Judges 9:15

9:15 The thornbush said to the trees, ‘If you really want to choose ¹  me as your king, then come along, find safety under my branches! ²  Otherwise ³  may fire blaze from the thornbush and consume the cedars of Lebanon!’

Judges 9:23

9:23 God sent a spirit to stir up hostility ⁴  between Abimelech and the leaders of Shechem. He made the leaders of Shechem disloyal ⁵  to Abimelech.

Judges 9:56-57

9:56 God repaid Abimelech for the evil he did to his father by murdering his seventy half-brothers. ⁶  9:57 God also repaid the men of Shechem for their evil deeds. The curse spoken by Jotham son of Jerub-Baal fell ⁷  on them.

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¹ tn Heb “are about to anoint [with oil].”

² tn Heb “in my shade.”

³ tn Heb “If not.”

⁴ tn Heb “an evil spirit.” A nonphysical, spirit being is in view, like the one who volunteered to deceive Ahab (1 Kgs 22:21). The traditional translation, “evil spirit,” implies the being is inherently wicked, perhaps even demonic, but this is not necessarily the case. The Hebrew adjective רָעַה (ra’ah) can have a nonethical sense, “harmful; dangerous; calamitous.” When modifying רוּחַ (ruakh, “spirit”) it may simply indicate that the being in view causes harm to the object of God’s judgment. G. F. Moore (Judges [ICC], 253) here refers to a “mischief-making spirit.”

⁵ tn Heb “The leaders of Shechem were disloyal.” The words “he made” are supplied in the translation for clarification.

⁶ tn Heb “seventy brothers.”

⁷ tn Heb “came.”