Then went Abimelech to Thebez, and encamped against Thebez, and took it.
Then went Abimelech to Thebez, and encamped against Thebez, and took it.
And Abimelech goeth unto Thebez, and encampeth against Thebez, and captureth it,
And Abimelech went to Thebez, and encamped against Thebez, and took it.
Judges — The post-conquest slide into cyclical apostasy. Twelve judges delivering Israel from successive oppressors, a pattern repeating seven times, and an appendix whose violence diagnoses a nation with no king.
Voices2
Then went Abimelech to Thebez,.... Which, according to Ben Gersom, had rebelled against him; it was near to Shechem.
John Gill· Exposition of the Old Testament (1748-1763)reformed
Of this meteor, this ignis fatuus of a prince, that was not a protector but a plague to his country, we may say, as once was said of a great tyrant, that he came in like a fox, ruled like a lion, and died like a dog. "For the transgression of a land, such are the princes thereof." The Usurpation of Abimelech.
Matthew Henry· Commentary on the Whole Bible, 1710puritan
The verses this one reaches2
Who was the one to strike Abimelech son of Jerubbesheth? Was it not a woman who dropped an upper millstone on him from the wall, so that he died in Thebez? Why did you get so close to the wall?’ If so, then you are to say, ‘Your servant Uriah the Hittite is dead as well.’”
Then Omri and all the Israelites marched up from Gibbethon and besieged Tirzah.
Rare words are the text's own signal of a deliberate thread — the fewer the occurrences, the more the places it appears belong together.
