Charles Ellicott Commentary Judges 9

And Abimelech. —This narrative of the rise and fall of Abimelech, “the bramble king,” is singularly vivid in many of its details, while at the same time material facts are so briefly touched upon that parts of the story must remain obscure. The general bearing of this graphic episode is to illustrate the slow, but certain, working of Divine retribution. The two main faults of the last phase of Gideon’s career had been his polygamy and his dangerous tampering with unauthorized, if not idolatrous, worship.

The retribution for both errors falls on his house. The agents of their overthrow are the relatives of his base-born son by a Canaanite mother. Abimelech seems to have taken his first steps very soon after Gideon’s death. Doubtless he had long been secretly maturing his plans. The narrative bears on its surface inimitable marks of truthfulness. We can trace in the character of Abimelech a reflection of his father’s courage and promptness, overshadowed by elements which he must have drawn from his maternal origin.

To his mother’s brethren. —His Canaanite kith and kin, who doubtless had great influence over the still powerful aboriginal element of the Shechemite population.

All the men of Shechem.—Rather, the lords (Baali) of Shechem. These seem to be the same as “the men” (anoshi), or “lords (Baali) of the tower of Shechem,” in Judges 9:46; Judges 9:49. It is by no means impossible that the Canaanites may have still held possession of the fortress, though the Israelites were nominally predominant in the town. At any rate, this particular title of “lords,” as applied to the chief people of a town, seems to have been Canaanite rather than Hebrew: the “lords” of Jericho (Joshua 24:11), the “lords” of Gibeah (Judges 21:5), of Keilah (1 Samuel 23:11). The term is also applied to the Hittite Uriah (2 Samuel 11:20).

What is clear is that, as in so many other towns of Palestine at this period (see Judges 1:32 and following), there was a mixed population living side by side in a sort of armed neutrality, though with a mutual dislike, which might at any time break out in tumults. The Israelites held much the same position in many towns as the Normans among the English during the years after the conquest. The Israelites had the upper hand, but they were fewer in numbers, and might easily be overpowered at any particular point.

It must also be borne in mind that Abimelech, as a Shechemite, would more easily win the adherence of the proud and jealous Ephraimites, who disliked the hegemony (see the notes on Judges 8:1, and compare 2 Samuel 20:1 and 1 Kings 12:16) which Manasseh had acquired from the victories of Gideon. The plans of Abimelech were deep-laid. In counsel no less than in courage—though both were so grievously misdirected—he shows himself his father’s son.

That all the sons of Jerubbaal ... reign over you.—It seems to have been the merest calumny to suggest that they ever dreamt of making their father’s influence hereditary in this sense. Gideon had expressly repudiated all wish and claim to exercise “rule” (meshol, Judges 8:23) of this kind. The remark of Abimelech is quite in the ancient spirit—

οὐκ άγαθὸν πολυκοίρανίη, εἶς κοιρανὸς ε̄̌στω.

(Compare Euripides, Suppliants 410.)

Your bone and your flesh.—The same phrase is found in Genesis 2:23; Genesis 29:14; 2 Samuel 5:1; 2 Samuel 19:12. He was akin to both elements of the population: to the Ephraimites, from the place of his birth, or at any rate of his mother’s residence; and to the Canaanites (as the whole narrative implies), from her blood. The plea was “like that of our Henry II, the first Norman son of a Saxon mother” (Stanley).

Pieces. —Rather, shekels, which is the word normally understood in similar phrases (Judges 8:26). “Neither the citizens of Shechem nor the ignobly-ambitious bastard understood what true monarchy was, and still less what it ought to be in the commonwealth of Jehovah” (Ewald, ii. 389).

Out of the house of Baal-berith. —Like most temples in ancient days (e.g., that of Venus on Mount Eryx, the Parthenon, and that of Jupiter Latiaris), this served at once as a sanctuary, a fortress, and a bank. Similarly, the treasures amassed at Delphi enabled the three Phocian brothers, Phayllus, Phalaekus, and Onomarchus, to support the whole burden of the sacred war (Diodorus Siculus xvi.30; compare to Thucydides i.121 and ii.13). (Compare also to 1 Kings 15:18.)

Vain and light persons. —These are exactly analogous to the doruphoroi —a bodyguard of spear-bearers, which an ambitious Greek always hired as the first step to setting up a tyranny (Diogenes Laertius 1.49). We find Jephthah (Judges 11:3), David (1 Samuel 22:2), Absalom (2 Samuel 15:1), Rezon (1 Kings 11:24), Adonijah (1 Kings 1:5), and Jeroboam (2 Chronicles 13:7) doing exactly the same thing. Who these “vain” persons were is best defined in 1 Samuel 22:2. They were like the condottieri, or free-lances. The word vain (rikîm) is from the same root as Raca; it means vauriens. The word for “light persons” (pochazîm) occurs in Genesis 49:4 (applied to Reuben) and Zephaniah 3:4. It is from a root which means to boil over.

And he went unto his father’s house at Ophrah. —Probably, like Absalom, he seized the opportunity of some local or family feast at which all his brothers would be assembled (2 Samuel 13:23); it may even have been the anniversary of Gideon’s vision.

Slew his brethren ... —This is the first mention in Scripture of the hideous custom, so common among all Oriental despots, of anticipating conspiracies by destroying all their brothers and near kinsmen. (Compare Pope, Epistle to Arbuthnot: “Bear, like the Turk, no brother near the throne.”) There is little affection and much jealousy in polygamous households.

Abimelech by this vile wickedness set a fatal precedent, which was followed again and again in the kingdom of Israel by Baasha (1 Kings 15:29), Zimri (1 Kings 16:11), Jehu (2 Kings 10:7), and probably by other kings (2 Kings 15:0); and by Athaliah (2 Kings 11:1) in the kingdom of Judah. Herod also put to death most of his kinsmen, and some of his sons (see Life of Christ, i. 43). Seneca says, “Nec regna socium ferre, nec taedae sciunt”—nor realms nor weddings admit a sharer (Agam. 259).

Threescore and ten persons. —Jotham is counted in this number.

Upon one stone. —Perhaps on the rock on which Gideon’s altar was built; at any rate, by some formal execution. How ruthlessly these murders were carried out we see from 2 Kings 10:7, and from many events in Eastern history. On one occasion, at a banquet in Damascus, Abdallah-Ebn-Ali murdered no less than ninety of the rival dynasty of the Ommiades.

The house of Millo. —It cannot be determined whether Beth Millo is here a proper name, or whether Beth means the family or inhabitants of Millo. The Chaldee renders Millo as “a rampart;” and if this is correct, the “house of the rampart” was perhaps the same as the “tower of Shechem” (Judges 9:46–49). There was a Millo on Mount Zion (2 Samuel 5:9), which was also called a Beth Millo (2 Kings 12:21).

Made Abimelech king. —He was the first Israelite who ever bore that name. It does not appear that this royalty was recognized beyond the limits of Ephraim. Gideon had not only refused the title of king (melek), but even the title of ruler (Judges 8:23).

By the plain of the pillar that was in Shechem. —Rather, near the terebinth of the monument which is in Shechem. The word rendered “by” is im, which properly means with, but may mean “near,” as in Genesis 25:11. The word rendered “the pillar” is mutsabh, which the Syriac and Arabic versions take for a proper name, and the Chaldee renders as “the corn-field” or “statue.” Luther renders it the “lofty oak,” and the Vulgate follows another reading.

The Septuagint takes it to mean “a garrison” (Septuagint, stasis), which is the meaning it has in Isaiah 29:3; but as the terebinth is doubtless that under which Joshua had raised his “stone of witness” (Joshua 24:26), the mutsabh is perhaps a name for this stone. If so, the neighborhood of that pledge of faithfulness would add audacity to his acts.

There can be little doubt that the terebinth was the celebrated tree under which Jacob had made his family bury their idolatrous earrings and amulets (Genesis 35:4), and the terebinth (E.V., plain) of Moreh, near Shechem, under which Abraham had spread his tent and where he had built an altar (Genesis 12:6). Possibly, too, it may be the “terebinth of the enchanters” mentioned in Judges 9:37. The veneration attached to old trees lasted from generation to generation in Palestine, and the terebinth of Mamre was celebrated for a thousand years.