Bible Strands
Judges 9:18
but you have risen up against my father’s house this day and killed his seventy sons on a single stone, and you have made Abimelech, the son of his maidservant, king over the leaders of Shechem because he is your brother—
Berean Standard Bible
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Study note
Setting — Jotham, Gideon’s youngest son, addresses the leaders of Shechem immediately after delivering his parable and before descending from Mount Gerizim. He confronts them for their recent political and violent actions against his father’s family.
The words — קַמְתֶּם (qamtem) translates literally as “you have risen up,” and תַּהַרְגוּ (tarqu) means “you have killed.” These verbs frame the leaders’ active rebellion and execution of Gideon’s sons.
The thread — The slaughter of Gideon’s seventy sons on a single stone appears in Judges 9:5, while the number of his sons is noted in Judges 8:30. The theme of betrayal in return for loyalty echoes the dynamic described in Psalm 109:4.
Why it lands — The verse demands recognition of the concrete cost of political ambition and the breach of familial loyalty. It requires the reader to weigh the leaders’ choice of a maidservant’s son over the proven deliverer of their city.
Drafted by a language model from the text, its original words and its cross-references, then checked against them. It can still be wrong: open the verse in the app to report it.
The Hebrew words
King James Version
And ye are risen up against my father’s house this day, and have slain his sons, threescore and ten persons, upon one stone, and have made Abimelech, the son of his maidservant, king over the men of Shechem, because he is your brother;)
Cross-references
- Judges 9:5 He went to his father’s house in Ophrah, and on one stone murdered his seventy brothers, the sons of Jerubbaal. But Jotham, the youngest son of Jerubbaal, survived, because he hid himself.
- Psalms 109:4 In return for my love they accuse me, but I am a man of prayer.
- Judges 8:30 Gideon had seventy sons of his own, since he had many wives.
- Judges 8:35 They did not show kindness to the house of Jerubbaal (that is, Gideon) for all the good things he had done for Israel.
- Judges 9:14 Finally all the trees said to the thornbush, ‘Come and reign over us.’