Judges, Ruth: Revised Edition (The NIV Application Commentary)

by K. Lawson Younger

The climax of the Abimelek account is clearly found in 9:53. This verse is the point of convergence for several phrases. Abimelek argued, “Which is better for you: to have all seventy of Jerub-Baal’s sons rule over you, or just one man (’ish ’ehad)?” Ironically, it is now stated in 9:53 that “a woman” (lit., “one woman,” that is “a certain woman” [’ishshah’ahat]) drops (or perhaps better “heaves,” since lit. in Heb., “throws”) an upper millstone on him. Abimelek had slaughtered the sons of Gideon on a single stone (’eben ’ehat, 9:5, 18), and his skull is crushed by this single “upper millstone” (lit., “a stone of riding,” pelah rekeb).47 The upper millstone, usually made of basalt, though sometimes sandstone, was the smaller upper stone of a handmill or saddle-quern. The grain was placed on the bottom of the larger lower stone; the grinder typically kneeled in front of the quern and moved the upper millstone back and forth, grinding the grain. The upper millstone of a saddle-quern would make a better projectile, and it weighted approximately twelve–fifteen pounds (5.5–6.8 kg). Grinding was delegated to slaves in larger households and wives in smaller ones. For most women, grinding was a daily domestic task. It was humiliating for a man to do such work (cf. the humiliation of Samson grinding in 16:21).48 Therefore, it was also humiliating to be struck by such a stone hurled by a woman. As in the case of Jael in 4:21, this woman uses what is normally a domestic, everyday obj...