Abimelech Ben Gideon

Scripture: Judges 8:31; 9:1–57

Origin (Judges 8:31), Abimelech (אֲבִימֶלֶךְ, "my father is king") was the son of Gideon by a concubine from Shechem. His name announces what he intended to become. Gideon had seventy sons by his many wives (8:30) and one son, Abimelech, by the concubine. The Shechemite half-brother was also the Shechemite's kinsman, his mother's family lived in Shechem.

The massacre of the seventy (Judges 9:1–6), After Gideon's death, Abimelech went to Shechem and appealed to his mother's brothers and clan: "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" (9:2). They gave him seventy pieces of silver from the temple of Baal-Berith. With them, Abimelech hired worthless and reckless fellows who followed him. He went to his father's house at Ophrah and killed his brothers, seventy men, Gideon's sons, on one stone. Jotham, the youngest son, survived by hiding. The men of Shechem and Beth-millo made Abimelech king by the oak of the pillar at Shechem.

Jotham's parable (Judges 9:7–21), Jotham climbed to the top of Mount Gerizim and called out to the people of Shechem. He told a parable: the trees went to anoint a king. They asked the olive tree; it refused, why give up producing oil? They asked the fig tree; it refused. They asked the vine; it refused. They asked the bramble, and the bramble said: "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" (9:15). The application of the parable was explicit: you have made Abimelech king, a bramble, a son of a slave woman, over the oak of Jerubbaal. If you have acted faithfully with Gideon's house, rejoice. If not, let fire come from Abimelech and devour the men of Shechem, and let fire come from the men of Shechem and devour Abimelech. Then Jotham fled.

Three years and the ruin of the alliance (Judges 9:22–49), Abimelech ruled Israel three years. YHWH sent an evil spirit between Abimelech and the men of Shechem, and they broke faith with one another, in fulfillment of Jotham's curse (9:23–24). Gaal son of Ebed came to Shechem, stirred up the Shechemites against Abimelech, and challenged his legitimacy. Zebul, Abimelech's officer in Shechem, informed Abimelech. He came with four companies by night and ambushed Gaal at the city gate. Abimelech fought the city, captured it, killed its people, and sowed it with salt. When the people of the tower of Shechem fled to the stronghold of the temple of El-Berith, Abimelech gathered brushwood, set fire to the stronghold, and burned about a thousand men and women.

Thebez and the millstone (Judges 9:50–55), Abimelech went to Thebez, besieged it, captured it. All the men and women and leaders of the city fled to the strong tower within the city and locked themselves in, and they went up to the roof of the tower. Abimelech came to the door of the tower to burn it with fire. "And a certain woman threw an upper millstone on Abimelech's head and crushed his skull" (9:53). He called quickly to his armor-bearer: "Draw your sword and kill me, lest they say of me, 'A woman killed him'" (9:54). The armor-bearer ran him through, and he died. "When the men of Israel saw that Abimelech was dead, everyone departed to his home" (9:55).

Jotham's curse and the text's verdict (Judges 9:56–57), "Thus God returned the evil of Abimelech, which he committed against his father in killing his seventy brothers. And God also made all the evil of the men of Shechem return on their heads, and upon them came the curse of Jotham the son of Jerubbaal" (9:56–57). The narrative is one of the most complete arcs in the book of Judges: a false king, a prophet's parable, three years of rule, fire from both sides, a millstone, and the text's explicit closing verdict that God returned the evil.

Abimelech is Judges' study in illegitimate kingship. He used his mother's family to fund the murder of his father's sons. He made himself king by money and violence. Jotham's parable, the trees looking for a king, finding only the bramble, is the first extended political parable in Scripture and one of the sharpest indictments of self-appointed power. Fire came from the bramble and from Shechem both, exactly as Jotham predicted, and a woman dropped a millstone on a man who had just burned a thousand people in a temple.