Judges 9:53

_AND A CERTAIN WOMAN CAST A PIECE OF A MILLSTONE UPON ABIMELECH'S HEAD, AND ALL TO BRAKE HIS SKULL._ A certain woman cast a ... millstone upon Abimelech's head, and all to break his skull. Similar was the fate of Pyrrhus. The Argives did not receive him; he fell before the wall, a certain woman having thrown down a tile from above on his head (Strabo, lib. 5:, 101). The Assyrian bas-reliefs afford counterparts of the scene here described, so vivid and exact that we might almost suppose them to be representations of the same historic events. The besieged city, the strong tower within, the men and women crowding its battlements, the fire applied to the doors, and even the huge fragments of stone dropping from the hands of one of the garrison on the heads of the assailants, are all well represented to the life, just as they are here described in the narrative of inspired truth (Goose, 'Ass...

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....

Verse Judges 9:53. _A PIECE OF A MILLSTONE_] פלח רכב _pelach recheb, a piece_ _of a chariot wheel_; but the word is used in other places for _upper_ _millstones_, and is so understood here by the _Vulgate, Septuagint,_ _Syriac_, and _Arabic_. _AND ALL TO BREAK HIS SKULL._] A most nonsensical version of ותרץ את גלגלתו _vattarits eth gulgolto_, which is literally, _And_ _she brake_, or _fractured, his skull_. Plutarch, in his life of Pyrrhus, observes that this king was killed at the siege of Thebes, by a _piece of a tile_, which a _woman_ threw upon his head....

The phrase “all” to is now obsolete, and means “quite,” “entirely,” as in Chaucer, Spenser, and Milton....

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 A CERTAIN WOMAN CAST A PIECE OF A MILLSTONE,.... Of the upper millstone, as the word signifies, which is observed by Jarchi and other Jewish commentators; this with other stones being carried up to the top of the tower, to do what execution they could with them: and a woman observing Abimelech making up to the door of the tower, took up this piece of millstone, and threw it down UPON ABIMELECH'S HEAD, AND ALL TO BREAK HIS SKULL; she did it with that view, though it may as well be rendered, or "she", or "it broke his skull" r; it made a fracture in it, which was mortal. Abendana observes, and so others, that that was measure for measure, a righteous retaliation, that as he had slain seventy of his brethren on one stone, he should die by means of a stone. r ותרץ את גלגלתו "et confregit cranium ejus", Junius Tremellius, Piscator so Tigurine version....

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....

A PIECE OF A. an upper. ALL TO BRAKE. altogether brake. (Obsolete.)...

_upper millstone_ lit. -millstone of riding"; i.e. the upper stone of a mill turned by a handle, the lower stone being stationary. In Palestine the grinding of corn for the household was, and still is, done by the women (Ecclesiastes 12:3, St Matthew 24:41); this explains how a woman came to use such a weapon. Cf. Judges 4:21....