Judges 9:26-57

Good News Translation

²⁶ Then Gaal son of Ebed came to Shechem with his brothers, and the men of Shechem put their confidence in him. ²⁷ They all went out into their vineyards and picked the grapes, made wine from them, and held a festival. They went into the temple of their god, where they ate and drank and made fun of Abimelech. ²⁸ Gaal said, “What kind of men are we in Shechem? Why are we serving Abimelech? Who is he, anyway? The son of Gideon! And Zebul takes orders from him, but why should we serve him? Be loyal to your ancestor Hamor, who founded your clan! ²⁹ I wish I were leading this people! I would get rid of Abimelech! I would tell^[a] him, ‘Reinforce your army, come on out and fight!’”

³⁰ Zebul, the ruler of the city, became angry when he heard what Gaal had said. ³¹ He sent messengers to Abimelech at Arumah^[b] to say, “Gaal son of Ebed and his brothers have come to Shechem, and they are not going to let you into the city. ³² Now then, you and your men should move by night and hide in the fields. ³³ Get up tomorrow morning at sunrise and make a sudden attack on the city. Then when Gaal and his men come out against you, hit them with all you've got!”

³⁴ So Abimelech and all his men made their move at night and hid outside Shechem in four groups. ³⁵ When Abimelech and his men saw Gaal come out and stand at the city gate, they got up from their hiding places. ³⁶ Gaal saw them and said to Zebul, “Look! There are men coming down from the mountaintops!”

“Those are not men,” Zebul answered. “They are just shadows on the mountains.”

³⁷ Gaal said again, “Look! There are men coming down the crest of the mountain and one group is coming along the road from the oak tree of the fortunetellers!”

³⁸ Then Zebul said to him, “Where is all your big talk now? You were the one who asked why we should serve this man Abimelech. These are the men you were making fun of. Go on out now and fight them.” ³⁹ Gaal led the men of Shechem out and fought Abimelech. ⁴⁰ Abimelech started after Gaal, and Gaal ran. Many were wounded, even at the city gate. ⁴¹ Abimelech lived in Arumah, and Zebul drove Gaal and his brothers out of Shechem, so that they could no longer live there.

⁴² The next day Abimelech found out that the people of Shechem were planning to go out into the fields, ⁴³ so he took his men, divided them into three groups, and hid in the fields, waiting. When he saw the people coming out of the city, he came out of hiding to kill them. ⁴⁴ While Abimelech and his group hurried forward to guard the city gate, the other two companies attacked the people in the fields and killed them all. ⁴⁵ The fighting continued all day long. Abimelech captured the city, killed its people, tore it down, and covered the ground with salt.

⁴⁶ When all the leading men in the fort at Shechem heard about this, they sought safety in the stronghold of the temple of Baal-of-the-Covenant. ⁴⁷ Abimelech was told that they had gathered there, ⁴⁸ so he went up to Mount Zalmon with his men. There he took an ax, cut a limb off a tree, and put it on his shoulder. He told his men to hurry and do the same thing. ⁴⁹ So everyone cut off a tree limb; then they followed Abimelech and piled the wood up against the stronghold. They set it on fire, with the people inside, and all the people of the fort died—about a thousand men and women.

⁵⁰ Then Abimelech went to Thebez, surrounded that city, and captured it. ⁵¹ There was a strong tower there, and every man and woman in the city, including the leaders, ran to it. They locked themselves in and went up to the roof. ⁵² When Abimelech came to attack the tower, he went up to the door to set the tower on fire. ^53 (A)But a woman threw a millstone down on his head and fractured his skull. ⁵⁴ Then he quickly called the young man who was carrying his weapons and told him, “Draw your sword and kill me. I don't want it said that a woman killed me.” So the young man ran him through, and he died. ⁵⁵ When the Israelites saw that Abimelech was dead, they all went home.

⁵⁶ And so it was that God paid Abimelech back for the crime that he committed against his father in killing his seventy brothers. ⁵⁷ God also made the men of Shechem suffer for their wickedness, just as Jotham, Gideon's son, said they would when he cursed them.