Verses 42-49
Judges 9:42-Ephesians : . Abimelech Destroys Shechem.— These verses seem to contain a second, independent account of the attack on Shechem, the sequel to Judges 9:22-Lamentations :.
Judges 9:43 . Abimelech adopts the same tactics whereby his father routed the Midianites ( Judges 7:16).
Judges 9:44 . Read, with the LXX, “ the company that was with me.”
Judges 9:45 . To sow a city with salt was to declare symbolically that it was henceforth to be as fruitless and desolate as a salt desert ( Deuteronomy 9:23, Psalms 107:34). But, in the case of Shechem, nature itself made that impossible.
Judges 9:46 . Read “ Migdal-Shechem,” evidently a town in the neighbourhood. El-berith is another name for Baal-berith ( Judges 8:33), which the LXX has here. The translation “ hold” is a guess; the word may mean an underground chamber. Mount Zalmon is unknown.
Judges 9:49 . Abimelech burns the town of Shechem; King Bramble’ s fire devours the cedars as Jotham had predicted.
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