The Bramble That Would Be King
22 Abimelech was prince over Israel three years. 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 violence done to the seventy sons of Jerubbaal might come, and that their blood might be laid on Abimelech their brother who killed them, and on the men of Shechem who strengthened his hands to kill his brothers. 25 The men of Shechem set an ambush for him on the tops of the mountains, and they robbed all who came along that way by them; and Abimelech was told about it. 26 Gaal the son of Ebed came with his brothers and went over to Shechem; and the men of Shechem put their trust in him. 27 They went out into the field, harvested their vineyards, trod the grapes, celebrated, and went into the house of their god and ate and drank, and cursed Abimelech. 28 Gaal the son of Ebed said, “Who is Abimelech, and who is Shechem, that we should serve him? Isn’t he the son of Jerubbaal? Isn’t Zebul his officer? Serve the men of Hamor the father of Shechem, but why should we serve him? 29 I wish that this people were under my hand! Then I would remove Abimelech.” He said to Abimelech, “Increase your army and come out!” 30 When Zebul the ruler of the city heard the words of Gaal the son of Ebed, his anger burned. 31 He sent messengers to Abimelech craftily, saying, “Behold, Gaal the son of Ebed and his brothers have come to Shechem; and behold, they incite the city against you. 32 Now therefore, go up by night, you and the people who are with you, and lie in wait in the field. 33 It shall be that in the morning, as soon as the sun is up, you shall rise early and rush on the city. Behold, when he and the people who are with him come out against you, then may you do to them as you shall find occasion.” 34 Abimelech rose up, and all the people who were with him, by night, and they laid wait against Shechem in four companies. 35 Gaal the son of Ebed went out, and stood in the entrance of the gate of the city. Abimelech rose up, and the people who were with him, from the ambush. 36 When Gaal saw the people, he said to Zebul, “Behold, people are coming down from the tops of the mountains.” Zebul said to him, “You see the shadows of the mountains as if they were men.” 37 Gaal spoke again and said, “Behold, people are coming down by the middle of the land, and one company comes by the way of the oak of Meonenim.” 38 Then Zebul said to him, “Now where is your mouth, that you said, ‘Who is Abimelech, that we should serve him?’ Isn’t this the people that you have despised? Please go out now and fight with them.” 39 Gaal went out before the men of Shechem, and fought with Abimelech. 40 Abimelech chased him, and he fled before him, and many fell wounded, even to the entrance of the gate. 41 Abimelech lived at Arumah; and Zebul drove out Gaal and his brothers, that they should not dwell in Shechem.
God sets Abimelech and Shechem against each other, and the alliance built on murder comes apart over a drunken boast at harvest.
Abimelech was prince over Israel three years Judges 9:22.
The reign is given one verse and a short term. Note the word — prince, not king, though Shechem had made him king Judges 9:6; and no achievement of any kind is recorded for the three years.
Then God sent an evil spirit between Abimelech and the men of Shechem; and the men of Shechem dealt treacherously with Abimelech,
The judgment is announced before it is narrated, and it is attributed to God. What is sent is not an army but a spirit of ill will between two parties — the alliance is made to rot from inside. Scripture speaks this way elsewhere of God's use of a lying or troubling spirit as an instrument of judgment 1 Samuel 16:14 1 Kings 22:22, and it does not soften it here.
that the violence done to the seventy sons of Jerubbaal might come, and that their blood might be laid on Abimelech their brother who killed them, and on the men of Shechem who strengthened his hands to kill his brothers.
The purpose clause is explicit, and it assigns guilt to both parties: the man who did the killing and the city that financed it Judges 9:4. Jotham's conditional curse is here restated as a settled verdict. The chapter's remaining thirty verses are bookkeeping.
They went out into the field, harvested their vineyards, trod the grapes, celebrated, and went into the house of their god and ate and drank, and cursed Abimelech.
The rebellion begins at a harvest festival in a temple, with wine. Gaal, a newcomer the city has taken up, makes the speech: who is Abimelech... that we should serve him? Judges 9:28, and follows it with a boast — I wish that this people were under my hand! Then I would remove Abimelech Judges 9:29. It is the fable running again: another willing bramble, and a city that trusts whoever presents himself.
He sent messengers to Abimelech craftily Judges 9:31.
Zebul, the city governor who is Abimelech's man, informs on Gaal and supplies the tactics: come by night, lie in the fields, attack at sunrise Judges 9:32–33. So the city is betrayed by its own official — treachery answering treachery, exactly as verse 23 said.
When Gaal saw the people, he said to Zebul, “Behold, people are coming down from the tops of the mountains.” Zebul said to him, “You see the shadows of the mountains as if they were men.”
A cool piece of deception at the gate. Zebul talks Gaal out of believing his own eyes until the ambush is too close to escape, then turns on him: now where is your mouth, that you said, "Who is Abimelech, that we should serve him?"... Please go out now and fight with them Judges 9:38.
Gaal fights, loses, and is expelled Judges 9:39–41. He had promised to remove Abimelech and is himself removed within a paragraph, and the city he stirred up is left without the champion it had trusted — and with a ruler outside its walls who now knows exactly who was disloyal.
held with reason What this mark means