Judges 9:5

_AND HE WENT UNTO HIS FATHER'S HOUSE AT OPHRAH, AND SLEW HIS BRETHREN THE SONS OF JERUBBAAL, BEING THREESCORE AND TEN PERSONS, UPON ONE STONE: NOTWITHSTANDING YET JOTHAM THE YOUNGEST SON OF JERUBBAAL WAS LEFT; FOR HE HID HIMSELF._ Went unto ... Ophrah, and slew his brethren ... upon one stone. This is the first mention of a barbarous atrocity which has, with appalling frequency, been perpetrated in the despotic countries of the East-that of some one son of the deceased monarch usurping the throne, and hastening to confirm himself in the possession by the massacre of all the natural or legitimate competitors. Abimelech killed his brothers on one stone, either by dashing them from one rock or sacrificing them on one stone altar, in revenge for the demolition of Baal's altar by their father. This latter view is the more probable, from the Shechemites (Judges 9:24) aiding in it.

1-6 The men of Shechem chose Abimelech king. God was not consulted whether they should have any king, much less who it should be. If parents could see what their children would do, and what they are to suffer, their joy in them often would be turned into sorrow: we may be thankful that we cannot know what shall happen. Above all, we should fear and watch against sin; for our evil conduct may produce fatal effects upon our families, after we are in our graves....

Verse Judges 9:5. _SLEW HIS BRETHREN_] His brothers by the father's side, Judges 8:30. This was a usual way of securing an ill-gotten throne; the person who had no right destroying all those that had right, that he might have no competitors. _YET JOTHAM - WAS LEFT_] That is, all the seventy were killed except Jotham, if there were not seventy _besides_ Jotham. All the histories of all the nations of the earth are full of cruelties similar to those of Abimelech: cousins, uncles, brothers, husbands, and fathers have been murdered by their cousins, nephews, brothers, wives, and children, in order that they might have the undisturbed possession of an ill-gotten throne. Europe, Asia, and Africa, can witness all this. Even now, some of these horribly obtained governments exist....

Such wholesale slaughters have always been common in Eastern monarchies, and are among the fruits of polygamy....

EXPOSITION JUDGES 9:1 THE SON OF JERUBBAAL. Throughout this chapter Gideon is spoken of by the name of Jerubbaal. There must be some cause for this. The simplest and most probable cause is that this whole history of Abimelech is taken from some other source than the preceding chapters. And a considerable difference in the style of the narrative, which is feebler and more obscure, seems to bear out this inference. WENT TO SHECHEM. This revolt from the house of Gideon in favour of Abimelech seems to partake of the nature of an Ephraimite rising against the supremacy of Manasseh. It was doubtless galling to the pride of the great tribe of Ephraim (Judges 8:1, Judges 8:2;...

AND HE WENT TO HIS FATHER'S HOUSE AT OPHRAH,.... Which, according to Bunting a, was ten miles from Shechem: AND SLEW HIS BRETHREN THE SONS OF JERUBBAAL, BEING SEVENTY PERSONS, UPON ONE STONE: in which he was assisted by the ruffians he had hired with seventy pieces of silver; these were laid one after another upon one and the same stone, as being convenient for the execution of them; or as serving as an altar on which they were sacrificed to Baal, out of whose temple the money was taken to hire the executioners with. They are said to be seventy that were slain, though one escaped, the round number being given, as in many other instances, as in Genesis 46:27, NOTWITHSTANDING, YET JOTHAM THE YOUNGEST SON OF JERUBBAAL WAS LEFT; or remained alive, not out of compassion to his youth, but because he could not be found: for he hi

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

JUDGES 9. THE KINGSHIP AND FALL OF ABIMELECH. The story of Gideon's half-Canaanite son does not equal the finest parts of the book in dramatic interest, but the glimpse which it affords of the relations subsisting between the mixed races of Palestine in the time of the Judges is of great value to the historian. The whole narrative is ancient, though not quite uniform. Here D makes no contribution. Apparently he did not regard Abimelech as worthy to rank among the Judges, and therefore he omitted this section, which was restored to its place by R. JUDGES 9:1. ABIMELECH MADE KING OF SHECHEM.Abimelech probably means the (Divine) King is Father, which throws some light on Gideon's conception of his God. He and other Israelites were already feeling after that great truth of the Divine Fatherhood, which is the heart of Christianity. Shechem ...

_upon one stone_ as if they were sacrificial victims (cf. 1 Samuel 14:33 f.); perhaps also to avoid promiscuous blood-shed. For this Oriental manner of inaugurating a new reign cf. 2 Kings 10:1 ff; 2 Kings 11:1. Jotham escaped, like Joash 2 Kings 11:2....

UPON ONE STONE— It has been conjectured from this by some, that Abimelech intended to make his brethren a great victim to Baal; for a stone was sometimes used for an altar, 1 Samuel 6:14.; and so they take this to be done in revenge of the sacrifice of the bullock prepared for Baal, chap. Judges 6:25. Which crime of Gideon, as these idolaters account it, they designed to expiate by the sacrifice of all his sons....