Judges 9:1-21--Abimelech's Conspiracy

Judges 9:1-21
English Standard Version

Abimelech's Conspiracy
9 Now Abimelech the son of Jerubbaal went to Shechem to his mother's relatives and said to them and to the whole clan of his mother's family, 2 “Say in the ears of all the leaders of Shechem, ‘Which is better for you, that all seventy of the sons of Jerubbaal rule over you, or that one rule over you?’ Remember also that I am your bone and your flesh.”

3 And his mother's relatives spoke all these words on his behalf in the ears of all the leaders of Shechem, and their hearts inclined to follow Abimelech, for they said, “He is our brother.” 4 And they gave him seventy pieces of silver out of the house of Baal-berith with which Abimelech hired worthless and reckless fellows, who followed him. 5 And he went to his father's house at Ophrah and killed his brothers the sons of Jerubbaal, seventy men, on one stone. But Jotham the youngest son of Jerubbaal was left, for he hid himself. 6 And all the leaders of Shechem came together, and all Beth-millo, and they went and made Abimelech king, by the oak of the pillar at Shechem.

7 When it was told to Jotham, he went and stood on top of Mount Gerizim and cried aloud and said to them, “Listen to me, you leaders of Shechem, that God may listen to you. 8 The trees once went out to anoint a king over them, and they said to the olive tree, ‘Reign over us.’ 9 But the olive tree said to them, ‘Shall I leave my abundance, by which gods and men are honored, and go hold sway over the trees?’ 10 And the trees said to the fig tree, ‘You come and reign over us.’ 11 But the fig tree said to them, ‘Shall I leave my sweetness and my good fruit and go hold sway over the trees?’ 12 And the trees said to the vine, ‘You come and reign over us.’ 13 But the vine said to them, ‘Shall I leave my wine that cheers God and men and go hold sway over the trees?’ 14 Then all the trees said to the bramble, ‘You come and reign over us.’ 15 And the bramble said to the trees, ‘If in good faith you are anointing me king over you, then come and take refuge in my shade, but if not, let fire come out of the bramble and devour the cedars of Lebanon.’

​16 “Now therefore, if you acted in good faith and integrity when you made Abimelech king, and if you have dealt well with Jerubbaal and his house and have done to him as his deeds deserved-- 17 for my father fought for you and risked his life and delivered you from the hand of Midian, 18 and you have risen up against my father's house this day and have killed his sons, seventy men on one stone, and have made Abimelech, the son of his female servant, king over the leaders of Shechem, because he is your relative-- 19 if you then have acted in good faith and integrity with Jerubbaal and with his house this day, then rejoice in Abimelech, and let him also rejoice in you. 20 But if not, let fire come out from Abimelech and devour the leaders of Shechem and Beth-millo; and let fire come out from the leaders of Shechem and from Beth-millo and devour Abimelech.” 21 And Jotham ran away and fled and went to Beer and lived there, because of Abimelech his brother.

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Just how far have we slipped morally during the time of the judges?  We've slipped so far that Abimelech, the son of Gideon and one of his concubines, convinces the people of Shechem (the place where his mother lived) that he should be the one son of Gideon that should be selected as king instead of having all the sons of Gideon and his wives, 70 sons in all, should equally be in charge.  Abimelech made the argument to the people of Shechem that he was one of them and the town of Shechem said "He is our brother" and they assisted him in in his quest for power by helping him hunt and put to death 69 of the 70 sons of Gideon.  One of them, named Jotham was able to escape from the hand of Abimelech.  Jotham was the youngest of the 70 sons of Gideon, but it was God's plan to save him so that Gideon's line would not perish completely.

Before running to hide from his brother, Jotham goes to Mount Gerizim (a prominent mountain in the center of the Holy Land.  There he tells the people of Manasseh a story to try to get them to understand that what Abimelech is claiming about himself and what his character says about him are two different things, and that he is like the bramble that will easily catch on fire (he is hot-headed) and he will burn down the whole forest with him (destroy the whole nation) because of the fire that will come out of him because they let him go unchecked.

Jotham's message to the people of the Land is basically "Wait and see" and to put Abimelech to the test, but it isn't looking good for him right now based off of the fact that he started by trying to kill his 70 brothers and got the people to assist him in killing 69 of them so that there was no one from the house of Gideon left to challenge him for the throne (or to remind the people that Gideon did not want himself or any of his sons to be king over Israel, because the LORD was to be their King).  This is the kind of brutality that we would expect from one of the pagan Canaanite kings that the people were commanded to destroy, and yet, here it is in the house of Gideon, one of the judges of Israel.  The author of the book of Judges is trying to warn the people about the dangers of king whose heart is not in tune with God's heart for His people.  David will be a good king because he will be "a man after God's own heart."  That doesn't mean that David will never sin, but ultimately, David usually wanted the same thing for the people that the LORD God wanted for the people.  The same can't be said for Abimelech who was really only interested in his own power and wanted to dominate others with a heavy hand.  The people will soon be sorry that they made him king, just like Jotham tried to warn them.