EXPOSITION. temple of Apollo at Delphi wero very CHAPTER IX. great, and excited the cupidity of Xerxes, Ver. 1.-The son of Jerubbaal. Through- who sent an armv to plunder the tem- out this chapter Gideon is spoken of by the ple, but was foiled in the attempt. The name of Jerubbaal. There must be some Phocians are related to have seized I 0, 000 cause for this. The simplest and most pro- talents from the treasury of Delphi, nearly bable cause is that this whole history of two and a half millions sterling. The temple A bimelech is taken from some other source of Diana at Ephesus had considerable trea- than the preceding chapters. And a con- sures in money, as well as other valuable siderable difference in the style of the nar- articles, Many other notices of the riches rative, which is feebler and more obscure, of temple treasures occur in classical writers. seems to bear out this inference, Went to Vain and light persons. Cf. Judges xi. 3; Shechem, This revolt from the house of 1 Sam. xxii. 2 ; 2 Sam. xv. 1 ; 2 Cb r ,n. Gideon in favour of Abimelech seems to xiii 7. Vain, literally, empty; liyht, partake of the nature of an Ephraimite rising literally, boiling O'Ver. Applied to the false against the supremacy of Manasseh. It was prophets(Zeph. iii. 4). In German, sprudel- doubtless galling to the pride of the great kopf is a hot-headed, hasty man. tribe of Ephraim (eh. viii 1, 2; xii 1-6) Ver. 6. - Upon one stone. Used as a chat Ophra.h of the Abi-ezrites should be block, on which the victims were executed ~he seat of government, and Gideon's ephod one after another. Compare the similar the centre of religion for the tribes of Israel. wholesale murders of the seventy sons of And so they seem to have taken advantage Ahab by order of Jehu (2 Kings x. 7), of the of Gideon's death, and of Abimelech's con- seed royal of Judah by Athaliah (2 Kings nection with Shechem, to make a league xi. 1), of the whole house of Jeroboam by with the Hivite inhabitants of Shechem (see Baa.sha {1 Kings xv. 29), of the whole house vers. 27, 28} to set up Abimelech as king, of Baasha by Zimri (1 Kings xvi 11, 12). and to restore the worship of Baal, under the Timour, on his conquest of Persia, is said to title of Baal-berith (eh. viii. 33; ix. 4, 27, have destroyed the whole male family of the 46}, at Shechem for all Israel to resort to, king. At the conquest of Bagdad he is said Ver. 2. - All the sons, . . . whioh are to have made a pyramid of 90,000 human threescore and ten persons. Mark the evils heads. In Persia and Turkey in modern of polygamy-producing family discord, ex- times it has been a. common JJractice for the tinguishing natural affection, causing civil sovereign to slay or put out the eyes of ali. strife, multiplying pretenders, and producing his brothers and cousins. So destructive of an ignoble and contemptible herd of helpless natural affection is polygamy, and so cruel princes. is power. Ver. 3. - His mother's brethren. Pre- Ver. 6.-The house ofMillo. Millo must sumably the Hivite population of Shechem. have been some strongly fortified post in the Ver. 4.-Threeecore and ten of silver, neighbomhood of Shechem, and no doubt i. e. shekels, which is always understood. the place where the tower was, mentioue,i Equal in value to about seven pounds; quite in vers. 46, 47. At Jerusalem we read of enough with which to hire a bnnd of "vein J,fillo as a part of the city of David in 2 Sam. and light persons," who would afterwards v. 9, apparently so called by the Jebusites, maintain themselves by plunder. Out of and the strengthening of it was one of Solo- the house of :Oaal-berith. The custom of mon's great works (1 Kings ix. 15, 24). lt collecting treasnres at the temple, both that is called the house of 1'Iillo in 2 Kings xii. of the true God and of idols, whether they 20, where it is mentioned as the scene of the were offerings and girts for the service of murder of King J onsh. Here, therefore, Iha the temple, or treasures deposited there for h01ise of Milla probably means the citadel or s11fety, was very general (see Josh. vi. 19; keep of Shechem, a fortress analogous to the 1 Kings xv. 18 ; 1 Chron. xxi.x. 8 ; Dan. i. Dale.-hissar in relation to Cabul, though pos- 2, &c.). 'l'he treasures belonging to the sibly at a distance of a. mi e or two (ver 46 JUDGES. B nm BOOK OF JUDGES. [CR. IX, 1-6,
note;. The phrase, all the ho11,se of J,[iUo, Morch," and another "the Saint of the mea11s all the men who dwelt in the house Pillar" (see Stanley's • Sermons in . the or Millo, probably all men of war. Made Ea~t,' p, 182). And we arc very strongly le<l Abimelech king. We seem to see the hand to this conclusion by the further fact that of the Canaanite population in this term there was a famous oak at Shechcm, men- king, which was proper to the Cana.anites tioned Gen. xxxv. 4 as the place where (Josh. xi., xii.), but was not yet domesticated Jacob hi,l the idols of his household; and in Israel. The plain of the pillar. This that Joshua took a great stone and "set it translation is clearly wrong. The word up under the oak that was by the sanctuary translated p/a.i'.n means an oak or fercbinth of the Lord" at Shechem (Josh. xxiv. I, 25, tree. The word translated 1,illar is thought 26). It marks a sad declension in the con- to mean a ga.rrison, or rnffitanJ post, in Isa. dition of Israel at this time, ns compared xxix. 3 (A. V. mo11,nd) ; but., according to its ",ith the days oi J oshun, that the Shechemite etymology and the meanin~ of other fonns Abimelech should be made king with a view of the same root, may equally well mean a to the restoration of Baal-worship on the monument, or stone set up and this is pro- very spot where their fathers had made a bably the meaning here. The translation solemn covenant to serve the Lord. It is will then be the oak of the monurnent, a sense remarkable that the narrative in this chap- supported by the modern names of the ter gives us no clue 11s to the relations of the mosque there, of which one is "the Oak of rest of Israel with Abimelech.