Judges 9:29

_AND WOULD TO GOD THIS PEOPLE WERE UNDER MY HAND! THEN WOULD I REMOVE ABIMELECH. AND HE SAID TO ABIMELECH, INCREASE THINE ARMY, AND COME OUT._ Would to God this people were under my hand! He seems to have been a boastful, impudent, and cowardly person, totally unfit to be a leader in a revolutionary crisis. The consequence was, that he allowed himself to be drawn into an ambush, was defeated, the city of Shechem destroyed and strewn with salt-Abimelech thereby intimating his desire that it might always continue barren and uninhabited-and the people took refuge in the stronghold, which was set fire to, and all in it perished....

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....

Verse Judges 9:29. _WOULD TO GOD THIS PEOPLE WERE UNDER MY HAND_] The very words and conduct of a sly, hypocritical demagogue. _INCREASE THINE ARMY, AND COME OUT._] When he found his party strong, and the public feeling warped to his side, then he appears to have sent a challenge to Abimelech, to come out and fight him....

Seditious and lawless acts Judges 9:25 now broke out into open rebellion. It was at an idolatrous feast in the house of Baal-berith, on occasion of the vintage, and when they were excited with wine, that the rebellion was matured. Those present began to “curse Abimelech,” to speak insultingly of him, and to revile him (compare Leviticus 20:9; 2 Samuel 19:21; Isaiah 8:21). Gaal, the son of Ebed, who was watching the opportunity, immediately incited them to revolt from the dominion of Abimelech, offering himself to be their captain; adding a message of defiance to Abimelech, addressed, probably, to Zebul, who was pr

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

AND WOULD TO GOD THIS PEOPLE WERE UNDER MY HAND,.... Or government, that I were but the ruler of their city, and general of their forces: THEN WOULD I REMOVE ABIMELECH; from his kingly office, and rid Shechem of him, and all the country round about, and indeed remove him out of the world: AND HE SAID TO ABIMELECH; as if he was present, in a hectoring and blustering manner; or he said what follows to his officer under him, that represented him; or he sent a messenger to him, saying, INCREASE THINE ARMY, AND COME OUT; bidding him defiance, challenging him to come into the open field and fight him, and bring as many forces along with him as he could or would, not doubting but he should be a match for him; and the men of Shechem would see they had nothing to fear from him, having such a man as Gaal at the head of them; this he said to engage the Shechemites to make him their ruler....

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._...

WOULD TO GOD. would that. Figure of speech _Ecphonesis._ App-6. AND HE SAID. The Septuagint reads "and say"....

_Gaal stirs up the Shechemites: Abimelech defeats them_ 26 _.Gaal the son of Ebed_ i.e. _of a slave_; but pronounce throughout _Obed_, with LXX. cod. B (Ιωβηλ for Ιωβηδ) and Vulgate; a common name. Gaal is described as a new-comer, whether an Israelite or a Canaanite is not clear. Judges 9:26 seem to be parallel to Judges 9:22; both narrate the rise of treason in Shechem, and both lead up to parallel accounts of Abimelech's retaliation....