Judges 9:5

Jdg 9:5 And he went unto his father’s house at Ophrah, and slew his brethren the sons of Jerubbaal, [being] threescore and ten persons, upon one stone: notwithstanding yet Jotham the youngest son of Jerubbaal was left; for he hid himself.

Ver. 5. And slew his brethren.] So did afterwards Joram, the degenerate son of good Jehoshaphat; Romulus, first king of Rome; Jugurtha, king of tbe Numidians; and so doth the great Turk to this day, so soon as he cometh to the kingdom, that he may have no competitors.

Upon one stone.] Whereon, likely, they laid down their necks, and had their heads stricken off, under some pretence of justice, as if they had conspired against him, or against the state. Howsoever, Abimelech, knowing that it was no good policy to play the villain by half-deal, was resolved to suffer never a rub to lie in the way that might hinder the true running of his bowl.

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 9:5. He went and slew his brethren — The persons who were most likely to hinder him in establishing his tyranny. Threescore and ten — Wanting one, as is here expressed. Here we see the power of ambition; what savage beasts it will render men to each other; how it will break through all the ties of natural affection, and natural conscience, and sacrifice that which is most sacred, dear, and valuable to its designs. We see also the peril attending high birth and honour. It was their being the sons of so great a man as Gideon that made Abimelech jealous of them, and exposed them thus to danger and to death. We find just the same number of Ahab’s sons slain together at Samaria, 2Ki 10:1. “Let none then,” says Henry, “envy those of high extraction, or complain of their own meanness and obscurity: the lower the safer.” Upon one stone — As a stone was sometimes used for an altar, (1Sa 6:14,) some have conjectured from hence, that Abimelech intended to make his brethren a great victim to Baal, in revenge of the sacrifice of the bullock prepared for Baal, chap. Jdg 6:25; and to expiate the crime of Gideon, as these idolaters accounted it, by the sacrifice of all his sons.

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

Thus tyrants to establish their usurped power, spare not the innocent blood, 2 Kings 10:7; 2 Chron. 21:4.

Geneva Bible (1599) marginal notes — public domain. Text via Bolls.life.

went unto . . . Ophrah, and slew his brethren i. e., upon one stone--This is the first mention of a barbarous atrocity which has, with appalling frequency, been perpetrated in the despotic countries of the East--that of one son of the deceased monarch usurping the throne and hastening to confirm himself in the possession by the massacre of all the natural or legitimate competitors. Abimelech slew his brethren on one stone, either by dashing them from one rock, or sacrificing them on one stone altar, in revenge for the demolition of Baal's altar by their father. This latter view is the more probable, from the Shechemites (Jdg 9:24) aiding in it.

threescore and ten persons--A round number is used, but it is evident that two are wanting to complete that number.

Jamieson, Fausset & Brown — Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

Verse 5. Slew his brethren] His brothers by the father's side, Jdg 8:30. This was a usual way of securing an ill-gotten throne; the person who had no right destroying all those that had right, that he might have no competitors.

Yet Jotham - was left] That is, all the seventy were killed except Jotham, if there were not seventy besides Jotham. All the histories of all the nations of the earth are full of cruelties similar to those of Abimelech: cousins, uncles, brothers, husbands, and fathers have been murdered by their cousins, nephews, brothers, wives, and children, in order that they might have the undisturbed possession of an ill-gotten throne. Europe, Asia, and Africa, can witness all this. Even now, some of these horribly obtained governments exist.

Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible (1810–1826) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

(5) And he went unto his father’s house at Ophrah.—Probably, like Absalom, he seized the opportunity of some local or family feast at which all his brethren would be assembled (2Sa_13:23); it may even have been the anniversary of Gideon’s vision.

Slew his brethren . . .—This is the first mention in Scripture of the hideous custom, which is so common among all Oriental despots, of anticipating conspiracies by destroying all their brothers and near kinsmen. (Comp. Pope, Epistle to Arbuthnot: “Bear, like the Turk, no brother near the throne.”) There is little affection and much jealousy in polygamous households. Abimelech by this vile wickedness set a fatal precedent, which was followed again and again in the kingdom of Israel by Baasha (1Ki_15:29), Zimri (1Ki_16:11), Jehu (2Ki_10:7), and probably by other kings (2 Kings 15); and by Athaliah (2Ki_11:1) in the kingdom of Judah. Herod also put to death most of his kinsmen, and some of his sons (see Life of Christ, i. 43). Seneca says, “Nec regna socium ferre, nec taedae sciunt”—nor realms nor weddings admit a sharer (Agam. 259).

Threescore and ten persons.—Jotham is counted in this number.

Upon one stone.—Perhaps on the rock on which was built Gideon’s altar; at any rate, by some formal execution. How ruthlessly these murders were carried out we see from 2Ki_10:7, and from many events in Eastern history. On one occasion, at a banquet in Damascus. Abdallah-Ebn-Ali murdered no less than ninety of the rival dynasty of the Ommiades.

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

5. upon one stone] as if they were sacrificial victims (cf. 1Sa_14:33 f.); perhaps also to avoid promiscuous blood-shed. For this Oriental manner of inaugurating a new reign cf. 2Ki_10:1 ff; 2Ki_11:1. Jotham escaped, like Joash 2Ki_11:2.

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 he went to his father's house at Ophrah,.... Which, according to Bunting (a), was ten miles from Shechem:

and slew his brethren the sons of Jerubbaal, being seventy persons, upon one stone: in which he was assisted by the ruffians he had hired with seventy pieces of silver; these were laid one after another upon one and the same stone, as being convenient for the execution of them; or as serving as an altar on which they were sacrificed to Baal, out of whose temple the money was taken to hire the executioners with. They are said to be seventy that were slain, though one escaped, the round number being given, as in many other instances, as in Gen 46:27,

notwithstanding, yet Jotham the youngest son of Jerubbaal was left; or remained alive, not out of compassion to his youth, but because he could not be found:

for he hid himself; for no doubt Abimelech, and his crew, were most forward to lay hold of the eldest, and sacrifice them first, as being most in his way; this gave Jotham the youngest not only notice of their design, but an opportunity of providing for his safety, or however his friends; for it may be rendered, as in some versions, "he was hidden" (b), that is, by others.

(a) Travels of the Patriarchs, &c. p. 111. (b) Sept. "absconditus est", V. L. "qui absconditus fuit", Tigurine version; so the Targum.

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

Such wholesale slaughters have always been common in Eastern monarchies, and are among the fruits of polygamy.

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

Stone where criminals were, perhaps, commonly executed, that he might seem to act with justice, (Tostat) or he might slaughter his brethren on the very altar, which had been erected to God by Gedeon, after he had thrown down that of Baal. By doing so, he would seem to vindicate the idol, and gratify the people of Sichem, who were zealous idolaters, ver. 46. Joatham escaped his fury, yet he, also, uses a round number, 70, when he says you have killed 70 men, ver. 18. (Calmet) --- Abimelech himself must also be deducted from the number. Thus we say the seventy interpreters, (Menochius) though the Greek interpreters of the Bible are supposed (Haydock) to have been 72. (Menochius) --- The history of nations is full of similar instances of cruelty. Ochus, king of Persia, killed his uncle, and 80 or 100 of his sons. Phraartees, son of Herod, king of the Parthians, by a concubine, slew his father and his 30 children. (Justin. x. and xlii.) --- The Turkish emperors have shewn equal barbarity on many occasions, and they still murder or confine all their brothers. (Serar. q. 6.)

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).

The sons of Jerubbaal; the only persons who were likely to hinder him in establishing his tyranny.

Threescore and ten persons; wanting one, who is here expressed; and these synecdochical expressions are frequent in Scripture: see Gen 35:26; 42:13; Num 14:32,33; Joh 20:24; 1Co 15:5.

Upon one stone; whereby he would signify that this was either,

1. An act of justice, in cutting them all off in an orderly manner, for some supposed crime probably as designing sedition and rebellion; or,

2. An act of religion, in avenging the dishonour and injury done to Baal by Gideon, Jdg 6:27,28, upon his children, whom he offered up as so many sacrifices to Baal upon this stone, which served for an altar; and for this reason it seems the money was taken out of Baal’s house, because it was to be laid out in his service.

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

5. Upon one stone — That is, he made his brethren prisoners, and then led them out, and subjected them to a formal execution all at one place and time. Perhaps the place of execution was the rock where the angel had revealed himself to Gideon. Jdg_6:20. This massacre, says Keil, was “a bloody omen of the kingdom of the ten tribes, which was afterwards founded at Shechem by Jeroboam, in which one dynasty overthrew another, and generally sought to establish its power by exterminating the whole family of the dynasty that had been overthrown. Even in Judah, Athaliah, the worshipper of Baal, sought to usurp the government by exterminating the whole of the descendants of her son. 2 Kings 11. Such fratricides have also occurred in quite recent times in the Mohammedan countries of the East.” Abimelech has the unenviable distinction of giving the first example of that barbarous system of state policy.

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

Upon one stone. Used as a block, on which the victims were executed one after another. Compare the similar wholesale murders of the seventy sons of Ahab by order of Jehu, (2Ki_10:7) of the seed royal of Judah by Athaliah, (2Ki_11:1) of the whole house of Jeroboam by Baasha, (1Ki_15:29) of the whole house of Baasha by Zimri. (1Ki_16:11, 1Ki_16:12) Timour, on his conquest of Persia, is said to have destroyed the whole male family of the king. At the conquest of Bagdad he is said to have made a pyramid of 90, 000 human heads. In Persia and Turkey in modern times it has been a common practice for the sovereign to slay or put out the eyes of all his brothers and cousins. So destructive of natural affection is polygamy, and so cruel is power.

Ver. 5. Shortcomings of unscrupulous schemes.

That there are instances of seemingly complete and permanent success cannot be denied. But the cases in which the act just falls short of success are too frequent and dramatically striking not to be pondered.

I A MORAL GOVERNMENT OF THE WORLD IS WITNESSED TO.

II IF EVIDENT IN SOME CASES, MAY NOT THE SAME LAW EXIST WHERE NOT CLEARLY VISIBLE?

III IN THIS IS ILLUSTRATED THE ESSENTIALLY MORAL CHARACTER OF HIGHEST REASON. The wicked always leave something unconsidered or unprovided for. The lives and schemes of the wicked are based on fallacies. Truth and righteousness coincide. M.

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

His brethren -- the only persons who were likely to hinder him in establishing his tyranny. Threescore and ten - Wanting one, who is here expressed. Jotham was left - Whereby he would signify, that this was an act of justice, in cutting them all off in an orderly manner, for some supposed crime, probably, as designing sedition and rebellion.

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

Ophrah

Translate the name of this city as you did in Judges 6:11.

one stone

"1 stone" (See: Numbers)

seventy

"70" (See: Numbers)

Jerub Baal

This is another name for Gideon. See how you translated this in Judges 6:32.

Beth Millo

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

translationWords

Jotham

Shechem

Abimelech

king

oak

column

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