's curse (Joshua 6:26). The name 'my father is exalted' is ironic in both cases — both Abirims came to catastrophic ends through pride and defiance.
Abiram the rebel embodies the sin of challenging God-appointed authority. Numbers 16 is a paradigmatic warning against the spirit of Korah — the presumption that any person can approach God on their own terms, apart from the mediating structures God has ordained. Jude 11 warns of those who 'have rushed for profit into Balaam's error; they have been destroyed in Korah's rebellion.' The lesson is not blind authoritarianism but reverence for God's revealed order. The second Abiram's death confirmed that God's word (Joshua's curse, Joshua 6:26) would be fulfilled generations later — God's warnings are not empty.