In this way God repaid the wickedness that Abimelech had done to his father in murdering his seventy brothers.
Parallel translations
- WEB Thus God repaid the wickedness of Abimelech, which he did to his father, in killing his seventy brothers;
- KJV Thus God rendered the wickedness of Abimelech, which he did unto his father, in slaying his seventy brethren:
- NKJV Thus God repaid the wickedness of Abimelech, which he had done to his father by killing his seventy brothers.
- NASB So God repaid the wickedness of Abimelech, which he had done to his father in killing his seventy brothers.
- NLT In this way, God punished Abimelech for the evil he had done against his father by murdering his seventy brothers.
Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
Scripture quotations taken from the (NASB®) New American Standard Bible®, Copyright © 1960, 1971, 1977, 1995, 2020 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission. All rights reserved. lockman.org
Scripture quotations are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.
Quick answer
God thus repaid Abimelech's wickedness in murdering his seventy brothers. The narrator names the events as divine justice.
Overview
The text interprets Abimelech's death as God's deliberate recompense for the slaughter of Gideon's sons (9:5). What looked like chance battlefield events were the hand of God repaying bloodguilt. This explicit theological summary assures readers that God governs history and will not leave evil unpunished.
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 11
- Ps 94:23He will bring upon them their own iniquity and destroy them for their wickedness. The LORD our God will destroy them.
- Prov 5:22The iniquities of a wicked man entrap him; the cords of his sin entangle him.
- Ps 58:10–11The righteous will rejoice when they see they are avenged; they will wash their feet in the blood of the wicked.
- Ps 11:6On the wicked He will rain down fiery coals and sulfur; a scorching wind will be their portion.
- Ps 9:12For the Avenger of bloodshed remembers; He does not ignore the cry of the afflicted.
- Judg 9:24in order that the crime against the seventy sons of Jerubbaal might come to justice and their blood be avenged on their brother Abimelech and on the leaders of Shechem, who had helped him murder his brothers.
- Matt 7:2For with the same judgment you pronounce, you will be judged; and with the measure you use, it will be measured to you.
- Gal 6:7Do not be deceived: God is not to be mocked. Whatever a man sows, he will reap in return.
- Acts 28:4When the islanders saw the creature hanging from his hand, they said to one another, “Surely this man is a murderer. Although he was saved from the sea, Justice has not allowed him to live.”
- Rev 19:20–21But the beast was captured along with the false prophet, who on its behalf had performed signs deceiving those who had the mark of the beast and worshiped its image. Both the beast and the false prophet were thrown alive into the fiery lake of burning sulfur.
- Job 31:3Does not disaster come to the unjust and calamity to the workers of iniquity?
Themes, concepts, people & topics
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Christ at the center
Israel's cycle of sin and rescue through flawed deliverers cries out for a Savior who never fails — the true and final Judge and Deliverer who saves his people not for a season but forever.
How Judges 9:56 points to him is part of the one story that runs through all Scripture — meet Jesus at the heart of the web, or follow a trail that traces him from Genesis to Revelation.
Original language
Each word below is tagged with its Strong’s number — tap one to see the underlying Hebrew word, its meaning, and every verse that uses it.