Judges 9:57

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....

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 ALL THE EVIL OF THE MEN OF SHECHEM,.... In aiding Abimelech to slay his brethren, and in making him king after so foul a fact committed: DID GOD RENDER UPON THEIR HEADS; by suffering Abimelech to beat down their city, and destroy the inhabitants of it, and by burning the hold in which the men of the tower of Shechem were, and them in it: AND UPON THEM CAME THE CURSE OF JOTHAM THE SON OF JERUBBAAL; both upon Abimelech, and the men of Shechem, they being destroyed by one another, as Jotham imprecated they might, and foretold they would, see Judges 9:20....

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....

_the curse of Jotham_ See Judges 9:20. The writer has a strong sense that God controls history, and that His control is just, Judges 9:56....

AND ALL THE EVIL OF THE MEN OF SHECHEM, &C.— Thus Providence punished him for his wicked cruelty, after chastising the Shechemites for having served as the instrument of his ambition. Let it not be imagined, that all this happened without a special direction of heaven. The sacred historian is express to that purpose. He is silent as to what became of Jotham, Gaal, and Zebul; and, indeed, it is of little importance to know: but it cannot too often be repeated to men, that in heaven there is a God, the avenger of wickedness; that though we may not always without rashness consider temporal afflictions as the punishment of their guilt on whom they fall, yet we should be well assured, that all second causes are in the hand of Providence, and that the exemplary punishment of Abimelech and the Shechemites should make those tremble who are like them....

_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....

LIFE WITHOUT LAW JUDGES _PHILIP SMITH_ CHAPTER 9 V1 Abimelech, Jerubbaal’s son, went to his mother’s brothers in Shechem. He spoke to them and he spoke to all his mother’s *tribe. V2 ‘Ask all the people who live in Shechem this question. Is it better to have Jerubbaal’s 70 sons to rule over you? Or is it better to have only one? Remember that I am a member in your family.’ V3 The brothers repeated this to the people in Shechem. As a result, they decided to serve Abimelech. ‘He is our brother’, they said. V4 They gave him 70 pieces of silver from Baalberith’s *temple. Abimelech used these to hire some men. These men were worth nothing and they were lazy. They followed him. V5 He went to his father’s house in Ophrah. There he murdered his 70 brothers, Jerubbaal’s sons, on a b