Judges 9:17

17 -- for my father fought for you, and endangered his life, and delivered you out of the hand of Midian;

Judges 9:17 Meaning and Commentary

Judges 9:17

For my father fought for you
In the valley of Jezreel, and at Karkor, where with three hundred men he routed and destroyed an army of 135,000:

and adventured his life far:
which, according to our version, may seem to have respect to his going over Jordan, and following the Midianites, fleeing into their country, and fighting them at Karkor, at a great distance from his native place; but the phrase in the original text is, "he cast away his life afar" ^F5, made no account of it, exposed it to the greatest danger; or, as the Targum,

``he delivered his life as it were to destruction:''

and delivered you out of the hand of Midian;
from the oppression and bondage of the Midianites, under which they had laboured seven years.

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FOOTNOTES:

F5 (dgnm wvpn ta Klvyw) "et projecit animam suam a louge", Pagninus; "vel eminus", Montanus; so Junius & Tremellius, Piscator.

Judges 9:17 In-Context

15 And the thorn-bush said to the trees, If in truth ye anoint me king over you, come, put confidence in my shadow; but if not, fire shall come out of the thorn-bush and devour the cedars of Lebanon.

16 Now therefore, if ye have dealt truly and sincerely in that ye have made Abimelech king, and if ye have dealt well with Jerubbaal and his house, and if ye have done to him according to the deserving of his hands;

17 -- for my father fought for you, and endangered his life, and delivered you out of the hand of Midian;

18 but ye are risen up against my father's house this day, and have slain his sons, seventy men, upon one stone, and have made Abimelech, the son of his handmaid, king over the citizens of Shechem, because he is your brother;

19 -- if ye then have dealt truly and sincerely with Jerubbaal and with his house this day, rejoice ye in Abimelech, and let him also rejoice in you;