Judges 9:7

7 When Jotham heard about this, he climbed to the top of Mount Gerizim and shouted, “Listen to me, citizens of Shechem! Listen to me if you want God to listen to you!

Judges 9:7 Meaning and Commentary

Judges 9:7

And when they told it to Jotham
Or when it was told him that Abimelech was made king in Shechem by some of his friends:

he went and stood in the top of Mount Gerizim;
a mount near Shechem; it hung over the city, as Josephus says ^F3, and so a very proper place to stand on and deliver a speech from it to the inhabitants of it; who, as the same writer says, were now keeping a festival, on what account he says not, perhaps to Baalberith their idol: over against this mountain was another, called Ebal, and between them a valley; and very likely they were assembled in this valley, where the children of Israel stood when the blessings were delivered from Gerizim, and the curses from Ebal; and if so, Jotham might be heard very well by the Shechemites:

and he lifted up his voice, and cried;
that he might be heard by them:

and said unto them, hearken unto me, ye men of Shechem, that God may
hearken unto you;
which was a very solemn manner of address to them, tending to excite attention, as having somewhat of importance to say to them, and suggesting, that if they did not hearken to him, God would not hearken to them when they cried to him, and therefore it behoved them to attend: it is an adjuration of them to hearken to him, or a wish that God would not hearken to them if they were inattentive to him.

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FOOTNOTES:

F3 Antiqu. l. 5. c. 7. sect. 2.

Judges 9:7 In-Context

5 He went to his father’s home at Ophrah, and there, on one stone, they killed all seventy of his half brothers, the sons of Gideon. But the youngest brother, Jotham, escaped and hid.

6 Then all the leading citizens of Shechem and Beth-millo called a meeting under the oak beside the pillar at Shechem and made Abimelech their king.

7 When Jotham heard about this, he climbed to the top of Mount Gerizim and shouted, “Listen to me, citizens of Shechem! Listen to me if you want God to listen to you!

8 Once upon a time the trees decided to choose a king. First they said to the olive tree, ‘Be our king!’

9 But the olive tree refused, saying, ‘Should I quit producing the olive oil that blesses both God and people, just to wave back and forth over the trees?’