Judges 9:7

_AND WHEN THEY TOLD IT TO JOTHAM, HE WENT AND STOOD IN THE TOP OF MOUNT GERIZIM, AND LIFTED UP HIS VOICE, AND CRIED, AND SAID UNTO THEM, HEARKEN UNTO ME, YE MEN OF SHECHEM, THAT GOD MAY HEARKEN UNTO YOU._ He went and stood in the top of mount Gerizim, and lifted up his voice. The spot he chose was, like the house-tops, the public place of Shechem; and the parable drawn from the rivalry of the various trees was appropriate to the diversified foliage of the valley below. Eastern people are exceedingly fond of parables, and use them for conveying reproofs which they could not give in any other way. The top of Gerizim is not so high in the rear of the town as it is nearer to the plain. With a little exertion of voice, he could easily have been heard by the people of the city; because the hill so overhangs the valley that a person from the side or summit would have no difficulty in speaking...

7-21 There was no occasion for the trees to choose a king, they are all the trees of the Lord which he has planted. Nor was there any occasion for Israel to set a king over them, for the Lord was their King. Those who bear fruit for the public good, are justly respected and honoured by all that are wise, more than those who merely make a figure. All these fruit-trees gave much the same reason for their refusal to be promoted over the trees; or, as the margin reads it, to go up and down for the trees. To rule, involves a man in a great deal both of toil and care. Those who are preferred to public trust and power, must forego all private interests and advantages, for the good of others. And those advanced to honour and dignity, are in great danger of losing their fruitfulness. For which reason, they that desire to do good, are afraid of being too great. Jotham compares Abimelech to the bra...

Verse Judges 9:7. _STOOD IN THE TOP OF MOUNT GERIZIM_] _Gerizim_ and _Ebal_ were mounts very near to each other; the former lying to the north, the latter to the south, and at the foot of them Shechem. But see some remarks on the extent of the human voice in some hilly countries in the following extract from a late traveller in the East: - "The great extent to which the sound of the voice is conveyed may be mentioned. Some persons have thought this a proof of the extreme rarity of the atmosphere. A similar observation is made by Captain Parry in his Voyage of Discovery to the Polar Regions in 1819-20, where he states that in the depth of winter the sound of the men's voices was heard at a much greater distance than usual. This phenomenon is constantly observed on the _Neilgherries_. I have heard the natives, especially in the morning and evening, when the air w

THE TOP OF MOUNT GERIZIM - The ancient Shechem was perhaps situated there. The population of Shechem is supposed to have been keeping some public festival outside the city when Jotham addressed them....

EXPOSITION JUDGES 9:7 ON THE TOP OF MOUNT GERIZIM. Mount Gerizim rises on the south-west side of Samaria or Shechem as a sheer rock about 800 feet in height, facing Mount Ebal, which is separated from it by the narrow valley, "some 500 yards wide," in which Samaria, now Nablus, is built. It was from Mount Gerizim that Joshua, in accordance with the directions given by Moses in Deuteronomy 11:29, caused the blessings of the law to be proclaimed, after the capture of At, while the curses were proclaimed from Mount Ebal (Joshua 8:33, Joshua 8:35). Some explain the name to mean "the mount of t

AND WHEN THEY TOLD IT TO JOTHAM,.... Or when it was told him that Abimelech was made king in Shechem by some of his friends: HE WENT AND STOOD IN THE TOP OF MOUNT GERIZIM; a mount near Shechem; it hung over the city, as Josephus says c, and so a very proper place to stand on and deliver a speech from it to the inhabitants of it; who, as the same writer says, were now keeping a festival, on what account he says not, perhaps to Baalberith their idol: over against this mountain was another, called Ebal, and between them a valley; and very likely they were assembled in this valley, where the children of Israel stood when the blessings were delivered from Gerizim, and the curses from Ebal; and if so, Jotham might be heard very well by the Shechemites: AND HE LIFTED UP HIS VOICE, AND CRIED; that he might be heard by them: AND SAID UNTO THEM, HEARKEN UNTO ME, YE MEN OF SHECHEM, THAT GOD MAY...

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

JOTHAM'S FABLE. Only in an apologue could Jotham, the sole survivor of Abimelech's massacre, express what was in his bitter, broken heart. The point of his fable is easily caught. His father and his brothers were the fruitful trees olive, fig-tree and vine who declined to rule over the other trees; his half-brother is the bramble who has accepted the kingship, but who will presently set on fire the cedars of Lebanon. If the Shechemites have acted in good faith to Jerubbaal in choosing Abimelech as king, may they have joy of the choice; but if not, may their king be a devouring fire among them! Judges 9:7. How Jotham got an audience at the top of Gerizim is not said. The language is not to be pressed, and a well- known crag overlooking the town has been pointed out as a natural pulpit. Judges 9:9

GOD. Hebrew. _Elohim._ App-4. Not Jehovah in covenant....

_the top of mount Gerizim_ is 979 ft. above the town: the language is not to be pressed....