The illicit thirst for power, destructive in its ramifications, brings about fitting retribution from God.
Of all the narratives in the book of Judges, Yahweh’s presence is felt the least in this account of Abimelech. Deity is present, but almost always as ’elohim, “God,” not “Yahweh” (8:34; 9:7, 9, 13, 23, 56, 57). And in every instance, this occurs as part of a pejorative statement by the narrator or a character. There is no direct link between Abimelech and God at all!
There is much in this story that appears to be a Yahweh vs. Baal contest. For one, Gideon shows up in Judges 9 only as “Jerubbaal”: 9:1, 2, 5 (×2), 16, 19, 24, 28, 57. Though Abimelech is the son of Jerubbaal (9:1), he allies himself with the Shechemites, and the “ba‘als” of Shechem (i.e., leaders, 9:2, 3, 6, 7, 18, 20 [×2], 23 [×2], 24, 25, 26, 39, 46, 47, 51) acknowledge him as “our brother” (9:3). The son of Jerubbaal has now become the brother of the baals of Shechem. Together, Jerubbaal and the baals of Shechem echo ba‘al, for a total of twenty-five instances in fifty-seven verses—in almost every other verse of Judges 9! Baal has won against Yahweh!
Abimelech speaks only thrice in the entirety of his narrative. All his utterances are self-focused and egoistic: he wants to rule (9:2), he wants to be followed in his ferocity (9:48), and he wants to escape the ignominy of dying at the hand of a woman (9:54). Right at the start, he displays his craving for status, honor, and position, for which he is willing to do anything, even perpetrate a horrific series of homicides. Abimelech kills his “brothers,” Gideon’s sons, “on one stone” (9:3–5)—sacrificial victims to Baal perhaps—a gruesome undertaking that Abimelech accomplished after the ba‘als of the city financed his operation from the temple of Baal-berith (9:3). So the takeover by Abimelech, son of Jerubbaal is supported both by Baal and his ba‘als—a Canaanite undertaking, through and through, and Abimelech becomes the official representative of Baalism.
The subsequent narratives of 9:7–57 are quite dense and obscure. In any case, the maniac rules for three years (9:22). He does not go unpunished. Yahweh’s retribution commences with the very unusual situation of 9:23—God sends an evil spirit to operate in the murky relationship between Abimelech and the ba‘als of Shechem. This sending initiates a sequence of events that turns king against sponsors, and converts sponsors to antagonists, resulting in the downfall of all those doers of evil.
Abimelech wins against his opponents, but he has to overreact: he kills all the people in the city (including his relatives?) and razes it (9:42–45). He then proceeds to burn alive all who had taken refuge in the temple of El-berith, about a thousand people, including the ba‘als of Shechem, his erstwhile patrons (9:46–49). The wanton ruthlessness exhibited on the mere whim of revenge is horrific. Anyone that went against Abimelech was in danger of being consumed by this man’s demented extermination of real and perceived enemies.
After Shechem, one would have thought Abimelech would have had enough carnage for a season. But, no, he decides to go against Thebez, too, and destroy its tower and people with the same means he used for the tower of Shechem: fire (9:50–52). We are given no reason for this insatiable appetite for violence or for the choice of that town. But here he is undone with a random woman dropping a random millstone on his head (9:53). We are told it was “one” woman. So the man who killed his siblings on “one” stone (9:5, 18), when he, the “one” man (9:2), sought to rule Shechem is now killed with a millstone (different word, but still poetic justice).
Surprisingly, almost at the instant Abimelech dies, the “men of Israel” decide enough is enough, quit the battle, and each departs “to his place/home” (9:55). But never again in Judges will the people of Israel have rest; the enemy that is internal, and the foes they have become to themselves, will preclude any rest for the nation.
