Judges 9

¹Now Abimelech the son of Jerubbaal went to Shechem to his mother’s relatives and said to them and to the whole clan of his mother’s family ,

²Say in the ears of all the leaders of Shechem , Which is better for you, that all seventy of the sons of Jerubbaal rule over you, or that one rule over you? Remember also that I am your bone and your flesh .

³And his mother’s relatives spoke all these words on his behalf in the ears of all the leaders of Shechem , and their hearts inclined to follow Abimelech , for they said , He is our brother .

⁴And they gave him seventy pieces of silver out of the house of Baal-berith with which Abimelech hired worthless and reckless fellows , who followed him .

⁵And he went to his father’s house at Ophrah and killed his brothers the sons of Jerubbaal , seventy men , on one stone . But Jotham the youngest son of Jerubbaal was left , for he hid himself.

⁶And all the leaders of Shechem came together , and all Beth-millo , and they went and made Abimelech king , by the oak of the pillar at Shechem .

⁷When it was told to Jotham , he went and stood on top of Mount Gerizim and cried aloud and said to them, Listen to me, you leaders of Shechem , that God may listen to you.

⁸The trees once went out to anoint a king over them, and they said to the olive tree , Reign over us.

⁹But the olive tree said to them, Shall I leave my abundance , by which gods and men are honored , and go hold sway over the trees ?

¹⁰And the trees said to the fig tree , You come and reign over us.

¹¹But the fig tree said to them, Shall I leave my sweetness and my good fruit and go hold sway over the trees ?

¹²And the trees said to the vine , You come and reign over us.

¹³But the vine said to them, Shall I leave my wine that cheers God and men and go hold sway over the trees ?

¹⁴Then all the trees said to the bramble , You come and reign over us.

¹⁵And the bramble said to the trees , If in good faith you are anointing me king over you, then come and take refuge in my shade , but if not, let fire come out of the bramble and devour the cedars of Lebanon .

¹⁶Now therefore, if you acted in good faith and integrity when you made Abimelech king , and if you have dealt well with Jerubbaal and his house and have done to him as his deeds deserved —

¹⁷for my father fought for you and risked his life and delivered you from the hand of Midian ,

¹⁸and you have risen up against my father’s house this day and have killed his sons , seventy men on one stone , and have made Abimelech , the son of his female servant , king over the leaders of Shechem , because he is your relative —

¹⁹if you then have acted in good faith and integrity with Jerubbaal and with his house this day , then rejoice in Abimelech , and let him also rejoice in you.

²⁰But if not, let fire come out from Abimelech and devour the leaders of Shechem and Beth-millo ; and let fire come out from the leaders of Shechem and from Beth-millo and devour Abimelech .

²¹And Jotham ran away and fled and went to Beer and lived there, because of Abimelech his brother .

²²Abimelech ruled over Israel three years .

²³And God sent an evil spirit between Abimelech and the leaders of Shechem , and the leaders of Shechem dealt treacherously with Abimelech ,

²⁴that the violence done to the seventy sons of Jerubbaal might come , and their blood be laid on Abimelech their brother , who killed them, and on the men of Shechem , who strengthened his hands to kill his brothers .

²⁵And the leaders of Shechem put men in ambush against him on the mountaintops , and they robbed all who passed by them along that way . And it was told to Abimelech .

²⁶And Gaal the son of Ebed moved into Shechem with his relatives , and the leaders of Shechem put confidence in him.

²⁷And they went out into the field and gathered the grapes from their vineyards and trod them and held a festival ; and they went into the house of their god and ate and drank and reviled Abimelech .

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

²⁹Would that this people were under my hand ! Then I would remove Abimelech . I would say to Abimelech , Increase your army , and come out .

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

³¹And he sent messengers to Abimelech secretly , saying , Behold, Gaal the son of Ebed and his relatives have come to Shechem , and they are stirring up the city against you.

³²Now therefore, go by night , you and the people who are with you, and set an ambush in the field .

³³Then in the morning , as soon as the sun is up , rise early and rush upon the city . And when he and the people who are with him come out against you, you may do to them as your hand finds to do.

³⁴So Abimelech and all the men who were with him rose up by night and set an ambush against Shechem in four companies .

³⁵And Gaal the son of Ebed went out and stood in the entrance of the gate of the city , and Abimelech and the people who were with him rose from the ambush .

³⁶And when Gaal saw the people , he said to Zebul , Look , people are coming down from the mountaintops ! And Zebul said to him, You mistake the shadow of the mountains for men .

³⁷Gaal spoke again and said , Look , people are coming down from the center of the land , and one company is coming from the direction of the Diviners ’ Oak .

³⁸Then Zebul said to him, Where is your mouth now , you who said , Who is Abimelech , that we should serve him? Are not these the people whom you despised ? Go out now and fight with them.

³⁹And Gaal went out at the head of the leaders of Shechem and fought with Abimelech .

⁴⁰And Abimelech chased him, and he fled before him. And many fell wounded , up to the entrance of the gate .

⁴¹And Abimelech lived at Arumah , and Zebul drove out Gaal and his relatives , so that they could not dwell at Shechem .

⁴²On the following day , the people went out into the field , and Abimelech was told .

⁴³He took his people and divided them into three companies and set an ambush in the fields . And he looked and saw the people coming out of the city . So he rose against them and killed them.

⁴⁴Abimelech and the company that was with him rushed forward and stood at the entrance of the gate of the city , while the two companies rushed upon all who were in the field and killed them.

⁴⁵And Abimelech fought against the city all that day . He captured the city and killed the people who were in it, and he razed the city and sowed it with salt .

⁴⁶When all the leaders of the Tower of Shechem heard of it, they entered the stronghold of the house of El-berith .

⁴⁷Abimelech was told that all the leaders of the Tower of Shechem were gathered together .

⁴⁸And Abimelech went up to Mount Zalmon , he and all the people who were with him. And Abimelech took an axe in his hand and cut down a bundle of brushwood and took it up and laid it on his shoulder . And he said to the men who were with him, What you have seen me do , hurry and do as I have done .

⁴⁹So every one of the people cut down his bundle and following Abimelech put it against the stronghold , and they set the stronghold on fire over them, so that all the people of the Tower of Shechem also died , about 1,000 men and women .

⁵⁰Then Abimelech went to Thebez and encamped against Thebez and captured it.

⁵¹But there was a strong tower within the city , and all the men and women and all the leaders of the city fled to it and shut themselves in , and they went up to the roof of the tower .

⁵²And Abimelech came to the tower and fought against it and drew near to the door of the tower to burn it with fire .

⁵³And a certain woman threw an upper millstone on Abimelech’s head and crushed his skull .

⁵⁴Then he called quickly to the young man his armor-bearer and said to him, Draw your sword and kill me, lest they say of me, A woman killed him. And his young man thrust him through , and he died .

⁵⁵And when the men of Israel saw that Abimelech was dead , everyone departed to his home .

⁵⁶Thus God returned the evil of Abimelech , which he committed against his father in killing his seventy brothers .

⁵⁷And God also made all the evil of the men of Shechem return on their heads , and upon them came the curse of Jotham the son of Jerubbaal .