And they went out into the fields, and gathered their vineyards, and trode [the grapes], and made merry, and went into the house of their god, and did eat and drink, and cursed Abimelech.
Ver. 27. And they went out into their vineyards.] Which till Gaal came they durst not do, belike, for fear of Abimelech, who was Hannibal ad portas.
And made merry.] Or, Made songs. See Isaiah 16:10. The Septuagint renders it εποιησαν χορους, they danced; little thinking how soon that merry dance would end in a miserable downfall The Hebrew is, praises: for at first God was thereby praised.
And cursed Abimelech.] Which they ought not to have done, since they had made him ruler of the people. Exo 22:28 So Dr Story cursed Queen Elizabeth in his daily grace before eating, and was worthily executed at Tyburn: Sanders railed bitterly against her, calling her Lupam Anglicanam, &c., and had his mouth stopped with famine in Ireland.