Judges 9 Summary and Study Guide

Seventy pieces of silver came out of a temple treasury at Shechem, one for every son Gideon left behind. Abimelech spent it hiring men. This Judges 9 summary and study guide follows what that purchase bought him, and what it finally cost the city that paid for it.

Setting the Stage

Israel once asked Gideon to rule them, and to pass the rule down to his son and his grandson after him. He turned it down: “I will not rule over you, neither shall my son rule over you: the LORD shall rule over you” (Judges 8:23). God was Israel’s king, and no family of Gideon’s would take that place. His whole story is in our study of the life of Gideon.

Gideon died with seventy sons, and one more by a woman at Shechem who was not his wife. As soon as he was buried, Israel went after a local god called Baal-berith and showed no kindness to the family of the man who had rescued them (Judges 8:33-35). Judges 9 opens with that one extra son walking into Shechem.

Comprehensive Judges 9 Summary

Abimelech goes to his mother’s relatives at Shechem and gets them to put a question to the city: would you rather have all seventy of Gideon’s sons ruling you, or one man, and remember that I am your own flesh and blood. Gideon had already refused rule for himself and for his sons (Judges 8:23).

Shechem takes the offer anyway, on the stated ground that Abimelech is their relative, and pays for it with seventy pieces of silver out of the temple of Baal-berith. He hires reckless men, goes to his father’s house at Ophrah, and puts his brothers to death on a single stone. Jotham, the youngest, hides and lives. Shechem then crowns Abimelech king at the oak by the pillar.

Jotham climbs Mount Gerizim, tells the men of Shechem a story about trees looking for a king, and turns it on them: if you have dealt honestly with my father’s house, enjoy each other, and if you have not, may the two of you burn each other down. Then he runs.

Three years later God sends an evil spirit between Abimelech and Shechem so that the blood of the seventy comes back on both of them. Shechem turns to robbery, then to a newcomer named Gaal, who curses Abimelech at the grape harvest and dares him to fight.

Zebul, Abimelech’s man inside the city, betrays the plan. Abimelech routs Gaal, and the next day he destroys Shechem itself, sows the ground with salt, and burns about a thousand people inside the temple hold they had run to. At Thebez he goes for one more tower, and a woman drops an upper millstone on his head.

One Word Summary

• Repayment: God gives both parties back exactly what they gave.
• Grasping: a crown taken rather than received.
• Fire: the image Jotham used and the way it actually ended.

In One Sentence

Abimelech kills his brothers to make himself king over Shechem, Jotham warns the city that the two of them will destroy each other, and within three years Abimelech burns Shechem and dies under a woman’s millstone at Thebez.

Theme of Judges 9

Judges 9 is about God repaying wickedness, and repaying it on everyone who had a hand in it. The chapter says so twice in its own voice, first at verse 24 before anything happens and again at verses 56 and 57 after everything has. Running alongside that are two more ideas the chapter will not let go of: that the crown the fruitful turn down is the one a worthless man takes, and that the people who hand him that power are not bystanders to what he does with it.

Judges 9 Outline

• Judges 9:1-3: Abimelech asks his mother’s relatives at Shechem to put a choice to the city, seventy rulers or one, and the city leans toward him because he is family.
• Judges 9:4-5: Shechem gives him seventy pieces of silver from the temple of Baal-berith, and he hires men and kills his brothers on one stone at Ophrah, with only Jotham escaping.
• Judges 9:6: The men of Shechem and the house of Millo make Abimelech king by the oak at the pillar.
• Judges 9:7: Jotham stands on the top of Mount Gerizim and tells the men of Shechem to hear him, so that God will hear them.
• Judges 9:8-13: In his parable the trees look for a king, and the olive, the fig and the vine each turn the crown down rather than give up what they produce.
• Judges 9:14-15: The trees turn to the bramble, which accepts, offers its shade, and threatens fire.
• Judges 9:16-21: Jotham names what Shechem has done to his father’s house, calls down fire on both sides if they acted falsely, and flees to Beer.
• Judges 9:22-25: After three years God sends an evil spirit between Abimelech and Shechem so the blood of the seventy falls on both, and Shechem begins robbing travellers.
• Judges 9:26-29: Gaal the son of Ebed moves into Shechem, wins the city’s confidence, and curses Abimelech at the grape harvest.
• Judges 9:30-33: Zebul, the ruler of the city, sends word to Abimelech in secret and tells him to attack at sunrise.
• Judges 9:34-38: Abimelech comes by night in four companies, and Zebul keeps Gaal talking at the gate until they are close.
• Judges 9:39-41: Gaal is beaten back to the gate, Abimelech withdraws to Arumah, and Zebul drives Gaal out of the city.
• Judges 9:42-45: Abimelech ambushes the people in the fields, takes Shechem, kills its people, pulls the city down and sows it with salt.
• Judges 9:46-49: The men of the tower of Shechem shut themselves into a stronghold belonging to the house of the god Berith, and Abimelech’s men pile branches against it and set it alight, killing about a thousand.
• Judges 9:50-55: Abimelech takes Thebez, moves on its tower, is hit by a millstone dropped by a woman, and has his armourbearer finish him.
• Judges 9:56-57: God repaid Abimelech for what he did to his father and returned Shechem’s evil on their own heads, and Jotham’s curse came upon them.

Jotham’s Parable of the Trees

The parable is the one part of Judges 9 people quote. It is a fable, a story where things that cannot talk are given speech to make a point, and it is one of only two in the Bible. The other is the story Jehoash tells Amaziah about a thistle and a cedar (2 Kings 14:9).

Mount Gerizim is the mountain Israel was told to put the blessing on when they came into the land (Deuteronomy 11:29), and when Joshua read the law at Shechem half the nation stood facing Gerizim as the blessing side (Joshua 8:33).

Jotham climbs the mountain of blessing and calls down a curse from it. He opens by telling the men of Shechem to listen to him “that God may hearken unto you,” which sets the terms for Shechem before he says anything else: the hearing they give him is the hearing they will get from God.

The trees went forth on a time to anoint a king over them; and they said unto the olive tree, Reign thou over us. But the olive tree said unto them, Should I leave my fatness, wherewith by me they honour God and man, and go to be promoted over the trees?

The trees go looking for a king and ask the olive first. The olive answers that it would have to give up the oil it produces, the oil people use to honour God and to honour one another, just to sway above the other trees. The fig gives the same answer about its fruit, and the vine about its wine.

Those three are not chosen at random. Olive, fig and vine are three of the seven crops named as the good of the land in Deuteronomy 8:8, and two of them supplied God’s altar: oil went onto the meal offering (Leviticus 2:1) and wine was brought as a drink offering (Numbers 15:10). Each tree names the exact thing it would have to stop producing, and each one says no.

And the bramble said unto the trees, If in truth ye anoint me king over you, then come and put your trust in my shadow: and if not, let fire come out of the bramble, and devour the cedars of Lebanon.

The bramble tells the trees that if they really mean to crown it, they should come and shelter in its shade, and if they do not mean it, fire will come out of it and burn the great cedars. A bramble is a low thorn bush. It has no shade to offer a tree, so the invitation is empty. The threat is the only part of the answer a bramble can deliver, because dry thorns are what a fire starts in.

Jotham then drops the story and speaks plainly (Judges 9:16-20). If Shechem dealt honestly with Gideon’s house, let them and Abimelech enjoy each other. If they did not, let fire come out of Abimelech and burn them, and out of them and burn Abimelech. The rest of the chapter answers that condition in both directions.

Observations from Judges 9

The Chapter Never Says “The LORD” (Judges 9:7, 9:23, 9:56-57)

The name the LORD gave Israel to call Him by runs all through the book of Judges, and it does not appear once in this chapter. Everywhere else the refrain is that Israel did evil in the sight of the LORD. Here the writer uses the plain word “God” in the few places God is named at all, and Jotham uses the same word when he speaks.

God is still working, sending the spirit in verse 23 and settling accounts in verses 56 and 57. Nobody in the chapter calls on Him. Gaal’s “would to God” in verse 29 is an old English turn of phrase, not a prayer, and the Hebrew behind it carries no name for God at all.

Gideon Is Called Jerubbaal, Never Gideon (Judges 9:1, 9:57)

Gideon’s other name means “let Baal plead against him.” His father Joash gave it to him after Gideon pulled Baal’s altar down (Judges 6:32). In the one chapter where Baal’s own temple treasury pays for the killing of that man’s sons, the writer uses the Baal-fighting name in every scene and drops the name Gideon altogether. The last line of the chapter ends on it: the curse of Jotham the son of Jerubbaal.

Seventy Sons and Seventy Pieces of Silver (Judges 9:2, 9:4, 9:5)

Abimelech’s pitch counts the sons at seventy. The money Shechem hands him is seventy pieces of silver. The number he then leaves on the stone at Ophrah is seventy. One coin a brother is a grim arithmetic, and all three counts land within four verses of each other.

The Word “Brother” Recruits Shechem and Then Convicts It (Judges 9:3, 9:18, 9:24)

Shechem’s stated reason for backing Abimelech is “He is our brother.” Jotham throws the same word back at them, saying they crowned him because he is your brother. Then verse 24 lays the blood on “Abimelech their brother, which slew them.” The word that talked the city into it is the word God uses to charge them.

One Stone at the Start, a Stone at the End (Judges 9:5, 9:18, 9:53)

The brothers are executed “upon one stone” at Ophrah, and Jotham repeats that exact phrase when he lists the charge against the city. Near the end a woman drops a piece of a millstone on Abimelech’s head. Verse 56 makes that link for us. God repaid Abimelech for what he had done.

Difficult Verses Explained

Did Abimelech Kill Seventy Brothers, When Jotham Survived?

Sixty-nine is the number on the plainest reading, and the verse that gives the round figure also names the exception. Judges 8:30 says Gideon had seventy sons, with Abimelech named separately in the next verse, and Judges 9:5 gives the count as seventy and then says “notwithstanding yet Jotham the youngest son of Jerubbaal was left; for he hid himself.”

Seventy is the standing count of Gideon’s house, used that way in verse 2 before a single son had died, and the narrative reports the massacre by that name while stating the exception on the spot.

How Can Oil and Wine Honour God and Cheer God?

The parable is pointing at the offerings, not suggesting that God eats or drinks. Olive oil went into the meal offerings and into the holy anointing oil, and wine was poured out with the sacrifices, so both the olive and the vine could say their produce served God and people at the same time. That is why turning down the crown costs them something real, and why the bramble, which supplies nothing, gives up nothing by taking it.

Why Would God Send an Evil Spirit?

The very next verse states the purpose, which is where the answer starts. God sends the spirit so that the cruelty done to the seventy sons of Jerubbaal will come back on the man who killed them and on the city that helped him do it.

Christians have read the spirit itself two ways, as a spiritual being sent under God’s authority, or as a spirit of suspicion and hostility set loose between two guilty parties, and the chapter does not settle which. What it does settle is that nobody is excused by it. Abimelech murders, Shechem pays and helps, Gaal boasts, Zebul schemes, and God’s judgment comes through the choices they each make.

What Does It Mean That He Sowed the City With Salt?

Salt on a ruined city was a way of declaring it finished, and Bible teachers differ on how literally to take it. Some read it as devoting the ground to barrenness, since salt is used elsewhere as a picture of land that grows nothing (Deuteronomy 29:23).

Others read it as a public sign of permanent desolation rather than an act of farming, on the grounds that nobody sows a city. Whatever Abimelech meant by it, the ruin did not hold: Israel later gathered at Shechem to make Rehoboam king, and Jeroboam rebuilt the place (1 Kings 12:1, 25).

Common Misunderstandings

• Abimelech is never called a judge, though some lists count him sixth. Judges 9 never calls him a judge, never says the LORD raised him up, and never says he delivered anybody, which is the pattern the book sets for the judges it does name: “the LORD raised up judges, which delivered them” (Judges 2:16).
• Shechem made him king, not Israel. Verse 6 says the men of Shechem made him king. Verse 22 uses a different Hebrew word for what he did over Israel, which commentators read as rule rather than kingship, and Abimelech never carries the title outside Shechem.
• The parable is not against leadership itself. The three fruitful trees give a reason for refusing, and it is not that ruling is wrong. Jotham’s target is this king and this city.
• The cedars of Lebanon were never burned, though some retellings say so. The cedars appear only inside Jotham’s story, in the bramble’s own boast (Judges 9:15). What actually burns is a stronghold at Shechem (Judges 9:49).
• This is not the Abimelech who dealt with Abraham and Isaac. That one was a Philistine king at Gerar in Genesis 20, 21 and 26. Different man, different era, different place.

Christ Connection

Judges 9 is the first time anyone in Israel is made king, and the book is building an argument as it goes. It ends with the line “In those days there was no king in Israel: every man did that which was right in his own eyes” (Judges 21:25).

Here is what a king looks like when a people make one for themselves: he buys the throne with his brothers’ blood, and he dies with his skull broken by a stone dropped from a tower. Read next to that closing line, the chapter reads as an argument for a King Israel did not yet have.

• A son who seized against a Son who did not. Abimelech’s whole case is that he has a claim by blood and means to press it (Judges 9:2). Paul writes of Christ that He, “being in the form of God, thought it not robbery to be equal with God: but made himself of no reputation, and took upon him the form of a servant” (Philippians 2:6-7). Abimelech had no right to the throne and killed for it. Christ had every right and gave Himself up instead.
• Blood that cries, and blood that speaks better. Judges 9:24 exists to say whose blood lands on whom, which is the note struck when God tells Cain “the voice of thy brother’s blood crieth unto me from the ground” (Genesis 4:10). Hebrews 12:24 answers it by name: believers have come to Jesus and “to the blood of sprinkling, that speaketh better things than that of Abel.” Judges 9 is about blood demanding payment. The gospel is about blood that pays it.
• A shade that could not cover, and a reign where shelter is real. The bramble tells the trees to trust in its shadow (Judges 9:15) and has none to give. Isaiah points forward to a reign where the shelter is real. “Behold, a king shall reign in righteousness” (Isaiah 32:1), and under him a man will be “as the shadow of a great rock in a weary land” (Isaiah 32:2).
• A tower that burned, and a name that holds. The men of the tower of Shechem ran into a stronghold belonging to the god they had chosen, and burned there (Judges 9:46-49). Proverbs 18:10 sets the other refuge beside it: “The name of the LORD is a strong tower: the righteous runneth into it, and is safe.”

There is one more thread worth naming. The god whose temple funds the murder and whose stronghold burns is called Baal-berith, which means lord of the covenant. Shechem had a covenant lord already, and swapped Him for a copy whose own house became the place where the men of its tower burned. Hebrews 12:24 puts the real one in front of the reader in the same verse that answers Abel: Jesus, “the mediator of the new covenant.”

When, Where, and Why

• When: During the era of the judges, before Israel had a king, and soon after Gideon’s death. Judges 8:33 says Israel turned to Baal-berith as soon as Gideon was gone, and Abimelech makes his move into that gap. Abimelech held power for three years (Judges 9:22).
• Where: Shechem, in the hill country of Ephraim, sitting in the pass between Mount Ebal and Mount Gerizim. It was the most covenant-heavy ground in Israel: Abraham built his first altar in the land there, Jacob buried his household idols under an oak there, and Joshua set up a stone at Shechem under an oak so that Israel would not deny God (Joshua 24:25-27). Judges 9:6 sets the crowning at the oak “by the plain of the pillar,” where “plain” is the King James word for a large tree and not for flat ground, and many commentators take it to be that same oak. If they are right, Israel’s first king was crowned at the stone set up to keep Israel from denying God. The other places that matter are Ophrah, where the brothers die, Beer, where Jotham hides, Arumah, where Abimelech based himself, and Thebez, where he was killed.
• Why: Judges is showing Israel coming apart, and it does not only show the enemy nations doing the damage. This chapter is Israel damaging itself, with no foreign army anywhere in it. It sits right after Gideon so a reader can see what Gideon was protecting the nation from when he turned the crown down, and it sets up the question the rest of the book keeps asking about who should rule. The next chapter answers it by contrast: “after Abimelech there arose to defend Israel Tola the son of Puah,” and Tola judged Israel for twenty-three years (Judges 10:1-2). One man took power for three years and left Shechem in ruins. The next was raised up to defend, and lasted. For where this chapter sits in the whole book, see our summary of Judges by chapter.

Key Verses

“And the bramble said unto the trees, If in truth ye anoint me king over you, then come and put your trust in my shadow: and if not, let fire come out of the bramble, and devour the cedars of Lebanon.”

Judges 9:15

The bramble invites the trees under its shade and warns that it will set them alight if they are not sincere. That is Jotham’s picture of Abimelech in one sentence, and the whole second half of the chapter is that sentence coming true.

“But if not, let fire come out from Abimelech, and devour the men of Shechem, and the house of Millo; and let fire come out from the men of Shechem, and from the house of Millo, and devour Abimelech.”

Judges 9:20

Jotham’s warning points in two directions at once, which is what makes it different from a curse aimed at an enemy. He is telling the city that the man they crowned and the people who crowned him will finish each other off.

“That the cruelty done to the threescore and ten sons of Jerubbaal might come, and their blood be laid upon Abimelech their brother, which slew them; and upon the men of Shechem, which aided him in the killing of his brethren.”

Judges 9:24

The seventy men Abimelech killed were his own brothers, and the writer says they are to be answered for by the brother who did the killing and by the men of Shechem who put the weapons in his hand. This is the narrator stopping the story to say what God is doing and why, before He does it, and it names two guilty parties rather than one.

“And all the evil of the men of Shechem did God render upon their heads: and upon them came the curse of Jotham the son of Jerubbaal.”

Judges 9:57

God paid the men of Shechem back for everything they had done, and Jotham’s words landed on them. The final verse gives the verdict on the city rather than on the man, and it credits Jotham’s warning rather than the ordinary course of events.

Key Lessons from Judges 9

• A man who removes everyone who might rival him is usually telling you in advance what he will do with power (Judges 9:5).
• Choosing a leader is a moral act, and Shechem is charged for the choice as well as for the crime (Judges 9:24, 9:57).
• What a person will not give up in order to gain power says more about them than what they would take (Judges 9:9, 9:11, 9:13).
• Delay is not acquittal, since three years stood between Jotham’s warning and the first crack in the alliance (Judges 9:21-23).
• A refuge is only as safe as the God it belongs to (Judges 9:46-49).

For a fuller look at what this chapter teaches, read our study: Lessons from Judges 9.

Bible Study Questions

1. In Judges 9:2, what choice does Abimelech put to the men of Shechem, and what does Judges 8:23 show about whether that choice was honest?
2. Read Judges 9:8-15. What reason does each of the three fruitful trees give for turning down the crown, and what does the bramble offer instead?
3. Judges 9:3 says the men of Shechem followed Abimelech because “He is our brother.” Where else in the chapter does that word come back, and what is it doing there?
4. What does Judges 9:24 say God is doing through the trouble between Abimelech and Shechem, and who does the verse hold responsible?
5. Abimelech’s last concern in Judges 9:54 was what people would say about how he died. What was he protecting, and what does 2 Samuel 11:21 show about whether he managed it?
6. Verses 56 and 57 name God as the one who settled the account. How does reading the whole chapter with that ending in view change what you make of the three years in verse 22?

Frequently Asked Questions

Judges 9, The Full Text (KJV)

Read the full chapter below for reference, or open it at Judges 9.

1 And Abimelech the son of Jerubbaal went to Shechem unto his mother’s brethren, and communed with them, and with all the family of the house of his mother’s father, saying,

2 Speak, I pray you, in the ears of all the men of Shechem, Whether is better for you, either that all the sons of Jerubbaal, which are threescore and ten persons, reign over you, or that one reign over you? remember also that I am your bone and your flesh.

3 And his mother’s brethren spake of him in the ears of all the men of Shechem all these words: and their hearts inclined to follow Abimelech; for they said, He is our brother.

4 And they gave him threescore and ten pieces of silver out of the house of Baal-berith, wherewith Abimelech hired vain and light persons, which followed him.

5 And he went unto his father’s house at Ophrah, and slew his brethren the sons of Jerubbaal, being threescore and ten persons, upon one stone: notwithstanding yet Jotham the youngest son of Jerubbaal was left; for he hid himself.

6 And all the men of Shechem gathered together, and all the house of Millo, and went, and made Abimelech king, by the plain of the pillar that was in Shechem.

7 And when they told it to Jotham, he went and stood in the top of mount Gerizim, and lifted up his voice, and cried, and said unto them, Hearken unto me, ye men of Shechem, that God may hearken unto you.

8 The trees went forth on a time to anoint a king over them; and they said unto the olive tree, Reign thou over us.

9 But the olive tree said unto them, Should I leave my fatness, wherewith by me they honour God and man, and go to be promoted over the trees?

10 And the trees said to the fig tree, Come thou, and reign over us.

11 But the fig tree said unto them, Should I forsake my sweetness, and my good fruit, and go to be promoted over the trees?

12 Then said the trees unto the vine, Come thou, and reign over us.

13 And the vine said unto them, Should I leave my wine, which cheereth God and man, and go to be promoted over the trees?

14 Then said all the trees unto the bramble, Come thou, and reign over us.

15 And the bramble said unto the trees, If in truth ye anoint me king over you, then come and put your trust in my shadow: and if not, let fire come out of the bramble, and devour the cedars of Lebanon.

16 Now therefore, if ye have done truly and sincerely, in that ye have made Abimelech king, and if ye have dealt well with Jerubbaal and his house, and have done unto him according to the deserving of his hands;

17 (For my father fought for you, and adventured his life far, and delivered you out of the hand of Midian:

18 And ye are risen up against my father’s house this day, and have slain his sons, threescore and ten persons, upon one stone, and have made Abimelech, the son of his maidservant, king over the men of Shechem, because he is your brother;)

19 If ye then have dealt truly and sincerely with Jerubbaal and with his house this day, then rejoice ye in Abimelech, and let him also rejoice in you:

20 But if not, let fire come out from Abimelech, and devour the men of Shechem, and the house of Millo; and let fire come out from the men of Shechem, and from the house of Millo, and devour Abimelech.

21 And Jotham ran away, and fled, and went to Beer, and dwelt there, for fear of Abimelech his brother.

22 When Abimelech had reigned three years over Israel,

23 Then God sent an evil spirit between Abimelech and the men of Shechem; and the men of Shechem dealt treacherously with Abimelech:

24 That the cruelty done to the threescore and ten sons of Jerubbaal might come, and their blood be laid upon Abimelech their brother, which slew them; and upon the men of Shechem, which aided him in the killing of his brethren.

25 And the men of Shechem set liers in wait for him in the top of the mountains, and they robbed all that came along that way by them: and it was told Abimelech.

26 And Gaal the son of Ebed came with his brethren, and went over to Shechem: and the men of Shechem put their confidence in him.

27 And they went out into the fields, and gathered their vineyards, and trode the grapes, and made merry, and went into the house of their god, and did eat and drink, and cursed Abimelech.

28 And Gaal the son of Ebed said, Who is Abimelech, and who is Shechem, that we should serve him? is not he the son of Jerubbaal? and Zebul his officer? serve the men of Hamor the father of Shechem: for why should we serve him?

29 And would to God this people were under my hand! then would I remove Abimelech. And he said to Abimelech, Increase thine army, and come out.

30 And when Zebul the ruler of the city heard the words of Gaal the son of Ebed, his anger was kindled.

31 And he sent messengers unto Abimelech privily, saying, Behold, Gaal the son of Ebed and his brethren be come to Shechem; and, behold, they fortify the city against thee.

32 Now therefore up by night, thou and the people that is with thee, and lie in wait in the field:

33 And it shall be, that in the morning, as soon as the sun is up, thou shalt rise early, and set upon the city: and, behold, when he and the people that is with him come out against thee, then mayest thou do to them as thou shalt find occasion.

34 And Abimelech rose up, and all the people that were with him, by night, and they laid wait against Shechem in four companies.

35 And Gaal the son of Ebed went out, and stood in the entering of the gate of the city: and Abimelech rose up, and the people that were with him, from lying in wait.

36 And when Gaal saw the people, he said to Zebul, Behold, there come people down from the top of the mountains. And Zebul said unto him, Thou seest the shadow of the mountains as if they were men.

37 And Gaal spake again and said, See there come people down by the middle of the land, and another company come along by the plain of Meonenim.

38 Then said Zebul unto him, Where is now thy mouth, wherewith thou saidst, Who is Abimelech, that we should serve him? is not this the people that thou hast despised? go out, I pray now, and fight with them.

39 And Gaal went out before the men of Shechem, and fought with Abimelech.

40 And Abimelech chased him, and he fled before him, and many were overthrown and wounded, even unto the entering of the gate.

41 And Abimelech dwelt at Arumah: and Zebul thrust out Gaal and his brethren, that they should not dwell in Shechem.

42 And it came to pass on the morrow, that the people went out into the field; and they told Abimelech.

43 And he took the people, and divided them into three companies, and laid wait in the field, and looked, and, behold, the people were come forth out of the city; and he rose up against them, and smote them.

44 And Abimelech, and the company that was with him, rushed forward, and stood in the entering of the gate of the city: and the two other companies ran upon all the people that were in the fields, and slew them.

45 And Abimelech fought against the city all that day; and he took the city, and slew the people that was therein, and beat down the city, and sowed it with salt.

46 And when all the men of the tower of Shechem heard that, they entered into an hold of the house of the god Berith.

47 And it was told Abimelech, that all the men of the tower of Shechem were gathered together.

48 And Abimelech gat him up to mount Zalmon, he and all the people that were with him; and Abimelech took an axe in his hand, and cut down a bough from the trees, and took it, and laid it on his shoulder, and said unto the people that were with him, What ye have seen me do, make haste, and do as I have done.

49 And all the people likewise cut down every man his bough, and followed Abimelech, and put them to the hold, and set the hold on fire upon them; so that all the men of the tower of Shechem died also, about a thousand men and women.

50 Then went Abimelech to Thebez, and encamped against Thebez, and took it.

51 But there was a strong tower within the city, and thither fled all the men and women, and all they of the city, and shut it to them, and gat them up to the top of the tower.

52 And Abimelech came unto the tower, and fought against it, and went hard unto the door of the tower to burn it with fire.

53 And a certain woman cast a piece of a millstone upon Abimelech’s head, and all to brake his skull.

54 Then he called hastily unto the young man his armourbearer, and said unto him, Draw thy sword, and slay me, that men say not of me, A woman slew him. And his young man thrust him through, and he died.

55 And when the men of Israel saw that Abimelech was dead, they departed every man unto his place.

56 Thus God rendered the wickedness of Abimelech, which he did unto his father, in slaying his seventy brethren:

57 And all the evil of the men of Shechem did God render upon their heads: and upon them came the curse of Jotham the son of Jerubbaal.