Judges 9:45

_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....

Verse Judges 9:45. _AND SOWED IT WITH SALT._] Intending that the destruction of this city should be a _perpetual_ memorial of his achievements. The _salt_ was not designed to render it _barren_, as some have imagined; for who would think of cultivating a city? but as _salt_ is an emblem of _incorruption_ and _perpetuity_, it was no doubt designed to _perpetuate_ the memorial of this transaction, and as a token that he wished this desolation to be _eternal_. This _sowing a place with salt_ was a custom in different nations to express _permanent desolation_ and _abhorrence_. _Sigonius_ observes that when the city of _Milan_ was taken, in A.D. 1162, the walls were razed, and _it was sown with salt_. And _Brantome_ informs us that it was ancient custom in France to _sow the house_ of a man _with salt_, who had...

SOWED IT WITH SALT - Expressing by this action his hatred, and his wish, that when utterly destroyed as a city, it might not even be a fruitful field. Salt is the emblem of barrenness (see the marginal references)....

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 FOUGHT AGAINST THE CITY ALL THAT DAY,.... By throwing stones or arrows into it: AND HE TOOK THE CITY; it was surrendered to him, not being able to stand out against his forces: AND SLEW THE PEOPLE THAT WAS THEREIN; all but those that were of his own family and his friends; all that had taken up arms against him, or had shown their dislike of his government, and were his enemies: AND BEAT DOWN THE CITY; the houses in it, and walls of it, though it was his native place: AND SOWED IT WITH SALT; not to make it barren, for he would rather then have sowed the field, though this would not have had any effect of that kind, for any time at least; but to show his detestation of it, because of the ill usage he had met with, and as a token of its perpetual destruction, to which he devoted it, determining that if it was in his power it should never be rebuilt; but it was hereafter,...

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

_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,...

AND SOWED IT WITH SALT— Salt, in a certain quantity, makes land barren. Hence, in Scripture, _a land of salt_ signifies a barren land; Deuteronomy 29:23. Psalms 107:33.Zephaniah 2:9. Prophane authors use the same expression. See Plin. lib. 31: cap. 7. Virg. Georg. 2: ver. 238 and Bich. Hieroz. pars 1: lib. 3. Abimelech intended by this ceremony to shew his hatred of the Shechemites, by wishing that their city might lie waste, and be a perpetual desolation. Calmet observes, that modern history affords many examples of a similar vengeance. See his Comment. REFLECTIONS.—Such proceedings were too public to be concealed, and too dangerous to be neglected. 1. Zebul, Abimelech's governor o