The interpretation timeline

Judg 9:53

How this passage has been read — the sources, oldest to newest.

From the early Church Fathers to now.

1 Patristic · 1 Jewish · 1 Catholic

Judg 9:53 · Douay-Rheims
“And behold a certain woman casting a piece of a millstone from above, dashed it against the head of Abimelech, and broke his skull.”
Patristic before A.D. 750
379
A.D.
Basil of Caesarea Patristic
c. A.D. 330–379
“The homicide Abimelech, bastard son of Gideon, killed the seventy legitimate sons, and, thinking he had hit upon a ruse for securing his grasp on the royal power, he destroyed his accomplices in the crime. He, however, was in turn destroyed by them and in the end was slain with a stone cast by a woman's hand.… In short, countless examples teach us that the profit of human wisdom is illusory, for it is a meager and lowly thing and not a great and preeminent good.”
Source
726 years pass — nothing from this stretch is hosted yet
Scholastic c. 1100 – 1500
1105
A.D.
Rashi Jewish
1040–1105
“A pestle shard. A fragment of upper grinding stone called "pestle" [lit. "rider.]. And smashed. Crushed.”
744 years pass — nothing from this stretch is hosted yet
Post-Reformation c. 1650 – 1900
1849
A.D.
1774–1849
“Above, or “of the upper millstone,” according to the Hebrew and Septuagint. Pyrrhus met with a similar fate at Argos. Plutarch observes, (in Scylla) that the Lacedemonians did not like to attack walls, because the bravest men are there often slain by the greatest cowards. (Calmet) — Hence Joab puts this advice in the mouth of David, that it is imprudent to come too near the walls, 2 Kings xi. 21. — Skull, (cerebrum) “brain.” Yet the tyrant’s understanding was not perhaps so much impaired, as to excuse him for commanding his armour-bearer to kill him. (Menochius)”
Source
Modern · 1953 →

The in-app commentary runs from the Fathers to the early-modern record, then stops — that's where the public-domain sources end, not where the reading does. For the modern reading, follow the sources directly.