Context No. 2663 of 4322 · Judges

Judges 9:46-57: in context

46When all the men of the tower of Shechem heard of it, they entered into the stronghold of the house of Elberith. 47Abimelech was told that all the men of the tower of Shechem were gathered together. 48Abimelech went up to Mount Zalmon, he and all the people who were with him; and Abimelech took an ax in his hand, and cut down a bough from the trees, and took it up, and laid it on his shoulder. Then he said to the people who were with him, “What you have seen me do, make haste, and do as I have done!” 49All the people likewise each cut down his bough, followed Abimelech, and put them at the base of the stronghold, and set the stronghold on fire over them, so that all the people of the tower of Shechem died also, about a thousand men and women. 50Then Abimelech went to Thebez and encamped against Thebez, and took it. 51But there was a strong tower within the city, and all the men and women of the city fled there, and shut themselves in, and went up to the roof of the tower. 52Abimelech came to the tower and fought against it, and came near to the door of the tower to burn it with fire. 53A certain woman cast an upper millstone on Abimelech’s head, and broke his skull. 54Then he called hastily to the young man, his armor bearer, and said to him, “Draw your sword and kill me, that men not say of me, ‘A woman killed him.’ His young man thrust him through, and he died.” 55When the men of Israel saw that Abimelech was dead, they each departed to his place. 56Thus God repaid the wickedness of Abimelech, which he did to his father in killing his seventy brothers; 57and God repaid all the wickedness of the men of Shechem on their heads; and the curse of Jotham the son of Jerubbaal came on them.

Abimelech, who had murdered his seventy brothers to seize power, is besieging the town of Thebez. The people take refuge in a strong tower, and as Abimelech comes close to set its door on fire, a woman on the roof drops a millstone that crushes his skull. Dying, his one concern is his reputation: he begs his armor-bearer to run him through, so that no one can say a woman killed him. And the narrator states the meaning plainly: thus God repaid the wickedness of Abimelech, which he did to his father in killing his brothers.

Two things stand together. First, the crime came home. The blood Abimelech shed to grab power returned on his own head, exactly as Jotham's curse had said it would. God repaid his wickedness. Second, even dying, Abimelech is consumed with how it looks, obsessed that he not be remembered as killed by a woman, managing his image with his last breath while the real reckoning falls. It is a portrait of a man to the end more concerned with reputation than repentance. The wrong we do has a way of circling back, and clinging to how it looks does nothing to stop the account from being settled.

Do I believe the wrong I do returns on my own head, and am I, like Abimelech, more concerned with how things look than with the reckoning actually coming?

Sources

Judges 9:56: Thus God repaid the wickedness of Abimelech, which he did to his father in killing his seventy brothers.
Judges 9:54: Draw your sword and kill me, that men not say of me, A woman killed him.
Galatians 6:7: Don't be deceived. God is not mocked, for whatever a man sows, that he will also reap.