Judges 9

§ 33 And it came to pass, as soon as Gideon was dead, that the children of Israel turned again, and went a whoring after the Baalim, and made Baal-berith their god. And the children of Israel remembered not the Lord their God, who had delivered them out of the hand of all their enemies on every side : neither shewed they kindness to the house of Jerubbaal, who is Gideon, according to all the goodness which he had shewed unto Israel.

§ 1 And Abimelech the son of Jerubbaal went to Shechem unto his mother’s brethren, and spake with them, and with all the family of the house of his mother’s father, saying, Speak, I pray you, in the ears of all the men of Shechem, Whether is better for you, that all the sons of Jerubbaal, which are threescore and ten persons, rule over you, or that one rule over you? remember also that I am your bone and your flesh. And his mother’s brethren spake of him in the ears of all the men of Shechem all these words : and their hearts inclined to follow Abimelech ; for they said, He is our brother. And they gave him threescore and ten pieces of silver out of the house of Baal-berith, wherewith Abimelech hired vain and light fellows, which followed him. And he went unto his father’s house at Ophrah, and slew his brethren the sons of Jerubbaal, being threescore and ten persons, upon one stone : but Jotham the youngest son of Jerubbaal was left ; for he hid himself.

And all the men of Shechem assembled themselves together, and all the house of Milo, and went and made Abimelech king, by the oak of the pillar that was in Shechem. And when they told it to Jotham, he went and stood in the top of mount Gerizim, and lifted up his voice, and cried, and said unto them, Hearken unto me, ye men of Shechem, that God may hearken unto you. The trees went forth on a time to anoint a king over them ; and they said unto the olive tree, Reign thou over us. But the olive tree said unto them, Should I leave my fatness, wherewith by me they honor God and man, and go to wave to and fro over the trees? And the trees said to the fig tree, Come thou, and reign over us. But the fig tree said unto them, Should I leave my sweetness, and my good fruit, and go to wave to and fro over the trees? And the trees said unto the vine, Come thou, and reign over us. And the vine said unto them, Should I leave my wine, which cheereth God and man, and go to wave to and fro over the trees? Then said all the trees unto the bramble, Come thou, and reign over us. And the bramble said unto the trees, If in truth ye anoint me king over you, then come and put your trust in my shadow : and if not, let fire come out of the bramble, and devour the cedars of Lebanon. Now therefore, if ye have dealt truly and uprightly, in that ye have made Abimelech king, and if ye have dealt well with Jerubbaal and his house, and have done unto him according to the deserving of his hands ; (for my father fought for you, and adventured his life, and delivered you out of the hand of Midian : and ye are risen up against my father’s house this day, and have slain his sons, threescore and ten persons, upon one stone, and have made Abimelech, the son of his maidservant, king over the men of Shechem,

19 because he is your brother;) if ye then have dealt truly and uprightly with Jerubbaal and 20 with his house this day, then rejoice ye in Abimelech, and let him also rejoice in you: but if not, let fire come out from Abimelech, and devour the men of Shechem, and the house of Millo: and let fire come out from the men of Shechem, and from the house of Millo, and 21 devour Abimelech. And Jotham ran away, and fled, and went to Beer, and dwelt there, for fear of Abimelech his brother.

22. And Abimelech was prince over Israel three years. And God sent an evil spirit between 23 Abimelech and the men of Shechem; and the men of Shechem dealt treacherously with 24 Abimelech: that the violence done to the threescore and ten sons of Jerubbaal might come, and that their blood might be laid upon Abimelech their brother, which slew them, and upon 56 the men of Shechem, which strengthened his hands to slay his brethren. Thus God requited the wickedness of Abimelech, which he did unto his father, in slaying his seventy brethren: 57 and all the wickedness of the men of Shechem did God requite upon their heads: and upon them came the curse of Jotham the son of Jerubbaal.

Verses 25-49. Conflict between Abimelech and the Shechemites, in which the latter are destroyed.

Verses 50-55. Abimelech is killed by a stone from the tower of Thebe, in the midst of an assault.

8 : 33-35. Again the record of Israel’s forgetfulness and ingratitude. As we pass through the historical records of the Bible we are often struck with the stern faithfulness with which Jewish chroniclers describe the wicked and shameful deeds of their own nation. This fact is not only valuable as a proof of the unvarnished truthfulness of the narratives; it gives to the history of the Bible a universal character by making it a mirror of human nature. The forgetfulness and ingratitude here recorded are typical of the conduct of mankind in every age. W. F. A.

9 : 1-6. Abimelech, the meanest and basest of Gideon’s sons, and a man of desperate and ambitious designs, becomes the instrument to punish the degenerate Israelites. He retires to his mother’s family at Shechem, in the tribe of Ephraim, where by their interest he prevailed upon the men of the place to consent to make him king; upon the insinuation that every one of the seventy sons of Gideon would be ambitious of the government, either singly or jointly; and it would be much better to have one rather than so many monarchs; and who so proper for them as one of their own tribe and relations? Pyle.—Those that are most unworthy of honor are hottest in the chase of it. Fair words won his brethren; they, the Shechemites: the Shechemites furnish him with money; money with men: his men begin with murder; and now Abimelech reigns alone: flattery, bribes, and blood, are the usual stairs of the ambitious. The money of Baal is a fit hire for murderers: that which idolatry hath gathered is fitly spent upon treason. Soon is Abimelech seated in the throne which his father refused, and no rival is seen to envy his peace. But how long will this glory last? Stay but three years, and ye shall see this bramble withered and burned. The prosperity of the wicked is short and fickle. Bp. H.

5. Upon one stone.** Used as a block, on which the victims were executed one after another. Compare the similar wholesale murders of the seventy sons of Ahab by order of Jehu (2 K. 10 : 7), of the seed royal of Judah by Athaliah (2 K. 11 : 1), of the whole house of Jeroboam by Baasha (1 K. 15 : 29), of the whole house of Baasha by Zimri (1 K. 16 : 11, 12). In Persia and Turkey in modern times it has been a common practice for the sovereign to slay or put out the eyes of all his brothers and cousins. So destructive of natural affection is polygamy, and so cruel is power. Abimelech’s kingdom, thus founded in bloodshed, abetted by falsehood, and fostered by a base and cruel policy, had no end or motive but self-aggrandizement.

7. On the top of Mount Gerizim.** Mount Gerizim rises on the southwest side of Shechem as a sheer rock about 800 feet in height, facing Mount Ebal, which is separated from it by the narrow valley, “some 500 yards wide,” in which Shechem, now Nablus, is built. It was from Mount Gerizim that Joshua, in accordance with the directions given by Moses, caused the blessings of the law to be proclaimed, after the capture of Ai, while the curses were proclaimed from Mount Ebal. A. C. H. (See pp. 83-88.)

While they pledged the king beneath the sacred oak, there occurred a singular and ominous interruption to their mirth. A voice was heard high in the air, and looking up they see Jotham, the one son of Gideon who had escaped the slaughter, standing on Mount Gerizim. He is there to denounce the cruel worthless man who has destroyed his father’s house, and to rebuke

the men of Shechem with their crime in electing him their king. The wooded scene before him gives form to his thoughts. He cries, “Hearken unto me, ye men of Shechem, that God may hearken unto you.” Cox.

Behind the town the slope of Gerizim is broken into several bold cliffs, which have the appearance of overhanging the town, and from the top of one of these, whence escape to the mountains behind would be easy, we can readily picture Jotham delivering his striking fable. Wilson. —The people in these mountainous countries are able, from long practice, so to pitch their voices as to be heard distinctly at distances almost incredible. They talk with persons across enormous wadies, and give the most minute directions, which are perfectly understood; and in doing this they seem to speak very little louder than their usual tone of conversation. Jotham, therefore, might easily be heard by the greater part of the inhabitants of Shechem. The costume of his allegory is simple and natural, and the allusions are to the very trees which most abound at Nablüs, the olive, the the vine, and the bramble. Thompson.—The place was very skilfully chosen by Jotham; for while his fable could be heard by the citizens, those who were irritated by it when its drift and meaning came at last to be seen, would need to make a long circuit before they could reach the spot where he was, and he would have abundance of time to flee and escape, as we know he did. Thomson.

The youngest son of Gideon, Jotham, seems to have inherited the hereditary wit of the family, so conspicuous in Gideon and in his father. He must also have inherited his father’s cool courage and daring; a courage which enabled him to collect his thoughts in the midst of imminent danger, and to utter them in circumstances which would have caused the voice of most men to tremble. D-ds.

The proper parable is an imaginary scene from real life vividly set forth, in order to bring some truth home to the hearts and consciences of men. It is a brief drama, not resting, like the fable, on some extravagant fiction as its groundwork, nor condensed, like the proverb, into a single pithy phrase or striking image; but dependent for its effect on the naturalness and probability of the story, and on the life-like manner in which it is told. I find but one parable properly so called in the whole of the Old Testament, and that is the brief and touching apologue of the one ewe lamb, with which the prophet Nathan rebukes the crying sin of David. This lively fiction of the talking trees is not a parable but a fable, altogether in the manner of Pilpay and Esop. Bowen.

S-13. In the reason which all these fruit trees gave for their refusal, it is intimated, first, that government involves a man in a great deal both of toil and care; he that is promoted over the trees must go up and down for them, and make himself a perfect drudge to business. Secondly, that those who are preferred to places of public trust and power must resolve to forego all their private interests and advantages, and sacrifice them to the good of the community. The fig-tree must lose its sweetness, its sweet retirement, sweet repose, and sweet conversation and contemplation, if it go to be promoted over the trees, and must undergo a constant fatigue. Thirdly, that those who are advanced to honor and dignity are in great danger of losing their fatness and fruitfulness. Preferment is apt to make men proud, slothful, and that spoils their usefulness, wherewith in a lower sphere they honored God and man; for which reason they that desire to do good are afraid of being too great. H.

What strikes the reader most is perhaps the sagacious contentment of the olive, the fig, and the vine—a contentment and dread of change, which reproach us for our restlessness and craving to be always bettering ourselves. This fable also shows how contemptible a thing is display and worldly honor, and what is called style. There is something better in life than mere show or the mere attainment of the rewards accorded by the world to its successful men. The real value of human life does not lie on the surface, lies indeed so deep that many people never see it at all. If a man will only humbly accept what comes to him, and strive to do good as he has opportunity, he will not lack the blessing of God, but will be like the vine that cheereth God and man. Dods.—The wine is said to cheer, or make to rejoice, God because the drink offering which accompanied the meat offering consisted of wine (Nu. 15:7, 10), and God was well pleased with the offerings of his people. A. C. H.

The true political lesson of Jotham’s fable is surely this: that the highest places in the State should be given only to the best men; that the bramble should never be permitted to usurp the place of the olive or the vine, and that the vine and the olive should not shrink from the duties which their very sweetness and fatness impose upon them. When men of noble character, and great parts, and refined culture withdraw from public life and leave the administration of public affairs to the ignorant and greedy and unscrupulous; or when men who are worthless as brambles, simply because they have a long purse or a long pedigree (and brambles are at least as old as the curse), are thrust into seats of honor and responsibility—then we may predict, with Jotham, that a fire will break forth from them in which much that we love will be consumed. If Gideon will not rule, and Abimelech will; or if we are base enough to prefer a base Abimelech before a noble Gideon, we may be very sure that evil will come of it, and not good. This is the true political moral of the fable. It is a most religious moral; for it teaches us that our political duties should be discharged in the fear of God; it warns us that so often as we help to put a bad man into a good place, we so far forth conspire against the best interests of our country, and are traitors to the common weal. Cox.

He exposes the ridiculous ambition of Abimelech, whom he compares to the bramble or thistle. The bramble, a worthless plant, not to be numbered among the trees, useless and fruitless, nay, hurtful and vexatious, scratching and tearing, and doing mischief, it began with the curse, and its end is to be burned. Such an one was Abimelech, and yet chosen to the government by the trees, by all the trees. The bramble being chosen to the government, he takes no time to consider whether he should accept it or not; but presently, as if he had been born and bred to dominion, assures them that they should find him as he found them. A goodly shadow to trust in! How unlike to the “shadow of a great rock in a weary land,” which a good magistrate is compared to (Is. 32:2). Come trust in his shadow! More likely to be scratched if they came near him. Thus men boast of a false gift. Yet he threatens with as much confidence as he promiseth. “If ye be not faithful, let fire come out of the bramble;” a very unlikely thing to spit fire, and devour the cedars of Lebanon; more likely to catch fire, and be itself devoured. H.—Society, in all its sections, is full of bramble men, who are striving for every sort of personal elevation and advantage. The picture in this fable holds up to scorn the principles they act upon. Raleigh.

Jotham’s intention in the parable is not hard to trace. His father Gideon, some phase of whose character is set forth in each of the nobler trees, such as the vine, the fig, the olive, and the cedar—the venerated judge, whose sweet temper broke forth in a humor as bright and cheerful as wine, was the hero first chosen by the men of Shechem and the men of Israel to be their king. He had shown himself too wise, too good, too gracious to assume the royal title and to lord it over his brethren. And now, forgetting Gideon’s “goodness,” they had chosen base Abimelech, mean and worthless as the bramble, and full of cruel thorns, to be their king, although his hands were red with the blood of Gideon’s sons. He would prove a true bramble-king to them; out of him there would go forth a fire which would fly from hill to hill, till even distant Lebanon kindled into flame. Cox.

Jotham’s fable presages the mutual destruction of Shechem and Shechem’s murderous king. God has never left His cause without a witness in the worst times. His providence saved Jotham from the general massacre of his brethren, and then endued him with his Spirit, qualifying him to announce the eternal principles of God’s righteousness on which prophecy rests. On the mountain of blessing, he declares the sure curse which must overtake the transgressor—a gloomy omen for a coronation day! The act of bloody fratricide might have forewarned Abimelech’s Shechemite brethren, what kind of a “brother” he would be to them, when promoted to be their king. They had been the first to raise him up, and they must be the first to feel the weight of his sceptre. A. R. F.

23,24. These two verses contain the summary of what is related in detail in the rest of the chapter, and we are told that it all happened providentially, that the violence done to the sons of Jerubbaal, and their blood, might come to be laid (literally, for some one to lay) upon Abimelech. A. C. H.—God so ordered things in his providence that they grew jealous and distrustful of each other, and fell into discords and dissensions; by which means he intended to punish Abimelech for the cruel murder of his brethren, and the men of Shechem for assisting him in the commission of that wickedness. Patrick.—Their own lusts were evil spirits, they are devils in men’s own hearts, from them come wars and fightings. These God gave them up to, and so might be said to send the evil spirits between them. The quarrel God had with Abimelech and the Shechemites was for the murder of the sons of Gideon. That their blood be laid as a burden upon Abimelech that slew them, and the

men of Shechem that helped him. The Shechemites that countenanced Abimelech’s pretensions, aided and abetted him in his bloody projects, 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. H.

25-38. This text contains a graphic narrative of the conspiracy of the men of Shechem, under the leadership of Gaal, against Abimelech. The reading will suffice, as it calls for no comment. B.

39-54. Gaal and his band are discomfited, and he and his adherents are finally expelled from the town. If the Shechemites had thought thus to purchase immunity, they were speedily undeceived. Abimelech was hovering in the neighborhood, and, when the unsuspecting people were busy in their fields, he surprised and slaughtered them, at the same time occupying the city, which was razed to the ground and sowed with salt. Upon this the citizens of the tower, or of Millo, sought refuge in the sacred precincts of “the hall of the god Berith.” But in vain. Abimelech set it on fire, and one thousand persons perished in the flames. Even this did not satisfy his revenge. He next turned his forces against the neighboring town of Thebez. Reduced to the utmost straits, its inhabitants fled to the strong tower within the city. Thither Abimelech pursued them. Almost had the people of Thebez shared the fate of the citizens of Millo, when Abimelech’s course was strangely arrested. From the top of the tower a woman cast down upon him an “upper millstone.” As the Rabbis put it, he, that had slaughtered his brothers upon a stone, was killed by a stone. Abimelech died as he had lived. Feeling himself mortally wounded, ambitious warrior to the last, he had himself run through by the sword of his armor-bearer, to avoid the disgrace of perishing by the hand of a woman. But his epitaph, and that of the men of Shechem who had perished by his hand, had been before written in the curse of Jotham. A. E.

53. Here is an evidence of Divine superintendence in the affairs of men, which to the minutest particular are under the absolute control of Him who reigneth over all, giving that impulse to the woman’s heart which led her to throw the stone, and that direction of it to the person of Abimelech which resulted in his death. T. C.

56. Which he did unto his father.** It is remarkable that the sacred writer, in calling attention to the righteous vengeance which fell upon the head of Abimelech, marks especially the conduct of Abimelech as undutiful to his father. A. C. H.—See the just succession of the revenges of God! Gideon’s ephod is punished with the blood of his sons; the blood of his sons is shed by the procurement of the Shechemites: the blood of the Shechemites is shed by Abimelech; the blood of Abimelech is spilled by a woman. The retaliations of God are sure and just, and make a more due pedigree than descent of nature. Bp. H.—Thus God punished the wickedness of Abimelech and of the men of Shechem, and performed Jotham’s curse, for it was not a curse causeless. Thus he preserved the honor of his government, and gave warning to all ages to expect blood for blood. The Lord is known by these judgments which he executes, when the wicked is snared in the work of his own hands. Though wickedness may prosper awhile, it will not prosper always. H.

Under the government of God, though many things happen in the world which seem strange and inexplicable to us upon the theory of God’s righteous rule over mankind, yet we have but to be patient and to observe impartially the end of things, in order to see by many infallible proofs that God is good to those who are of a clean heart, and that the end of the ungodly is that they shall perish. Nor can we afford to lose the evidences of God’s righteous judgment. The immediate present fills such a large space in our view; ungodly mirth, successful wickedness, prosperous iniquity, bold blasphemy, the triumphs of sin, the rewards of selfishness, the impunity of evil livers, parade themselves so ostentatiously in the world, that the steps of our faith in God might easily slip if we did not keep steadily in mind the lessons taught us by the providence as well as by the Word of God. In the marvellous pages of Holy Scripture these lessons are illustrated, exemplified, and enforced with a clearness and a vigor unequalled and unapproached in any writings of man. They culminate in the declaration of the coming of the day of judgment, when God will reward every man according to his works. The observed tendencies of good and evil will then be fully confirmed. Every work will then have its proper recompense of reward: all inequalities will be redressed, the temporary exceptions will disappear, the just procedure will be vindicated to the utmost. A. C. H.

JUDGESHIPS OF TOLA AND JAIR. APOSTASY AND SERVITUDE UNDER THE AMMONITES. JEPHTHAH’S VICTORY AND VOW. CONFLICT WITH EPHRAIM. JUDGESHIPS OF IBZAN, ELON, AND ABDON.