the tower of Shechem Migdal-Shechem or Tower of Shechem, not the citadel of S., but an unwalled village in the neighbourhood, marked by a tower, cf. Judges 8:9; Judges 8:17.

the hold of the house of El-berith) The rendering hold Judges 9:49, i.e. an underground excavation, suits the only other place where the word (ṣerîaḥ) occurs, 1 Samuel 13:6; in Nabataean Aramaic the word is used for the vaultof a grave (NSI., pp. 237, 241); it is frequently found in Arabic epitaphs from Egypt with the sense of tomb(Clermont Ganneau, Recueil d'Arch. Or., vii. p. 200). So in Judges 9:49; they laid the faggots upon the vault, set the vaulton fire over the heads of the people within. For El-bĕrîth cf. Judges 9:4; Judges 8:33 Baal-bĕrîth.

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