Judges 9:54

54 and he calleth hastily unto the young man bearing his weapons, and saith to him, `Draw thy sword, and thou hast put me to death, lest they say of me -- A woman slew him;' and his young man pierced him through, and he dieth.

Judges 9:54 Meaning and Commentary

Judges 9:54

Then he called hastily to the young man his armourbearer,
&c.] Perceiving it was a mortal blow that was given him, and he should soon expire; and that the cast of the stone was by the hand of a woman, and therefore he was in haste to have the young man come to him:

and said unto him, draw thy sword and slay me, that men say not of me,
a woman slew him;
it being reckoned very ignominious and reproachful to die by the hand of a woman, and especially any great personage, as a king or general of an army ^F19; to avoid this, he chose rather to be guilty of suicide, or of what cannot well be excused from it, and so died by suicide; which, added to all his other sins, he seemed to have no sense of, or repentance for; and the method he took to conceal the shame of his death served the more to spread it; for this circumstance of his death could not be given without the reason of it, and which was remembered and related punctually near two hundred years afterwards, ( 2 Samuel 11:21 ) .

---

FOOTNOTES:

F19 "O turpe fatum! foemina Herculeae, necis Auctor feretur ----" Seneca Oetaeo.

Judges 9:54 In-Context

52 And Abimelech cometh unto the tower, and fighteth against it, and draweth nigh unto the opening of the tower to burn it with fire,

53 and a certain woman doth cast a piece of a rider on the head of Abimelech, and breaketh his skull,

54 and he calleth hastily unto the young man bearing his weapons, and saith to him, `Draw thy sword, and thou hast put me to death, lest they say of me -- A woman slew him;' and his young man pierced him through, and he dieth.

55 And the men of Israel see that Abimelech [is] dead, and go each one to his place;

56 and God turneth back the evil of Abimelech which he did to his father to slay his seventy brethren;