Judges Chapter 9 verse 53 Holy Bible
And a certain woman cast an upper millstone upon Abimelech's head, and brake his skull.
read chapter 9 in ASV
But a certain woman sent a great stone, such as is used for crushing grain, on to the head of Abimelech, cracking the bone.
read chapter 9 in BBE
And a certain woman threw an upper millstone upon Abim'elech's head, and crushed his skull.
read chapter 9 in DARBY
And a certain woman cast a piece of a millstone upon Abimelech's head, and all to brake his skull.
read chapter 9 in KJV
And a certain woman cast a piece of of a millstone upon Abimelech's head, and broke his skull.
read chapter 9 in WBT
A certain woman cast an upper millstone on Abimelech's head, and broke his skull.
read chapter 9 in WEB
and a certain woman doth cast a piece of a rider on the head of Abimelech, and breaketh his skull,
read chapter 9 in YLT
Pulpit Commentary
Pulpit CommentaryVerse 53. - A millstone. The word here used means the upper millstone, which rides as it were, or moves, over the fixed nether stone. All to brake his skull. This obsolete English phrase has been the subject of a recent controversy. In the older English of Chaucer and his immediate successors such compounds as to-break, to-burst, etc. were very common, and were frequently preceded by the adverb all. Hence, some English scholars would read the phrase here, and all to-brake his skull. It is, however, certain that before the time when the A.V. was made the compounds to-break, to-burst, etc. had become entirely obsolete, and the compound all-to had come into use. The right way, therefore, in which to read the present phrase is, and all-to brake his skull, i.e. smashed it, dashed it in pieces. The prefix all-to gives intensity to the verb.
Ellicott's Commentary
Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers(53) A piece of a millstone.--The word for millstone is receb, literally, runner, i.e., the upper millstone, or lapis vector, which is whirled round and round over the stationary lower one, sheceb (Deuteronomy 24:6).And all to brake his skull.--This is a mere printer's error for all-to or al-to, i.e., utterly, and it has led to the further misreading of "brake." Others think that it should be printed "all to-brake," where the to is intensive like the German ge--as in Chaucer's "All is to-broken thilke regioun" (Knight's Tale, 2,579). But in Latimer we find "they love, and all-to love him" (see Bible Word-book, ? 5). The meaning of the verb is "smashed" or "shattered" (LXX., suneklase; Vulg., confregit; Luther, zerbrach). The death of Pyrrhus by a tile flung down by a woman as he rode into the town of Argos is an historic parallel (Pausan. 1:13). The ringleader of an attack on the Jews, who had taken refuge in York Castle in 1190, was similarly killed.His armour.--Celim, literally, implements. (Comp. Judges 18:11; Genesis 27:3.)
