⁴² On the next day the people went out to the field; and it was reported to Abimelech, ⁴³ so he took the army and divided them into three divisions,^[a] and he laid an ambush in the field. And he saw the people were coming out from the city, and he arose against them and killed them. ⁴⁴ Then Abimelech and the divisions^[b] that were with him dashed out and stood at the entrance of the city gate, and the two divisions dashed out against all who were in the field, and they killed them. ⁴⁵ Abimelech fought against the city all that day, and he captured the city and killed the people that were in it; then he broke down the city and sowed it with salt.

⁴⁶ When all the lords of the tower of Shechem heard, they went to the vault^[c] of the temple^[d] of El-Berith. ⁴⁷ It was told to Abimelech that all the lords of the tower of Shechem had gathered. ⁴⁸ So Abimelech went up Mount Zalmon, he and all his army that were with him, and Abimelech took the ax^[e] in his hand and cut down a bundle of brushwood, and he lifted it and put it on his shoulder. And he said to the army that was with him, “What you have seen me do, quickly do also.” ⁴⁹ So the whole army cut down each one branch for himself and followed Abimelech, and they put them against the vault^[f] and set the vault ablaze with fire on those inside, so that all the men of the tower of Shechem died, about a thousand men and women.

⁵⁰ Then Abimelech went to Thebez, and he encamped against Thebez and captured it. ⁵¹ But there was a strong tower in the middle of the city, and all the men, women, and lords of the city fled there and shut themselves in; and they went up to the roof of the tower. ⁵² Abimelech came up to the tower and fought against it, and he came near the entrance of the tower to burn it with fire. ⁵³ But a certain woman^[g] threw an upper millstone on Abimelech’s head and cracked open his skull. ⁵⁴ He called quickly to the young man carrying his weapons, and he said to him, “Draw your sword and kill me, so that they will not say of me, ‘A woman killed him.’” So the young man^[h] stabbed him, and he died. ⁵⁵ When the men of Israel saw that Abimelech was dead, each one went to his home.^{[i] 56} So God repaid^[j] the wickedness^[k] that Abimelech committed against his father by killing his seventy brothers. ⁵⁷ And God also repaid all the wickedness^[l] of the men of Shechem on their heads, and the curse of Jotham son of Jerub-Baal fell on them.