Judges 9:1-21

Good News Translation

Abimelech

9 Gideon's son Abimelech went to the town of Shechem, where all his mother's relatives lived, and told them ² to ask the men of Shechem, “Which would you prefer? To have all seventy of Gideon's sons govern you or to have just one man? Remember that Abimelech is your own flesh and blood.” ³ His mother's relatives talked to the men of Shechem about this for him, and the men of Shechem decided to follow Abimelech because he was their relative. ⁴ They gave him seventy pieces of silver from the temple of Baal-of-the-Covenant, and with this money he hired a bunch of worthless scoundrels to join him. ⁵ He went to his father's house at Ophrah, and there on top of a single stone he killed his seventy brothers, Gideon's sons. But Jotham, Gideon's youngest son, hid and was not killed. ⁶ Then all the men of Shechem and Bethmillo got together and went to the sacred oak tree at Shechem, where they made Abimelech king.

⁷ When Jotham heard about this, he went and stood on top of Mount Gerizim and shouted out to them, “Listen to me, you men of Shechem, and God may listen to you! ⁸ Once upon a time the trees went out to choose a king for themselves. They said to the olive tree, ‘Be our king.’ ⁹ The olive tree answered, ‘In order to govern you, I would have to stop producing my oil, which is used to honor gods and human beings.’ ¹⁰ Then the trees said to the fig tree, ‘You come and be our king.’ ¹¹ But the fig tree answered, ‘In order to govern you, I would have to stop producing my good sweet fruit.’ ¹² So the trees then said to the grapevine, ‘You come and be our king.’ ¹³ But the vine answered, ‘In order to govern you, I would have to stop producing my wine, that makes gods and human beings happy.’ ¹⁴ So then all the trees said to the thorn bush, ‘You come and be our king.’ ¹⁵ The thorn bush answered, ‘If you really want to make me your king, then come and take shelter in my shade. If you don't, fire will blaze out of my thorny branches and burn up the cedars of Lebanon.’

¹⁶ “Now then,” Jotham continued, “were you really honest and sincere when you made Abimelech king? Did you respect Gideon's memory and treat his family properly, as his actions deserved? ¹⁷ Remember that my father fought for you. He risked his life to save you from the Midianites. ¹⁸ But today you turned against my father's family. You killed his sons—seventy men on a single stone—and just because Abimelech, his son by his servant woman, is your relative, you have made him king of Shechem. ¹⁹ Now then, if what you did today to Gideon and his family was sincere and honest, then be happy with Abimelech and let him be happy with you. ²⁰ But if not, may fire blaze out from Abimelech and burn up the men of Shechem and Bethmillo. May fire blaze out from the men of Shechem and Bethmillo and burn Abimelech up.” ²¹ Then because he was afraid of his brother Abimelech, Jotham ran away and went to live at Beer.