Bible Strands
Judges 9:49
So each man also cut his own branch and followed Abimelech. Then they piled the branches against the inner chamber and set it on fire above them, killing everyone in the tower of Shechem, about a thousand men and women.
Berean Standard Bible
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Study note
Setting — The narrator records Abimelech’s men obeying his command on Mount Zalmon by cutting branches and piling them against a fortified tower. This event occurs immediately after Abimelech demonstrates the burning tactic and precedes his advance on Thebez.
The words — וַ/יִּכְרְת֨וּ (va/i.yikh.re.Tu) literally means "and they cut off," while שׂוֹכֹ֗/ה (so.Kho/h) translates as "his own branch," highlighting that each combatant individually supplied the fuel for the assault.
The thread — The tower burning fulfills the earlier curse that fire would consume the Shechem leaders and Abimelech alike (Judges 9:15, Judges 9:20) and parallels the New Testament warning that mutual devouring leads to mutual destruction (Galatians 5:15).
Why it lands — The passage requires the reader to acknowledge that following a leader who incites indiscriminate violence produces total annihilation, demanding a clear-eyed assessment of the consequences of collective rebellion.
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 all the people likewise cut down every man his bough, and followed Abimelech, and put them to the hold, and set the hold on fire upon them; so that all the men of the tower of Shechem died also, about a thousand men and women.
Cross-references
- Judges 9:15 But the thornbush replied, ‘If you really are anointing me as king over you, come and find refuge in my shade. But if not, may fire come out of the thornbush and consume the cedars of Lebanon.’
- Judges 9:20 But if not, may fire come from Abimelech and consume the leaders of Shechem and Beth-millo, and may fire come from the leaders of Shechem and Beth-millo and consume Abimelech.”
- Galatians 5:15 But if you keep on biting and devouring one another, watch out, or you will be consumed by one another.
- James 3:16 For where jealousy and selfish ambition exist, there will be disorder and every evil practice.