Giudici 9:49

49 Tutta la gente adunque tagliò anch’essa de’ rami, ciascuno il suo; poi, andati dietro ad Abimelec, posero quelli intorno alla fortezza, e arsero la fortezza sopra coloro che v’erano dentro; e tutti gli abitanti morirono anch’essi, in numero d’intorno a mille persone, tra uomini e donne.

Giudici 9:49 Meaning and Commentary

Judges 9:49

And all the people likewise cut down every man his bough, and
followed Abimelech
With their boughs on their shoulders, so that they were men that seemed to be as trees walking:

and put them to the hold, and set the hold on fire upon them;
upon the men in it, or with them, the boughs of trees; it is probable the hold was made of wood, and so could the more easily be set on fire. Jarchi says it was a wood or forest, where they bent the trees, and divided them round about, and made a fence of them; but they would scarcely have left the tower for such a shelter:

so that all the men of the tower of Shechem died also;
fire being put to the hold, and they burnt in it; the Vulgate Latin version adds, with fire and smoke; for they being boughs of trees just cut down, with which they set fire to the hold, they would not burn easily and clearly, but make a prodigious smoke, with which many might be suffocated, as others burnt with fire; and it is unaccountable that Josephus ^F15 should say that faggots of dry wood were taken, and with them fire set to the hold, when the text is so express for it that they were boughs of green trees just cut off:

about a thousand men and women;
but the above historian makes them to be many more; he says the men were about 1500, and the rest a great multitude; this literally fulfilled Jotham's curse.

---

FOOTNOTES:

F15 Antiqu. l. 5. c. 7. sect. 4.

Giudici 9:49 In-Context

47 E fu rapportato ad Abimelec, che tutti gli abitanti della torre di Sichem si erano adunati là.

48 Laonde Abimelec salì in sul monte di Salmon, con tutta la gente ch’era con lui; e prese delle scuri in mano, e tagliò un ramo d’albero; e, toltolo, sel recò in ispalla; poi disse alla gente ch’era con lui: Quello che mi avete veduto fare, fatelo prestamente, come ho fatto io.

49 Tutta la gente adunque tagliò anch’essa de’ rami, ciascuno il suo; poi, andati dietro ad Abimelec, posero quelli intorno alla fortezza, e arsero la fortezza sopra coloro che v’erano dentro; e tutti gli abitanti morirono anch’essi, in numero d’intorno a mille persone, tra uomini e donne.

50 Poi Abimelec andò a Tebes, e vi pose campo, e la prese.

51 Ora, nel mezzo della città v’era una torre forte, nella quale tutti gli uomini e le donne, e tutti gli abitanti della città, si rifuggirono; e, serratisi dentro, salirono in sul tetto della torre.