Question 1

What argument did Abimelech send to Shechem’s leaders through his mother’s relatives (Judges 9:1-3)?

Accepted Answer

Abimelech approached his mother’s relatives in Shechem and had them ask the city’s leaders whether they would rather be ruled by seventy men, all Gideon’s sons, or by one man, reminding them that he was their own relative (9:1-2). The leaders were persuaded because, they said, he was their brother (9:3). His appeal rested on family ties and self-interest, with no word from the LORD at all. God’s law said Israel’s king must be one whom the LORD chooses (Deuteronomy 17:15), and Gideon had already refused to let himself or his son rule, saying the LORD would rule Israel (8:23).

Question 2

On what grounds did Abimelech seek the backing of Shechem’s leaders (Judges 9:1-3)?

Accepted Answer

Abimelech’s pitch to Shechem is purely political and tribal: one ruler who is their kin rather than Jerubbaal’s seventy sons (9:1-2), and the leaders incline to him because he is their brother (9:3). No divine call is claimed. The law required a king of the LORD’s choosing (Deuteronomy 17:15), and Gideon had explicitly refused dynastic rule in favor of the LORD’s kingship (8:23).

Question 3

Why did Abimelech tell his armor-bearer to kill him at Thebez (Judges 9:50-54)?

Accepted Answer

At Thebez the people shut themselves in a strong tower. As Abimelech drew near its door to burn it, a woman dropped a millstone on his head from above (9:50-53). He ordered his armor-bearer to kill him so that it would not be said that a woman had killed him, and his armor-bearer did so (9:54). His pride held to the end, but it did not change how he was remembered: generations later Joab expected David to recall that a woman at Thebez had struck Abimelech down from the wall (2 Samuel 11:21). The man who burned one tower died attacking another, and his violence came back upon him (Psalm 7:16).

Question 4

What motive did Abimelech give for ordering his armor-bearer to kill him (Judges 9:50-54)?

Accepted Answer

Besieging Thebez’s tower, Abimelech approaches the entrance to burn it as he had at Shechem, and a woman on the tower drops a millstone onto his head (9:50-53). To avoid the shame of dying by a woman’s hand he has his armor-bearer kill him (9:54), yet Israel remembered exactly that, as Joab’s words in 2 Samuel 11:21 show. His violence recoils upon himself (Psalm 7:16).

Question 5

True or False: Judges 9 says that the LORD chose Abimelech to rule, as He had called Gideon.

Accepted Answer

This is false. Abimelech was crowned by the men in power at Shechem and at Beth-millo, assembled beside the oak near the pillar (9:6). The text never says the LORD raised him up, that the LORD’s Spirit empowered him, or that he saved Israel from any enemy. That is very different from the judges, whom the LORD Himself raised up to rescue His people (2:16; 6:34). Hosea later describes the same kind of thing: people setting up kings without God’s approval (Hosea 8:4).

Question 6

True or False: The narrator presents Abimelech as a deliverer raised up by the LORD, like the earlier judges (Judges 9:6).

Accepted Answer

This is false. Abimelech’s kingship is conferred by Shechem’s and Beth-millo’s leaders at the oak by the pillar (9:6), not by any divine call. Unlike the true judges, whom the LORD Himself appointed to save (2:16) and on whom His Spirit came (6:34), Abimelech saves no one and is empowered by no one but his kinsmen. Hosea 8:4 names the pattern: kings set up without the LORD’s sanction.

Question 7

In Jotham’s story, why did the olive tree, the fig tree, and the vine each refuse to rule over the trees (Judges 9:8-13)?

Accepted Answer

Jotham climbed Mount Gerizim, the mountain where Israel was to proclaim God’s blessing (Deuteronomy 11:29), and told a story about trees looking for a king (9:7-8). The olive, the fig, and the vine each declined: ruling would mean abandoning their oil, their sweet fruit, and their wine, good gifts that serve others (the olive and the vine say theirs honor or gladden God and people), just to sway over the other trees (9:9-13). Elsewhere a psalm praises God for providing wine that gladdens people and oil that makes their faces shine (Psalm 104:15).

Question 8

What reason do the olive, fig, and vine give for declining kingship in Jotham’s fable (Judges 9:8-13)?

Accepted Answer

From Gerizim, the mount of blessing (Deuteronomy 11:29), Jotham tells of trees seeking a king (9:7-8). The olive, fig, and vine refuse because kingship would mean forsaking their productive service, oil and wine that honor and gladden God and people, and the fig’s sweet fruit, merely to wave over the trees (9:9-13). The fable contrasts fruitful usefulness with empty rule; Psalm 104:15 likewise counts wine and oil among God’s good gifts to mankind.

Question 9

What did Gaal, Ebed’s son, boast while Shechem’s people feasted in their god’s house (Judges 9:26-29)?

Accepted Answer

Gaal arrived in Shechem and won the leaders’ trust (9:26). At a harvest festival in their god’s house, the people ate, drank, and cursed Abimelech (9:27). Gaal asked why they should serve Abimelech, urged them to give their loyalty to Hamor’s people instead (Hamor being called Shechem’s father), and bragged that if he were in charge he would get rid of Abimelech and dare him to bring out his army (9:28-29). Scripture warns against such boasting: a warrior still arming himself has no business bragging as if the battle were over (1 Kings 20:11), and no one knows what tomorrow brings (Proverbs 27:1).

Question 10

What was the substance of Gaal’s boast at the Shechemite festival (Judges 9:26-29)?

Accepted Answer

Gaal gains Shechem’s confidence (9:26) and, amid festival revelry in their god’s house where Abimelech is cursed (9:27), boasts that with the people under his command he would remove Abimelech and challenge him to battle (9:28-29). The revolt flows from the animosity God had sent (9:23). His bravado is the folly 1 Kings 20:11 and Proverbs 27:1 warn against: boasting before the outcome is known.

Question 11

True or False: Gaal defeated Abimelech outside Shechem and drove him away from the city (Judges 9:39-41).

Accepted Answer

This is false. Gaal led Shechem’s leaders out to battle, but Abimelech chased him; Gaal ran, and many Shechemites were struck down on the way back to the gate (9:39-40). Abimelech remained at Arumah, while Zebul expelled Gaal and his kin from Shechem (9:41). The man who boasted he would remove Abimelech was himself removed. A man’s pride brings him low (Proverbs 29:23), and the LORD brings proud schemes to nothing (Psalm 33:10).

Question 12

True or False: Gaal’s sortie from Shechem routed Abimelech and forced him away from the city (Judges 9:39-41).

Accepted Answer

This is false. Gaal’s sortie collapses: he flees before Abimelech, the Shechemites fall wounded up to the gate (9:39-40), and Zebul expels Gaal and his kinsmen while Abimelech remains at Arumah (9:41). The boaster who would remove Abimelech is himself removed, as Proverbs 29:23 says pride brings a man low, and as Psalm 33:10 says the LORD frustrates human schemes.

Question 13

How does the narrator explain the death of Abimelech and the ruin of Shechem’s leading men (Judges 9:56-57)?

Accepted Answer

The narrator closes by naming God as the One at work. God paid Abimelech back for the evil against his father in killing seventy brothers; God also turned the Shechemites’ evil back upon them, so that Jotham’s curse came upon them (9:56-57). Behind all the plots, ambushes, and fires of the chapter, God was carrying out the justice He had set in motion when He sent ill will between Abimelech and Shechem (9:23-24). God is not mocked; people reap what they sow (Galatians 6:7). Whoever digs a pit falls into it (Proverbs 26:27), and the LORD makes Himself known through His just judgments (Psalm 9:16).

Question 14

What theological verdict does the narrator give on the events of Judges 9 (Judges 9:56-57)?

Accepted Answer

The chapter ends with the narrator’s theological verdict: God requited Abimelech’s crime against his father’s house and returned Shechem’s wickedness on their heads, bringing Jotham’s curse to pass (9:56-57). The human intrigues, set going when God sent ill will to divide Abimelech from Shechem and avenge the seventy (9:23-24), were the means of divine retribution, while every actor remained guilty for his own deeds. The same moral order is affirmed in Galatians 6:7, Proverbs 26:27, and Psalm 9:16, where the LORD reveals Himself through His judgments and the wicked are snared by their own works.

Question 15

After Abimelech had ruled three years, who sent hostility between him and Shechem’s leaders (Judges 9:22-23)?

Accepted Answer

The text says plainly that God was the One who sent animosity, a spirit of deep ill will, between Abimelech and Shechem’s leaders, so that they turned treacherous toward him (9:23). Abimelech and Shechem were fully responsible for their own crimes and treachery, yet God ruled over their quarrel and used it to bring about justice. Scripture speaks this way elsewhere: a distressing spirit from the LORD tormented Saul (1 Samuel 16:14), and the prophet Micaiah told Ahab that the LORD had made his prophets speak by a lying spirit (1 Kings 22:23). Evil cannot tempt God, and He tempts no one (James 1:13), so He is never the author of the evil; yet He rules even over wicked people’s choices to carry out His righteous purposes.

Question 16

To whom does Judges 9:23 attribute the hostility that broke out between Abimelech and Shechem?

Accepted Answer

Judges 9:23 names God as the sender of the spirit of animosity that turned Shechem’s leaders against Abimelech. The human agents remain wholly culpable for their treachery, yet God sovereignly governs their hostility as an instrument of judgment, as with the spirit from the LORD that troubled Saul (1 Samuel 16:14) and the lying spirit the LORD sent to speak through Ahab’s prophets (1 Kings 22:23). God tempts no one to sin (James 1:13) and so is never its author; yet He ordains and directs sinful acts toward just ends while the sinners bear the guilt.

Question 17

What did Jotham say should happen if Shechem had not dealt honestly when they crowned Abimelech (Judges 9:19-21)?

Accepted Answer

Jotham set out two outcomes. If they had treated Gideon’s family honestly, they and Abimelech could take joy in each other (9:19). If not, fire would come from Abimelech to devour Shechem’s rulers along with Beth-millo, and fire from them would devour Abimelech (9:20). Jotham himself took no revenge; he fled to Beer because he feared his brother (9:21). The judgment would come from God, as the chapter’s end says (9:56-57). Scripture teaches that vengeance belongs to God, who will repay (Deuteronomy 32:35; Romans 12:19).

Question 18

What outcome did Jotham call for if Shechem had acted in bad faith toward Gideon’s house (Judges 9:19-21)?

Accepted Answer

Jotham’s curse is conditional: good faith toward Jerubbaal’s house means mutual joy (9:19); bad faith means mutual destruction, fire from Abimelech consuming Shechem and fire from Shechem consuming Abimelech (9:20). Jotham then flees to Beer (9:21) and takes no action himself; the repayment comes from God (9:56-57). The pattern accords with God’s claim to vengeance (Deuteronomy 32:35), which Paul applies in Romans 12:19.

Question 19

True or False: Jotham reminded Shechem that Gideon had put his life on the line to rescue them from Midian, yet they had turned against his family (Judges 9:17-18).

Accepted Answer

This is true. Jotham recalled that his father fought for them and put his own life at risk to rescue them from Midian (9:17). Yet they had risen against his family, slain all seventy of his sons on one stone, and crowned Abimelech, the child of Gideon’s slave woman, because he was their relative (9:18). This is the same ingratitude the narrator noted right after Gideon’s death (8:35). Proverbs warns that whoever repays good with evil will not be free of evil in his own house (Proverbs 17:13).

Question 20

True or False: Jotham’s speech charges Shechem with repaying Gideon’s self-endangering deliverance by rising against his house (Judges 9:17-18).

Accepted Answer

This is true. Jotham sets Gideon’s risk of his life for Shechem’s deliverance (9:17) against their rising up to slaughter his sons and crown his maidservant’s son (9:18). The speech applies to Shechem the ingratitude the narrator charged against all Israel (8:35), and Proverbs 17:13 states the principle that evil for good returns on the doer’s house.

Question 21

When Abimelech killed his brothers at Ophrah, what happened to Jotham, Gideon’s youngest son (Judges 9:5)?

Accepted Answer

Abimelech came to Ophrah, his father’s hometown, and put to death Gideon’s seventy sons, his brothers, on one stone. Only Jotham, the youngest, escaped, by hiding himself (9:5). The killing broke God’s plain command against murder (Exodus 20:13), and, as with Abel’s blood crying out to God (Genesis 4:10), it did not go unseen; the chapter will show God bringing it to justice (9:24). A later attempt to wipe out a royal family, when Athaliah tried to destroy the heirs and young Joash was hidden away, follows a similar pattern (2 Kings 11:1-2).

Question 22

How did Jotham escape Abimelech’s massacre of Jerubbaal’s sons (Judges 9:5)?

Accepted Answer

Abimelech murders his seventy half-brothers on one stone at Ophrah; Jotham alone survives by hiding (9:5). The act violates the prohibition of murder (Exodus 20:13), and like Abel’s blood it cries out before God (Genesis 4:10), whose justice the chapter will display (9:24). The survival of one hidden son amid a dynastic massacre recurs in Athaliah’s purge and the hiding of Joash (2 Kings 11:1-2).

Question 23

What purpose does Judges 9:24 give for the hostility God sent between Abimelech and Shechem?

Accepted Answer

The verse says this happened so that the wrong done to Gideon’s seventy sons would be answered with justice, and the shedding of their blood requited both on Abimelech, who killed them, and on Shechem’s leaders, who helped him (9:24). Both the murderer and his backers were held to account. From Noah’s day God had declared that whoever sheds human blood must answer for it (Genesis 9:6), and His law said that bloodshed defiles the land until the killer’s own blood answers for it (Numbers 35:33). (It was Succoth, not Shechem, that refused Gideon bread, 8:6.)

Question 24

According to Judges 9:24, what end did God’s sending of hostility serve?

Accepted Answer

Verse 24 states the purpose: that the violence done to Jerubbaal’s seventy sons might be answered with justice, their blood laid on Abimelech the murderer and on Shechem’s leaders as his accomplices. Divine retribution reaches both the perpetrator and those who strengthened his hands. The principle runs back to Genesis 9:6 and the law’s teaching that shed blood pollutes the land until answered by the killer’s own blood (Numbers 35:33).

Question 25

When Gaal saw troops descending from the hills, what did Zebul first tell him (Judges 9:34-38)?

Accepted Answer

Gaal was standing at the city gate as Abimelech’s men came out of hiding (9:35). When Gaal pointed out people descending from the heights, Zebul brushed it off, saying he was mistaking the hills’ shadows for men (9:36). When Gaal saw more companies coming, Zebul threw Gaal’s own boast back at him and dared him to go out and fight the men he had mocked (9:37-38). The bragging collapsed when the enemy actually appeared. Proverbs teaches that pride leads to ruin (Proverbs 16:18) and that disgrace follows pride (Proverbs 11:2).

Question 26

How did Zebul first respond when Gaal spotted Abimelech’s men approaching (Judges 9:34-38)?

Accepted Answer

As the ambush emerges (9:35), Zebul first dismisses Gaal’s alarm as shadows on the mountains (9:36), then, when more companies appear, taunts him with his earlier boast and challenges him to fight (9:37-38). Gaal’s swagger meets reality, illustrating Proverbs 16:18 and 11:2: pride precedes ruin and disgrace.

Question 27

What did Abimelech do to the city of Shechem after capturing it (Judges 9:42-45)?

Accepted Answer

The next day, as Shechem’s people headed out to the fields, Abimelech attacked them from ambush, attacked the city all day long, took it, and put its people to death. Then he tore the city down and scattered salt over it (9:42-45), leaving it as ruined ground; elsewhere in Scripture, salt marks land as barren and desolate (Deuteronomy 29:23). The city that had given Abimelech silver and made him king now began to suffer the ruin Jotham had warned would come from Abimelech (9:20). God is not mocked: people reap what they sow (Galatians 6:7).

Question 28

How did Abimelech treat Shechem once he had taken it (Judges 9:42-45)?

Accepted Answer

Abimelech ambushes the Shechemites in the fields, takes the city after a day’s fighting, kills its people, razes it, and sows it with salt (9:42-45), a mark of desolation (cf. Deuteronomy 29:23). The city that crowned him begins to suffer the first half of Jotham’s curse, ruin coming from Abimelech upon Shechem (9:20); the literal fire follows at the tower (9:49). Galatians 6:7 states the principle at work: God is not mocked; what is sown is reaped.

Question 29

Where did the silver come from that Abimelech used to hire his followers (Judges 9:4)?

Accepted Answer

Shechem’s leaders gave Abimelech 70 shekels of silver out of Baal-berith’s temple, and with it he hired a band of worthless, reckless men (9:4). This is the very false god Israel had taken up right after Gideon’s death (8:33). Now the idol’s treasury paid for the killing of Gideon’s sons. Proverbs describes violent men who rush to evil and are quick to shed blood (Proverbs 1:16).

Question 30

What was the source of the funds Abimelech used to hire his band of men (Judges 9:4)?

Accepted Answer

The seventy shekels that fund Abimelech’s band come from the house of Baal-berith (9:4), the deity Israel embraced immediately after Gideon’s death (8:33). Apostasy and bloodshed are bound together: the idol’s treasury hires the worthless men who will carry out the massacre, the kind of men Proverbs 1:16 describes as quick to spill blood.

Question 31

In Jotham’s story, whom does the thornbush that agrees to rule stand for (Judges 9:14-20)?

Accepted Answer

The thornbush, the one plant with nothing useful to give, accepts at once. It invites the trees to shelter in its shade, which a thornbush cannot really offer, and threatens that fire will come out of it and burn up even Lebanon’s great cedars (9:14-15). Jotham’s application makes the meaning plain: Shechem had made Abimelech king, and if they had acted wrongly, fire would come from Abimelech to consume them (9:16, 20). A man who promises gifts he never gives is like clouds without rain (Proverbs 25:14), and wicked rulers make a people sigh and suffer (Proverbs 29:2).

Question 32

In Jotham’s fable, whom does the bramble that accepts kingship represent (Judges 9:14-20)?

Accepted Answer

The bramble alone accepts, offering a shade it cannot provide and threatening fire that would devour Lebanon’s cedars (9:14-15). Jotham’s application identifies it with Abimelech, whom Shechem has crowned, and predicts mutual fire if they have acted in bad faith (9:16, 20). The worthless ruler promises protection he cannot give (Proverbs 25:14) and brings misery on those he rules (Proverbs 29:2).

Question 33

Where did the leaders holed up in Shechem’s tower take refuge from Abimelech (Judges 9:46-49)?

Accepted Answer

When they heard what had happened, the leaders of Shechem’s tower crowded into the inner room of El-berith’s temple (9:46). Abimelech and his troops cut branches on Mount Zalmon, piled them against the room, and set it ablaze; about a thousand people, men and women, died (9:48-49). This fulfilled the first half of Jotham’s curse: fire from Abimelech consumed Shechem’s leaders (9:20). The temple of their god could not shelter them. The Song of Moses mocks false gods that cannot shelter those who take refuge in them (Deuteronomy 32:37-38), and a psalm says those who trust idols become like them (Psalm 115:8).

Question 34

Where did the men of Shechem’s tower seek shelter when the city fell (Judges 9:46-49)?

Accepted Answer

Shechem’s tower leaders retreat into the inner room of El-berith’s temple (9:46), where Abimelech’s men pile branches and burn it, about a thousand perishing (9:48-49). Jotham’s fire from Abimelech consumes Shechem’s leaders literally (9:20). The pagan shrine proves no refuge, as the Song of Moses taunts the gods in whom Israel took refuge (Deuteronomy 32:37-38) and Psalm 115:8 says idol-trusters become like their idols.

Question 35

Who secretly sent word to Abimelech about Gaal’s revolt and told him how to ambush the city (Judges 9:30-33)?

Accepted Answer

Zebul, Shechem’s governor and Abimelech’s officer, was furious when he heard Gaal’s words (9:28, 30). He secretly sent word to Abimelech, telling him to hide in the fields by night and attack the city at sunrise (9:31-33). Abimelech set four companies in ambush (9:34). Shechem’s plot and Abimelech’s counterplot both moved forward, but neither side’s scheming could stand against God, who had already set His purpose to repay them both (9:24). No human plan can succeed against the LORD (Proverbs 21:30), who thwarts the schemes of the nations (Psalm 33:10).

Question 36

Who covertly informed Abimelech of Gaal’s revolt and advised an ambush (Judges 9:30-33)?

Accepted Answer

Zebul, Abimelech’s officer and the city’s governor (9:28, 30), secretly reports Gaal’s sedition and counsels a night ambush followed by a dawn assault (9:31-33). Plot answers plot, yet the narrator has already disclosed God’s purpose to requite both parties (9:24). The intrigue illustrates Proverbs 21:30 and Psalm 33:10: no human counsel prevails against the LORD, who frustrates the schemes of the peoples.

Judges 9 Study Notes: The Rise and Fall of Abimelech

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