Read Judges 9 here (text coming …) or at Bible Gateway.
The Hebrew paragraphs:
9:1-5 {s} Abimelech slew his brothers, the seventy sons of Gideon
9:6-21 {p} Shechem makes Abimelech king /Jotham’s parable/ prophecy of the king of the trees
9:22-25 {p} Ill will between the men of Shechem and Abimelech
9:26-41 {s} Gaal the son of Ebed instigates Shechem in civil war against Abimelech
9:42-45 {p} Abimelech took Shechem, killed all who were in it, and demolished the city
9:46-49 {p} The remnant fled to the tower / Shechem burned it and killed all who were left inside
9:50-57 {p} Abimelech went against Thebez and took it, but was killed when he sought to destroy the tower
Judges 9:6-57 Chiastic Structure:
Unlike the peaceful transfer of power that we saw at the end of Deuteronomy, where Moses anointed Joshua to succeed him, and Israel continued following YHVH under Joshua as they had under Moses, the Pattern and Repetition that we are seeing in Judges, is that the judge whom God raised up did not appoint a successor at their death, so that Israel, leaderless, left off the worship of YHVH and fell into calamity because of it.
Abimelech should have received the death penalty for the murder of one person, let alone seventy people. Instead he elevated himself to power, unopposed. Where were the priests and elders of Israel to bring order out of this chaos? No mention is made of them. The judicial system Moses established seems to have broken down …
And you shall teach them the statutes and the laws, and show them the way in which they must walk and the work they must do. Moreover you shall select from all the people able men, such as fear God, men of truth, hating covetousness; and place such over them to be rulers of thousands, rulers of hundreds, rulers of fifties, and rulers of tens. And let them judge the people at all times. Then it will be that every great matter they shall bring to you, but every small matter they themselves shall judge. … And Moses chose able men out of all Israel, and made them heads over the people: rulers of thousands, rulers of hundreds, rulers of fifties, and rulers of tens. And Moses chose able men out of all Israel, and made them heads over the people: rulers of thousands, rulers of hundreds, rulers of fifties, and rulers of tens. So they judged the people at all times; the hard cases they brought to Moses, but they judged every small case themselves. Exo 18:20-22, 25-26
… and the priests and elders of the tribes, who should have safeguarded this system for the benefit of society, instead let it break down. Perhaps they themselves were compromised with idolatry in this generation. The result for society was wicked rulers, civil war, and destruction. And when the judiciary becomes corrupt in any society, that is always the result.
If there are questions, this is a good resource:
Exodus 18:20-23, Able men – Christine Miller
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