All the men of Shechem. — Rather, the lords (Baali) of Shechem. These seem to be the same as “the men” (anoshi), or “lords (Baali) of the tower of Shechem,” in Judges 9:46; Judges 9:49. It is by no means impossible that the Canaanites may have still held possession of the fortress, though the Israelites were nominally predominant in the town. At any rate, this particular title of “lords,” as applied to the chief people of a town, seems to have been Canaanite rather than Hebrew: the “lords” of Jericho (Joshua 24:11), the “lords” of Gibeah (Judges 21:5), of Keilah (1 Samuel 23:11). The term is applied also to the Hittite Uriah (2 Samuel 11:20). What is clear is that, as in so many other towns of Palestine at this epoch (see Judges 1:32, &c), there was a mixed population living side by side in a sort of armed neutrality, though with a mutual dislike, which might at any time break out in tumults. The Israelites held much the same position in many towns as the Normans among the English during the years after the conquest. The Israelites had the upper hand, but they were fewer in numbers, and might easily be overborne at any particular point. It must be borne in mind also that Abimelech, as a Shechemite, would more easily win the adherence of the proud and jealous Ephraimites, who disliked the hegemony (see on Judges 8:1, and comp. 2 Samuel 20:1; 1 Kings 12:16) which Manasseh had acquired from the victories of Gideon. The plans of Abimelech were deep-laid. In counsel no less than in courage — though both were so grievously misdirected — he shows himself his father’s son.
That all the sons of Jerubbaal... reign over you. — It seems to have been the merest calumny to suggest that they ever dreamt of making their father’s influence hereditary in this sense. Gideon had expressly repudiated all wish and claim to exercise “rule” (meshol, Judges 8:23) of this kind. The remark of Abimelech is quite in the ancient spirit —
οὐκ άγαθὸν πολυκοίρανίη, εἶς κοιρανὸς ε̄̌στω.
(Comp. Eur. Suppl. 410.)
Your bone and your flesh. — The same phrase is found in Genesis 2:23; Genesis 29:14; 2 Samuel 5:1; 2 Samuel 19:12. He was akin to both the elements of the population: to the Ephraimites, from the place of his birth, or at any rate of his mother’s residence; and to the Canaanites (as the whole narrative implies), from her blood. The plea was “like that of our Henry II., the first Norman son of a Saxon mother” (Stanley).