Matthew Poole and continuators on Judges 9:28

28 And Gaal the son of Ebed said, Who is Abimelech , and who is Shechem that we should serve him? is not he the son of Jerubbaal ? And Zebul his officer ? serve the men of Hamor the father of Shechem : for why should we serve him?

What is he but a base-born person, an Ambitious, Imperious, and Cruel Tyrant, and one every way unfit and unworthy to govern you?

Shechem is here the name, either, 1. Of the Place or City of Shechem; and so the Hebrew Particle mi, who, is put for mah, what, as it is Iudg. 13. 17. and then the sense of the place is this; Consider how obscure and unworthy a person Abimelech is, and what a Potent and Honorable City Shechem is; and judg you whether it be fit that such a City should be subject to such a Person: Or, rather 2. Of a person, even of Abimelech, named in the foregoing words, and described in those which follow, the son of Ierubbaal, between which Shechem is hemmed in, and therefore cannot conveniently belong to any other. He is called Shechem for the Shechemite, by a Metonymy of the subject, whereby the place is put for the person contained in it, and belonging to it; as, Egypt, Aethiopia, Seba, Iudea, Macedonia, and Achaia, &c. are put for the people of those Countreys, Iob 1. 15. and 6. 19. Psal. 68. 31. and 105. 38. Isa. 43. 3. Mat. 3. 5. Rom. 15. 26. Thus mi is taken properly, and the sense is, Who is this Shechemite? for so he was by the Mothers side, born of a Woman of your City, and she but his Concubine and Servant; Why should you submit to one so basely descended?

i. e. Of Gideon, a person obscure by his own Confession, Iudg. 6. 15. and famous onely by his boldness and fierceness against that Baal which you justly honour and reverence, whose Altar he overthrew, and whose Worship he endeavoured to abolish.

And you are so unworthy and mean-spirited, that you do not onely submit to him, but suffer his very Servants to bear rule over you, and enslave you; and particularly, this ignoble and hateful person Zebul.

If you love Bondage, call in the old Master and Lord of the place; chuse not an upstart, as Abimelech is; but rather take one of the old Stock, one descended from Hamor, Gen. 34. 2. who did not carry himself like a Tyrant, as Abimelech did; but like a Father of his City of Shechem. This he might speak, either 1. Sincerely, as being himself a Canaanite and a Shechemite, and possibly come from one of those little ones whom Simeon and Levi spared when they slew all the grown Males, Gen. 34. 29. And it may be that he was one of the Royal Blood, a descendant of Hamor, who hereby sought to insinuate himself into their minds and Government, as it follows, v. 29. Would to God thus people were under my hand; which he might judg the people more likely to do, both because they were now united with the Canaanites in Religion; and because their present distress might oblige them to put themselves under him, who seemed or pretended to be a Valiant and Expert Comman[illegible: 1+ letters] ▪ Or, 2. In way of decision, he being an Israelite; if you are so servile, serve some of the Children of Hamor; which because you rightly judg to be absurd and dishonourable, do not now submit to a far baser person; but cast off his Yoak, and recover your lost Liberties.