Charles Ellicott Commentary Judges 9:6

"And all the men of Shechem assembled themselves together, and all the house of Millo, and went and made Abimelech king, by the oak of the pillar that was in Shechem." — Judges 9:6 (ASV)

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.