Judges 9:16

16 "So then, if you have acted in good faith and sincerity in making Abimelech king, and if you have dealt well with Jerub-Baal and his house, and have dealt with him {according to his accomplishments}--

Judges 9:16 Meaning and Commentary

Judges 9:16

Now therefore, if ye have done truly and sincerely, in that ye
have made Abimelech king
If they had done this conscientiously, and in the uprightness of their hearts, to take such a base man, and a murderer, and make him their king, which Jotham doubted, and put it in this manner to them, that they might consider of it themselves:

if ye have dealt well with Jerubbaal, and his house;
if they could think so, which surely they could not, when they reflected upon the murder of his family they had consented to:

and have done unto him according to the deserving of his hands;
to his memory, and to his family, according to the merit of his works which he had performed on their account, next mentioned.

Judges 9:16 In-Context

14 So all the trees said to the thornbush, 'You, come rule over us.'

15 And the thornbush said to the trees, 'If in good faith you [are] anointing me as king over you, then come and take refuge in my shade; if not, may fire go out from the thornbush and devour the cedars of Lebanon.'

16 "So then, if you have acted in good faith and sincerity in making Abimelech king, and if you have dealt well with Jerub-Baal and his house, and have dealt with him {according to his accomplishments}--

17 for my father fought and {risked his life} for you and delivered you from the hand of Midian;

18 but today you have risen against the house of my father and killed his sons, seventy men on one stone, and you have made Abimelech, the son of his slave woman, a king over the lords of Shechem, because he is your relative--

Footnotes

• [a]. Or "honesty"
• [b]. Literally "according to the dealings of his hand"