Judges 9:44

9:30-49 Abimelech intended to punish the Schechemites for slighting him now, but God punished them for their serving him formerly in the murder of Gideon's sons. When God uses men as instruments in his hand to do his work, he means one thing, and they another. That, which they hoped would have been for their welfare, proved a snare and a trap, as those will certainly find, who run to idols for shelter; such will prove a refuge of lies.

And Abimelech, and the company that was with him,.... Which he had the particular command of; or "the heads" (m), for in the company with him, as Kimchi observes, were great men; and so the Septuagint renders it, the princes that were with him: rushed forward, and stood in the entering of the gate of the city; to prevent the people that were in the field getting into it, and any from coming out of it to their relief: and the two other companies ran upon all the people that were in the fields, and slew them; so that by this means none escaped. (m) "et capita", Pagninus, Montanus, Drusius; "et principes", Vatablus.

This verse explains the purpose of both the present and the former division of Abimelech's forces into several companies, namely, that while some of the companies attacked the men of Shechem in the field, another company, starting from their ambush, might occupy the approach to the city gate, and so cut off their retreat.

28-45. would to God this people were under my hand—He seems to have been a boastful, impudent, and cowardly person, totally unfit to be a leader in a revolutionary crisis. The consequence was that he allowed himself to be drawn into an ambush, was defeated, the city of Shechem destroyed and strewn with salt. The people took refuge in the stronghold, which was set on fire, and all in it perished.

List of the warriors who made David king in Hebron. - The superscription ( 1 Chronicles 12:23 ) runs: "These are the numbers of the bands of the men equipped for war, who came," etc. החלוּץ is a collective noun, denoting the equipped manhood. ראשׁי signifies here, not principes exercitus, as the Vulgate renders it, heads, i.e., leaders of the army (Berth.), but literally denotes sums, i.e., companies, bands of soldiers, as in Judges 7:16 , Judges 7:20 ; Judges 9:34 , Judges 9:37 , Judges 9:44 ; 1 Samuel 11:1 ; or it may perhaps also be heads for individuals, as ראשׁ in Judges 5:30 . Both these meanings are linguistically certain; so that we cannot say, with Bertheau, that ראשׁי before החלוּץ denotes, according to the well-ascertained use of language, leaders of the army, and that גלגלת would have been used had it been wished to express the number by heads, e.g., 1 Chronicles 23:3-24 . That use of the word is indeed also found, but it cannot be proved to be the only proper one. If we take ראשׁי here to denote leaders, we bring the superscription into irreconcilable contradiction with the contents of the following catalogue, which gives the names of the heads and the number of the warriors ( 1 Chronicles 12:27 .) only in the case of the families of Aaron, and in that of Issachar the number of the princes; while in the case of the other tribes we have only the numbers of the bands or detachments.

[Reformed Biblical] upplication to him for his help, and for better success; or only to go for that end to the house of their god Baal-berith, which is thought to have ## been in the fields, as may seem from Jud_9:27 ,46 , on a mountain upon the east side of the city. ## Judges 9:43 Three companies; whereof he kept one with himself, Jud_9:44, and put the rest under other commanders. ## Judges 9:44 Stood in the entering of the gate of the city, to prevent their retreat into the city, and give the other two companies opportunity to cut them off. Judges 9:45 Not to make the place barren, as salt will do, for then he would have sowed the fields, not the city; but in token of his detestation and desire of their utter and irrecoverable destruction; for salt is the symbol or sign of perpetuity: compare Num_18:19 Deu_29:2 3 2Ch_13:5 Zep_2:9. ## Judges 9:46 The tower of Shechem; a strong place belonging to the city of Shechem, and