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Commentary Index | Return to PrayerRequest.comKeil and Delitzsch Commentary - Judges 9:50 - 9:50
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At length the fate predicted by Jotham (Jdg 9:20) overtook Abimelech.
Jdg 9:50-54
He went from Shechem to Thebez, besieged the town, and took it. Thebez, according to the Onom. thirteen miles from Neapolis (Shechem) on the road to Scythopolis (Beisan), has been preserved in the large village of Tubâs on the north of Shechem (see Rob. Pal. iii. p. 156, and Bibl. Res. p. 305). This town possessed a strong tower, in which men and women and all the inhabitants of the town took refuge and shut themselves in. But when Abimelech advanced to the tower and drew near to the door to set it on fire, a woman threw a millstone down upon him from the roof of the tower and smashed his skull, whereupon he called hastily to the attendant who carried his weapons to give him his death-blow with his sword, that men might not say of him “a woman slew him.” רֶכֶב פֶּלַח, the upper millstone which was turned round, lapis vector (see Deu 24:6). תָּרִיץ: from רָצַץ, with a toneless i, possibly to distinguish it from וַתָּרֶץ (from רוּץ). גֻּלְגַּלְתֹּו, an unusual form for גֻּלְגָּלְתֹּו, which is found in the edition of Norzi (Mantua, 1742).
Jdg 9:55-57
After the death of Abimelech his army was dissolved. יִשְׂרָאֵל אִישׁ are the Israelites who formed Abimelech's army. In Jdg 9:56, Jdg 9:57, the historian closes this account with the remark, that in this manner God recompensed Abimelech and the citizens of Shechem, who had supported him in the murder of his brothers (Jdg 9:2), according to their doings. After the word “rendered” in Jdg 9:56 we must supply “upon his head,” as in Jdg 9:57. Thus Jotham's curse was fulfilled upon Abimelech and upon the Shechemites, who had made him king.