Bible Strands
Judges 9:48
he and all his men went up to Mount Zalmon. Abimelech took his axe in his hand and cut a branch from the trees, which he lifted to his shoulder, saying to his men, “Hurry and do what you have seen me do.”
Berean Standard Bible
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Study note
Setting — Abimelech addresses his armed followers as they ascend Mount Zalmon to assault the tower of Shechem.
The words — וַ/יַּ֨עַל (va/i.Ya.'al) = and he went up; אֲבִימֶ֜לֶךְ ('a.vi.Me.lekh) = Abimelech.
The thread — The command to imitate his actions echoes Gideon’s tactical instruction in Judges 7:17, while the location recalls the judgment imagery of Psalms 68:14.
Why it lands — The text records the precise moment violent ambition uses urgency and imitation to mobilize followers for a calculated massacre.
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 Abimelech gat him up to mount Zalmon, he and all the people that were with him; and Abimelech took an axe in his hand, and cut down a bough from the trees, and took it, and laid it on his shoulder, and said unto the people that were with him, What ye have seen me do, make haste, and do as I have done.
Cross-references
- Psalms 68:14 When the Almighty scattered the kings in the land, it was like the snow falling on Zalmon.
- Judges 7:17 “Watch me and do as I do,” Gideon said. “When I come to the outskirts of the camp, do exactly as I do.
- Proverbs 1:11 If they say, “Come along, let us lie in wait for blood, let us ambush the innocent without cause,