Judges 9:28-57

9:28

Abimelech <040> [Who is Abimelech.]

Hamor <02544> [Hamor.]

9:29

men <05971> [would to God.]

The very words and conduct of a sly, hypocritical demagogue.

challenged <0559> [And he said.]

Rather, "and I would say to Abimelech," as the LXX. renders; for as Dr. Wall observes, this was probably not said in the presence of Abimelech; but at an intemperate feast, in his absence, when he boasted he would challenge him.

Muster ... army ..... for battle <07235 06635> [Increase thine army.]

9:30

furious <02734> [kindled. or, hot.]

9:31

Arumah <08649> [privily. Heb. craftily, or, to Tormah. they fortify.]

Under pretence of repairing the walls and towers, they were actually putting the place in a state of defence, intending to seize on the government as soon as they found Abimelech coming against them.

9:32

night <03915> [by night.]

9:33

can <03027 04672> [as thou shalt find. Heb. as thine hand shall find.]

9:35

Gaal <01603> [Gaal.]

Of this person we know no more than is here recorded. He was probably one of the descendants of the Canaanites, who hoped, from the state of the public mind and their disaffection to Abimelech, to cause a revolution, and thus to restore the ancient government as it was under Hamor, the father of Shechem. Josephus says he was a man of authority, who sojourned with them, with his armed men and kinsmen; and that the Shechemites desired that he would allow them a guard during the vintage.

men <05971> [the people.]

9:36

saw .......................... seeing ... shadows <06738 07200> [seest the shadow.]

Doubdan states, that in some parts of the Holy Land there are many detached rocks scattered up and down, some growing out of the ground, and others fragments broken off from rocky precipices, the shadow of which, it appears, Josephus thought might be most naturally imagined to look like troops of men at a distance, rather than that of the mountains; for he represents Zebul as saying to Gaal, that he mistook the shadow of the rocks for men.

9:37

center <02872> [middle. Heb. navel. Meonenim. or, the regarders of the times.]

9:38

9:40

ran from <06440 05127> [he fled before.]

9:41

Arumah <0725> [Arumah.]

This place appears from the next verse to have been near Shechem; and is perhaps the same as Ruma, a village of Galilee, mentioned by Josephus, Bell. 1. iii. c. 9.

Zebul <02083> [Zebul.]

9:44

blocked ........... attacked <06584> [rushed forward.]

9:45

captured <03920> [he took.]

leveled <05422> [beat.]

spread <02232> [sowed.]

Salt in small quantities renders land extremely fertile; but too much of it destroys vegetation. Every place, says Pliny, in which salt is found is barren, and produces nothing. Hence the sowing of a place with salt was a custom in different nations to express permanent desolation. Sigonius observes, that when Milan was taken, A.D. 1162, the walls were razed, and it was sown with salt. And Brantome informs us, that it was an ancient custom in France, to sow the house of a man with salt, who had been declared a traitor to his king. Charles IX., king of France, the most base and perfidious of human beings, caused the house of Admiral Coligni (whom he and the Duke of Guise caused to be murdered, with thousands more of Protestants, on the eve of St. Bartholomew, 1572,) to be sown with salt!

9:46

stronghold <06877> [an hold.]

9:48

Zalmon <06756> [Zalmon.]

seen <07200> [What ye.]

do ........ do <06213> [me do. Heb. I have done.]

9:49

put ...... stronghold ...... it <07760 06877> [put them.]

9:50

Thebez <08405> [Thebez.]

According to Eusebius, thirteen miles from Shechem, towards Scythopolis.

9:52

9:53

woman <0802> [woman.]

shattered <07533> [and all to.]

An antiquated expression, meaning "full intention" to complete an object. "All to," observes Dr. Johnson, "is a particle of mere enforcement." The original is {wattaritz eth gulgalto,} which is simply as the LXX. render [kai eklase to kranion autou,] "and she brake his skull." Plutarch relates, that Pyrrhus was killed at the siege of Thebes, by a piece of a tile, which a woman threw upon his head.

9:54

Draw ... sword <08025 02719> [Draw thy.]

young man ....................... young man <05288> [And his young man.]

It was a disgrace to be killed by a woman.

9:55

9:56

God repaid <07725 0430> [God rendered.]

Both the fratricide Abimelech and the unprincipled men of Shechem had the iniquity visited upon them of which they had been guilty. Man's judgment may be avoided; but there is no escape from that of God. How many houses have been sown with salt in France, by the just judgment of God, for the massacre of the Protestants on the eve of St. Bartholomew! See Note on ver. 45.

9:57

spoken <0935> [upon them.]