John Gill Commentary Judges 9

And Abimelech the son of Jerubbaal went to Shechem, unto
his mother's brethren
It seems that though the mother of Abimelech lived at Shechem, he was taken and brought up in his father's house at Ophrah, where he was when he died; and from hence he came to Shechem, to pay a visit to his uncles there; whether his mother was now living, is not certain:

and communed with them ;
about the death of his father, the state of his family, and the government of Israel:

and with all the family of the house of his mother's father ;
that descended from his grandfather, the several branches of them, and of the family, the heads of them at least:

saying ,
as follows.

Speak, I pray you, in the ears of all the men of Shechem
Which, though the Targum calls the inhabitants of the place, Ben Melech better interprets it the lords of Shechem, as the phrase will bear to be rendered; for it is more likely he would have this first whispered and suggested to the principal men of the city, before the common people were acquainted with it, and indeed in order to use their influence with them:

whether is better for you, either that all the sons of Jerubbaal,
[which are] seventy persons, reign over you, or that one reign over
you ?
intimating thereby, that though Gideon his father has refused the regal government when offered him, it was but reasonable that his sons, or some one of them, should be tried, whether it would be acceptable to them.

Nay, he would insinuate, that the sons of Gideon, who were seventy in number, were either contending with one another about it, or contriving to divide the government among them, and therefore desired it might be moved to consideration, whether it would not be more eligible to fix upon some one person to be their ruler, than to be under the government of seventy; or, in other words, whether it was not better to have one king than seventy kings; but in reality there was no necessity for any consultation about this matter, the sons of judges never succeeded their fathers in government; nor does it appear that any of Gideon's sons had any thought about it, nor any desire to be made kings, as appears from Jotham's parable; and this was only a wicked insinuation of this man's, with an ambitious view of getting the kingdom to himself, as follows:

remember also that I am your bone and your flesh ;
was of the same tribe and city with them, born among them, his mother always living with them, and he having now many near relations by his mother's side that dwelt there; and therefore while they had this affair of government under consideration, he would have them think of him to be their king, which would be to their honour, and to their advantage, to have one so nearly related to them on the throne, from whom they might expect many favours.

And his mother's brethren spoke of him in the ears of the men
of Shechem all these words
Got them together in some certain place, and laid before them all that Abimelech had suggested to them, and spoke in his favour to them:

and their hearts inclined to follow Abimelech, for they said, he is our
brother ;
being fond of kingly government, as the Israelites generally were, it seemed most agreeable to them to have one king over them, and none more acceptable than one so nearly related to them, who they doubted not, from his alliance to them, would be ready to oblige them on all occasions.

And they gave him seventy pieces of silver out of the house of
Baalbirith
The temple of their idol; of this name (See Gill on Judges 8:33), out of the money which had beendedicated to his service by freewill offering, or out of a bank which they deposited there for greatersafety, and perhaps out of a superstitious notion of its being more prosperous and successful: of what valuethese pieces were is not certain; by pieces of silver, commonly shekels are meant; but these are thought tobe of too little value to be given to a man to raise an army with, or carry on a scheme to advance himself tothe throne; and talents are judged to be too large a sum for such a city to contribute out of a temple oftheirs, and that but lately built, as it must be since the death of Gideon; they are therefore thought to bepounds, as the Vulgate Latin version renders it.

However, in the number of them there seems to be some reference to the number of Gideon's sons, who were to be destroyed by bribing men with this sum, which was the scheme concerted between Abimelech and the men of Shechem;

wherewith Abimelech hired vain and light persons, which followed him ;
perhaps seventy of them, giving to each a piece or pound of silver; these were a base scoundrel sort ofpeople, that lived in an idle scandalous manner, a sort of freebooters, that lived upon what they could layhold on in a way of force and rapine; men of light heads and empty brains, and whose pockets were as lightand empty as their heads, and fit to engage in any enterprise, though ever so barbarous, for the sake of alittle money.

And he went to his father's house at Ophrah
Which, according to Bunting ^F1 , was ten miles from Shechem:

and slew his brethren the sons of Jerubbaal, being seventy persons,
upon one stone :
in which he was assisted by the ruffians he had hired with seventy pieces of silver; these were laid one after another upon one and the same stone, as being convenient for the execution of them; or as serving as an altar on which they were sacrificed to Baal, out of whose temple the money was taken to hire the executioners with. They are said to be seventy that were slain, though one escaped, the round number being given, as in many other instances, as in (Genesis 46:27) (John 20:24) ,

notwithstanding, yet Jotham the youngest son of Jerubbaal was left ;
or remained alive, not out of compassion to his youth, but because he could not be found:

for he hid himself ;
for no doubt Abimelech, and his crew, were most forward to lay hold of the eldest, and sacrifice them first, as being most in his way; this gave Jotham the youngest not only notice of their design, but an opportunity of providing for his safety, or however his friends; for it may be rendered, as in some versions, "he was hidden" {b}, that is, by others.

FOOTNOTES:

• F1: Travels of the Patriarchs p. 111.