UST JDG Chapter 9

◄ JDG 9 ► ║ ═ ©

9 Gideon’s son Abimelek went to talk with his mother’s brothers in the city of Shechem. He spoke to them and to all his mother’s relatives. He said, 2 “I want you to gather all the leaders of Shechem. Tell them, ‘It would not be good to have all 70 of Gideon’s sons rule over us. It would be better to have only one man, Abimelek, rule over us.’ And do not forget that I am a part of your family!”

3 So Abimelek’s mother’s brothers gathered all the leaders of Shechem. They told them everything that Abimelek wanted them to say. The leaders decided to allow Abimelek to rule over them, considering that he was their relative. 4 So the leaders of Shechem took about a kilogram of silver from the temple of their god Baal-Berith and gave it to Abimelek. He used that money to hire some wicked and violent men. They did whatever he told them to do. 5 Abimelek and the men he had hired went to Ophrah, his father’s town. There they murdered his 70 brothers, the sons of his father Gideon. They brought each one of them to a huge rock and killed him there. But Gideon’s youngest son Jotham escaped because he hid from Abimelek and his men. 6 Then all the town leaders of Shechem and the officers from the nearby fort gathered next to the pillar under the big sacred tree at Shechem. There they appointed Abimelek to be their king.

7 When Jotham heard about that, he climbed high up on Mount Gerizim. From where he was standing, he shouted very loudly to the people below, “You leaders of Shechem, pay attention to what I say, or God will not answer your prayers! 8 One day the trees decided to choose one tree to be their king. First they told the olive tree, ‘We would like you to be our king.’

9 But the olive tree replied, ‘I produce olives, and people make oil from them. They put the oil in sacrifices that they offer, and they use it to anoint people whom they want to honor. It is much more important for me to keep producing olives than to wander around settling matters for other trees as a king would do. So I will not be your king.’

10 So the trees told the fig tree, ‘Then we want you to be our king!’

11 But the fig tree replied, ‘I produce figs. They are good to eat, and they taste sweet. It is much more important for me to keep producing figs than to wander around settling matters for other trees as a king would do. So I will not be your king.’

12 So the trees told the grapevine, ‘Then we want you to be our king!’

13 But the grapevine replied, ‘I produce grapes, and people produce new wine from them. That new wine causes gods and people to be happy. It is much more important for me to keep producing grapes than to wander around settling matters for other trees as a king would do. So I will not be your king.’

14 So all of the trees finally told the thornbush, ‘Then we want you to be our king!’

15 The thornbush said to the trees, ‘If you sincerely want to appoint me to be your king, then accept my protection and obey my commands. But be sure that you are sincere, because if you do not obey me, then I will start a fire that will burn up all of you, even the biggest trees, such as the cedar trees in the country of Lebanon!’ ”

16 After Jotham finished telling them this parable, he said, “Now you must consider whether you have truly done the right thing by making Abimelek your king. You must consider whether you have treated Gideon and his family properly. You must consider whether you have treated him the way he deserved for what he did. 17 Remember what my father did for you. He led the Israelites into battle against the Midianites. He was willing to die if necessary to rescue you from their power. 18 But now you have rebelled against my father’s family. You have murdered 70 of his sons on one huge rock. And you have appointed Abimelek to be the king who will rule you people of Shechem. You think he will treat you well because he is your relative. But he has no right to be a king, since he is only the son of my father’s secondary wife, not of one of his full legal wives. 19 Now if you truly have done the right thing toward Gideon and his family, then may you now be happy that Abimelek is your king, and may he also be happy that you are his subjects. 20 But if what you did was not right, then I hope that Abimelek destroys you leaders of Shechem and you officers from the fort, and I hope that you destroy him!”

21 After Jotham finished saying all of this, the leaders of Shechem tried to capture him, but he got away from them. He ran away to the town of Beer. He stayed there so that his half-brother Abimelek would not be able to kill him.

22 For the next three years, Abimelek ruled as the king of the city of Shechem. Many Israelites also accepted him as their king. 23 Then God made Abimelek and the leaders of Shechem hostile toward each other. The leaders of Shechem started plotting against Abimelek. 24 The 70 sons of Jerubbaal were Abimelek’s half-brothers, but he hired men to kill them. The leaders of Shechem gave him the money to have men kill his half-brothers. So God made them enemies so that they would suffer violently, just as they had caused others to suffer violently. God did this to punish them for the murders they had committed. 25 The leaders of Shechem decided not to rely on Abimelek anymore. Instead, they had some of their men hide up high on the hills around the city. From there these men could see travelers approaching, and they surprised them and robbed them when they got close. Abimelek heard about what they were doing.

26 Then Gaal son of Ebed moved into the city of Shechem along with a group of men he commanded. The leaders of Shechem liked him and welcomed him. 27 Then the people who lived in Shechem went out to their vineyards to pick some grapes. They pressed the grapes to make juice, and from the juice they made wine. They brought some of the wine as an offering into the temple of their god Baal-Berith. There they had a big feast and drank a lot of wine. Then they started cursing Abimelek. 28 Gaal son of Ebed said, “We should not allow Abimelek to rule over us! His mother was from Shechem, but his father was Jerubbaal, an Israelite. So he is not really part of our people group! We should not allow Zebul to rule over us either, since it was Abimelek who appointed him as governor of our city. Instead, our ruler should be one of the descendants of Hamor, who founded our city of Shechem. We should not be allowing a foreigner like Abimelek to rule us. 29 If you appoint me to be your leader, I will make Abimelek stop being your leader.” Then Gaal boasted that he would not be afraid to fight Abimelek and his whole army.

30 When Zebul, the governor of Shechem, heard Gaal son of Ebed talking about Abimelek this way, he became very angry. 31 But Zebul did not show that he was angry. He sent messengers to warn Abimelek, but he pretended he was sending them for some other reason. The messengers told Abimelek, “Be careful! A certain man, Gaal son of Ebed, has brought a group of men that he commands to Shechem. You need to know that they are getting the people who live in Shechem to rebel against you. 32 So you and your troops should come here at night, when no one will see you, and hide in the area outside the city. 33 That way, in the morning, as soon as it becomes light, you can immediately attack the city. Gaal and his men will surely come out of the city to fight against you, and when they do, you can do whatever you want to him.”

34 So Abimelech and all of his troops got up during the night. They divided into four groups and hid in the fields near Shechem. 35 The next morning, Gaal went out and stood at the city gate. While he was standing there, Abimelek and his soldiers came out of their hiding places and started coming toward him.

36 When Gaal saw the soldiers, he said to Zebul, “Look! There is a group of people coming down from the hills!”

But Zebul said, “You are just seeing the shadow that one hill casts on another as the sun gets higher in the sky. That dark shape is not a group of people. It only looks like one.” 37 But Gaal kept watching and spoke again. He said to Zebul, “Look! I do see groups of people coming down that central hill! I also see a group coming towards us along the road that goes past the Oak of the Diviners.”

38 Then Zebul said to Gaal, “Earlier you spoke boastfully. You said, ‘We should not allow Abimelek to rule over us!’ That is who you see coming: the army that you said you could easily defeat. So now that they are here, go out and fight them!”

39 So Gaal and his men went out of the city and fought against the army of Abimelek. The leaders of Shechem were watching to see what would happen. 40 Abimelek and his men defeated them and chased them when they ran away. They stabbed and killed many of Gaal’s men all the way back to the city gate of Shechem. 41 Abimelek then went to the nearby town of Arumah. Zebul forced Gaal and the group of men he commanded to leave Shechem, where they had been living.

42 Then, the next day, the people of Shechem were getting ready to leave the city and go out and work in their fields. Someone told Abimelek what they were going to do. 43 So Abimelek divided his men into three groups and had them hide in the fields around Shechem. Then, once they saw that the people were out in the fields away from the city, they got up and attacked them. 44 When Abimelek and his soldiers came out of hiding, he and one group of them ran to the city gate and blocked it. The other two groups of soldiers ran out to the fields and killed the people of Shechem who were there. 45 Abimelek and his soldiers fought against the people of Shechem all that day. When they finally conquered the city, they killed all the people who lived there. They tore down all of the buildings. Then they threw salt over the ruins to show that they never wanted anyone to live there again.

46 A group of soldiers lived in a fortress near Shechem that had a defensive tower. When their commanders heard what had happened, all of them went inside the fortress, which was also a temple of their god El-Berith. 47 Somebody told Abimelek that the commanders of the fortress near Shechem had all gone inside it. 48 So Abimelek and all of his soldiers went onto the slopes of nearby Mount Zalmon. They brought axes with them. Abimelek cut a large branch from a tree and put it on his shoulder. He told all of his soldiers, “Quickly, all of you cut branches as you just saw me do!” 49 So each one of the soldiers also cut a branch, and they carried them down the mountain, following Abimelek. They went to the fortress and piled the branches against its walls. Then they set the branches on fire. About 1,000 men and women were inside the tower near Shechem. The fire burned up the fortress and killed all of them too.

50 After that, Abimelek and his soldiers went to the town of Thebez, whose people had also rebelled against him. They surrounded it and conquered it. 51 But the people of that city had built a tower where they would be safe if someone attacked them. Many men and women from the city, including its leaders, ran to the tower. Once they were inside, they locked the door. Then they climbed up to the roof of the tower. 52 Abimelek and his soldiers came to the tower to try to kill the people who were in it. Abimelek went right up to the tower to start a fire that would burn it down. 53 But when Abimelek came near the tower, a woman who was on the roof dropped a large grinding stone on his head. It cracked the bone of his skull.

54 The servant who was carrying Abimelek’s weapons was nearby. Abimelek quickly ordered him, “Pull out your sword and kill me with it! I do not want people to say about me, ‘A woman killed Abimelek.’ ” So the servant stabbed Abimelek with his sword, and that killed him. 55 When the Israelite soldiers saw that Abimelek was dead, they all returned to their homes.

56 In that way, God punished Abimelek for murdering all 70 of his brothers. When Abimelek did that, he did a wicked thing to his father. 57 God also punished the people of Shechem for all the wicked things that they had done. Jotham son of Gideon had said that Abimelek would destroy them, and that is what happened.

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