So God repaid the wickedness of Abimelech, which he had done to his father in killing 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:
- BSB In this way God repaid the wickedness that Abimelech had done to his father in murdering his seventy brothers.
- NKJV Thus God repaid the wickedness of Abimelech, which he had done to his father by 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 has brought on them their own iniquity, and will cut them off in their own wickedness. Yahweh, our God, will cut them off.
- Prov 5:22The evil deeds of the wicked ensnare him. The cords of his sin hold him firmly.
- Ps 58:10–11The righteous shall rejoice when he sees the vengeance. He shall wash his feet in the blood of the wicked;
- Ps 11:6On the wicked he will rain blazing coals; fire, sulfur, and scorching wind shall be the portion of their cup.
- Ps 9:12For he who avenges blood remembers them. He doesn’t forget the cry of the afflicted.
- Judg 9:24that the violence done to the seventy sons of Jerubbaal might come, and that their blood might be laid on Abimelech their brother, who killed them, and on the men of Shechem, who strengthened his hands to kill his brothers.
- Matt 7:2For with whatever judgment you judge, you will be judged; and with whatever measure you measure, it will be measured to you.
- Gal 6:7Don’t be deceived. God is not mocked, for whatever a man sows, that he will also reap.
- Acts 28:4When the natives saw the creature hanging from his hand, they said to one another, “No doubt this man is a murderer, whom, though he has escaped from the sea, yet Justice has not allowed to live.”
- Rev 19:20–21The beast was taken, and with him the false prophet who worked the signs in his sight, with which he deceived those who had received the mark of the beast and those who worshiped his image. These two were thrown alive into the lake of fire that burns with sulfur.
- Job 31:3Is it not calamity to the unrighteous, and disaster to the workers of iniquity?
Themes, concepts, people & topics
Resources, by level
Commentaries & study tools
Free animated overview and word-study videos for this book.
Sermons and teaching on this passage from across YouTube.
Clear, readable, conservative exposition — the best free place to start on any passage.
Matthew Henry, Barnes, Gill, the Pulpit Commentary, Ellicott, Cambridge, and more — stacked on one page for this exact verse.
The beloved Puritan exposition of this whole book — warm, devotional, and verse by verse (free, CCEL).
Hebrew/Greek interlinear, word definitions, and cross-references for this verse.
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.