Judges 9:24

_THAT THE CRUELTY DONE TO THE THREESCORE AND TEN SONS OF JERUBBAAL MIGHT COME, AND THEIR BLOOD BE LAID UPON ABIMELECH THEIR BROTHER, WHICH SLEW THEM; AND UPON THE MEN OF SHECHEM, WHICH AIDED HIM IN THE KILLING OF HIS BRETHREN._ No JFB commentary on these verses....

22-29 Abimelech is seated in the throne his father refused. But how long does this glory last? Stay but three years, and see the bramble withered and burned. The prosperity of the wicked is short and fickle. The Shechemites are plagued by no other hand than Abimelech's. They raised him unjustly to the throne; they first feel the weight of his sceptre....

EXPOSITION JUDGES 9:22 HAD REIGNED. The Hebrew word here used is quite a different one from that in Judges 9:8, Judges 9:10, Judges 9:12, Judges 9:14, and elsewhere, where the reign of a king is designated. It means to exercise dominion, to be a chief or captain over a people. The use of it here suggests that though, as we read in Judges 9:6, the Canaanite men of Shechem and the house of Millo had made him their king, yet he was not made king b

THAT THE CRUELTY DONE TO THE SEVENTY SONS OF JERUBBAAL MIGHT COME,.... That vengeance might come on the authors of it; so things were ordered in Providence that this might come to pass: AND THEIR BLOOD BE LAID UPON ABIMELECH THEIR BROTHER, WHICH SLEW THEM; be charged to his account, and he suffer for shedding it: AND UPON THE MEN OF SHECHEM WHICH AIDED HIM IN KILLING OF HIS BRETHREN; by giving him money to hire men to go with him to do it, and perhaps by words encouraging the assassins, and who might be of the city of Shechem....

CHAPTER 9 ABIMELECH THE KING AND HIS WICKEDNESS _ 1. The murder of Gideon's sons (Judges 9:1)_ 2. Jotham's parable (Judges 9:7) 3. Scenes of strife and destruction of Shechem (Judges 9:22) 4. Abimelech's end (Judges 9:50) The story of Abimelech is intensely interesting in its typical meaning. Abimelech was the offspring of an unlawful union: the son of Gideon and the concubine in Shechem. He was half Israelite and half Canaanite. Abimelech means “my father was king”; he claims therefore supremacy, lordship over the people Israel on the basis of succession. His father had refused that honor; the bastard offspring

THE SEDITION OF THE SHECHEMITES. The statement that Abimelech was prince over Israel is an exaggeration, and the chronological note is probably by R. Judges 9:23. The Shechemites soon tired of the government of their brother (Judges 9:3). God sent an evil spirit between the king and his subjects; _cf._ the evil spirit from the Lord that possessed Saul (1 Samuel 16:14; 1 Samuel 18:10), and misled the prophets of Ahab (1 Kings 22:19); and recall the classical saying, _Quem Deus vult perdere_,_ prius dementat._...

_The Shechemites turn against Abimelech_ 22 _.was prince over Israel_ Strictly, as the whole ch. implies, only over Shechem and its neighbourhood (Ophrah, Thebez). The words are an editorial generalization. The title of _king_is purposely avoided....

_The Conspiracy of Gaal Judges 9:22-49_ 22 When Abimelech had reigned three years over Israel, 23 Then God sent an evil spirit between Abimelech and the men of Shechem; and the men of Shechem dealt treacherously with Abimelech: 24 That the cruelty done to the threescore and ten sons of Jerubbaal might come, and their blood be laid upon Abimelech their brother, which slew them; and upon the men of Shechem, which aided him in the killing of his brethren, 25 And the men of Shechem set liers in wait for him in the top of the mountains, and they robbed all that came along that way by them: and it was told Abimelech. 26 And Gaal the son of Ebed came with his brethren, and went over to Shechem: and the men of Shechem put their confidence in him. 27 And they went out into the fields, and gathered their vineyards, and trode the grapes, and made merry, and went into the house o

THE STORY OF ABIMELECH This chapter breaks the regular order of the book, since Abimelech is not thought of as a judge, and the Canaanites are not here regarded as oppressors. The story, however, throws a valuable light on the way in which Israel fell into unfaithfulness, when free from the yoke of foreign oppression. 1-6. The rise of Abimelech....

LIFE WITHOUT LAW JUDGES _PHILIP SMITH_ CHAPTER 9 V1 Abimelech, Jerubbaal’s son, went to his mother’s brothers in Shechem. He spoke to them and he spoke to all his mother’s *tribe. V2 ‘Ask all the people who live in Shechem this question. Is it better to have Jerubbaal’s 70 sons to rule over you? Or is it better to have only one? Remember that I am a member in your family.’ V3 The brothers repeated this to the people in Shechem. As a result, they decided to serve Abimelech. ‘He is our brother’, they said. V4 They gave him 70 pieces of silver from Baalberith’s *temple. Abimelech used these to hire some men. These men were worth nothing and they were lazy. They followed him. V5 He went to his father’s house in Ophrah. There he murdered his 70 brothers, Jerubbaal’s sons, on a b