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Judges 9:27

judg-9-27129 words

Jdg 9:27

At the vintage they prepared הלּוּלים, “praise-offerings,” with the grapes which they had gathered and pressed, eating and drinking in the house of their god, i.e., the temple of Baal-berith, and cursing Abimelech at these sacrificial meals, probably when they were excited with wine. הלּוּלים signifies, according to Lev 19:24, praise-offerings of the fruits which newly-planted orchards or vineyards bore in the fourth years. The presentation of these fruits, by which the vineyard or orchard was sanctified to the Lord, was associated, as we may learn from the passage before us, with sacrificial meals. The Shechemites held a similar festival in the temple of their covenant Baal, and in his honour, to that which the law prescribes for the Israelites in Lev 19:23-25.