Judges 9:42

_AND WHEN ZEBUL THE RULER OF THE CITY HEARD THE WORDS OF GAAL THE SON OF EBED, HIS ANGER WAS KINDLED._ No JFB commentary on these verses....

30-49 Abimelech intended to punish the Schechemites for slighting him now, but God punished them for their serving him formerly in the murder of Gideon's sons. When God uses men as instruments in his hand to do his work, he means one thing, and they another. That, which they hoped would have been for their welfare, proved a snare and a trap, as those will certainly find, who run to idols for shelter; such will prove a refuge of lies....

After Gaal’s expulsion, “the people went out into the field,” either to complete the vintage, or for some other agricultural operation. “They” (Zebul and his party) sent word of this to Abimelech....

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 IT CAME TO PASS ON THE MORROW,.... The day after the battle: THAT THE PEOPLE WENT OUT INTO THE FIELD; some think to fight, and try the event of another battle, in order to be freed from Abimelech, but that seems not so likely: rather to finish their vintage, as Josephus l, or to till their ground, to plough and sow, which quickly came on after the vintage was ended; find this they might do the more securely, since Abimelech had withdrawn himself and his forces to his place of habitation, and so concluded he would not soon at least return to them; and the rather they might think he would be more easy, with then, since Gaal was thrust out from among them: AND THEY TOLD ABIMELECH; or it was told Abimelech, that the people came out into the field, and so an opportunity offered to him to come and cut them off, as they were at their business unarmed. l Antiqu. l. 5. c. 7. sect. 4....

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

ABIMELECH DESTROYS SHECHEM. These verses seem to contain a second, independent account of the attack on Shechem, the sequel to Judges 9:22. Judges 9:43. Abimelech adopts the same tactics whereby his father routed the Midianites (Judges 7:16). Judges 9:44. Read, with the LXX, the company that was with me. Judges 9:45. To sow a city with salt was to declare symbolically that it was henceforth to be as fruitless and desolate as a salt desert (Deuter

_the people went out_ Perhaps to lie in wait for passers by, if we connect this verse with Judges 9:25....

_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....