What is the meaning of Judges 9:20? But if not The phrase follows Jotham’s conditional blessing in Judges 9:19, shifting abruptly to a warning. • Jotham is speaking from Mount Gerizim (Judges 9:7), an ancient covenant site (Deuteronomy 11:29), so his words carry covenantal weight: blessing for faithfulness, curse for betrayal. • “If not” signals the Shechemites’ likely unfaithfulness; they had installed Abimelech, Gideon’s violent son, by murdering 70 brothers (Judges 9:5). • Scripture often pairs an “if” condition with divine reciprocation (Leviticus 26:14–17; Deuteronomy 28:15–20). Here, the covenant lawsuit pattern warns of self-inflicted judgment if justice is ignored. may fire come from Abimelech and consume the leaders of Shechem and Beth-millo Jotham invokes “fire” figuratively for destructive judgment, anticipating the literal events in Judges 9:45, 49. • Fire as judgment appears in Genesis 19:24; Numbers 11:1; Deuteronomy 32:22; Psalm 18:8. • Abimelech himself is pictured as the flame—his ambition and violence will burn the very people who empowered him (James 1:14–15 shows how desires give birth to death). • The leaders of Shechem and Beth-millo had funded Abimelech with temple silver (Judges 9:4); their investment would return as ruin. Galatians 6:7 echoes, “God is not mocked; for whatever a man sows, that he will also reap.” and may fire come from the leaders of Shechem and Beth-millo and consume Abimelech. The curse is symmetrical: the city that created the tyrant will become the spark that destroys him (Judges 9:23–24, 56). • God “sent an evil spirit” between Abimelech and Shechem (Judges 9:23), fulfilling the mutual fire. • Shechem’s leaders rebel, hiding assassins in the hills (Judges 9:25), while Gaal’s uprising (Judges 9:26–29) further fans the flames. • In divine irony, Abimelech dies by a millstone cast from a tower in Thebez, ending his fiery rampage (Judges 9:53–54). Psalm 7:15–16 illustrates the same boomerang effect: the wicked fall into the pit they made. summary Judges 9:20 is Jotham’s prophetic curse: if the covenant with Abimelech is unjust, God will let both sides devour each other. The verse teaches that ungodly alliances carry built-in judgment; the violence we permit or promote often returns upon us. God’s justice is precise, reciprocal, and unavoidable, as later events in the chapter literally confirm. |