Judges 9:22-11:28
The Voice
22 Abimelech was king over Israel for three years. 23 Then the one True God sent an evil spirit to stir up dissension between Abimelech and the leaders of Shechem. Consequently the leaders of Shechem acted with treachery against Abimelech; 24 and all of this happened so that the brutal murder of Jerubbaal’s 70 sons might be avenged and their bloodguilt laid upon their brother Abimelech, who had ordered their deaths, and on the leaders of Shechem who had lent their strength to his cause.
25 As a result of their new hatred for Abimelech, the leaders of Shechem began to ambush travelers along the mountain roads, robbing everyone who passed by, and these robberies were reported to Abimelech.
26 When Gaal, the son of Ebed, arrived in Shechem with his family, the leaders of Shechem trusted him. 27 After they had been in the fields, gathered the grapes, and trampled them for wine, they celebrated a festival in the temple of their god. While they ate and drank, they insulted Abimelech.
Gaal: 28 Who is this Abimelech, and who are we here in Shechem that we should serve him? Didn’t the son of Jerubbaal and his deputy, Zebul, serve the men of Hamor, Shechem’s father? Why then should we serve him? 29 I wish this people were under my command! I would get rid of Abimelech. I would tell him, “Go ahead. Call out your army!”
30 When Zebul, who governed the city, heard what Gaal, the son of Ebed, said, he was furious. 31 Secretly he sent messengers to Abimelech.
Zebul’s Message: Here’s what’s happening: Gaal, son of Ebed, and his family have come to Shechem, and they are igniting the city against you. 32 You should go by night with your troops and lie in wait in the fields. 33 Then in the morning, when the sun comes up, march on the city; and when Gaal and his forces come out to defend it, you can deal with them.
34 Abimelech and his troops prepared to do just as Zebul suggested. Four companies of men waited for morning. 35 When Gaal, the son of Ebed, went outside, stood in the gate of the city, and looked out, Abimelech and his troops rose from their hiding places to attack.
Gaal (seeing them): 36 Look, Zebul, people are coming down from the mountaintops!
Zebul: It’s just the shadows on the mountains. They must look like men to you.
Gaal: 37 No, look! One company is coming right down the center, and another company is coming from the direction of the fortune-teller’s tree!
Zebul: 38 Where are your big words now? Where is the loudmouth who said, “Who is this Abimelech, that we should serve him?” Aren’t these the men you insulted? Go on, fight them!
39 So Gaal gathered the leaders of Shechem, and they fought against Abimelech’s forces. 40 Abimelech overwhelmed Gaal and chased him and his men, many of whom were wounded and fell along the way as they retreated, all the way to the gate. 41 Abimelech remained in Arumah, and Zebul threw Gaal and his people out of Shechem.
42 The next day the people of Shechem went out to work the fields. After hearing this news, Abimelech 43 took his troops, divided them into three groups, and set an ambush in the fields.
When he saw the people emerge from Shechem, he ordered his troops to attack them. 44 Abimelech and his men captured a forward position at the city gate, cutting off any retreat. Then the other two companies of Abimelech’s men swept down on the people trapped in the fields and cut them down. 45 Abimelech continued his attack all day long, until he had captured Shechem and killed everyone in it. Then he demolished the city and scattered salt over the place where it had once stood.
Abimelech here carries out a devastating act in antiquity that ensures the death of an agricultural area, both food and water sources, for subsequent generations.
46 When those leaders inside the tower of Shechem heard this news, all of them entered into the stronghold of the temple of El-berith. 47 Abimelech learned that all the leaders were in the tower, and 48 he took his men up Mount Zalmon. There he took an ax, cut a bundle of firewood, and hoisted it atop his shoulders, ordering his men to quickly do the same. 49 When they had all cut and loaded their wood, they followed Abimelech back to the stronghold, where they piled the wood against the walls and set fire to it, killing about 1,000 men and women inside the tower of Shechem.
50 Next, Abimelech went on to Thebez. He laid siege to it, captured it, and 51 discovered that in the city was a strong tower where the leaders and men and women of the city had locked themselves in to escape and had climbed onto the roof. 52 So he stormed the tower, ready to burn this tower as he had the other. 53 But this time as he approached the entrance, a woman dropped an upper millstone upon him, crushing his skull.
Abimelech (to his armor-bearer): 54 Take your sword and kill me. I won’t have anyone say that I died like this—killed by a woman.
The young man killed Abimelech with the sword.
55 When the people of Israel saw that Abimelech was dead, they all went back home.
56 So God avenged the evil that Abimelech had committed against his father by murdering his 70 brothers, 57 and the evil of the leaders of Shechem God brought back on their heads; everything happened just as Jotham, son of Jerubbaal, had prophesied when he cursed them all.
10 After Abimelech died, Tola (the son of Puah, son of Dodo), who was of the tribe of Issachar and who lived at Shamir in the highlands of Ephraim, rose to deliver Israel. 2 He served as judge and defender of Israel for 23 years. When he died, he was buried at Shamir. 3 After Tola died, Jair the Gileadite served as judge of Israel for 22 years. 4 Jair had 30 sons who rode on 30 donkeys, and they had 30 towns, which are in the land of Gilead and are still called Havvoth-jair today. 5 When Jair died, he was buried at Kamon.
6 But again the people of Israel did what the Eternal considered to be evil right in front of Him. They worshiped the Baals and Ashtaroth, the gods of Aram and Sidon, of Moab and Ammon, and the gods of the Philistines. When they abandoned the Eternal and no longer worshiped Him, 7 He became furious with them and placed them in servitude to the Philistines and Ammonites 8 who crushed them and ruled over them for the next 18 years. They oppressed the Israelites east of the Jordan in Gilead, the land of the Amorites, 9 and the Ammonites crossed over the Jordan to attack the tribes of Judah, Benjamin, and Ephraim; therefore, Israel was desperate. 10 Then the Israelites cried out to the Eternal.
Israelites: We have sinned against You because we have abandoned our True God and worshiped the Baals.
Eternal One: 11 Haven’t I delivered you in the past from the armies of the Egyptians, the Amorites, the Ammonites, and the Philistines? 12 Didn’t I come through in your struggle against the Sidonians, the Amalekites, and the Maonites? When they swept down on you and over you, didn’t I hear your cries for help and rescue you? 13 Yet you have abandoned Me to worship these other gods. That is why I am finished coming to your rescue. 14 Why don’t you go and cry for help to the gods you have chosen instead of Me? See if they will save you now in your time of trouble!
Israelites: 15 We have sinned against You. Do to us as You think best, but please rescue us this one time more!
16 They put away the foreign gods they had worshiped and returned to the Eternal, and He could not bear to witness their suffering any longer.
17 The Ammonites had prepared for war and were camped in Gilead, so the people of Israel gathered troops and camped at Mizpah.
Gilead Commanders (among themselves): 18 Whoever will lead the attack against the Ammonites will be the leader of all the people of Gilead!
11 Now Jephthah of Gilead was the son of a prostitute but a mighty warrior. His father was Gilead, 2 but Gilead’s wife bore other sons who grew up and drove Jephthah away because they did not want the son of another woman other than Gilead’s wife to inherit anything from their father. 3 So he ran away to the land of Tob, where he became the leader of a gang of bandits who followed him.
4-6 When the Ammonites attacked Israel, the leaders of Gilead asked Jephthah to return from Tob to be their commander and lead them against the Ammonite invaders.
7 Jephthah replied.
Jephthah: Ha! Aren’t you the same people who hated me so much that you drove me from my father’s house? And you come to me now and ask me for help?
8 The leaders responded to Jephthah.
Leaders of Gilead: You’re right. All the same we need your help. Come lead us against the Ammonites, and we will make you leader over us and all who live in Gilead.
9 Jephthah asked the leaders of Gilead a question.
Jephthah: Let me make sure I understand this—if I come back with you to fight the Ammonites and the Eternal allows me to be victorious, you will really make me your leader?
Leaders of Gilead: 10 May the Eternal be our witness. We will do as you say.
11 So Jephthah returned with the leaders of Gilead; the people made him their leader and commander, and Jephthah repeated his words before the Eternal at Mizpah.
12 Jephthah sent messengers to the king of the Ammonites.
Jephthah’s Message: What do you have against me? Why are you attacking my people in my land?
13 This king of the Ammonites answered Jephthah’s messengers.
King of the Ammonites: Israel, when it traveled out of Egypt, took away my land from the Arnon River to the Jabbok and from the Jabbok all the way to the Jordan. Give it back, and we will be at peace.
14 Jephthah once again sent messengers to the king of the Ammonites.
Jephthah’s Message: 15 Here is my response to your claim: Israel did not take away the land of the Ammonites or the Moabites. 16 When my people came up out of Egypt, Israel passed through the desert to the Red Sea and on to Kadesh. 17 At that time, Israel sent a messenger to the king of Edom, asking for permission to travel through his country. But the king would not hear us. Israel also sent a request to the king of Moab, but he also refused. So Israel remained where they were, at Kadesh.
18 Then they traveled through the wilderness, passing around the lands of Edom and Moab; and on the eastern edge of Moab, they camped on the far bank of the Arnon, well outside the border of Moab. 19 Israel then sent messengers to Sihon, king of the Amorites, in Heshbon, asking, “Let us pass through your land to reach our own country.” 20 But Sihon, too, did not trust Israel. He gathered his armies at Jahaz and went to war with us. 21 Then the Eternal One, the True God of Israel, gave us victory over Sihon and all his people, and we defeated them utterly. That’s why Israel occupied the land of the Amorites, who had inhabited that territory, 22 all of the Amorite land from the Arnon to the Jabbok, from the wilderness to the Jordan. 23 The Eternal One, the True God of Israel, conquered the Amorites for the good of His people, Israel. Do you think you can replace them?
24 Are you unsatisfied with what your god, Chemosh, has given you? We will possess what the Eternal One, our True God has given us. 25 Are you a greater king than Balak, son of Zippor, king of Moab? Did he ever have a conflict with Israel or go to war against us? 26 For 300 years we have occupied Heshbon and its surrounding villages, Aroer and its villages, and all the towns along the Arnon. Why haven’t you ever attempted to recover them until now?
27 I have not done any wrong to you, but you have wronged me by going to war against me and my people. So let the Eternal, the Judge over us all, decide today who will triumph in this conflict between Israel and Ammon.
28 The king of the Ammonites ignored the message Jephthah sent him.
The Voice Bible Copyright © 2012 Thomas Nelson, Inc. The Voice™ translation © 2012 Ecclesia Bible Society All rights reserved.
