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 it was told Abimelech,.... Who had his spies about, and particularly to observe the motions of the men in this tower:

that all the men of the tower of Shechem were gathered together; in the hold of the temple of Baalberith.