Judges 9:50

_THEN WENT ABIMELECH TO THEBEZ, AND ENCAMPED AGAINST THEBEZ, AND TOOK IT._ Then went Abimelech to Thebez, and encamped against ... it - now Tobas, not far from Shechem....

50-57 The Shechemites were ruined by Abimelech; now he is reckoned with, who was their leader in villany. Evil pursues sinners, and sometimes overtakes them, when not only at ease, but triumphant. Though wickedness may prosper a while, it will not prosper always. The history of mankind, if truly told, would greatly resemble that of this chapter. The records of what are called splendid events present to us such contests for power. Such scenes, though praised of men, fully explain the Scripture doctrine of the deceitfulness and desperate wickedness of the human heart, the force of men's lust, and the effect of Satan's influence. Lord, thou has given us thy word of truth and righteousness, O pour upon us thy spirit of purity, peace, and love, and write thy holy law in our hearts....

The men of Thebez (modern Tubas) had, doubtless, joined the Shechemites in their rebellion against 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

THEN WENT ABIMELECH TO THEBEZ,.... Which, according to Ben Gersom, had rebelled against him; it was near to Shechem. Adrichomius says p, the ruins, where he thinks stood the city of Thebez, were but one furlong from Neapolis or Shechem, where, to the left of Jacob's well, were to be seen ruins of a large town, marble stones, whole pillars, and other signs of large palaces, and the soil wonderfully fruitful; and Jerome says q, that in his time there was a village called Thebes, on the borders of Neapolis or Shechem, as you go to Scythopolis, thirteen miles from it. It must be near Shechem, inhabited by Shechemites, to fulfil Jotham's curse, Judges 9:20 AND ENCAMPED AGAINST THEBEZ, AND TOOK IT: it seems not to have held out long, being deserted by its inhabitants, who fled to the tower, as follows. p Theatrum Terrae Sanct. p. 70. q De loc. Heb. 95. D....

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

THE DEATH OF ABIMELECH. He went on burning and destroying till from the tower of Thebez (p. 30) a woman threw a mill-stone which crashed through his skull. That he might not be said to have died by a woman's hand he begged his armour-bearer to give him the _coup de grace._ His death scene is strikingly like that of Saul, in whose person the kingship was revived (2 Samuel 1:9). Judges 9:56. The closing verses point the moral of a tale which Greek poets would have woven into a tragic drama of fate. In the field of destiny men reap as they have sown....

UNTO THEBEZ— This was a city supposed to have revolted from Abimelech, in the neighbourhood of Shechem, in the tribe of Ephraim, situated, according to Eusebius and St. Jerome, at thirteen miles distance from Shechem....

_Death of Abimelech Judges 9:50-57_ 50 Then went Abimelech to Thebez, and encamped against Thebez, and took it. 51 But there was a strong tower within the city, and thither fled all the men and women, and all they of the city, and shut it to them, and gat them up to the top of the tower. 52 And Abimelech came unto the tower, and fought against it, and went hard unto the door of the tower to burn it with fire. 53 And a certain woman cast a piece of a millstone upon Abimelech's head, and all to break his skull. 54 Then he called hastily unto the young man his armourbearer, and said unto him, Draw thy sword, and slay me, that men say not of me, A woman slew him. And his young man thrust him through, and he died, 55 And when the men of Israel saw that Abimelech was dead, they departed every man unto his place. 56 Thus God rendered the wickedness of Abimelech, which he

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....