Judges 9:44

_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....

This verse explains the purpose of both the present and the former division of Abimelech’s forces into several companies, namely, that while some of the companies attacked the men of Shechem in the field, another company, starting from their ambush, might occupy the approach to the city gate, and so cut off their retreat....

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 ABIMELECH, AND THE COMPANY THAT WAS WITH HIM,.... Which he had the particular command of; or "the heads" m, for in the company with him, as Kimchi observes, were great men; and so the Septuagint renders it, the princes that were with him: RUSHED FORWARD, AND STOOD IN THE ENTERING OF THE GATE OF THE CITY; to prevent the people that were in the field getting into it, and any from coming out of it to their relief: AND THE TWO OTHER COMPANIES RAN UPON ALL THE PEOPLE THAT WERE IN THE FIELDS, AND SLEW THEM; so that by this means none escaped. m והראשים "et capita", Pagninus, Montanus, Drusius; "et principes", Vatablus....

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

RAN. rushed...

_Abimelech destroys Shechem and Migdal-Shechem_ After the Shechemites have suffered the severe defeat just described, and Abimelech has retired and dwelt at Arumah, it is incredible that, on the next morning, the people should come out of the city as if nothing had happened, and that Abimelech should be able to surprise them by the same device which had proved so successful the day before. All difficulties disappear if we regard these verses, not as the sequel to 34 41, but as a second account of Abimelech's attack on Shechem, originally following 22 25. The Shechemites break out into open treason (Judges 9:25); A. takes instant (-on the morrow" Judges 9:42) and severe revenge. Moore thinks that Judges 9:22 are derived from E,...

_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