Judges 9:6

And all the men of Shechem gathered together,.... Upon the return of Abimelech, after he with his banditti had committed the execrable murder of his brethren: and all the house of Millo; which was

And all the men of Shechem gathered together, and all the house of Millo, and went, and made Abimelech king, by the plain of the pillar that was in Shechem. All the men of Shechem ... and all the house of Millo - i:e.

Of Millo; of a place or person so called; some eminent and potent family living in Shechem, or near to it; either the family of Abimelech’ s mother, or some other: or, and all Beth-millo; so Beth is not a house, but a part of the name of the place. Made Abimelech king, to wit, over all Israel, , which was a strange presumption for the inhabitants of one city to undertake; but they had many advantages and encouragements for it; as the eager, and general, and constant inclination of the Israelites to kingly government; Abimelech’ s being the son of Gideon, to whom and to his sons they offered the kingdom, ; and though the father could and did refuse it for himself, yet they might imagine that he could not give away his son’ s right, conveyed to them by the Israelites, in their offer; the universal defection of the Israelites from God to Baal, whose great patron and champion Abimelech pretended to be; the power and prevalency of the tribe of Ephraim, in which Shechem was, , whose proud and imperious spirit, manifested 12:1, would make them readily close with a king of their own brethren; and Abimelech’ s getting the start of all others, having the crown actually put upon his head, and an army already raised to maintain his tyranny. By the plain of the pillar, or, by the oak of the pillar, i.e. by the oak, where Joshua erected a pillar as a witness of the covenant renewed between God and Israel, . This place they chose, to signify that they still owned God, and their covenant with him; and did not worship Baal in opposition to God, but in conjunction with him, or in subordination to him.

Judges 9:6 And all the men of Shechem gathered together, and all the house of Millo, and went, and made Abimelech king, by the plain of the pillar that [was] in Shechem.Ver. 6. And all the men of Shechem.] They might have foreseen by his bloody fratricide what kind of king they should have of him; but they were set upon it, and they soon had enough of it; for as these Shechemites were first in raising Abimelech unjustly to the throne, so they were the first that felt the weight of his sceptre. The foolish bird fouls and smears herself with that which grew from her own excretion. Who wondereth to see the kind peasant stung with his own snake?

(6) The house of Millo.—It cannot be determined whether Beth Millo is here a proper name, or whether Beth means the family or inhabitants of Millo. The Chaldee renders Millo by “a rampart;” and if this be correct, the “house of the rampart” was perhaps the same as the “tower of Shechem” (Judges 9:46-49). There was a Millo on Mount Zion (2 Samuel 5:9), which was also called a Beth Millo (2 Kings 12:21). Made Abimelech king.—He was the first Israelite who ever bore that name. It does not appear that this royalty was recognised beyond the limits of Ephraim. Gideon had not only refused the title of king (melek), but even the title of ruler (Judges 8:23). By the plain of the pillar that was in Shechem.—Rather, near the terebinth of the monument which is in Shechem. The word rendered “by” is im, which properly means with, but may mean “near,” as in Genesis 25:11. The word rendered “the pillar” is mutsabh, which the Syriac and Arabic versions take for a proper name, and the Chaldee renders “the corn-field” or “statue.” Luther renders it the “lofty oak,” and the Vulg. follows another reading. The LXX. take it to mean “a garrison” (LXX., stasis), which is the meaning it has in Isaiah 29:3; but as the terebinth is doubtless that under which Joshua had raised his “stone of witness” (Joshua 24:26), the mutsabh is perhaps a name for this stone. If so, the neighbourhood of that pledge of faithfulness would add audacity to his acts. There can be little doubt that the terebinth was the celebrated tree under which Jacob had made his family bury their idolatrous earrings and amulets (Genesis 35:4), and the terebinth (E.V., plain) of Moreh, near Shechem, under which Abraham had spread his tent and where he had built an altar (Genesis 12:6). Possibly, too, it may be the “terebinth of the enchanters” mentioned in Judges 9:37. The veneration attached to old trees lasted from generation to generation in Palestine, and the terebinth of Mamre was celebrated for a thousand years.

Verse 6. And all the house of Millo] If Millo be the name of a place, it is nowhere else mentioned in the sacred writings. But it is probably the name of a person of note and influence in the city of Shechem - the men of Shechem and the family of Millo.

6. and all the house of Millo] Follow marg. and all Beth-millo, the name of a place not of a family Judges 9:20, cf. 2 Kings 12:20, in the neighbourhood of Shechem, but not the tower of S. mentioned in Judges 9:46-49. The name suggests that the place was called after the temple which stood there, bκth = ‘temple’ as in Judges 9:4; millo = ‘filling up,’ so an artificial mound or terrace (in Assyrian mulϋ, tamlϋ). The Millo at Jerusalem was some part of the fortifications of the old Jebusite city, 2 Samuel 5:9, 1 Kings 11:27 (LXX ἡἃκρα), Judges 9:15; Judges 9:24; or possibly, as Winckler considers, the original site of the sanctuary (Gesch. Isr. ii. 252, KAT, 239). by the oak of the pillar] A sacred terebinth (cf. on Judges 6:11) at or near Shechem is mentioned in the stories of Abraham Genesis 12:6 J and Jacob Genesis 35:4 E, and in Joshua 24:26 E (‘in Jehovah’s sanctuary’); in the last passage Joshua is said to have set up a stone beneath the oak. The stone is here called a ‘pillar,’ reading maṣ ?ṣ ?ηbβh for muṣ ?ṣ ?βb (which does not make sense); the pillar marked a holy place among both Hebrews (Exodus 24:4 E, Hosea 3:4; Hosea 10:1, Isaiah 19:19) and Canaanites (Exodus 23:24 E, Exodus 34:13 J etc.). Abimelech was made king at the sanctuary, as Saul at Gilgal, 1 Samuel 11:15.

Millo must have been a fortified place close to, but separate from, Shechem, and perhaps the same as the tower of Shechem mentioned in Judges 9:46-47.

6. House of Millo — It seems best to understand Millo here, as in 2 Samuel 5:9, as the name of the principal fortress of the city, and identical with the tower of Shechem, mentioned Judges 9:46-47; Judges 9:49.