Bible Strands
Judges 9:46
On hearing of this, all the leaders in the tower of Shechem entered the inner chamber of the temple of El-berith.
Berean Standard Bible
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Study note
Setting — The narrator reports the immediate reaction of Shechem’s remaining officials following Abimelech’s sack of the city. This account occurs at the precise interval between the city’s destruction and Abimelech’s subsequent intelligence gathering.
The words — The Hebrew בַּעֲלֵי מִגְדַּל שְׁכֶם (ba‘alei migdal Shekhem) literally means “citizens of the tower of Shechem,” identifying the surviving leadership who fled the ruins. The term צְרִיחַ (tseRiach) specifies a fortified or subterranean chamber within the temple structure they entered.
The thread — This movement into a pagan sanctuary directly recalls the temple of Baal-berith that originally financed Abimelech’s coup (Judges 9:4) and continues the post-Gideon pattern of Israel adopting Canaanite religious centers (Judges 8:33). The narrative trajectory aligns with the principle that reliance on foreign idols produces conformity to their destructive nature (Psalms 115:8).
Why it lands — The text records a factual retreat into a compromised religious site, requiring the reader to trace how political and spiritual alliances outside covenant boundaries generate further exposure. It demands a clear-eyed assessment that seeking security in systems opposed to established authority accelerates rather than prevents collapse.
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 when all the men of the tower of Shechem heard that, they entered into an hold of the house of the god Berith.
Cross-references
- Judges 8:33 And as soon as Gideon was dead, the Israelites turned and prostituted themselves with the Baals, and they set up Baal-berith as their god.
- Judges 9:4 So they gave him seventy shekels of silver from the temple of Baal-berith, with which Abimelech hired some worthless and reckless men to follow him.
- Psalms 115:8 Those who make them become like them, as do all who trust in them.
- Judges 9:27 And after they had gone out into the fields, gathered grapes from their vineyards, and trodden them, they held a festival and went into the house of their god; and as they ate and drank, they cursed Abimelech.
- 1 Kings 8:26 And now, O God of Israel, please confirm what You promised to Your servant, my father David.
- 2 Kings 1:2 Now Ahaziah had fallen through the lattice of his upper room in Samaria and injured himself. So he sent messengers and instructed them: “Go inquire of Baal-zebub, the god of Ekron, whether I will recover from this injury.”
- Isaiah 28:15 For you said, “We have made a covenant with death; we have fashioned an agreement with Sheol. When the overwhelming scourge passes through it will not touch us, because we have made lies our refuge and falsehood our hiding place.”
- Isaiah 37:38 One day, while he was worshiping in the temple of his god Nisroch, his sons Adrammelech and Sharezer put him to the sword and escaped to the land of Ararat. And his son Esar-haddon reigned in his place.