Judges 9:37

37 Ga'al said again, "Look, there are men coming down from the main hill in the land, and one group is coming on the road from the Fortuneteller's Oak.

Judges 9:37 Meaning and Commentary

Judges 9:37

And Gaal spake again, and said
Looking towards the mountains, and taking another view of what he before saw, for further satisfaction:

see, there come people down by the middle of the land;
either in the valley between the two mountains; or rather those he first saw on the top of the mountains were now come down about the middle of them, called in the Hebrew text the navel, from the prominence of the mountains thereabout, or because the navel is in the middle of the body, as this part of them was the middle on which he saw them. R. Isaiah interprets it, between the two cities:

and another company come along by the plain of Meonenim;
of which we read nowhere else. Montanus renders it, "the oak of Meonenim"; or of the soothsayers; oaks being had in great esteem with idolaters for their oracles and divinations; and perhaps this was a place, whether an oak or, a plain, where such persons used to meet to make their divinations.

Judges 9:37 In-Context

35 Ga'al the son of a slave went out and stationed himself at the entrance to the city gate. Then Avimelekh and his men rose from their ambush.
36 When Ga'al saw the men, he said to Z'vul, "Look, there are men coming down from the mountaintops." Z'vul answered, "You're seeing the shadows of the mountains as if they were men."
37 Ga'al said again, "Look, there are men coming down from the main hill in the land, and one group is coming on the road from the Fortuneteller's Oak.
38 Z'vul said to him, "Where's your mouth now? You said, 'Who is Avimelekh? Why should we serve him?' Aren't these the people you despise? Go on out and fight them!"
39 So Ga'al went out, leading the men of Sh'khem, and fought Avimelekh.
Complete Jewish Bible Copyright 1998 by David H. Stern. Published by Jewish New Testament Publications, Inc. All rights reserved. Used by permission.