Wednesday Bible Study: A complicated parable

Judges 9 is one of the longest chapters in the Bible. Were I the responsible medieval monk, I might have cut it in half, but it does tell a single story, the biography of Abimelek. (More often spelled Abimelech but this is the NIV spelling.) A point that strikes me about this, which I haven ' t seen noted in commentary, is that up until this moment secular leadership has not been hereditary. This is the book of Judges, not Kings. Yet when Abimelek claims hereditary leadership, the people go along with it, even though he has murdered all but one of his brothers. (Remember that Jerub-Baal and Gideon arethe same person.) And, in fact, the parable in the middle of the tale is usually taken to be a rejection of the whole idea of hereditary kingship, and most of the action concerns rebellion. What this is doing here is therefore a bit unclear because the Israelites do eventually establish a kingship. Keep in mind, however, that this entire story unfolds while they are apostate from the cult of Yahweh. I have a couple of comments along the way.9 Abimelek son of Jerub-Baal went to his mother ’s brothers in Shechem and said to them and to all his mother’s clan,2 “Ask all the citizens of Shechem, ‘Which is better for you: to have all seventy of Jerub-Baal’s sons rule over you, or just one man?’ Remember, I am your flesh and blood.”3 When the brothers repeated all this to the citizens of Shechem, they were inclined to follow Abimelek, for they said, “He is...
Source: Stayin' Alive - Category: American Health Source Type: blogs