2 Samuel 11:21

21 quis percussit Abimelech filium Hieroboseth nonne mulier misit super eum fragmen molae de muro et interfecit eum in Thebes quare iuxta murum accessistis dices etiam servus tuus Urias Hettheus occubuit

2 Samuel 11:21 Meaning and Commentary

2 Samuel 11:21

Who smote Abimelech the son of Jerubbesheth?
&c.] The same with Jerubbaal, who was Gideon, ( Judges 6:32 ) ; Baal, one part of his name, was the name of an idol, and sometimes called Bosheth or Besheth, which signifies shame, being a shameful idol; Gideon had a son called Abimelech, who was smitten, and it is here asked, by whom?

did not a woman cast a millstone upon him from the wall, that he died
in Thebez?
which should have been a warning not to go too near the wall of an enemy; the history is recorded in ( Judges 9:52 Judges 9:53 ) ;

why went ye nigh the wall?
exposing your lives to so much danger, and by which so many lives were lost:

then say thou, thy servant Uriah the Hittite is dead also;
the whole has not been told, the worst of all is, as the messenger was to represent it, that brave gallant soldier Uriah is dead; this Joab ordered to be told last, as knowing very well it would pacify the king's wrath, and was the agreeable news he wanted to hear.

2 Samuel 11:21 In-Context

19 praecepitque nuntio dicens cum conpleveris universos sermones belli ad regem
20 si eum videris indignari et dixerit quare accessistis ad murum ut proeliaremini an ignorabatis quod multa desuper ex muro tela mittantur
21 quis percussit Abimelech filium Hieroboseth nonne mulier misit super eum fragmen molae de muro et interfecit eum in Thebes quare iuxta murum accessistis dices etiam servus tuus Urias Hettheus occubuit
22 abiit ergo nuntius et venit et narravit David omnia quae ei praeceperat Ioab
23 et dixit nuntius ad David praevaluerunt adversum nos viri et egressi sunt ad nos in agrum nos autem facto impetu persecuti eos sumus usque ad portam civitatis
The Latin Vulgate is in the public domain.