Discovery BoxJudges 9:6 
Context9:6 All the leaders of Shechem and Beth Millo assembled and then went and made Abimelech king by the oak near the pillar 1 in Shechem.
Judges 9:37
Context9:37 Gaal again said, “Look, men are coming down from the very center 2 of the land. A unit 3 is coming by way of the Oak Tree of the Diviners.” 4
1 tc The translation assumes that the form in the Hebrew text (מֻצָּב, mutsav) is a corruption of an original מַצֵּבָה (matsevah, “pillar”). The reference is probably to a pagan object of worship (cf. LXX).
2 tn Heb “navel.” On the background of the Hebrew expression “the navel of the land,” see R. G. Boling, Judges (AB), 178-79.
3 tn Heb “head.”
4 tn Some English translations simply transliterated this as a place name (Heb “Elon-meonenim”); cf. NAB, NRSV.
