Judges 9 is one of those
chapters that show some really disturbing things happening, which makes it one
of those cautionary tales that reveals the selfishness and corruption of fallen
man. It implies important lessons
about government and legitimacy of rulers and campaigning and appropriate
measures of taking power, just about all of which are taught by negative
example through the moral failings of the characters. It also shows an instance of how God uses the law of the harvest
to avenge the innocent when no earthly judicial power is available to bring the
evildoer to justice.
We start with Abimelech, a
son of Gideon. He’s the son of
Gideon’s concubine, but Gideon has a bunch of other wives who bore him 70
sons. Abimelech’s mother was a
woman of Shechem, possibly a Canaanite. The chapter starts with Abimelech going to his
mother’s family in Shechem and making an argument to them that they should
campaign for him to be made king.
His argument deserves some attention.
1 And
Abimelech the son of Jerubbaal went to Shechem unto his mother’s brethren, and
communed with them, and with all the family of the house of his mother’s
father, saying,
2 Speak,
I pray you, in the ears of all the men of Shechem, Whether is better for you,
either that all the sons of Jerubbaal, which are threescore and ten persons,
reign over you, or that one reign over you? remember also that I am your bone
and your flesh. (Judges 9:1-2)
For a long time the
notion of 70 sons of Gideon ruling over Shechem didn’t make sense to me, and I
thought Abimelech was suggesting that in the future 70 sons might all be
crowned king at once. Recently, I
realized that the 70 sons referred to could have been a council like Moses’s quorum of 70 who helped judge Israel, and they
could have already been ruling that way.
(Gideon may have helped set this up, considering the people wanted him
to be king and wanted his son after him to rule over them. Remember, he refused to be king on the
grounds that the Lord should rule over them, see Judges 8:23. But he may have thought that a council
made up of all his sons would make everyone happy because no single one of them
would have total power and yet the people could get behind them because they
were Gideon’s sons.) A council of
sons would help the land stay free of a king while still maintaining order and
allowing good decisions to be made.
I’ll bet the decisions they came to with all that input were much better
than one person could make alone.
And yet, Abimelech
argues it is better for one man to rule than 70, and he appeals to his family’s
self-interest and the self-interest of Shechem, implying that if he is made
king, he will favor his family in his decisions and by extension, the
inhabitants of Shechem. (Is
Abimelech the kind of man you would trust to judge fairly? With the above argument, not on your
life.)
3 And his
mother’s brethren spake of him in the ears of all the men of Shechem all these
words: and their hearts inclined to follow Abimelech; for they said, He is our
brother.
4 And
they gave him threescore and ten pieces of silver out of the house of
Baal-berith, wherewith Abimelech hired vain and light persons, which followed
him.
5 And he
went unto his father’s house at Ophrah, and slew his brethren the sons of
Jerubbaal, being threescore and ten persons, upon one stone: notwithstanding
yet Jotham the youngest son of Jerubbaal was left; for he hid himself.
6 And all
the men of Shechem gathered together, and all the house of Millo, and went, and
made Abimelech king, by the plain of the pillar that was in Shechem.
Well, Abimelech’s
campaign promises sound pretty good to his family and to the men of Shechem, so
they decide to support him. And to
do that, they gave him 70 pieces of silver from the treasury of the idolatrous
god Baal-Berith. Maybe this is
their way of implying the god’s support.
Or perhaps it is a statement that Baal is fighting the sons of Jerubbaal
(Baal-fighter). How do you
think Jehovah feels about this?
The way this is
shaping up, we have the wrong man with the wrong ideas getting the help of the
wrong people and support from the wrong god, and you see he will take power in
the wrong way.
Abimelech takes this
money and hires “vain and light persons to follow him,” and with their help,
goes to his 70 brothers and has them all killed, except for the youngest one,
Jotham, who hides and escapes the massacre. It is possible that killing them all on “one stone”
was meant to signify a human sacrifice to the god Baal-Berith.
Yikes! This makes it look like Baal has won,
doesn’t it? Not good!
The men of Shechem
then make Abimelech king and they think everything is going to get better for
them from here. They have greater
influence now, right?
Here’s where Jotham
comes and lets them know what they are in for because of their wickedness. He begins with a parable that
illuminates the type of government they’ve instituted by crowning Abimelech.
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.
8 The
trees went forth on a time to anoint a king over them; and they said unto the
olive tree, Reign thou over us.
9 But the
olive tree said unto them, Should I leave my fatness, wherewith by me they
honour God and man, and go to be promoted over the trees?
10 And
the trees said to the fig tree, Come thou, and reign over us.
11 But
the fig tree said unto them, Should I forsake my sweetness, and my good fruit,
and go to be promoted over the trees?
12 Then
said the trees unto the vine, Come thou, and reign over us.
13 And
the vine said unto them, Should I leave my wine, which cheereth God and man,
and go to be promoted over the trees?
14 Then
said all the trees unto the bramble, Come thou, and reign over us.
15 And
the bramble said unto the trees, If in truth ye anoint me king over you, then
come and put your trust in my shadow: and if not, let fire come out of the
bramble, and devour the cedars of Lebanon.
I remember one of my
religion teachers at BYU said this illustrates what he calls “the bramble
principle of leadership” – the most worthless of men push into power because
they aren’t doing anything better with their lives. Everyone else has more productive things to do and would
have to give that up to rule because ruling takes time and energy.
Notice the bramble is
everyone’s last choice because better trees have refused. Also, the bramble has an inflated idea
of what it can do for the other trees. It tells them to put their trust in its
shadow, but the bramble is a very low bush, so its shadow isn’t really
big. This corresponds to how
Abimelech had an inflated idea of his ability to protect those he ruled (and we
will see he is not good at it).
Also, the bramble said that those who did not anoint him king (meaning
those who opposed him) would be burnt up with fire. The cedars of Lebanon were very tall and would therefore
have much bigger shadows. They
corresponded to people who were much better able to protect Israel and who
would be able to see how inadequate Abimelech was and would come to oppose
him. Abimelech wouldn’t be able to
handle this and would destroy these people, arguing they were rebels.
Jotham’s parable is
essentially about 1) the sacrifices that good men would have to make to take up
ruling authority—they have to give up their productive work for all the time it
takes to rule, and 2) the troubles caused by the wrong kind of man in
office—the wrong man gains more than a productive man would, yet would not have
the character to protect his constituents from evils, and would have extra
intolerance for anyone that opposed him to the point of destroying them, even
if their opposition was completely justified.
Then Jotham gives his
verdict:
16 Now
therefore, if ye have done truly and sincerely, in that ye have made Abimelech
king, and if ye have dealt well with Jerubbaal and his house, and have done
unto him according to the deserving of his hands;
17 (For
my father fought for you, and adventured his life far, and delivered you out of
the hand of Midian:
18 And ye
are risen up against my father’s house this day, and have slain his sons,
threescore and ten persons, upon one stone, and have made Abimelech, the son of
his maidservant, king over the men of Shechem, because he is your brother;)
19 If ye
then have dealt truly and sincerely with Jerubbaal and with his house this day,
then rejoice ye in Abimelech, and let him also rejoice in you:
20 But if
not, let fire come out from Abimelech, and devour the men of Shechem, and the
house of Millo; and let fire come out from the men of Shechem, and from the
house of Millo, and devour Abimelech.
If they’ve dealt
truly with Jerubbal and his family, great! But if not, trouble is to come, and they all know that they
haven’t dealt justly.
Jotham calls for
divine judgment to be rendered upon Abimelech and the men of Shechem. He doesn’t have any power to enforce
anything but he knows what should
happen and he leaves it all to God.
It will be God who renders them a reward for their deeds through the
pain of natural consequences and a withdrawal of protection and favor. It will be by their own faults and evil
inclinations that they punish each other.
I think Jotham was
very wise to see all of this coming.
If he was the youngest of Gideon’s 70 sons, and his older brothers had
been wiser than he with their experience, think what good men had been killed
by Abimelech! Think what Israel
had lost in their deaths!
Not only this, but
Jotham was also incredibly wise to leave the judgment of Abimelech and the men
of Shechem to God instead of destroying himself seeking vengeance. He had so much to be bitter about – the murder of 69 great men, his
brothers – and yet he left it in the hands of God. He also was a better man than his father Gideon, who killed
Zebah and Zalmunna who had killed Gideon’s brothers (see Judges 8:18-19).
21 And
Jotham ran away, and fled, and went to Beer, and dwelt there, for fear of
Abimelech his brother.
22 ¶When
Abimelech had reigned three years over Israel,
It is unknown how
Jotham’s speech was received, but he fled to Beer, which is possibly in Moab,
and lived there for fear of Abimelech.
He may have been afraid of retribution from Abimelech, or he may have
decided he didn’t want to live anywhere Abimelech ruled, anticipating the
injustices and evils that would occur during Abimelech’s administration.
So Abimelech rules 3
years in Israel. That’s a
relatively short time, but when you’re in it, it can feel like forever.
23 Then God
sent an evil spirit between Abimelech and the men of Shechem; and the men of
Shechem dealt treacherously with Abimelech:
24 That
the cruelty done to the threescore and ten sons of Jerubbaal might come, and
their blood be laid upon Abimelech their brother, which slew them; and upon the
men of Shechem, which aided him in the killing of his brethren.
Of course, God does
not send evil spirits. However,
God does withdraw protection and favor when people make bad choices, and He
allows them to suffer from the natural consequences of their actions. And when God withdraws, the natural man
dominates, yielding to the evil suggestions from Satan. Where the spiritual man would turn the
other cheek and refrain from taking offense, the natural man seeks occasion to
be offended and holds grudges and even betrays friends when it seems like
friends are not doing as wished.
And such was the case here.
We will see that the very same bad reasons and bad methods that brought
Abimelech and Shechem together will be what tears them apart and causes them to
destroy each other.
25 And
the men of Shechem set liers in wait for him in the top of the mountains, and
they robbed all that came along that way by them: and it was told Abimelech.
The city Shechem has
provided hatchet men and assassins before, so they do it again. They set people to lie in wait for
Abimelech, hoping to kill him if he comes their way. But the men they hire do not confine themselves solely to
this mission and rob everyone who falls into their hands. We can see why this would happen. Imagine them spotting a traveling
group, thinking, “Oh! That could
be Abimelech!” and swarming down from their hiding places. They inspect the fearful travelers and
discover Abimelech is not among them.
Disappointed, they console themselves for their trouble, risk, and lost
time by robbing the travelers.
After all, if they are lying in wait, they can’t carry out the work of
earning their livelihoods, can they?
Naturally the news
gets back to Abimelech that people are getting waylaid. What does he do? Nothing! So much for his ability to protect the people. He just lets it happen, when he should
have gone there with an army to clean it up.
26 And
Gaal the son of Ebed came with his brethren, and went over to Shechem: and the
men of Shechem put their confidence in him.
27 And
they went out into the fields, and gathered their vineyards, and trode the
grapes, and made merry, and went into the house of their god, and did eat and
drink, and cursed Abimelech.
28 And
Gaal the son of Ebed said, Who is Abimelech, and who is Shechem, that we should
serve him? is not he the son of Jerubbaal? and Zebul his officer? serve the men
of Hamor the father of Shechem: for why should we serve him?
29 And
would to God this people were under my hand! then would I remove Abimelech. And
he said to Abimelech, Increase thine army, and come out.
Next we get this man
Gaal and his people who move in to Shechem, and he starts gathering the trust
of parts of the city. In the
middle of a drunken episode he starts cursing Abimelech and arguing that
Abimelech is not the person to rule over Shechem.
It is fascinating to
see his arguments in his own favor
because they are very similar to the ones Abimelech used, and Gaal presents the
negative side of Abimelech’s ancestry. “[I]s not [Abimelech] the son of Jerubbaal?”
(v28) Where Abimelech had argued parentage through his mother tied him to
Shechem, Gaal argues that Abimelech’s parentage through his Israelite father Gideon-Jerubbaal alienates him from Shechem.
“And [is not] Zabul
his officer?” – Gaal argues Abimelech did not live in Shechem and had an
administrator named Zabul in charge of it. Clearly Gaal thinks it would be better to have the ruler
live in Shechem and uses Abimelech’s absence to show Abimelech doesn’t have
Shechem’s interests at heart.
“serve the men of
Hamor the father of Shechem: for why should we serve him?” – Hamor was the man
back in the time of Jacob who ruled Shechem. We can assume Gaal argued an older ruling family would be
more appropriate to rule Shechem, and we can assume Gaal was part of this
family. The argument of family
ties to the city is the same one Abimelech used to gain favor, and the
Shechemites are again persuaded by it, this time against Abimelech, although they should have been more leery of it,
considering the track record it has had thus far.
Incidently, the
argument of association with an ancient ruling family sounds like a good
argument, but at this point I suspect we are to start looking askance at
it. It says nothing about good
leadership ability. Leadership
ability can be learned in families, but so can ruthlessness, power-grabbing,
and patterns of unrighteous dominion.
Gaal goes so far as
to issue an arrogant challenge to Abimelech to meet him with the biggest army
he can get. He boasts that he can
remove Abimelech if the city will let him rule.
30 ¶And
when Zebul the ruler of the city heard the words of Gaal the son of Ebed, his
anger was kindled.
31 And he
sent messengers unto Abimelech privily, saying, Behold, Gaal the son of Ebed
and his brethren be come to Shechem; and, behold, they fortify the city against
thee.
32 Now
therefore up by night, thou and the people that is with thee, and lie in wait
in the field:
33 And it
shall be, that in the morning, as soon as the sun is up, thou shalt rise early,
and set upon the city: and, behold, when he and the people that is with him
come out against thee, then mayest thou do to them as thou shalt find occasion.
34 ¶And
Abimelech rose up, and all the people that were with him, by night, and they
laid wait against Shechem in four companies.
Zabul, Abimelech’s
officer in Shechem got mad at Gaal’s boasting and messaged Abimelech, asking
him to come and put Gaal in his place.
He also recommended a strategy—lying in wait in the fields. Abimelech listened and brought up his
armies, dividing them into four companies to prevent his army from looking so
big that Gaal wouldn’t come out to fight.
35 And
Gaal the son of Ebed went out, and stood in the entering of the gate of the
city: and Abimelech rose up, and the people that were with him, from lying in
wait.
36 And
when Gaal saw the people, he said to Zebul, Behold, there come people down from
the top of the mountains. And Zebul said unto him, Thou seest the shadow of the
mountains as if they were men.
37 And
Gaal spake again and said, See there come people down by the middle of the
land, and another company come along by the plain of Meonenim.
38 Then
said Zebul unto him, Where is now thy mouth, wherewith thou saidst, Who is
Abimelech, that we should serve him? is not this the people that thou hast
despised? go out, I pray now, and fight with them.
39 And
Gaal went out before the men of Shechem, and fought with Abimelech.
40 And
Abimelech chased him, and he fled before him, and many were overthrown and
wounded, even unto the entering of the gate.
Here we see Zabul
deliberately giving Gaal bad advice to get him into a position where he will
lose to Abimelech. First he denies
there is an army coming down from the mountains, and when two more armies are
spotted heading their way, he taunts Gaal into going out to fight when it would
have been safer to stay in the fortified city.
We understand Zabul
is Abimelech’s servant, but for a man who is supposed to manage and protect the
city, he seems to not care much who dies in this struggle for power between
Abimelech and Gaal. In fact, he
seems to want as many as possible to die with Gaal in charge because it will be
more likely to turn the city against Gaal. The citizens are becoming expendable pawns in the power
struggle.
In the battle, Gaal
loses and many were overthrown and wounded before they could get to the gate to
reach the city’s protection.
You’d think that’s be
the end of it, right? You’d be
wrong.
41 And
Abimelech dwelt at Arumah: and Zebul thrust out Gaal and his brethren, that
they should not dwell in Shechem.
42 And it
came to pass on the morrow, that the people went out into the field; and they
told Abimelech.
43 And he
took the people, and divided them into three companies, and laid wait in the
field, and looked, and, behold, the people were come forth out of the city; and
he rose up against them, and smote them.
44 And
Abimelech, and the company that was with him, rushed forward, and stood in the
entering of the gate of the city: and the two other companies ran upon all the
people that were in the fields, and slew them.
45 And
Abimelech fought against the city all that day; and he took the city, and slew
the people that was therein, and beat down the city, and sowed it with salt.
46 ¶And
when all the men of the tower of Shechem heard that, they entered into an hold
of the house of the god Berith.
47 And it
was told Abimelech, that all the men of the tower of Shechem were gathered
together.
48 And
Abimelech gat him up to mount Zalmon, he and all the people that were with him;
and Abimelech took an axe in his hand, and cut down a bough from the trees, and
took it, and laid it on his shoulder, and said unto the people that were with
him, What ye have seen me do, make haste, and do as I have done.
49 And
all the people likewise cut down every man his bough, and followed Abimelech,
and put them to the hold, and set the hold on fire upon them; so that all the
men of the tower of Shechem died also, about a thousand men and women.
Now, what happened
here?
Why, after Gaal and
his people were thrown out of the city, did Abimelech come and destroy Shechem?
It is likely there
was a lack of communication between Zabul and Abimelech that caused this. After Gaal was defeated, Abimelech took
his army to Arumah, and Zabul was able to muster enough anger against Gaal and
his supporters that they were kicked out of the city. So the city was free of opposition to Abimelech, but
Abimelech didn’t know that. He
thought the place was still a hive of rebellion.
At this point the
Shechemites thought all the trouble was over, and they went back to business as
usual, going out to work their farms in the field, but Abimelech must have had
spies out there to tell him when they should attack again, so this was a clear
opportunity. He brought three
armies, and with one he blocked the way into the city, and with the other two
he massacred the people in the fields.
Then he took the city and massacred it. And when the rulers of Shechem resorted to a fortified tower
that just happened to be the temple of Baal-Berith, he had the place burned
down and killed everyone there.
(This is where all worshippers of Jehovah are vindicated as we see that
Baal-Berith could not save his worshippers.)
All this is pretty
brutal, and remember, Abimelech is just consolidating power in the way he knows
how, using the same method that worked for him before to get rid of his 69
brothers, only this time he has an army to help him. You see, when someone takes power this way, they aren’t
going to give up a method that worked for them. This shows us clearly what kind of man we want to avoid
putting into power.
He also found a few
more methods that work for him—using multiple armies and burning people out of
their fortifications, so naturally we should expect to see him use these
methods again too. And Abimelech
still isn’t finished.
50 ¶Then
went Abimelech to Thebez, and encamped against Thebez, and took it.
Next Abimelech lay
siege to Thebez. We have no idea why. It seems unprovoked. He’s taking things too far. Possibly he is worried Thebez has
rebels as well?
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
brake 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.
Naturally, Abimelech
decides to try what worked before, so he works on burning down the door to the
tower where everyone has taken refuge, but he’s too close and some woman drops
a millstone on him. (He has his
servant finish him off, but everyone remembers he was killed by a woman
anyway.)
55 And
when the men of Israel saw that Abimelech was dead, they departed every man
unto his place.
Once Abimelech dies,
his army just leaves the city and goes home, which implies they all knew an
attack on Thebez wasn’t justified.
This shows another way Abimelech was a bad leader—he created pretexts
for fighting and everyone else was forced to go along with it.
56 ¶Thus
God rendered the wickedness of Abimelech, which he did unto his father, in
slaying his seventy brethren:
57 And
all the evil of the men of Shechem did God render upon their heads: and upon
them came the curse of Jotham the son of Jerubbaal.
So, overall we see that the
things that got Abimelech into power were instrumental in his destruction, and
the man the Shechemites were so sure would serve their self-interest turned out
to be the one to destroy them. If
that isn’t poetic justice, I don’t know what is.
We see what great wickedness
one man can cause, and what great destruction can come to a city so driven by
self-interest. We see how people
are pulled into wars against their will when a leader has personal
grudges. We see how much trouble a
king can cause. Really, this story
would be quite at home near the end of Ether in the Book of Mormon.
One lesson that I think is
very helpful to us today from this story is that bad leaders will have bad
reasoning and bad methods, and that is a way that we can recognize them.
Once I checked out from the
library a book that had famous speeches by a variety of famous historical
figures, both good and bad. Speeches
by Hitler and Mussolini were next to speeches by Lincoln, Ghandi, Roosevelt,
Churchill, and others. I read all
of them with great interest, and I noticed that the reasoning used by the
dictators and tyrants was weaker than reasoning given by the great statesmen. The great statesmen built strong cases
with strong evidence and reasoned things out better.
I’ve said we can recognize
bad methods and how they are reused.
If we see bad methods, we can extrapolate how the end will play out,
even if we don’t see it. Consider
the American Civil War and the southern states seceding from the Union over
slavery. Suppose just for a moment
that they had succeeded in staying separate. What do you think would have been the ultimate result? The South probably would have torn itself
apart with secession and war. And wouldn’t
it be ironic if it was over something like.. slavery? (Of course, this is a debatable conclusion since it never
came to that, but the principle is still helpful for other things.)
Now, just to end on a positive
note, let’s see what happens after this stuff with Abimelech blows over, and
read Judges 10:1-5..
1 And
after Abimelech there arose to defend Israel Tola the son of Puah, the son of
Dodo, a man of Issachar; and he dwelt in Shamir in mount Ephraim.
2 And he
judged Israel twenty and three years, and died, and was buried in Shamir.
3 ¶And
after him arose Jair, a Gileadite, and judged Israel twenty and two years.
4 And he
had thirty sons that rode on thirty ass colts, and they had thirty cities,
which are called Havoth-jair unto this day, which are in the land of Gilead.
5 And
Jair died, and was buried in Camon.
Israel needs someone
to defend it from all the lawlessness that grew during Abimelech’s reign and
Tola seems to have taken it upon himself to do that. This sounds like a long 23 years of little skirmishes with
no one incident memorable enough to record, but with consistency enough that
the man was appreciated.
After him came
Jair.
This detail about
Jair’s 30 sons and 30 cities tells us that Jair worked to recreate another
ruling family council over Israel, but it seems he didn’t have enough sons to
recreate Gideon’s 70. But he does
his best.
We can probably
surmise that each son had a city to look after, but why tells us about the
donkeys? Donkeys imply wealth and
status. It also implies lots of
travel. It is possible that Jair
decided it would be best not to have the 30 sons rule all from one place, but
he had them travel back and forth between the city they managed and a central
meeting place where they could make decisions that would require coordination
and cooperation. They would need
the donkeys for that travel back and forth.
I suppose Jair hoped
this would give the best of both systems of council and kingship, with the
council enabling wise decisions, the family connection building unity and
loyalty, and the city-manager responsibility maintaining closer connection to
the people so that they feel they have someone looking out for their interests. It is almost a representative-type of
government, but elections may or may not have been involved.
If only it had lasted
longer than Jair’s lifetime. Still,
it seems that it helped enough that the pattern is also mentioned later in
Judges with Abdon setting up something similar:
13 ¶And after
[Elon] Abdon the son of Hillel, a Pirathonite, judged Israel.
14 And he had
forty sons and thirty nephews, that rode on threescore and ten ass colts: and
he judged Israel eight years. (Judges 12:13-15)
It's nice to see people learned from the bad things that happened. Hopefully we can do the same today.
