Skip to content
mannafest.faith

Judges 9:6

in Judges 9

Then all the leaders of Shechem and Beth-millo gathered beside the oak at the pillar in Shechem and proceeded to make Abimelech their king.

BSB

The same verse in ASV and KJV

ASV

And all the men of Shechem assembled themselves together, and all the house of Millo, and went and made Abimelech king, by the oak of the pillar that was in Shechem.

KJV

And all the men of Shechem gathered together, and all the house of Millo, and went, and made Abimelech king, by the plain of the pillar that was in Shechem.

This verse in Judges 9

Commentary

7 notes on this verse

A commentator

John Wesley

1703–1791

Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament (1765)

Of the pillar - Or, by the oak of the pillar, by the oak, where Joshua erected a pillar as a witness of the covenant renewed between God and Israel, Josh. xxiv, 26. This place they chose, to signify that they still owned God, and their covenant with him; and did not worship Baal in opposition to God, but in conjunction with him, or in subordination to him.

This site's exposition

made Abimelech king, by the plain

The crowning happens by the plain of the pillar in Shechem, and the King James margin reads oak. Joshua 24:26 set a great stone under an oak by the sanctuary of the Lord in this same town, on the day Israel swore to serve the Lord and no other god. Keil and Delitzsch take the two trees as one and read the coronation as staged at the covenant memorial itself, and the text names the spot without settling it. The house of Millo is the citadel quarter of the town, and the name turns up again in Jerusalem at 2 Samuel 5:9.

The record, by era

The Puritans and the Awakening2 voices

And all the men of Shechem gathered together,....

A commentator

Matthew Henry

1662–1714

Commentary on the Whole Bible (1710)

proposed

God was not consulted whether they should have any king at all, much less who it should be; here is no advising with the priest or with their brethren of any other city or tribe, though it was designed that he should reign over Israel,

The Nineteenth Century3 voices

A commentator

Jamieson, Fausset & Brown

1802–1910

Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)

proposed

all the men of Shechem . . ., and all the house of Millo--that is, a mound or rampart, so that the meaning is, all the men in the house or temple; namely, the priests of Baal. made Abimelech king, by the plain of the pillar--rather, "by the oak near a raised mound"--so that the ceremony of coronation might be conspicuous to a crowd.

quarantine:debris (2026-07-29) — starts-lowercase

A commentator

Adam Clarke

1762–1832

Commentary on the Bible · Written before 1832.

proposed

And all the house of Millo - If Millo be the name of a place, it is nowhere else mentioned in the sacred writings. But it is probably the name of a person of note and influence in the city of Shechem - the men of Shechem and the family of Millo.
Millo must have been a fortified place close to, but separate from, Shechem, and perhaps the same as the tower of Shechem mentioned in Jdg 9:46-47. The building or enlarging of the better-known Millo, at Jerusalem was one of Solomon’s great works 1Ki 9:15, 1Ki 9:24. The population dwelling in Millo though perhaps numerically small, had great weight from possessing the stronghold. Their giving Abimelech the title of king indicates the strong Canaanite influence at Shechem. All the Canaanite chiefs were called kings, but it was a title hitherto unknown in Israel. This title had not been named by those Israelites who offered to make Gideon their hereditary ruler Jdg 8:22-23. The plain of the pillar ... - Rather “the oak of the garrison which is in Shechem.” The oak in question was probably called the “garrison oak,” from a garrison being stationed near it.

The words behind it

17 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.

  • וַיֵּאָ֨סְפ֜וּand they gathered

    vaiyeasefuH622200 times

  • כָּל־all

    kol-H36055413 times

  • בַּעֲלֵ֤י[the] citizens of

    baaleiH116784 times

  • שְׁכֶם֙Shechem

    shekhemH792763 times

  • וְכָל־and all

    vekholH36055413 times

  • בֵּ֣יתBeth

    beitH10378 times

  • מִלּ֔וֹאMillo

    milo'H10378 times

  • וַיֵּ֣לְכ֔וּand they went

    vaiyelekhuH19801546 times

  • וַיַּמְלִ֥יכוּand they made king

    vaiyamlikhuH4427348 times

  • אֶת־<obj.>

    ʾet-H85310935 times

  • אֲבִימֶ֖לֶךְAbimelech

    ʾavimelekhH4066 times

  • לְמֶ֑לֶךְto king

    lemelekhH44282525 times

  • עִם־near

    ʾim-H59731050 times

  • אֵל֥וֹן[the] great tree

    ʾelonH4369 times

  • מֻצָּ֖בset up

    mutzavH532475 times

  • אֲשֶׁ֥רwhich

    ʾasherH8345497 times

  • בִּשְׁכֶֽם׃[was] in Shechem

    bishkhemH792763 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

    1 Kings 12:20

    When all Israel heard that Jeroboam had returned, they summoned him to the assembly and made him king over all Israel. Only the tribe of Judah followed the house of David.

    it leads to

    • 1 Kings 11:13

      Yet I will not tear the whole kingdom away from him. I will give one tribe to your son for the sake of My servant David and for the sake of Jerusalem, which I…

    • 1 Kings 11:32

      But one tribe will remain for the sake of My servant David and for the sake of Jerusalem, the city I have chosen out of all the tribes of Israel.

  • Through

    2 Samuel 5:9

    So David took up residence in the fortress and called it the City of David. He built it up all the way around, from the supporting terraces inward.

    it leads to

    • 1 Kings 9:15

      This is the account of the forced labor that King Solomon imposed to build the house of the LORD, his own palace, the supporting terraces, and the wall of Jerusalem, as well as Hazor,…

    • 1 Kings 9:24

      As soon as Pharaoh’s daughter had come up from the City of David to the palace that Solomon had built for her, he built the supporting terraces.

  • Through

    1 Kings 12:25

    Then Jeroboam built Shechem in the hill country of Ephraim and lived there. And from there he went out and built Penuel.

    it leads to

    • Judges 8:17

      He also pulled down the tower of Penuel and killed the men of the city.

    • Judges 8:8

      From there he went up to Penuel and asked the same from them, but the men of Penuel gave the same response as the men of Succoth.

    • Genesis 32:30–31

      So Jacob named the place Peniel, saying, “Indeed, I have seen God face to face, and yet my life was spared.”

    • Judges 9:45–49

      And all that day Abimelech fought against the city until he had captured it and killed its people. Then he demolished the city and sowed it with salt.

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; Albert Barnes, Notes, Explanatory and Practical, on the Old and New Testaments (1832-1869); Jamieson, Fausset & Brown, Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible; John Gill, Exposition of the Old Testament; John Gill, Exposition of the Old Testament (1748-1763); John Wesley, Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament; Keil and Delitzsch, Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament: Joshua, Judges, Ruth and Matthew Henry, Commentary on the Whole Bible.