Fighting Fire with Fire (Judges 9)

Jotham’s curse in Judges 9 is that fire will go out from Abimelech to Shechem and from Shechem to Abimelech. Both are brambles; both are fire-hazards.

It’s pretty easy to see how fire goes out from Abimelech to consume Shechem, given that Abimelech burns down the stronghold of El-Berith in Shechem. Not only that, but he sows Shechem with salt, and in the Bible salt is crystal fire.

But how does fire come forth from Shechem and consume Abimelech? It doesn’t in any literal sense, though one can point to various metaphorical fires. But maybe there’s something more going on too.

Jan Fokkelman raises the question and suggests an answer: “How about the fire in v. 20de that is to consume Abimelech? The answer given by the narrator is a pun.”

In v. 49, we have ish (man), esh (fire), and ishah (woman). Then in v. 51b, we hear about man and woman again and we’re told that Abimelech is going to destroy the stronghold of Thebez with fire (esh). But then a woman (ishah) drops a millstone on him.

Fighting fire with fire: What overcomes Abimelech’s fire (esh) is a woman (ishah). Abimelech’s flame destroys Shechem, but Thebez’s Flamette destroys Abimelech.

Abimelech’s Shadows (Judges 9)

In Jotham’s fable in Judges 9, he presents Abimelech as a bramble, who, when asked to be king, tells the other trees to “take refuge in my shadow” (tsl).  Elsewhere in the Bible, kings provide shade for their people, the shade being a symbol of protection, but of course brambles don’t have a lot of shade to offer to, say, oak trees.

In fact, being the fire hazard that he is, Abimelech the Bramble King’s shadow isn’t a great refuge at all.  The next time we hear about shadows is in verse 36.  Gaal sees Abimelech and his army coming down the mountain to attack him.  But when he cries out to Zebul, who is secretly still loyal to Abimelech, and says, “People coming down from the heads of the mountains!” Zebul responds by saying, “The shadow (tsl) of the mountains you are seeing like men.”

Then, when Abimelech is preparing to destroy the men of Shechem utterly, even though they’ve holed up in Baal’s stronghold, he goes to Shadow Mountain, Mount Tsalmon (English translations have Zalmon).  There’s no other record of a mountain with that name, and commentators suggest that this might be another name for Mount Gerizim or Mount Ebal, the mountains near Shechem.  If so, then the link with Abimelech’s bramble-shadow is even stronger.  This is the mountain from which Abimelech gets the brush with which to burn the men of Shechem and destroy Baal’s temple.

That’s what comes of being under the bramble’s shadow.  Having the bramble’s shadow come down upon you isn’t a good thing.

Branches on Abimelech’s Shoulder (Judges 9)

When Abimelech goes up the mountain and gets a branch, he puts it on his shoulder (shikmo). That’s one of those little details that we wonder about sometimes (“Why did the Spirit think it was important to mention that he carried it on his shoulder? Why ‘waste’ the space to tell us that?”).

But it strikes me that the consonants are the same as those of the city he’s about to burn: Shechem (Hebrew: Shekem). I don’t quite know what to make of that. Is there some sort of parallel between the branch on his shoulder and the branches piled up at the stronghold of Shechem? Do the branches parallel Abimelech, while the shoulder parallels Shechem under Abimelech’s “shade” (cf. 9:15)? Or is it just a coincidence?

I don’t know. But it’s worth pondering.

King Salt (Judges 9)

In Judges 9, the lords of Shechem want Abimelech to be their king (Hebrew: melek). But in the end, Abimelech sows Shechem with salt (melach … the last letter is like the “ch” in the Scottish “loch”).

I suspect that’s a play on words: they wanted a king and they got a king, but the result was … a word that sounds like “king” but means “salt”: utter barrenness.

Up and Down the Mountains (Judges 9)

In Judges 9:7, Jotham goes up onto the “head” of the mountain to confront the men of Shechem down below as they make Abimelech their king.  The mountain here is Mount Gerizim, which might surprise us because Jotham’s words are identified as a “curse” (v. 57),  and yet Mount Gerizim was the mountain of blessing in Joshua.  Perhaps the point is that Jotham’s fable and its application are intended as a summons to repentance leading to blessing: “Listen to me … and God will listen to you” (v. 7).  It’s only when the men of Shechem refuse to listen to Jotham that his words become a curse.

The curse is worked out in the rest of the story, but interestingly the outworking of the curse involves people going up and down mountains.  In verse 25, the lords of Shechem set “men lying in ambush” for Abimelech “upon the heads of the mountains,” and they robbed all those who passed by them.  Shechem’s attack on Abimelech involves something on the heads of the mountains.

When Abimelech strikes back at Shechem, he also sets an ambush.  Though Zebul tells him to set an ambush “in the field” (v. 32), it turns out that the ambush is on the mountain.  Gaal sees Abimelech and his army arising “from the ambush” (v. 35) and says “People are coming down from the heads of the mountains” (v. 36).

When Abimelech prepares to wipe out the men of Shechem utterly, he goes up Shadow Mountain — Mount Zalmon, though this mountain is otherwise unknown and this may be a different name for Mount Ebal or Mount Gerizim — and cuts branches and brings them to burn the stronghold of El Berith in Shechem.

Up and down the mountains they go.  Why?  I wonder if it’s not because Jotham’s curse was proclaimed on the head of the mountain, and now the outworking of that curse flows, as it were, from the mountain down to the people who were cursed.

The Ten Heads of Judges 9

There are sure a lot of heads in Judges 9, though you wouldn’t know it if you just looked at an English translation.   In fact, the word “head” (Heb. rosh) appears ten times in this one chapter.

Jotham stands on the head of Mount Gerizim to confront the men of Shechem. The lords of Shechem set an ambush on the heads of the mountains. Abimelech’s army is divided into four heads (companies), and Gaal sees them coming down from the heads of the mountains, one head by way of the diviners’ oak.

But then, as Jan Fokkelman points out, there’s a progression: Abimelech’s army has four heads (9:34) … then he divides the people into three heads (9:43) … then two heads rush against the people in the field (9:44) … and finally a woman throws an upper millstone upon the head of Abimelech (9:53). It’s as if we’re counting down: 4 … 3 … 2 … 1!

And in this way, God brings back the evil of the men of Shechem on their head (9:57).

That’s a lot of heads in one chapter. I’m not entirely sure what all of the significance might be — though certainly the crushing of the head is a fulfillment of Genesis 3 — but it’s interesting to note.

A Mantle Full of Plunder II (Judges 8)

David Dorsey (The Literary Structure of the Old Testament) points out that the story of Gideon can be seen as a chiasm:

A  Beginning of Midianite oppression; chronological note (6:1-10)

B  Gideon’s call by YHWH to save Israel; destruction of idolatry at Ophrah; fleece on ground to collect dew (6:11-40)

C  Troops gather for battle; reduced forces so Israel won’t boast (7:1-14)

D  YHWH gives victory (7:15-22)

C’ Troops disperse after battle; enlarged army; boasting (7:23-8:21)

B’ Gideon’s call by Israel to rule Israel; establishment of ephod-worship at Ophrah; mantle on ground to collect plunder (8:22-27)

A’ End of Midianite oppression; chronological note (8:28-32)

This seems pretty compelling to me.  But what particularly interests me here is the parallel Dorsey sees between the fleece on the threshing floor to collect dew (or not) in Gideon’s two tests in ch. 6 and the mantle on the ground to collect the plunder in ch. 8.

It seems to me that the fleece on the threshing floor represents Gideon.  When we first see Gideon, he’s threshing.  Then Gideon brings an offering that represents him, and the offering is a kid (Hebrew: gid, the first syllable of Gideon’s name).  Dew is associated with the Spirit’s anointing (e.g., Ps 133), so dew on the fleece suggests Gideon filled with the Spirit and able to deliver Israel.

But now we have a mantle on the ground to collect plunder. Again, Gideon is not forbidden to have the plunder, but at the same time, motive matters … and it seems that Gideon is especially interested in the outward trappings and ornamentation of the Midianite kings and their camels and that he uses these things to make something that increases his prestige in Israel while leading Israel into sin.

Gideon is, on the whole, a faithful man.  But is he moving here from a concern that he be a fleece filled with the Spirit’s dew to a desire to be a mantle filled with Midianite plunder and royal trappings?

A Mantle Full of Plunder (Judges 8)

When Gideon wins the victory in Judges 8, the men of Israel ask him to rule (MShL) over them.  Gideon says that he will not rule (MShL) over them and his son will not rule (MShL) over them, but Yahweh will rule (MShL) over them.  Lots of repetition of that Hebrew word.

Then Gideon asks for some of the plunder (ShLL).  Notice that the word for “plunder” includes two of the same consonants as the word for “rule.”  Probably not significant, but interesting, especially given what comes next.

But then we have one of those details that’s included in Scripture but didn’t need to be.  We’re told that the men of Israel “spread out a mantle (ShMLH)” and threw rings into it from the plunder (ShLL) to collect them for Gideon.

We could have been told simply that they collected the rings, but instead we’re told about this mantle.  Why?  Perhaps because of the three basic consonants in the word for “mantle.”  They’re the same as the consonants in the word for “rule,” though in a different order: MShL (“rule”) and ShML (“mantle”).

I suspect, though I can’t prove, that there’s something of a pun going on here.  He’s not going to MShL, but instead he gets a ShML full of ShLL.  It’s not wrong for Gideon to collect plunder (Deut 20), but in that Gideon then makes the plunder into an ephod leading Israel to sin and in that Gideon then starts acting as if he were a (pagan) king, I wonder if the “mantle” full of “plunder” is already punningly being indicated as the start of a sort of “rule.”