Judges 8:31

_AND GIDEON HAD THREESCORE AND TEN SONS OF HIS BODY BEGOTTEN: FOR HE HAD MANY WIVES._ No JFB commentary on these verses....

29-35 As soon as Gideon was dead, who kept the people to the worship of the God of Israel, they found themselves under no restraint; then they went after Baalim, and showed no kindness to the family of Gideon. No wonder if those who forget their God, forget their friends. Yet conscious of our own ingratitude to the Lord, and observing that of mankind in general, we should learn to be patient under any unkind returns we meet with for our poor services, and resolve, after the Divine example, not to be overcome of evil, but to overcome evil with good....

Verse Judges 8:31. _HIS CONCUBINE_] A _lawful_ but _secondary wife_, whose children could not _inherit_. _WHOSE NAME HE CALLED ABIMELECH._] That is, _my father is king_, or _my father hath reigned_. This name was doubtless given by the _mother_, and so it should be understood here; she wished to raise her son to the supreme government, and therefore gave him a name which might serve to stimulate him to seek that which she hoped he should enjoy in his father's right. See the following chapter (Judges 9)....

Abimelech’s mother was not reckoned among the wives, being, probably, one of the Canaanite population in Shechem Judges 9:28 : neither was Abimelech himself reckoned with the 70 other sons of Jerubbaal (Judges 9:24. Compare Judges 11:1)....

EXPOSITION JUDGES 8:22, JUDGES 8:23 RULE THOU, etc. The gratitude of Israel to their great deliverer, added to a sense that it would be for their own security, and to a desire, already perhaps beginning to he felt, to be like the nations around them (1 Samuel 8:5), naturally led to the offer, "Rule thou over us." But the time predicted by Moses (Deuteronomy 17:14, Deuteronomy 17:15) was not yet come. And so Gideon returned an answer replete with moderation an

AND HIS CONCUBINE THAT WAS IN SHECHEM,.... Which was not an harlot, but a secondary or half wife; such were generally taken from handmaids, and of the meaner sort, and were not in such esteem as proper wives, had not the management of household affairs, only a share in the bed, and their children did not inherit. This concubine of Gideon's seems not to have been taken into his house at all, but lived at Shechem, perhaps in her father's house, and here Gideon met with her when he went to Shechem as a judge to try causes; her name, according to Josephus l, was Druma: SHE ALSO BARE HIM A SON; as his other wives did; perhaps all the children he had were sons, and this was one over and above the seventy, and not to be reckoned into that number: WHOSE NAME HE CALLED ABIMELECH: which signifies, "my father a king"; which he gave him either in memory of the offer made him to be king of Israel,...

CHAPTER 8 INTERNAL STRIFE, GIDEON'S FAILURE AND END _ 1. The strife (Judges 8:1)_ 2. The complete deliverance (Judges 8:10) 3. Gideon's failure and end (Judges 8:22) 4. Israel's failure after Gideon (Judges 8:33) Internal strife follows. The two princes of Midian, Oreb and Zeeb, were slain (Judges 7:25). Oreb means “raven” and Zeeb means “wolf.” Oreb, the raven, is slain on the rock and Zeeb, the wolf, at the winepress. The raven, the bird which represents darkness and evil, is the type of corruption; the wolf is the destroyer o

GIDEON REFUSES A KINGDOM, AND ERECTS AN EPHOD. Long before the Israelites had any human kings. Yahweh was regarded as their Divine King, and Gideon, like Samuel (1 Samuel 8:7; 1 Samuel 10:19; 1 Samuel 12:12; 1 Samuel 12:17; 1 Samuel 12:19), expresses the view that the Divine kingship leaves _no_ room for a human sovereignty. This view became prevalent in the eighth century B.C., when a succession of wicked kings was ruining the northern kingdom (Hosea 8:4;...

_his concubine that was in Shechem_ A connexion of this kind is illustrated by early Arabian custom: the woman, or -female friend" (_ṣadâḳa_), did not leave her home, the union was of a temporary character (hence the term, _mot-a_marriage) and required no consent from parents or guardians, the children remained with their mother and belonged to her tribe; cf. Judges 9:1; Judges 9:14. Robertson Smith, _Kinship and Marriage in early Arabia_, p. 69 ff. The narrative seems to imply that the woman was a Canaanite. _and he called his name Abimelech_ lit. _set_, an idiom found only in late writings 2 Kings 17:34; Nehemiah 9:7;

_Gideon's Children; His Death Judges 8:29-32_ 29 And Jerubbaal the son of Joash went and dwelt in his own house. 30 And Gideon had threescore and ten sons of his body begotten: for he had many wives. 31 And his concubine that was in Shechem, she also bare him a son, whose name he called Abimelech. 32 And Gideon the son of Joash died in a good old age, and was buried in the sepulchre of Joash his father, in Ophrah of the Abiezrites. 15. _Why does the narrator mention Abimelech? Judges 8:31_ Abimelech was the son of Gideon and his concubine who dwelt in Shechem. Since most of the history recorded in chapter nine deals with Abimelech's abortive attempt to be king over Israel, mention is made of him at this point. The closing verses of chapter eight are a summary of the clos