Judges 9:48

Jdg 9:48 And Abimelech gat him up to mount Zalmon, he and all the people that [were] with him; and Abimelech took an axe in his hand, and cut down a bough from the trees, and took it, and laid [it] on his shoulder, and said unto the people that [were] with him, What ye have seen me do, make haste, [and] do as I [have done].

Ver. 48. To mount Zalmon.] Which had its name from the shadiness, by reason of the many trees there growing.

What ye have seen me do, make haste, and do.] Princeps imperio maximus, exemplo maior, as Paterculus {a} saith of Tiberius; Princes are easily imitated. Vespasian undertaking to repair the decayed capitol, first with his own hands shovelled up the rubbish, and carried it forth on his shoulders. {b}

{a} Paterc., lib. ii.

{b} Sueton., in Vesp., cap. 8.

John Trapp, A Commentary or Exposition upon All the Books of the Old and New Testament (1647–1656) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Jdg_9:48-49

And Abimelech took an axe in his hand.

The storming of the temple of Berith

1. I learn first from this subject, the folly of depending upon any one form of tactics in anything we have to do for this world or for God. Look over the weaponry of olden times--javelins, battle-axes, habergeons--and show me a single weapon with which Abimelech and his men could have gained such complete triumph. It is no easy thing to take a temple thus armed. Yet here Abimelech and his army come up, they surround this temple, and they capture it without the loss of a single man on the part of Abimelech, although I suppose some of the old Israelitish heroes told Abimelech: You are only going up there to be cut to pieces. Yet you are willing to testify to-day that by no other mode--certainly not by ordinary modes--could that temple so easily, so thoroughly, have been taken. What the Church most wants to learn, this day, is that any plan is right, is lawful, is best, which helps to overthrow the temple of sin, and capture this world for God. We are very apt to stick to the old modes of attack. We come up with the sharp, keen, glittering steel spear of argument, expecting in that way to take the castle; but they have a thousand spears where we have ten. And so the castle of sin stands, I propose a different style of tactics. Let each one go to the forest of Gods promise and invitation, and hew down a branch, and put it on his shoulder, and let us all come around these obstinate iniquities, and then, with this pile, kindled by the fires of a holy zeal and the flames of a consecrated life, we will burn them out. What steel cannot do, fire may. We want more heart in our song, more heart in our almsgiving, more heart in our prayers, more heart in our preaching. Oh, for less of Abimelechs sword and more of Abimeleehs conflagration! The gospel is not a syllogism; it is not casuistry; it is not polemics, or the science of squabble. It is blood-red fact; it is warm-hearted invitation; it is leaping, bounding, flying good news; it is efflorescent with all light; it is rubescent with all summery glow; it is arborescent with all sweet shade.

2. Still further, I learn from this subject the power of example. If Abimelech had sat down on the grass, and told his men to go and get the boughs, and go out to the battle, they would never have gone at all, or if they had, it would have been without any spirit or effective result; but when Abimelech goes with his own axe and hews down a branch, and with Abimelechs arm puts it on Abimelechs shoulder, and marches on, then, my text says, all the people did the same. How natural that was! What made Garibaldi and Stonewall Jackson the most magnetic commanders of this century? They always rode ahead. Oh, the overwhelming power of example! Oh, start out for heaven to-day, and your family will come after you, and your business associates will come after you, and your social friends will join you. With one branch of the tree of life for a baton, marshal just as many as you can gather. Oh, the infinite, the semi-omnipotent power of a good or a bad example!

3. Still further, I learn from this subject the advantage of concerted action. If Abimelech had merely gone out with a tree-branch, the work would not have been accomplished, or if ten, twenty, or thirty men had gone; but when all the axes are lifted, and all the sharp edges fall, and all these men carry each his tree-branch down and throw it about the temple, the victory is gained--the temple falls. Where there is one man in the Church of God at this day shouldering his whole duty, there are a great many who never lift an axe or swing a bough. It seems to me as if there were ten drones in every hive to one busy bee. What broken bone of sorrow have you ever set? Are you doing nothing? Is it possible that a man or woman sworn to be a follower of the Lord Jesus Christ is doing nothing?

4. Still further, I learn from this subject the danger of false refuges. As soon as these Sheehemites got into the temple, they thought they were safe. They said: Berith will take care of us. Abimelech may batter down everything else; he cannot batter down this temple where we are now hid. But very soon they heard the timbers crackling, and they were smothered with smoke, and they miserably died. And you and I are just as much tempted to false refuges. The mirror this morning may have persuaded you that you have a comely cheek; Satan may have told you that you are all right; but bear with me if I tell you that, if unpardoned, you are all wrong. I suppose every man is stepping into some kind of refuge. Here you step into the tower of good works. You say, I shall be safe here in this refuge. The battlements are adorned; the steps are varnished; on the wall are pictures of all the suffering you have alleviated, and all the schools you have established, and all the fine things you have ever done. Up in that tower you feel you are safe. But hear you not the tramp of your unpardoned sins all around the tower? They each have a match. You are kindling the combustible material. You feel the heat and the suffocation. Oh! may you leap in time, the gospel declaring, By the deeds of the law shall no flesh living be justified. Well, you say, I have been driven out of that tower; where shall I go? Step into this tower of indifference. You say, If this tower is attacked, it will be a great while before it is taken. You feel at ease. But there is an Abimelech, with ruthless assault, coming on. Death and his forces are gathering around. But, says some one, you are engaged in a very mean business, driving us from tower to tower. Oh no! I want to tell you of a Gibraltar that never has been and never will be taken; of a bulwark that the judgment earthquakes cannot budge. The Bible refers to it when it says: In God is thy refuge, and underneath thee are the everlasting arms. Oh! fling yourself into it, (T. De Witt Talmage.)

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The Biblical Illustrator, edited by Joseph S. Exell (c. 1880s–1900s) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Jdg 9:48-51. Zalmon — A place so called from its shadiness. Thebez — Another town near Shechem; and, as it seems, within its territory. Thither fled all the men and women — All that were not slain in the taking of the town. And gat them up to the top of the tower — Which was flat and plain, after their manner of building.

Joseph Benson's Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1811–1818) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

(48) To mount Zalmon.—Evidently the nearest spot where he could get wood for his hideous design. Zalmon means shady. In Psa_68:14 we find “as white as snow in Zalmon,” but whether the same mountain is referred to we cannot tell. It may be any of the hills near Gerizim.

An axe.—Literally, the axes—i.e., he took axes for himself and his army.

Cut down a bough.—The word for “a bough” is socath, which does not mean “a bundle of logs,” as the LXX. render it. Every one will recall the scene in Macbeth where Malcolm says:—

“Let every soldier hew him down a bough,

And bear’t before him; thereby shall we shadow

The numbers of our host, and make discovery

Err in report of us.”—Acts 5, sc. 4.

But Abimelech merely wanted combustible materials.

What ye have seen me do.—Comp. what Gideon says in Jdg_7:17.

A Bible Commentary for English Readers, edited by Charles John Ellicott (1878–1897) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

48. mount Zalmon] An unknown hill hard by; in Psa_68:14 it is the name of a hill on the E. of the Jordan.

an axe] The Hebr. has the axes; the plur. cannot be explained (note in his hand), and must be corrected to the sing., LXX. cod. A, Vulgate; read his axe.

The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges (gen. ed. J. J. S. Perowne; Cambridge University Press, 1878–1918) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

And all the people likewise cut down every man his bough, and followed Abimelech,.... With their boughs on their shoulders, so that they were men that seemed to be as trees walking:

and put them to the hold, and set the hold on fire upon them; upon the men in it, or with them, the boughs of trees; it is probable the hold was made of wood, and so could the more easily be set on fire. Jarchi says it was a wood or forest, where they bent the trees, and divided them round about, and made a fence of them; but they would scarcely have left the tower for such a shelter:

so that all the men of the tower of Shechem died also; fire being put to the hold, and they burnt in it; the Vulgate Latin version adds, with fire and smoke; for they being boughs of trees just cut down, with which they set fire to the hold, they would not burn easily and clearly, but make a prodigious smoke, with which many might be suffocated, as others burnt with fire; and it is unaccountable that Josephus (o) should say that faggots of dry wood were taken, and with them fire set to the hold, when the text is so express for it that they were boughs of green trees just cut off:

about a thousand men and women; but the above historian makes them to be many more; he says the men were about 1500, and the rest a great multitude; this literally fulfilled Jotham's curse.

(o) Antiqu. l. 5. c. 7. sect. 4.

John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible (1746–1763) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

Zalmon - A lofty and thickly-wooded hill, as the etymology of the name (“shady”) implies, in the immediate neighborhood of Shechem: perhaps the same as Ebal. The setting fire to the hold, where the men of Shechem were all crowded together, with their wives and children, was the literal fulfillment of Jotham’s curse in Jdg 9:20.

Albert Barnes' Notes on the Bible (1834–1885) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

Selmon. This mountain lay towards the Jordan, and was covered with trees and snow, Psalm lxvii. 16. (Menochius) --- Bough. Septuagint, "a burden or faggot of sticks." Josephus observes that they were dry. (Calmet)

George Leo Haydock (1774–1849), Haydock's Catholic Family Bible and Commentary, 1859 edition — public domain. Excludes Psalms (Douay-Rheims chapter numbering differs from Protestant) and Deuterocanonical books (Catholic canon only).

Zalmon; a place so called from its shadiness, because there were many trees there.

Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy Bible (1683–1685) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

48. Mount Zalmon — A wooded hill near Shechem, but now unknown. Many suppose it referred to again in the much disputed passage, Psa_68:14, where it is wrongly spelled Salmon.

Took an axe — Literally, took the axes; but the allusion is to the axes which the people also took, after the example of their leader.

Daniel D. Whedon (gen. ed.), Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1874–1909) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Mount Zalmon, i.e. the shady mount, so called from the thick wood which grows upon it. It was in the neighbourhood of Shechem, and is perhaps the same as that mentioned in Psa_68:14 as famous for its snow-storms. An axe. The Hebrew has axes. If this is right, the phrase in his hand must be rendered with him, as 1Sa_14:34: Each one his ox in his hand, i.e. with him; Jer_38:10: Take thirty men in thy hand, i.e. with thee; and elsewhere.

The Pulpit Commentary (1880–1919), ed. H.D.M. Spence-Jones & Joseph S. Exell — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Zalmon - A place so called from its shadiness.

John Wesley, Explanatory Notes Upon the Whole Bible (1754–1765) — public domain. Text via the GEBible commentary corpus.

Mount Zalmon

This is the name of a mountain. (See: How to Translate Names)

piled

This means to stack the branches into a large heap.

about a thousand men

"about 1,000" (See: Numbers)

translationWords

Abimelech

ax

watchtower

Shechem

unfoldingWord translationNotes — © Distant Shores Media and the Door43 World Missions Community, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Source: git.door43.org/Door43/en_tn.

The overhang of a tree. The branch of a tree.

Rashi on the Tanakh — English translations: “The Judaica Press complete Tanach with Rashi, translated by A. J. Rosenberg” (CC BY 4.0); “Pentateuch with Rashi's commentary by M. Rosenbaum and A.M. Silbermann, 1929-1934” (public domain); “The Metsudah Tanach series, Lakewood, N.J” (CC BY 4.0); and “The Book of Joshua, Metsudah Publications, 1997” (CC BY 4.0). Text via Sefaria.