Judges 9:1-21

9:1-6 | Gideon eventually succumbed to all the sins he had fought against, and these sins multiplied – with devastating consequences. As a result of Gideon’s affair with a Canaanite woman in Shechem, a child was born. This child, Abimelech, eventually killed all but one of Gideon’s 70 other children and caused Israel many years of degradation and sorrow.

9:1 | Shechem was strategically located between the coastal plain and the Jordan Valley and was a crossroads of several trade routes. Whoever ruled Shechem controlled the countryside. Abimelech hatched his plot there, entering into negotiations with some of the city’s “worthless and reckless men (9:4).

9:6 | Pillar may be a sacred symbol, perhaps even an Asherah pole (an idol; 6:25). Abimelech’s coronation took place at the very site at Shechem where Joshua had placed the Book of the Law (Josh. 24:1,26).

9:7-15 | This fable was designed to teach the Israelites that they would pay for crowning a worthless man like Abimelech (the bramble) who did not have their best interests in mind. The other three trees (olive, fig, vine) represent the kind of laudable people who are so committed to serving that they refuse to abandon their work for a position of honor. Jotham’s warnings came true when Abimelech destroyed Shechem and burned Beth Millo (9:45-49).