Context No. 3083 of 4322 · Judges

Judges 9:1-8: in context

1Abimelech the son of Jerubbaal went to Shechem to his mother’s brothers, and spoke with them and with all the family of the house of his mother’s father, saying, 2“Please speak in the ears of all the men of Shechem, ‘Is it better for you that all the sons of Jerubbaal, who are seventy persons, rule over you, or that one rule over you?’ Remember also that I am your bone and your flesh.” 3His mother’s brothers spoke of him in the ears of all the men of Shechem all these words. Their hearts inclined to follow Abimelech; for they said, “He is our brother.” 4They gave him seventy pieces of silver out of the house of Baal Berith, with which Abimelech hired vain and reckless fellows who followed him. 5He went to his father’s house at Ophrah, and killed his brothers the sons of Jerubbaal, being seventy persons, on one stone; but Jotham the youngest son of Jerubbaal was left, for he hid himself. 6All the men of Shechem assembled themselves together with all the house of Millo, and went and made Abimelech king by the oak of the pillar that was in Shechem. 7When they told it to Jotham, he went and stood on the top of Mount Gerizim and lifted up his voice, cried out, and said to them, “Listen to me, you men of Shechem, that God may listen to you. 8The trees set out to anoint a king over themselves. They said to the olive tree, ‘Reign over us.’

Abimelech, a son of Gideon, persuades the men of Shechem to make him king, arguing it is better to be ruled by one kinsman than by all seventy sons of Gideon. Funded with silver from the temple of Baal, he hires reckless men and murders his seventy brothers on a single stone. Only the youngest, Jotham, escapes by hiding. They crown Abimelech, and Jotham begins to shout down his fable of the trees.

This is a grim account of ambition and fratricide, and there is no softening the horror of seventy brothers murdered for a crown. What the text exposes is the machinery of a certain kind of grab for power. Abimelech appeals to tribal loyalty, I am your bone and flesh; he buys support with money from an idol's temple; he hires violent men; he eliminates every rival. It is power built on blood, kinship exploited, and religion corrupted to fund murder. And yet one voice survives to name it, Jotham, and, as the chapter will show, power built on such wrong finally comes to ruin.

Am I ever tempted to grasp for advantage by exploiting loyalty, money, and even religion, and do I trust that power built on wrong finally comes to ruin?

Sources

Judges 9:5: "He... killed his brothers the sons of Jerubbaal, being seventy persons, on one stone; but Jotham the youngest son... was left, for he hid himself."
Judges 9:56: "Thus God repaid the wickedness of Abimelech, which he did to his father, in killing his seventy brothers."
Proverbs 28:17: "A man who is tormented by life blood will be a fugitive until death."