⁴ So they gave him seventy shekels of silver from the temple of ^(A)Baal-Berith, with which Abimelech hired ^(B)worthless and reckless men; and they followed him.

³³ So it was, ^(A)as soon as Gideon was dead, that the children of Israel again ^(B)played the harlot with the Baals, ^(C)and made Baal-Berith their god.

Assault on Jason’s House

⁵ But the Jews ^[a]who were not persuaded, ^[b]becoming ^(A)envious, took some of the evil men from the marketplace, and gathering a mob, set all the city in an uproar and attacked the house of ^(B)Jason, and sought to bring them out to the people.

⁷ Then ^(A)worthless rogues gathered to him, and strengthened themselves against Rehoboam the son of Solomon, when Rehoboam was ^(B)young and inexperienced and could not withstand them.

³ Then Jephthah fled from his brothers and dwelt in the land of ^(A)Tob; and ^(B)worthless men banded together with Jephthah and went out raiding with him.

^2 (A)And everyone who was in distress, everyone who was in debt, and everyone who was ^[a]discontented gathered to him. So he became captain over them. And there were about ^(B)four hundred men with him.

⁴⁶ Now when all the men of the tower of Shechem had heard that, they entered the ^[a]stronghold of the temple ^(A)of the god Berith. ⁴⁷ And it was told Abimelech that all the men of the tower of Shechem were gathered together. ⁴⁸ Then Abimelech went up to Mount ^(B)Zalmon, he and all the people who were with him. And Abimelech took an ax in his hand and cut down a bough from the trees, and took it and laid it on his shoulder; then he said to the people who were with him, “What you have seen me do, make haste and do as I have done.” ⁴⁹ So each of the people likewise cut down his own bough and followed Abimelech, put them against the ^[b]stronghold, and set the stronghold on fire above them, so that all the people of the tower of Shechem died, about a thousand men and women.