Bible Strands
Judges 9:24
in order that the crime against the seventy sons of Jerubbaal might come to justice and their blood be avenged on their brother Abimelech and on the leaders of Shechem, who had helped him murder his brothers.
Berean Standard Bible
Follow its threads on the canvas →
Study note
Setting — The narrator states God's purpose in sending a spirit of animosity between Abimelech and the Shechemite leaders. This declaration follows God's initial fracture of their alliance and precedes the Shechemites' ambush on the hilltops.
The words — חֲמַס (cha.Mas) denotes the violent crime committed against Jerubbaal's seventy sons. לָ/ב֕וֹא (la./Vo') indicates that this crime must come to pass or be brought to justice.
The thread — The principle of blood guilt recoiling on the perpetrator appears in 1 Kings 2:32 and Psalms 7:16. Esther 9:25 similarly records how a wicked scheme intended for others is reversed against its author.
Why it lands — The text states that fratricide and political complicity will trigger measured retribution on both the instigator and his allies. It asks the reader to acknowledge that violence engineered for power carries an unavoidable debt.
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
That the cruelty done to the threescore and ten sons of Jerubbaal might come, and their blood be laid upon Abimelech their brother, which slew them; and upon the men of Shechem, which aided him in the killing of his brethren.
Cross-references
- 1 Kings 2:32 The LORD will bring his bloodshed back upon his own head, for without the knowledge of my father David he struck down two men more righteous and better than he when he put to the sword Abner son of Ner, commander of Israel’s army, and Amasa son of Jether, commander of Judah’s army.
- Psalms 7:16 His trouble recoils on himself, and his violence falls on his own head.
- Esther 9:25 But when it came before the king, he commanded by letter that the wicked scheme which Haman had devised against the Jews should come back upon his own head, and that he and his sons should be hanged on the gallows.
- Numbers 35:33 Do not pollute the land where you live, for bloodshed pollutes the land, and no atonement can be made for the land on which the blood is shed, except by the blood of the one who shed it.
- Deuteronomy 27:25 ‘Cursed is he who accepts a bribe to kill an innocent person.’ And let all the people say, ‘Amen!’
- Judges 9:56 In this way God repaid the wickedness that Abimelech had done to his father in murdering his seventy brothers.
- 1 Samuel 15:33 But Samuel declared: “As your sword has made women childless, so your mother will be childless among women.” And Samuel hacked Agag to pieces before the LORD at Gilgal.
- Matthew 23:34 Because of this, I am sending you prophets and wise men and teachers. Some of them you will kill and crucify, and others you will flog in your synagogues and persecute from town to town.