Judges 9-11 Abimelech and Jephthah

Thoughts

Judges 9 Abimelech

Abimelech, son of Gideon and his Shechemite concubine, persuades his mother’s relatives in Shechem to support him over Gideon’s SEVENTY other sons.

He uses seventy shekels of silver from the temple of Baal-Berith to hire reckless men to murder all his brothers except Jotham, who escapes.

When verse 5 says Abimelech “killed his brothers … on one stone”, it probably means in one place.

People of Shechem crown him king.

Jotham tells a parable from Mount Gerizim about how the trees seek a king, but only the bramble accepts ( a warning about Abimelech’s destructive rule).
• Jotham says if their choice was unjust, may fire come from Abimelech and from Shechem to destroy each other. Jotham flees to Beer.

Abimelech reigns for three years.

God sends an evil spirit between Abimelech and the leaders of Shechem to punish them. Leaders of Shechem set ambushes against Abimelech.

A man named Gaal (son of Ebed – not a name we know) arrives in Shechem and gains the people’s trust.

During a harvest festival in Baal’s temple, Gaal mocks Abimelech and claims he should lead instead. Zebul, the city ruler, secretly warns Abimelech.

This made me chuckle: And when Gaal saw the people, he said to Zebul, “Look, people are coming down from the mountaintops!” And Zebul said to him, “You mistake the shadow of the mountains for men.”

Abimelech ambushes Gaal and his men. Gaal is defeated and driven out. The next day Abimelech attacks Shechem and destroys it, including the tower holding 1000 men and women.

*wow this chapter has ALOT in it*

Abimelech then attacks Thebez and captures it, but a woman drops a millstone on his head from a tower, killing him. 

Interesting that both Jael and this woman took down powerful men!

To avoid the disgrace of being killed by a woman, Abimelech asks his armor-bearer to kill him.

Judges 10

Tola son of Puah, son of Dodo, (not the previous Puah from Numbers) from the tribe of Issachar, rises to save Israel. He is a judge for 23 years.

Jair then was a judge for 22 years. Apparently he had thirty sons who rode on thirty donkeys, and they had thirty cities.

Israel again does evil and worship:

• Baal and Ashtoreth (Canaanite gods)
• gods of Aram (Syria)
• gods of Sidon (Phoenicia)
• gods of Moab
• gods of the Ammonites
• gods of the Philistines

God allows the Philistines and Ammonites to oppress Israel. Ammonites cross the Jordan to fight against Judah, Benjamin, and Ephraim.

Israel suffers 18 years of oppression.

Israel confesses: “We have sinned … we have forsaken our God.” God replies: He has rescued them before from Egypt, the Amorites, Ammonites, Philistines, Sidonians, Amalekites, and Maonites  BUT THEY STILL turn to other gods.

He tells them to cry out to the gods they have chosen for deliverance. (!) They beg God to deliver them and put their idols away.

God “became impatient over the misery of Israel”

The Ammonites camp in Gilead; Israel camps at Mizpah.

Leaders of Gilead ask: Who will begin to fight against the Ammonites? which sets up Jephthah’s story

Judges 11 Jephthah

Jephthah the Gileadite is a mighty warrior, but the son of a prostitute and Gilead . His half-brothers drive him away, saying he has no share in the family inheritance.

Jephthah flees to the land of Tob and gathers a band of adventurers/outcasts around him.

The Ammonites wage war against Israel and the elders of Gilead ask Jephthah to lead them in battle.

Jephthah challenges them: why come to him now after rejecting him? They promise to make him head over all Gilead and Jephthah agrees.

Jephthah sends messengers to the king of Ammon, asking why he’s attacking. He claims Israel took Ammonite land during the Exodus.

Jephthah reminds them:

• Israel did not take Ammon’s land, they took land from the Amorites, who had defeated Moab.
• Israel had lived there for 300 years without Ammon reclaiming it.
• Israel’s victories were by the LORD’s will, just as Chemosh supposedly gave land to the Ammonites.

The Spirit of the LORD comes upon Jephthah and he makes a vow: if God gives him victory over Ammon, “whatever comes out from the doors of my house to meet me when I return in peace from the Ammonites shall be the Lord’s, and I will offer it  up for a burnt offering”

Jephthah defeats the Ammonites, taking 20 cities.

Jephthah returns home, and his only child, his daughter, comes out to greet him with tambourines and dancing. :( He is devastated but insists he cannot break his vow.

She asks takes two months to roam the hills and mourn her virginity with her friends. Afterward, Jephthah fulfills his vow. Some say it was only her virginity that had to be maintained and she was not sacrificed (given to the temple).

Now each year, young women of Israel commemorate Jephthah’s daughter for four days.

Questions

What was Jephthah hoping would come out of his house??

Why does it say his daughter mourns her virginity and not her life? Was she not sacrificed?

Application

We see SO many stories of the judges/leaders in these three chapters. More importantly we see how they behave when they follow God vs. when they follow their own power. Abimelech eventually was consumed by his power and killed. God can easily lift people up to a position that has power over a community, but if that person doesn’t seek God first, it can lead to destruction. Tola and Jair didn’t get as many lines as Abimelech in the Bible, but they led Israel into stability. Sometimes those who are evil make the headlines, while those who do good don’t get as much airtime.