What Does Judges 9:1 Mean in the King James?
And Abimelech the son of Jerubbaal went to Shechem unto his mother’s brethren, and communed with them, and with all the family of the house of his mother’s father, saying,
The analysis reads the King James wording.
King James Version The King James Version, first published in 1611. Selah Verse shows the standard text.
THE KEY
The name says “my father is king,” but the path to power runs through his mother’s family.
THE MEANING
You see a claim to rule taking shape through family ties: Abimelech goes to his mother’s brothers and addresses the whole household of her father. His name means “my father is king,” so kingship is already woven into his identity as he seeks his maternal kin’s support. Speech and kinship join before his proposal is fully heard.
THE ROOT
אֲבִימֶלֶךְ
ʾAvimelekh
GROWS FROM
מלך
מלך (melekh, “king”; from the root meaning “reign”) carries the idea of rule. The full name is commonly understood as “my father is king.”
The name puts kingship inside a kinship claim: Abimelech means “my father is king,” even as he seeks backing through his mother’s family. Authority is already embedded in the name he bears.
ALSO GROWS
melekh: king
מֶלֶךְ
This is the royal element carried in Abimelech’s name, before he makes his appeal.
malkut: kingship, reign
מַלְכוּת
This branch makes explicit the rule that his name evokes.
וַיְדַבֵּר
wayedabber
GROWS FROM
דבר
דבר (d-b-r, “speak, utter”) connects speech with the words and matters spoken.
The verse’s “communed” is an act of addressing his kin; the same root also forms דָּבָר (davar, “word, matter”). The root keeps the spoken matter in view: conversation is how Abimelech brings his appeal to the household.
ALSO GROWS
davar: word, matter, thing
דָּבָר
The spoken appeal is itself a matter placed before his relatives.
dibbur: speech, utterance
דִּבּוּר
This branch highlights speech as the means by which he gathers his kin around the claim.
THE PATTERN
Power gathers people through persuasive appeals that make a shared interest feel decisive.
Then all the elders of Israel gathered themselves together, and came to Samuel unto Ramah, And said unto him, Behold, thou art old, and thy sons walk not in thy ways: now make us a king to judge us like all the nations.And on this manner did Absalom to all Israel that came to the king for judgment: so Absalom stole the hearts of the men of Israel.Then gathered the chief priests and the Pharisees a council, and said, What do we? for this man doeth many miracles.THE THREAD
And thou shalt teach them diligently unto thy children, and shalt talk of them when thou sittest in thine house, and when thou walkest by the way, and when thou liest down, and when thou risest up.The Hebrew verb behind “commune” in Judges and the verb behind “talk” here both grow from דבר (d-b-r, “speak, utter”). In Judges, speech gathers a household around a claim to kingship; Deuteronomy shows the same root at work in everyday household speech, where words shape what is carried forward.
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