Judges 9:45
And Abimelech fought against the city all that day; and he took the city, and slew the people that was therein, and beat down the city, and sowed it with salt.
Judges 9:45 in other translations
| BSB | And all that day Abimelech fought against the city until he had captured it and killed its people. Then he demolished the city and sowed it with salt. |
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| WEB | Abimelech fought against the city all that day; and he took the city and killed the people in it. He beat down the city and sowed it with salt. |
| ASV | And Abimelech fought against the city all that day; and he took the city, and slew the people that were therein: and he beat down the city, and sowed it with salt. |
| YLT | and Abimelech hath fought against the city all that day, and captureth the city, and the people who are in it he hath slain, and he breaketh down the city, and soweth it with salt. |
| DARBY | And Abimelech fought against the city all that day; and he took the city, and slew the people that were in it, and broke down the city, and sowed it with salt. |
| BBE | And all that day Abimelech was fighting against the town; and he took it, and put to death the people who were in it, and had the town pulled down and covered with salt. |
| Webster | And Abimelech fought against the city all that day; and he took the city, and slew the people that were in it, and beat down the city, and sowed it with salt. |
What does Judges 9:45 mean?
Jamieson-Fausset-Brown on Judges 9:28-45
28-45. would to God this people were under my hand--He seems to have been a boastful, impudent, and cowardly person, totally unfit to be a leader in a revolutionary crisis. The consequence was that he allowed himself to be drawn into an ambush, was defeated, the city of Shechem destroyed and strewn with salt. The people took refuge in the stronghold, which was set on fire, and all in it perished.
Adam Clarke's Commentary
Adam Clarke, 1831 · public domain
Matthew Henry's Concise Commentary on Judges 9:30-49
Abimelech intended to punish the Schechemites for slighting him now, but God punished them for their serving him formerly in the murder of Gideon's sons. When God uses men as instruments in his hand to do his work, he means one thing, and they another. That, which they hoped would have been for their welfare, proved a snare and a trap, as those will certainly find, who run to idols for shelter; such will prove a…
Judges 9:45 in the original Hebrew
Word-by-word with transliteration, English gloss and Strong's number. Tap a number for the full definition and every place the word is used.
Source: STEPBible TAHOT/TAGNT (Tyndale House, CC BY 4.0).
Cross references for Judges 9:45
- 2 Kings 3:25
And they beat down the cities, and on every good piece of land cast every man his stone, and filled it; and they stopped all the wells of water, and felled all the good trees: only in Kir–haraseth left they the stones thereof; howbeit the slingers went about it, and smote it.
- Deuteronomy 29:23
And that the whole land thereof is brimstone, and salt, and burning, that it is not sown, nor beareth, nor any grass groweth therein, like the overthrow of Sodom, and Gomorrah, Admah, and Zeboim, which the Lord overthrew in his anger, and in his wrath:
- 1 Kings 12:25
Then Jeroboam built Shechem in mount Ephraim, and dwelt therein; and went out from thence, and built Penuel.
- Psalms 107:34
A fruitful land into barrenness, for the wickedness of them that dwell therein.
- Ezekiel 47:11
But the miry places thereof and the marishes thereof shall not be healed; they shall be given to salt.
- James 2:13
For he shall have judgment without mercy, that hath shewed no mercy; and mercy rejoiceth against judgment.
- Zephaniah 2:9
Therefore as I live, saith the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel, Surely Moab shall be as Sodom, and the children of Ammon as Gomorrah, even the breeding of nettles, and saltpits, and a perpetual desolation: the residue of my people shall spoil them, and the remnant of my people shall possess them.
Ranked by reader votes · OpenBible.info cross references (CC BY).
Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
20
beat.
De 29:23; 1Ki 12:25; 2Ki 3:25; Ps 107:34; *marg:
Eze 47:11; Zep 2:9; Jas 2:13
sowed.Salt in small quantities renders land extremely fertile; but too much of it destroys vegetation. Every place, says Pliny, in which salt is found is barren, and produces nothing. Hence the sowing of a place with salt was a custom in different nations to express permanent desolation. Sigonius observes, that when Milan was taken, A.D. 1162, the walls were razed, and it was sown with salt. And Brantome informs us, that it was an ancient custom in France, to sow the house of a man with salt, who had been declared a traitor to his king. Charles IX., king of France, the most base and perfidious of human beings, caused the house of Admiral Coligni (whom he and the Duke of Guise caused to be murdered, with thousands more of Protestants, on the eve of St. Bartholomew, 1572,) to be sown with salt!
Treasury of Scripture Knowledge (Samuel Bagster, c. 1836) · public domain
Context
- Judges 9:44
And Abimelech, and the company that was with him, rushed forward, and stood in the entering of the gate of the city: and the two other companies ran upon all the people that were in the fields, and slew them.
- Judges 9:45
And Abimelech fought against the city all that day; and he took the city, and slew the people that was therein, and beat down the city, and sowed it with salt.
- Judges 9:46
And when all the men of the tower of Shechem heard that, they entered into an hold of the house of the god Berith.
Judges 9:45 in other languages
| Spanish Reina-Valera 1909 | Y después de combatir Abimelech la ciudad todo aquel día, tomóla, y mató el pueblo que en ella estaba, y asoló la ciudad, y sembróla de sal. |
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| French Bible J.N. Darby 1885 | Et Abimélec combattit tout ce jour-là contre la ville; et il prit la ville, et tua le peuple qui y était; et il démolit la ville, et y sema du sel. |
| German Elberfelder 1871 | Und Abimelech stritt wider die Stadt jenen ganzen Tag; und er nahm die Stadt ein, und das Volk, das darin war, tötete er; und er riß die Stadt nieder und bestreute sie mit Salz. |
| Latin Clementine Vulgate | Porro Abimelech omni die illo oppugnabat urbem: quam cepit, interfectis habitatoribus ejus, ipsaque destructa, ita ut sal in ea dispergeret. |