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  • From: Lloyd Barre <barre AT c-zone.net>
  • To: "B-Hebrew" <b-hebrew AT franklin.oit.unc.edu>
  • Cc:
  • Subject: Israel's pre-Saul Political Structure
  • Date: 12 Feb 99 13:12:26 -0800


m hoping for some comments regarding my look into the political structures
portrayed by tradition for pre-Saulide Israel. Perhaps the most enlightening
source is the account of AbiDear History Thread,

I amelech's rule found in Judges 9. In this story we find several
significant political parties. There is the politically power group called
the "lords or owners of Shechem (ba'alim sekem). In the absence of a king,
they rule the city just as the elders of Samaria were the ones to negotiate
with Jehu after the death of their king. Also imporant are the "sons of
Jerubbaal," that is the princes of the city who are exterminated in a manner
that is also reminicient of Jehu. There is also of course the new king
Abimelech, that once the leading citizens of the city withdrew their support
made Abimelech's kingship vulnerable to a man such as Gaal son of Ebed. He
appears as an independently-minded military commander of some power, who
traces his loyalty back beyond Jerubbaal to Hamor, the father of Shechem.
Clearly Gaal thinks that he has deeper loyalties to Shechem and that his bid
to replace Abimelech is a matter of city and king loyalty.

Lloyd M. Barre, Ph.D.

barre AT c-zone.net
http://www.angelfire.com/ca2/AncientIsrael

"Do I dare
Disturb the universe?"

T.S. Eliot from, "The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock." (1917)




  • Israel's pre-Saul Political Structure, Lloyd Barre, 02/12/1999

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