Chapter 9
Abimelech, the son of Gideon's concubine who lives in Shechem gets his relatives to suggest to the leaders of Shechem that it would be better to be ruled over by Abimelech alone than by all 70 of Gideon's legitimate sons. (Remember that Gideon had refused to rule or to have his sons rule Israel in the first place.) So they give Abimelech some cash, which he uses to hire the worst sorts of men, then they go to Gideon's house, and kill all 70 of Gideon's legitimate sons "on one stone". This was brutal murder. Likely the brothers were made to watch as those ahead of them were placed/held down on that stone and killed with swords, knives...who knows how depraved these "worst sort of men" got with their killing. The leaders of Shechem are at least consenting in this massacre. What horrible people, what horrible times when they turned from God. No justice. Good men, or helpless men, became prey for the evil. Only one of Gideon's sons escaped, named Jotham.
2023 - Which sort of begs the question. The previous chapter tells us that Gideon had 70 legitimate sons and then Abimelech was born to his concubine. Technically, the text says they went to Ophrah and "...killed his brothers the sons of Jerubbaal, 70 men, on one stone." We would normally read that as 70 brothers being killed. Looking at the Hebrew in BLB, though, it says he killed his brothers, 70 men. Then the next word is "notwithstanding", one brother got away. So the text is not first implying that all 70 brothers were killed and then changing its mind, it is say that brothers were killed, and that 70 men were killed in all, but that only 69 were Gideon's sons. This is why the word choices are a bit strange. Or...it may just be that after we are told in Chapter 8 that Gideon had 70 sons, he married another wife and had one more son before he died. Because in vs 18, it repeats that they killed Gideon's sons, 70 MEN, on one stone.
Then the men of Shechem make Abimelech king.
Jotham makes a speech to the men of Shechem and Beth-millo, and tells them if they've done right by Gideon and his family, then great. But if not, he pronounces fire and death on them all. He asks them if it is right to kill the 69 of Gideon's legitimate sons, and then make the one illegitimate son king over them all? Is this fair, given that Gideon risked his life to free them from the oppression of Midian. Then he runs away and hides in Beer.
God turns the men of Shechem against Abimelech. They turn to a guy named Gaal to do something about him. The head of the city warns Abimelech, who sets an ambush, and defeats Gaal in battle. The next day, Abimilech kills still more of the inhabitants of the city, goes inside and kills every one he finds. razes the city, and then sows the city with salt. He not only kills everyone, he makes the place uninhabitable! He does this to the city that made him their king!
Then he goes and attacks the next place, but ends up getting hit in the head when a woman throws an upper millstone off a tower. Abimilech has his armor bearer kill him with a sword, so that no one can say he was killed by a woman. Really? Cuz it is very clear that a woman killed him, no matter who dealt that final blow.
After Abimilech dies, everyone sort of wanders off back home. The conclusion in 9 is that all has been put right for the evil that Abimilech did, and that the men of Shechem did in setting him up. Jotham's curse is complete.
If the story of Abimilech is an indication of what a place where "everyone does as he sees fit" is like, of a sort of a Libertarian Utopia, then I am not for it. Horrible cruel things get done, and if you notice, the only justice in this whole story was from God. He is the one that turns them all against each other. There are no "heroes" in this story wearing capes and dispensing justice and right for the oppressed. Everyone in this story pretty much deserved what they got - except the sons of Gideon. Think of that horror, all those boys and their mothers. Abimilech burns down a tower with about a thousand men, women and children in it. He is not "good guy". And then he dies a cowards death, killed not by a woman at least - in his opinion - but by a servant. How is that better? This is what happens when everyone makes their own rules.
The point seems to be that when left to themselves, men will not cooperate with each other, will not respect each other, and will not come to the aid of each other. This "Libertarian" confederacy of the tribes of Israel becomes quite splintered and weak and subject to decades long oppression and abuse by the surrounding countries. Because they are so selfish and so refuse to be "governed", they end up being easy prey to the surrounding countries, UNTIL, and UNLESS God supernaturally protects them. God only protects them if they are keeping the covenant they made with Him, worshiping only Him, and so on. This says that a "country" ungoverned cannot defend itself. It seems to me that a lot more might be said about this, that a lot more study would show other weaknesses in such a confederacy. Their economy would be disjointed, there would be no central military, the rules would be different in one city as opposed to another city, and so on. This would be an interesting study.
The lesson is that men don't "trend" toward justice and righteousness. If left to themselves, without any sort of authority over them, whether it be government or God, men just turn into greedy, selfish, ambitious tyrants, who want nothing but their own advancement. Israel at this time is a country without any sort of centralized government, and barely any local government. I don't know what's happened to the Tent of Meeting and the High Priest and the Levites, because we haven't heard a word about them. Apparently, people are left to keep the Sabbath and the Feasts on their own, and it seems to have been largely forgotten. They are instead worshiping local idols as the native peoples do.
So why didn't God want them to have a king? Why would God allow things to go on this way? Because a King would have to be superimposed on the covenant already in place with the people? They were to serve God, or He would punish them, and ultimately scatter them to the winds leaving nothing. Perhaps having kings only prolonged the inevitable.
Perhaps the whole purpose of the book of Judges is to show that people left to themselves are bad people. As if we didn't already know this from the story of Noah.