Judges 9:42

42 Therefore in the day following, the people went out into the field (And on the following day, the people came out into the open); and when this thing was told to Abimelech,

Judges 9:42 Meaning and Commentary

Judges 9:42

And it came to pass on the morrow
The day after the battle:

that the people went out into the field;
some think to fight, and try the event of another battle, in order to be freed from Abimelech, but that seems not so likely: rather to finish their vintage, as Josephus {l}, or to till their ground, to plough and sow, which quickly came on after the vintage was ended; find this they might do the more securely, since Abimelech had withdrawn himself and his forces to his place of habitation, and so concluded he would not soon at least return to them; and the rather they might think he would be more easy, with then, since Gaal was thrust out from among them:

and they told Abimelech;
or it was told Abimelech, that the people came out into the field, and so an opportunity offered to him to come and cut them off, as they were at their business unarmed.

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FOOTNOTES:

F12 Antiqu. l. 5. c. 7. sect. 4.

Judges 9:42 In-Context

40 And pursued him fleeing, and constrained him to flee into the city; and full many of the part of Gaal felled down, unto the gate of the city. (And Abimelech fought back, and pursued after them, and sent them fleeing; and a great many of Gaal's men were killed, all the way back to the city gate.)

41 And (then) Abimelech sat in Arumah; and Zebul put Gaal and his fellows out of the city of Shechem, and he suffered them not to dwell therein (and he did not allow them to stay there).

42 Therefore in the day following, the people went out into the field (And on the following day, the people came out into the open); and when this thing was told to Abimelech,

43 he took his host, and parted it in three companies, and he set ambushments in the fields; and he saw that the people went out of the city, and he rose, and felled upon them with his company, (he took his army, and divided it into three companies, or three groups, and he set men in ambush in the fields; and when he saw the people go out of the city, he rose up, and attacked them with his company,)

44 and (he) besieged them and fought against the (men of the) city. And two companies went about openly by the field (And the other two companies went about openly in the field), and pursued their adversaries.