Judges 9:46

_AND WHEN ALL THE MEN OF THE TOWER OF SHECHEM HEARD THAT, THEY ENTERED INTO AN HOLD OF THE HOUSE OF THE GOD BERITH._ They entered into an hold ... - literally, into the tower of the house of the god Berith, which was capacious enough to admit more than a thousand persons. Among the pagan, temples and places of worship were commonly built on mountains or high places, either in the form of forts or with towers attached to them....

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 9:46. _A HOLD OF THE HOUSE OF THE GOD BERITH._] This must mean the _precincts_ of the temple, as we find there were a thousand men and women together in that place....

AN HOLD OF THE HOUSE OF THE GOD BERITH - As combining the advantages of a “sanctuary” (compare 1 Kings 2:28) and a fortress. The word rendered “hold” occurs elsewhere only in 1 Samuel 13:6, where it is rendered “high-place.” Its exact signification is uncertain....

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 WHEN ALL THE MEN OF THE TOWER OF SHECHEM HEARD THAT,.... That the city of Shechem was taken, the inhabitants of it slain, the city beaten down, and sowed with salt; by which it appears that this tower was not within the city, for then the men of it would have seen what was done, and not be said only to hear it; though it was not far from it, and possessed by Shechemites, and whither some of the principal inhabitants had now fled for safety; perhaps it is the same with the house of Millo, and so that part of Jotham's curse, which respected that, had now its accomplishment, otherwise no account is given of it: THEY ENTERED INTO AN HOLD OF THE HOUSE OF THE GOD BERITH; not thinking themselves safe enough in the tower, they betook themselves to the temple of Baalberith their god, see Judges 9:4 which was a strong fortified place, as temples often were; or however had a strong hol

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

BERITH. covenant. a sanctuary....

_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,...