In this social environment, Abimelech was no doubt shunned by his half-brothers (cf. his retaliation, 9:5) but he was accepted by his mother’s family who lived in Shechem.

The temple treasury pays out seventy shekels for the seventy lives of Gideon’s sons. This is an indication of how cheaply they were valued (compare a fifty-shekel-per-male ransom price in Lev 27:3 and the typical twenty shekels for which a slave might be bought).

The comment that the sons of Gideon were executed “on one stone” suggests ritual execution. Sacrifices usually took place on an altar and a large rock was at times used for a makeshift altar

These are three of the most productive members of the economy of Palestine. Olive oil, figs and wine are among the staple products of the region and constituted the primary exports. They therefore represented domestic prosperity and successful foreign relationships—both the result of a competent king’s rule.

The trees were seeking a king, but were turned down, in turn, by (a) the olive tree (v. 8), the most ancient of trees which is busy producing oil to be used to honor both gods and men (v. 9); (b) the fig tree (v. 10), the most common of trees in Israel whose fruit is a staple food (v. 11); and (c) the vine (v. 12), whose vintage produces wine which cheers both gods (i.e., in libations) and men (v. 13).

In desperation the trees invited the thornbush (the buckthorn or bramblebush was used to kindle cooking fires in the wilderness areas of Palestine) to be their king (v. 14). The qualified acceptance by the thornbush was conditioned on the trees taking refuge in its shade (v. 15). Jotham employed extreme irony in this statement, for the puny thornbush at the foot of other trees scarcely casts a shadow. The threat of fire coming out of the thornbush, however, was real for farmers feared the wildfires that could spread quickly through the dried tinder of thornbushes.

Many consider this to be prickly boxwood, which, with its very tiny leaves, has no shade to offer unless one would sit in the middle of a thicket of it—a very unpleasant experience. In the dry climate of Palestine fires can be frequent in the brush. Such brush fires would in turn generate enough heat to kindle a fire among the larger trees. The Aramaic Wisdom of Ahiqar contains a conversation between the bramble and the pomegranate tree.

However, Abimelech’s anger had not receded and his fear of further Shechemite revolt led him to ambush the people while they worked in the fields. Two companies carried out the slaughter while Abimelech secured the city gate with a third company. By evening he had captured the city and destroyed it, having killed its inhabitants. He then scattered salt over it, symbolic of a sentence of infertility so it might remain barren forever (cf. Deut. 29:23; Jer. 17:6). Archeology has confirmed this 12th-century destruction of Shechem, which remained a ruin till rebuilt by Jeroboam I as his capital (1 Kings 12:25).

Attempting a repeat performance of Shechem, Abimelech sought to set … fire to the tower (within the city) where the people had fled. However, a woman dropped an upper millstone on his head and cracked his skull. The “upper millstone” was either a cylinder-shaped stone from a handmill (about 8 or 10 inches in length and several inches thick) or the large upper stone of a regular mill (about 12 to 18 inches in diameter with a hole in the middle and several inches thick). As he was dying Abimelech (like Saul, 1 Sam. 31:4) commanded his armor-bearer to kill him. Abimelech did not want it said that a woman had killed him. The followers of Abimelech (here identified as Israelites) went home when they saw that he was dead.

It should be noted that it was not any family shame or humiliation that resulted in Jephthah’s being driven out. With the existence of temple prostitutes and polygamy it would be fairly common for children of different mothers to be in the same household. Here the text makes it clear that it was the inheritance that motivated the expulsion. Whether Jephthah, as the firstborn, had rights to a double portion, or whether they were dividing equally (see comment on primogeniture at 9:2), elimination of one party would increase the shares of the others.

Jephthah applied his knowledge of Israel’s history (learned either from written or oral sources) to refute the Ammonite king’s claim. In passing, Jephthah indicated that Israel had acquiesced to the refusal of Edom (cf. Num. 20:14–21) and Moab to permit passage through their lands (Jud. 11:17–18). However, when Israel circled the borders of Edom and Moab, and camped on the other side of the Arnon (the more usual northern border of Moab), Sihon king of the Amorites also refused Israel passage northwest to the Jordan River, and fought against Israel. The LORD gave Israel the victory and Israel took over all the land of the Amorites … from the Arnon to the Jabbok—the land now under dispute between the Ammonites and the Gileadites (cf. v. 13). This area was really southern Gilead (the rest of Gilead was north of the Jabbok River), and its southern portion (from the Arnon to a line extending eastward from the north end of the Dead Sea) was periodically in Moabite hands.

The purpose of the Spirit of the LORD coming on Jephthah was to provide divine enablement in his military leadership against the pagan oppressors whom the Lord had been using to chasten His people (cf. 3:10; 6:34; 13:25; 15:14). The presence of the Holy Spirit with Old Testament leaders was primarily for the purpose of accomplishing services for God, not specifically for holy living. Thus the presence of the Spirit with Jephthah was not necessarily related to his vow or its fulfillment, recorded in the following verses. Jephthah’s trip through Gilead and Manasseh was apparently to recruit his army.

The inability of a wife to bear children often made her vulnerable to her husband’s whims, for most marriage contracts allowed for her to be divorced on such grounds. Alternatively it often led to the taking of other wives, who, upon producing children, would assume a more favored status within the family. This text is not, however, concerned with family politics or psychological tensions. The previous barrenness of Manoah’s wife is one element that helps to demonstrate the supernatural aspect to Samson’s life and career.

the Lord foretold the birth of her son, Samson, and said that he was to be a Nazirite. A Nazirite (meaning “devoted” or “consecrated”) was a person whose vow of separation to God included abstaining from fermented drink, refraining from cutting his hair, and avoiding contact with dead bodies (Num. 6:2–6). Nazirite vows were normally for a limited period of time but Samson was to be a Nazirite of God all his life (Jud. 13:7). His mother was to share for a time in part of the Nazirite vow (vv. 4, 7, 14). Besides being set apart as a Nazirite, Samson was chosen by God to begin the deliverance of Israel from the hands of the Philistines. The completion of this task would be left to Samuel (1 Sam. 7:10–14) and David (2 Sam. 5:17–25).

ritual importance of hair. There is a Phoenician inscription from the ninth century reporting the dedication of shaven hair by an individual in fulfillment of a vow made to the goddess Astarte. It is of importance that in the biblical text there is no discussion of what should be done with the hair that is cut. It is neither dedicated as in the above inscription, nor is it deposited in the temple as in some cultures. The dedicated hair is uncut, not cut. Hair (along with blood) was one of the main representatives in ancient thinking of a person’s life essence. As such it was often an ingredient in sympathetic magic. This is evident, for instance, in the practice of sending along a lock of the presumed prophet’s hair when the prophecies were sent to the king of Mari. The hair would be used in divination to determine whether the prophet’s message would be accepted as valid.