(48) To mount Zalmon.--Evidently the nearest spot where he could get wood for his hideous design. Zalmon means shady. In Psalm 68:14 we find "as white as snow in Zalmon," but whether the same mountain is referred to we cannot tell. It may be any of the hills near Gerizim.

An axe.--Literally, the axes--i.e., he took axes for himself and his army.

Cut down a bough.--The word for "a bough" is socath, which does not mean "a bundle of logs," as the LXX. render it. Every one will recall the scene in Macbeth where Malcolm says:--

"Let every soldier hew him down a bough,

And bear't before him; thereby shall we shadow

The numbers of our host, and make discovery

Err in report of us."--Acts 5, sc. 4.

But Abimelech merely wanted combustible materials.

What ye have seen me do.--Comp. what Gideon says in Judges 7:17.

Verse 48. - Mount Zalmon, i.e. the shady mount, so called from the thick wood which grows upon it. It was in the neighbourhood of Shechem, and is perhaps the same as that mentioned in Psalm 68:14 as famous for its snow-storms. An axe. The Hebrew has axes. If this is right, the phrase in his hand must be rendered with him, as 1 Samuel 14:34: Each one his ox in his hand, i.e. with him; Jeremiah 38:10: Take thirty men in thy hand, i.e. with thee; and elsewhere.

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 refuge of lies.And Abimelech got him up to Mount Zalmon,.... A mountain near Shechem, and thought to be the same with Salmon in Psalm 68:14 which seems to have had its name from the shade of the trees which grew upon it:

he and all the people that were with him; his whole army:

and Abimelech took an axe in his hand, and cut down a bough from the trees; which grew upon Mount Zalmon:

and took it, and laid it on his shoulders; and carried it along with him:

and said unto the people that were with him, what ye have seen me do, make haste, and do as I have done; take an axe, and every man cut down a bough with all possible haste, and lay it on his shoulder.