“Z’vul said to him, ‘Where’s your mouth now? You said, ‘Who is Avimelekh? Why should we serve him?’ Aren’t these the people you despise? Go on out and fight them!’So Ga‘al went out, leading the men of Sh’khem, and fought Avimelekh. But Avimelekh gave chase, and Ga‘al took to flight; many fell wounded, strewn all along the way to the city gate.”-Judges 9:38-40
The early morning had arrived at the city of Shechem.
Yet the dawn had not yet broke.
Zevul, the governor of Shechem appointed by Avimelech, and Ga’al, the drunk bandit who had challenged Avimelech at the quasi-Sukkot party the night before, were both standing outside to see if there were any signs of Avimelech.
Of course, Ga’al had no idea Zevul had arranged for Avimelech and his army to attack Shechem that morning.
But suddenly, off in the distance, Ga’al saw what appeared to be a group of men marching down the side of the mountain.
It was still dim outside, so Ga’al couldn’t see clearly.
Zevul told Ga’al “you’re just seeing shadows bouncing off of the mountains man”.
Which probably wouldn’t have been unusual for a man who had just imbibed copious amounts of alcohol the night before.
However, before long, it became impossible to hide the fact that indeed it was Avimelech’s soldiers who were fast descending down the mountain to launch an offensive against Shechem.
At that instant Zevul turned to Ga’al and said…
“Where’s your smart mouth now?! You who said ‘Who is Avimelech that we should obey him?’ Well, put your money where your mouth is and go out and fight Avimelech and his men!”
At that provocation, Ga’al and his thugs left the safety of the thick gates of Shechem and went out to battle Avimelech and his soldiers.
We’re not given much detail about what happened next.
Verse 40 simply says…
“But Avimelech gave chase,
and Ga’al took flight;
many fell wounded,
strewn all along the way
to the city gate”
In a nutshell, Ga’al and his men got their butts kicked.
After the quick victory, Avimelech returned back to Arumah and left Zevul to finish off the last of Ga’al’s gang members.
Once Ga’al and his gang were out of the way, Avimelech knew he pretty much had free rein to do whatever the hell he wanted with the rebellious townsfolk of Shechem.
And that’s exactly what he did.
After the remainder of Ga’al’s men had been disposed of, the common citizens of Shechem figured everything would go back to normal.
Boy, was that ever a miscalculation on their part!
The next morning when they went back to tend to their fields, they were attacked by Avimelech’s soldiers who were lying in wait.
Avimelech had employed the common battle tactic of dividing his soldiers into 3 different groups.
And one of those groups had gone ahead and captured the entrance leading into the city.
This meant doom for all the Shechemite field workers.
The Scripture says the slaughter continued on all day until every last man was killed…both a combination of Hebrew and Canaanite fieldworkers.
And then afterwards, we’re told Avimelech threw salt over the ruins.
What does this mean exactly?
The expression “sowing the land with salt” as it’s put in most English Bibles is not meant to be taken literally.
Although there may have been some kind of ceremonial element to this action, the real meaning is that the land in the area became barren or unusable.
So unfortunately and as is most often the case, it was the common class workers who all lost their lives.
On the other hand, the upper aristocratic class had a different experience altogether.
We’re told they had the opportunity to escape to some fortress temple call El-Brit (meaning “covenant with EL”).
Let me remind you that EL was a Canaanite loan word that simply means the “chief” or the “highest god” amongst a pantheon of deities…even higher than Ba’al.
It was this word the Hebrews eventually ended up incorporating into their own language to use to refer to their God Yahweh.
Now while these upper class Ba’als of Shechem (Lords of Shechem) fled to this particular fortress because practically speaking they felt like it was the safest and strongest building they could escape to, another key reason driving their decision to flee there was because they believed their god EL would protect them.
Alrighty, let me stop here to share my takeaway and then we’ll be done for today.
To conclude, we can see there were no real winners in the scenario we just saw unfold before us.
Ga’al and his no-good men got slaughtered by Avimelech and his no-good men.
And even after the battle, the common citizens of Shechem thinking everything would go back to normal after the dust had cleared and settled also experienced a rude awakening when they returned to their fields to continue on with their day-to-day farming.
As we just saw, every last one of them got massacred.
Long ago they had made the decision to bet their lives on living in and associating themselves with a town whose allegiance to the God of Israel was lukewarm at best.
And now they paid the price for it.
And it didn’t matter whether they were of Canaanite blood or Hebrew blood.
Just like it didn’t matter whether you were a native born Hebrew or not if you were part of the saved mixed multitude who left Egypt during the Exodus.
You were guilty or innocent by association.
So there were no real winners in Shechem that day.
Everyone perished.
Now at this point in our study, it would seem like only the real victor was the evil Avimelech who was still alive.
Well, stay tuned for my next post as we see what fate the Lord had in store for that conniving murderer.
Indeed, you shall see there are no real winners among those who play in the sandbox of sin.
Over and out.
How on earth could any of them win? I can surely agree with you because even avimelech days are numbered
Thanks