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Judges 9:2

in Judges 9

“Please ask all the leaders of Shechem, ‘Is it better for you that seventy men, all the sons of Jerubbaal, rule over you, or just one man?’ Remember that I am your own flesh and blood.”

BSB

The same verse in ASV and KJV

ASV

Speak, I pray you, in the ears of all the men of Shechem, Whether is better for you, that all the sons of Jerubbaal, who are threescore and ten persons, rule over you, or that one rule over you? remember also that I am your bone and your flesh.

KJV

Speak, I pray you, in the ears of all the men of Shechem, Whether is better for you, either that all the sons of Jerubbaal, which are threescore and ten persons, reign over you, or that one reign over you? remember also that I am your bone and your flesh.

This verse in Judges 9

Commentary

3 notes on this verse

A commentator

Adam Clarke

1762–1832

Commentary on the Bible · Written before 1832.

Whether is better for you, either that all the sons - This was a powerful argument: Whether will you have seventy tyrants or only one? For, as he had no right to the government, and God alone was king at that time in Israel; so he must support his usurped rule by whatever means were most likely to effect it: a usurped government is generally supported by oppression and the sword.

This site's exposition

And Abimelech the son of Jerubbaal went

on Judges 9:1-3

Gideon told Israel at 8:23 that neither he nor his son would rule them, and his son opens this chapter canvassing for the crown. Abimelech argues from kinship rather than from any claim of right, and the phrase he uses, I am your bone and your flesh, is the formula Laban used of Jacob at Genesis 29:14 and the one the tribes use to make David king at 2 Samuel 5:1. Shechem is his mother's town, named at 8:31, so among those men the seventy sons of Gideon are outsiders and he is not.

The record, by era

The Nineteenth Century1 voice

A commentator

Jamieson, Fausset & Brown

1802–1910

Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)

Whether is better for you, either that all the sons of Jerubbaal, . . . or that one reign over you--a false insinuation, artfully contrived to stir up jealousy and alarm. Gideon had rejected, with abhorrence, the proposal to make himself or any of his family king, and there is no evidence that any of his other sons coveted the title.

The words behind it

26 Hebrew words

Every Hebrew word of this verse in the order it stands, with what it means and the door to its own study. The last column counts the times a word stands in the whole Bible: the rarer the word, the more the places it appears belong together.

  • דַּבְּרוּ־speak

    daberu-H16961141 times

  • נָ֞אplease

    na'H4994404 times

  • בְּאָזְנֵ֨יin [the] ears of

    beazeneiH241187 times

  • כָל־all

    khol-H36055413 times

  • בַּעֲלֵ֣י[the] citizens of

    baaleiH116784 times

  • שְׁכֶם֮Shechem

    shekhemH792763 times

  • מַה־what?

    mah-H4100752 times

  • טּ֣וֹב[is] good

    tovH2896538 times

  • לָכֶם֒for <the> you

    lakhem

  • הַמְשֹׁ֨ל¿ to rule

    hamsholH491081 times

  • בָּכֶ֜םover <the> you

    bakhem

  • שִׁבְעִ֣יםseventy

    shivimH765791 times

  • אִ֗ישׁman

    ʾishH3761663 times

  • כֹּ֚לall

    kolH36055413 times

  • בְּנֵ֣י[the] sons of

    beneiH11214930 times

  • יְרֻבַּ֔עַלJerub-Baal

    yerubaalH337814 times

  • אִם־or?

    ʾim-H5181069 times

  • מְשֹׁ֥לto rule

    mesholH491081 times

  • בָּכֶ֖םover <the> you

    bakhem

  • אִ֣ישׁa man

    ʾishH3761663 times

  • אֶחָ֑דone

    ʾechadH259971 times

  • וּזְכַרְתֶּ֕םand you will remember

    uzekhartemH2142230 times

  • כִּֽי־that

    ki-H35884482 times

  • עַצְמֵכֶם[am] bone your

    ʾatzmekhemH6106

  • וּבְשַׂרְכֶ֖םand flesh your

    uvesarkhemH1320270 times

  • אָנִֽי׃I

    ʾaniH589874 times

A shaded row is a word that stands 400 times or fewer in the Bible.

The walk

8 stops

Each card is a verse this one points to, and under it the verses that one points to in turn. Where several paths arrive at the same place, that place is listed first: the text keeps returning to it.

  • Through

    Hebrews 2:14

    Now since the children have flesh and blood, He too shared in their humanity, so that by His death He might destroy him who holds the power of death, that is, the devil,

    it leads to

    • 2 Timothy 1:10

      And now He has revealed this grace through the appearing of our Savior, Christ Jesus, who has abolished death and illuminated the way to life and immortality through the gospel,

    • Romans 8:3

      For what the law was powerless to do in that it was weakened by the flesh, God did by sending His own Son in the likeness of sinful man, as an offering for sin.…

    • Colossians 2:15

      And having disarmed the powers and authorities, He made a public spectacle of them, triumphing over them by the cross.

    • 1 Corinthians 15:54–57

      When the perishable has been clothed with the imperishable and the mortal with immortality, then the saying that is written will come to pass: “Death has been swallowed up in victory.”

    • John 1:14

      The Word became flesh and made His dwelling among us. We have seen His glory, the glory of the one and only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth.

  • Through

    Ephesians 5:30

    For we are members of His body.

    it leads to

    • Genesis 2:23

      And the man said: “This is now bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh; she shall be called ‘woman,’ for out of man she was taken.”

      Reached by 2 separate paths from here.

    • 1 Corinthians 6:15

      Do you not know that your bodies are members of Christ? Shall I then take the members of Christ and unite them with a prostitute? Never!

    • 1 Corinthians 12:12–27

      The body is a unit, though it is composed of many parts. And although its parts are many, they all form one body. So it is with Christ.

About Judges

The Death of Gideon's Sons — Gustave Doré, Doré's English Bible (1866), public domain
The Death of Gideon's Sons — Gustave Doré, Doré's English Bible (1866), public domain

This page draws on Adam Clarke, Commentary on the Bible; Jamieson, Fausset & Brown, Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible; Keil and Delitzsch, Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament: Joshua, Judges, Ruth and Matthew Henry, Commentary on the Whole Bible.