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JUDGES 9

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  1  Abimelech by conspiracy with the Shechemites, and murder of
    his brethren, is made king.
 7  Jotham by a parable rebukes them, and foretells their ruin.
22  Gaal conspires with the Shechemites against him.
30  Zebul reveals it.
34  Abimelech overcomes them, and sows the city with salt.
46  He burns the hold of the god Berith.
50  At Thebez he is slain by a piece of a millstone.
56  Jotham's curse if fulfilled.


VERSE 1
- Abimelech.
   * Jud 8:31
- Shechem.
   * Ge 33:18; 34:2 1Ki 12:1
- communed.
   * 2Sa 15:6 1Ki 12:3,20 Ps 83:2-4 Jer 18:18


VERSE 2 
 - Whether, etc.  Heb. What is good?  whether, etc.  threescore.
   * Jud 8:30
- your bone.
   * Ge 29:14 2Sa 19:13 1Ch 11:1 Eph 5:30 Heb 2:14


VERSE 3 
 - spake.
   * Ps 10:3 Pr 1:11-14
- to follow.  Heb. after.  our brother.
   * Ge 29:15


VERSE 4 
 - house.
   * :46-49; 8:33
- vain, etc.
  {Anashim raikim oophochozim,} "worthless and dissolute men;"
  persons who were living on the public, and had nothing to
  lose.  Such was the foundation of his Babel government.  By a
  cunning management of such unprincipled men most revolutions
  are brought about.

   * Jud 11:3 1Sa 22:2 2Ch 13:7 Job 30:8 Pr 12:11 Ac 17:5


VERSE 5 
 - at Ophrah.
   * Jud 6:24
- slew.
   * 2Ki 10:17; 11:1,2 2Ch 21:4 Mt 2:16,20


VERSE 6 
 - the house.
   * 2Sa 5:9 2Ki 12:20
- Millo.
  Probably the name of a person of note in Shechem.

- plain.  or, oak.
   * Jos 24:26 1Ki 12:1,20,25


VERSE 7 
 - mount Gerizim.
   * De 11:29; 27:12 Jos 8:33 Joh 4:20
- Hearken.
   * Ps 18:40,41; 50:15-21 Pr 1:28,29; 21:13; 28:9 Isa 1:15; 58:6-10
   * Mt 18:26-34 Jas 13 2:13


VERSE 8 
 - The trees.
  This is the most ancient fable or apologue extant; and is
  extremely beautiful, apposite, and intelligible.

   * 2Ki 14:9 Eze 17:3-10 Da 4:10-18
- olive tree.
  The {zayith,} or olive tree, in the Linnean system, is a genus
  of the {diandra monogynia} class of plants.  It is of a
  moderate height, and grows best in sunny places.  Its trunk is
  knotty; bark smooth, of an ash color:  wood solid and
  yellowish; leaves oblong, almost like those of the willow, of
  a dark green color on the upper side, and whitish below.  In
  June it puts forth white flowers, growing in bunches, each of
  one piece, widening towards the top, and dividing into four
  parts.  After this succeeds the fruit, which is oblong and
  plump; first green, then pale, and when quite ripe, black.
  Within it is enclosed a hard stone, filled with oblong seeds.
  It was the most useful of all trees in the forest; as the
  bramble was the meanest and most worthless.

- Reign.
   * Jud 8:22,23


VERSE 9 
 - wherewith.
   * Ex 29:2,7; 35:14 Le 2:1 1Ki 19:15,16 Ps 89:20; 104:15 Ac 4:27
   * Ac 10:38 1Jo 2:20
- God.
  {Elohim,} rather gods; the parable being adapted to the
  idolatrous Shechemites.

- to be promoted over the trees.  Heb. up and down for other
  trees.
   * Job 1:7; 2:2

VERSE 10
    * :10

VERSE 11
    * Lu 13:6,7

VERSE 12


VERSE 13 
 - cheereth.
   * Nu 15:5,7,10 Ps 104:15 Pr 31:6 Ec 10:19


VERSE 14 
 - bramble.  or, thistle.
   * 2Ki 14:9


VERSE 15 
 - shadow.
   * Isa 30:2 Da 4:12 Ho 14:7 Mt 13:32
- let fire.
   * :20,49 Nu 21:28 Isa 1:31 Eze 19:14
- the cedars.
   * 2Ki 14:9 Ps 104:16 Isa 2:13; 37:24 Eze 31:3


VERSE 16 
 - according.
   * Jud 8:35


VERSE 17 
 - fought.
   * Jud 7:1-25; 8:4-10
- adventured his life.  Heb. cast his life.
   * Es 4:16 Ro 5:8; 16:4 Re 12:11


VERSE 18 
 - are risen.
   * :5,6; 8:35 Ps 109:4
- Abimelech.
   * :6,14; 8:31


VERSE 19 
 - rejoice.
   * Isa 8:6 Php 3:3 Jas 16 4:16


VERSE 20 
 - let fire come out.
   * :15,23,56,57; 7:22 2Ch 20:22,23 Ps 21:9,10; 28:4; 52:1-5
   * Ps 120:3,4; 140:10


VERSE 21 
 - Beer.
  Probably the Beer mentioned by Mr. Maundrell, three hours and
  a half, or about ten miles, north of Jerusalem, towards
  Shechem.  It is situated toward the south, on an easy
  slope; and has a fountain of excellent water at the bottom
  of the hill, from which it has taken its name.  Close to the
  well are the mouldering walls of a ruined {khan;} and on the
  summit of the hill two large arches still remain of a ruined
  convent.  Dr. Richardson says, that it seems to have been once
  a place of considerable consequence.

   * Nu 21:16 Jos 19:8 2Sa 20:14

VERSE 22


VERSE 23 
 - A.M. 2771.  B.C. 1233.  An. Ex. Is. 258.  God.
  That is, God permitted the evil spirit of jealousy, treachery,
  and discord, to break out between Abimelech and the
  Shechemites.

   * :15,20 1Sa 16:14-16; 18:9,10 1Ki 12:15; 22:22,23 2Ch 10:15
   * 2Ch 18:19-22 Isa 19:2,14 2Th 2:11,12
- dealt.
   * :16 Isa 33:1 Mt 7:2


VERSE 24 
 - That the.
   * 1Sa 15:33 1Ki 2:32 Es 9:25 Ps 7:16 Mt 23:34-36
- aided him in the killing of.  Heb. strengthened his hands to
  kill.
  Sooner or later, God will make inquisition for blood, and will
  return it on the heads of those that shed it.  Accessaries
  will be reckoned with, as well as principals, in that and
  other sins.  The Shechemites, who countenanced Abimelech's
  pretensions, aided and abetted him in his bloody project, and
  avowed the fact by making him king after he had done it, must
  fall with him, fall by him, and fall first.  Those that
  combine together to do wickedly, are justly dashed in pieces
  one against another.  Blood cannot be a lasting cement to any
  interest.

VERSE 25
    * Jos 8:4,12,13 Pr 1:11,12


VERSE 26 
 - brethren.
   * Ge 13:8; 19:7


VERSE 27 
 - merry.  or, songs.
   * Isa 16:9,10; 24:7-9 Jer 25:30 Am 6:3-6
- the house.
   * :4; 16:23 Ex 32:6,19 Da 5:1-4,23
- did eat.
   * Isa 22:12-14 Lu 12:19,20; 17:26-29
- cursed.
   * Le 24:11 1Sa 17:43 Ps 109:17


VERSE 28 
 - Who is Abimelech.
   * 1Sa 25:10 2Sa 20:1 1Ki 12:16
- Hamor.
   * Ge 34:2,6


VERSE 29 
 - would to God.
  The very words and conduct of a sly, hypocritical demagogue.

   * 2Sa 15:4 1Ki 20:11 Ps 10:3 Ro 1:30,31
- And he said.
  Rather, "and I would say to Abimelech," as the LXX. renders;
  for as Dr. Wall observes, this was probably not said in the
  presence of Abimelech; but at an intemperate feast, in his
  absence, when he boasted he would challenge him.

- Increase thine army.
   * 2Sa 2:14-17 2Ki 14:8; 18:23 Isa 36:8,9


VERSE 30 
 - kindled.  or, hot.
   * :30


VERSE 31 
 - privily.  Heb. craftily, or, to Tormah.  they fortify.
  Under pretence of repairing the walls and towers, they were
  actually putting the place in a state of defence, intending to
  seize on the government as soon as they found Abimelech coming
  against them.

   * :31


VERSE 32 
 - by night.
   * Job 24:14-17 Ps 36:4 Pr 1:11-16; 4:16 Ro 3:15


VERSE 33 
 - as thou shalt find.  Heb. as thine hand shall find.
   * Le 25:26 *marg:
   * 1Sa 10:7; 25:8 Ec 9:10

VERSE 34


VERSE 35 
 - Gaal.
  Of this person we know no more than is here recorded.  He was
  probably one of the descendants of the Canaanites, who hoped,
  from the state of the public mind and their disaffection to
  Abimelech, to cause a revolution, and thus to restore the
  ancient government as it was under Hamor, the father of
  Shechem.  Josephus says he was a man of authority, who
  sojourned with them, with his armed men and kinsmen; and that
  the Shechemites desired that he would allow them a guard
  during the vintage.

- the people.
   * :44


VERSE 36 
 - seest the shadow.
  Doubdan states, that in some parts of the Holy Land there are
  many detached rocks scattered up and down, some growing out of
  the ground, and others fragments broken off from rocky
  precipices, the shadow of which, it appears, Josephus thought
  might be most naturally imagined to look like troops of men at
  a distance, rather than that of the mountains; for he
  represents Zebul as saying to Gaal, that he mistook the shadow
  of the rocks for men.

   * Eze 7:7 Mr 8:24


VERSE 37 
 - middle.  Heb. navel.  Meonenim.  or, the regarders of the
  times.
   * De 18:14

VERSE 38
    * :28,29 2Sa 2:26,27 2Ki 14:8-14 Jer 2:28

VERSE 39


VERSE 40 
 - he fled before.
   * 1Ki 20:18-21,30


VERSE 41 
 - Arumah.
  This place appears from the next verse to have been near
  Shechem; and is perhaps the same as Ruma, a village of
  Galilee, mentioned by Josephus, Bell. 1. iii. c. 9.

- Zebul.
   * :28,30

VERSE 42
    * :42

VERSE 43


VERSE 44 
 - rushed forward.
   * :15,20 Ga 5:15


VERSE 45 
 - he took.
   * :20
- beat.
   * De 29:23 1Ki 12:25 2Ki 3:25 Ps 107:34 *marg:
   * Eze 47:11 Zep 2:9 Jas 13 2:13
- sowed.
  Salt in small quantities renders land extremely fertile; but
  too much of it destroys vegetation.  Every place, says Pliny,
  in which salt is found is barren, and produces nothing.  Hence
  the sowing of a place with salt was a custom in different
  nations to express permanent desolation.  Sigonius observes,
  that when Milan was taken, A.D. 1162, the walls were razed,
  and it was sown with salt.  And Brantome informs us, that it
  was an ancient custom in France, to sow the house of a man
  with salt, who had been declared a traitor to his king.
  Charles IX., king of France, the most base and perfidious of
  human beings, caused the house of Admiral Coligni (whom he and
  the Duke of Guise caused to be murdered, with thousands more
  of Protestants, on the eve of St. Bartholomew, 1572,) to be
  sown with salt!


VERSE 46 
 - an hold.
   * :4,27; 8:33 1Ki 8:26 2Ki 1:2-4 Ps 115:8 Isa 28:15-18; 37:38

VERSE 47


VERSE 48 
 - Zalmon.
   * Ps 68:14
- What ye.
   * Jud 7:17,18 Pr 1:11,12
- me do.  Heb. I have done.


VERSE 49 
 - put them.
   * :15,20 Ga 5:15 Jas 16 3:16


VERSE 50 
 - Thebez.
  According to Eusebius, thirteen miles from Shechem, towards
  Scythopolis.

   * :50

VERSE 51
    * :51

VERSE 52
    * :48,49 2Ki 14:10; 15:16


VERSE 53 
 - woman.
   * :15,20 2Sa 11:21; 20:21 Job 31:3 Jer 49:20; 50:45
- and all to.
  An antiquated expression, meaning "full intention" to complete
  an object.  "All to," observes Dr. Johnson, "is a particle of
  mere enforcement."  The original is {wattaritz eth gulgalto,}
  which is simply as the LXX. render [kai eklase to kranion
  autou,] "and she brake his skull."  Plutarch relates, that
  Pyrrhus was killed at the siege of Thebes, by a piece of a
  tile, which a woman threw upon his head.


VERSE 54 
 - Draw thy.
   * 1Sa 31:4,5
- And his young man.
  It was a disgrace to be killed by a woman.

VERSE 55
    * 2Sa 18:16; 20:21,22 1Ki 22:35,36 Pr 22:10


VERSE 56 
 - God rendered.
  Both the fratricide Abimelech and the unprincipled men of
  Shechem had the iniquity visited upon them of which they had
  been guilty.  Man's judgment may be avoided; but there is no
  escape from that of God.  How many houses have been sown with
  salt in France, by the just judgment of God, for the massacre
  of the Protestants on the eve of St. Bartholomew!  See Note on
  ver. 45.

   * :24 Job 31:3 Ps 9:12; 11:6; 58:10,11; 94:23 Pr 5:22 Mt 7:2
   * Ac 28:4 Ga 6:7 Re 19:20,21


VERSE 57 
 - upon them.
   * :20,45 Jos 6:26 1Ki 16:34



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