Judges 9 Bible study: The bramble king

One chapter earlier, the men of Israel said to Gideon, "Rule over us, both you, your son, and your son’s son also" (8:22), and he answered, "I will not rule over you, neither shall my son rule over you. The LORD shall rule over you" (8:23). Now one of those sons comes to Shechem with a question: "Is it better for you that all the sons of Jerubbaal, who are seventy persons, rule over you, or that one rule over you?" (9:2) (tap rule). In Hebrew it is the same verb Gideon had turned down. Abimelech's reason is family: "Remember also that I am your bone and your flesh" (9:2), and the men of Shechem agree, "He is our brother" (9:3). The money comes "out of the house of Baal Berith" (9:4), the god Israel had made its own "As soon as Gideon was dead" (8:33). With it Abimelech hires "vain and reckless fellows" (9:4), and kills "his brothers the sons of Jerubbaal, being seventy persons, on one stone" (9:5). Then the men of Shechem "made Abimelech king" (9:6) (tap reign). The book's introduction sets this beside Gideon's refusal (8:22-23) and beside the day the elders asked Samuel, "Give us a king to judge us" (1 Samuel 8:6).

Judges 9:2→leads toMark 10:42-43

Abimelech asks the men of Shechem, "Is it better for you that all the sons of Jerubbaal, who are seventy persons, rule over you, or that one rule over you?" (9:2), and takes the rule by killing his brothers (9:5). In Jotham's fable the trees that give oil, fruit and wine won't leave them "to wave back and forth over the trees" (9:9-13), and only the bramble accepts (9:15). When James and John asked to sit at his right hand and his left (Mark 10:37), Jesus said, "You know that they who are recognized as rulers over the nations lord it over them, and their great ones exercise authority over them. But it shall not be so among you, but whoever wants to become great among you shall be your servant" (Mark 10:42-43). Jesus doesn't cite Judges 9, so setting the two side by side is a reading, resting on a shared subject: rule sought for oneself and held over others. Some hear in Abimelech's seizing of rule the kind of greatness Jesus says "shall not be so among you". Others read Judges 9 as the story of one man and one city, judged by God (9:56-57), and Jesus' words as his answer to his own disciples (Mark 10:35-41), and don't look from one to the other.

מָלַךְmalakhsay ma-LAKH

Brown-Driver-Briggs: "be, or become king, or queen, reign", and in the causative form, "make king, or queen, cause to reign". Strong's: "to reign". It runs through the chapter's first part. The men of Shechem "made Abimelech king" (9:6). In the fable the trees say, "Reign over us" (9:8), and "Come and reign over us" to the fig tree (9:10), the vine (9:12) and the bramble (9:14). Jotham says it twice more: "in that you have made Abimelech king" (9:16), and "have made Abimelech, the son of his female servant, king over the men of Shechem" (9:18). Judges uses the verb eight times; seven are in this chapter, and the other is "Jabin king of Canaan, who reigned in Hazor" (4:2). When 9:22 sums up his three years, it uses another verb (tap prince).