_ABIMELECH IS MADE KING, AND PUTS HIS BRETHREN TO DEATH. JOTHAM, THE ONLY SURVIVING ONE, REBUKETH ABIMELECH AND THE MEN OF SHECHEM BY A PARABLE, AND FORTELS THEIR RUIN. AT THE SIEGE OF THEBEZ, ABIMELECH IS KILLED BY A PIECE OF A MILL-STONE CAST UPON HIS HEAD._ _Before Christ 1231._... [ Continue Reading ]
IN THE EARS OF ALL THE MEN OF SHECHEM— We are prepared for this exploit of Abimelech, by the mention of him in the 31st verse of the foregoing chapter. His mother, it is conjectured by some, gave him the name of Abimelech, i.e. _my father a king,_ out of pride and arrogance; and possibly the early i... [ Continue Reading ]
UPON ONE STONE— It has been conjectured from this by some, that Abimelech intended to make his brethren a great victim to Baal; for a stone was sometimes used for an altar, 1 Samuel 6:14.; and so they take this to be done in revenge of the sacrifice of the bullock prepared for Baal, chap. Judges 6:2... [ Continue Reading ]
AND ALL THE HOUSE OF MILLO— Bertram, in his book _de Repub. Jud._ is of opinion, that _Millo_ is not a proper name in this place; but that as by the first phrase, _all the men of Shechem,_ are understood all the principal men or elders of the city, so the latter phrase denotes all the _citizens,_ wh... [ Continue Reading ]
THE TREES WENT FORTH ON A TIME TO ANOINT A KING, &C.— We have here the most ancient example of the use of parables and apologues, to set forth the most serious matters and the most interesting truths. The Greeks pretend to have been the inventors, but there is nothing more absurd than their vanity i... [ Continue Reading ]
WINE, WHICH CHEERETH GOD AND MAN— It has been objected, that Scripture here suggests false and unworthy notions of the Supreme Being: but we are to remember, that the words are part of a parable. In a parable, or fiction, every word or sentence is not to be interpreted with the utmost rigour, unless... [ Continue Reading ]
LET FIRE COME OUT— This is not an execratory, but a prophetical expression, a prediction of what would follow from their cruel and injurious conduct. Mr. Maundrell gives an account of _Beer,_ to which Jotham fled in his journey to Aleppo, p. 64. He says, that it enjoys a very pleasant situation on a... [ Continue Reading ]
AND GAAL THE SON OF EBED— It is very uncertain who this man was. It has been rationally conjectured by some, that he was a Gentile, and desirous to see the authority of the Canaanites restored. His whole speech and proceeding shew him to have been an insidious demagogue, desirous to obtain popularit... [ Continue Reading ]
DID EAT AND DRINK— They probably offered sacrifices, and afterwards feasted together upon those sacrifices. REFLECTIONS.—For a time the wickedness of Abimelech seemed to prosper, and three years he enjoyed in peace his ill gotten dignity; but the triumphing of the wicked is short, like sunshine bef... [ Continue Reading ]
AND SOWED IT WITH SALT— Salt, in a certain quantity, makes land barren. Hence, in Scripture, _a land of salt_ signifies a barren land; Deuteronomy 29:23. Psalms 107:33.Zephaniah 2:9. Prophane authors use the same expression. See Plin. lib. 31: cap. 7. Virg. Georg. 2: ver. 238 and Bich. Hieroz. pars... [ Continue Reading ]
UNTO THEBEZ— This was a city supposed to have revolted from Abimelech, in the neighbourhood of Shechem, in the tribe of Ephraim, situated, according to Eusebius and St. Jerome, at thirteen miles distance from Shechem.... [ Continue Reading ]
A CERTAIN WOMAN CAST A PIECE OF A MILLSTONE, &C.— A woman threw down from the top of a tower a large stone upon Abimelech's head, _and all to break his skull;_ which is an old Anglicism, and might be rendered much more eligibly, _and fractured his skull._ Thus Pyrrhus, at the siege of Thebes, was ki... [ Continue Reading ]
AND ALL THE EVIL OF THE MEN OF SHECHEM, &C.— Thus Providence punished him for his wicked cruelty, after chastising the Shechemites for having served as the instrument of his ambition. Let it not be imagined, that all this happened without a special direction of heaven. The sacred historian is expres... [ Continue Reading ]