And all the leaders of Shechem came together, and all Beth-millo, and they went and made Abimelech king, by the oak of the pillar at Shechem.
We are here told by what arts Abimelech got into authority, and made himself great. His mother perhaps had instilled into his mind some towering ambitious thoughts, and the name his father gave him, carrying royalty in it, might help to blow up these sparks; and now that he has buried his father nothing will serve his proud spirit but he will succeed him in...
Commenting on Judges 9:1-6
And all the men of Shechem gathered together,.... Upon the return of Abimelech, after he with his banditti had committed the execrable murder of his brethren: and all the house of Millo; which was either the men of a place near to Shechem, or of his brother's family, or of some grand leading family in Shechem; or it may mean the town hall, where the...
all the men of Shechem . . ., and all the house of Millo--that is, a mound or rampart, so that the meaning is, all the men in the house or temple; namely, the priests of Baal. made Abimelech king, by the plain of the pillar--rather, "by the oak near a raised mound"--so that the ceremony of coronation might be conspicuous to a crowd.