Judges 9:54

54 Then he called hastily unto the young man his armourbearer * , and said unto him, Draw thy sword, and slay me, that men say not of me, A woman slew him. And his young man thrust him through , and he died .

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 ) .

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FOOTNOTES:

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

Judges 9:54 In-Context

52 And Abimelech came unto the tower, and fought against it, and went hard unto the door of the tower to burn it with fire.

53 And a certain woman cast a piece of a millstone upon Abimelech's head, and all to brake his skull.

54 Then he called hastily unto the young man his armourbearer , and said unto him, Draw thy sword, and slay me, that men say not of me, A woman slew him. And his young man thrust him through , and he died .

55 And when the men of Israel saw that Abimelech was dead , they departed every man unto his place.

56 Thus God rendered the wickedness of Abimelech, which he did unto his father, in slaying his seventy brethren: