Abimelech Tries To Be King

9 Abimelech the son of Gideon^[a] went to Shechem. While there, he met with his mother's relatives ² and told them to say to the leaders of Shechem, “Do you think it would be good to have all 70 of Gideon's sons ruling us? Wouldn't you rather have just one man be king? Abimelech would make a good king, and he's related to us.”

³ Abimelech's uncles talked it over with the leaders of Shechem who agreed, “Yes, it would be better for one of our relatives to be king.” ⁴ Then they gave Abimelech 70 pieces^[b] of silver from the temple of their god Baal Berith.^[c]

Abimelech used the silver to hire a gang of rough soldiers who would do anything for money. ⁵ Abimelech and his soldiers went to his father's home in Ophrah and brought out Gideon's other sons to a large rock, where they murdered all 70 of them. Gideon's youngest son Jotham hid from the soldiers, but he was the only one who escaped.

⁶ The leaders of Shechem, including the priests and the military officers,^[d] met at the tree next to the sacred rock^[e] in Shechem to crown Abimelech king. ⁷ Jotham heard what they were doing. So he climbed to the top of Mount Gerizim and shouted down to the people who were there at the meeting:

After Jotham had finished telling this story, he said:

^16-18 My father Gideon risked his life for you when he fought to rescue you from the Midianites. Did you reward Gideon by being kind to his family? No, you did not! You attacked his family and killed all 70 of his sons on that rock.

And was it right to make Abimelech your king? He's merely the son of my father's slave girl.^[g] But just because he's your relative, you made him king of Shechem.

¹⁹ So, you leaders of Shechem, if you treated Gideon and his family the way you should have, then I hope you and Abimelech will make each other very happy. ²⁰ But if it was wrong to treat Gideon and his family the way you did, then I pray that Abimelech will destroy you with fire, and I pray that you will do the same to him.

²¹ Jotham ran off and went to live in the town of Beer, where he could be safe from his brother Abimelech.

Abimelech Destroys Shechem

²² Abimelech had been a military commander of Israel for three years, ^23-24 when God decided to punish him and the leaders of Shechem for killing Gideon's 70 sons.

So God turned the leaders of Shechem against Abimelech. ²⁵ Then they sent some men to hide on the hilltops and watch for Abimelech and his troops, while they sent others to rob everyone that went by on the road. But Abimelech found out what they were doing.

²⁶ One day, Gaal son of Ebed went to live in Shechem. His brothers moved there too, and soon the leaders of Shechem started trusting him.

²⁷ The time came for the grape harvest, and the people of Shechem went into their vineyards and picked the grapes. They gathered the grapes and made wine. Then they went into the temple of their god and threw a big party. There was a lot of eating and drinking, and before long they were cursing Abimelech.

²⁸ Gaal said:

Hamor was the founder of Shechem, and one of his descendants should be our ruler. But Abimelech's father was Gideon, so Abimelech isn't really one of us. He shouldn't be our king, and we shouldn't have to obey him or Zebul, who rules Shechem for him. ²⁹ If I were the ruler of Shechem, I'd get rid of that Abimelech. I'd tell him, “Get yourself an even bigger army, and we will still defeat you.”

³⁰ Zebul was angry when he found out what Gaal had said. ³¹ And so he sent some messengers to Abimelech. But they had to pretend to be doing something else, or they would not have been allowed to leave Shechem.^[h] Zebul told the messengers to say:

Gaal the son of Ebed has come to Shechem along with his brothers, and they have persuaded the people to let Gaal rule Shechem instead of you. ³² This is what I think you should do. Lead your army here during the night and hide in the fields. ³³ Get up the next morning at sunrise and rush out of your hiding places to attack the town. Gaal and his followers will come out to fight you, but you will easily defeat them.

³⁴ So one night, Abimelech led his soldiers to Shechem. He divided them into four groups, and they all hid near the town.

³⁵ The next morning, Gaal went out and stood in the opening of the town gate. Abimelech and his soldiers left their hiding places, ³⁶ and Gaal saw them. Zebul was standing there with Gaal, and Gaal remarked, “Zebul, that looks like a crowd of people coming down from the mountaintops.”

“No,” Zebul answered, “it's just the shadows of the mountains. It only looks like people moving.”

³⁷ “But Zebul, look over there,” Gaal said. “There's a crowd coming down from the sacred mountain,^[i] and another group is coming along the road from the tree where people talk with the spirits of the dead.”

³⁸ Then Zebul replied, “What good is all of your bragging now? You were the one who said Abimelech shouldn't be the ruler of Shechem. Out there is the army that you made fun of. So go out and fight them!”

³⁹ Gaal and the leaders of Shechem went out and fought Abimelech. ⁴⁰ Soon the people of Shechem turned and ran back into the town. However, Abimelech and his troops were close behind and killed many of them along the way.

⁴¹ Abimelech stayed at Arumah,^[j] and Zebul forced Gaal and his brothers out of Shechem.

⁴² The next morning, the people of Shechem were getting ready to work in their fields as usual, but someone told Abimelech about it. ⁴³ Abimelech divided his army into three groups and set up an ambush in the fields near Shechem. When the people came out of the town, he and his army rushed out from their hiding places and attacked. ⁴⁴ Abimelech and the troops with him ran to the town gate and took control of it, while two other groups attacked and killed the people who were in the fields. ⁴⁵ He and his troops fought in Shechem all day, until they had killed everyone in town. Then he and his men tore down the houses and buildings and scattered salt^[k] everywhere.

⁴⁶ Earlier that day, the leaders of the temple of El Berith^[l] at Shechem had heard about the attack. So they went into the temple fortress, ⁴⁷ but Abimelech found out where they were. ⁴⁸ He led his troops to Mount Zalmon, where he took an ax and chopped off a tree branch. He lifted the branch onto his shoulder and shouted, “Hurry! Cut off a branch just as I did.”

⁴⁹ When they all had branches, they followed Abimelech back to Shechem. They piled the branches against the fortress and set them on fire, burning down the fortress and killing about 1,000 men and women.

⁵⁰ After destroying Shechem, Abimelech went to Thebez. He surrounded the town and captured it. ⁵¹ But there was a tall fortress in the middle of the town, and the town leaders and everyone else went inside. Then they barred the gates and went up to the flat roof.

⁵² Abimelech and his army rushed to the fortress and tried to force their way inside. Abimelech himself was about to set the heavy wooden doors on fire, ^53 (A) when a woman on the roof dropped a large rock^[m] on his head and cracked his skull. ⁵⁴ The soldier who carried his weapons was nearby, and Abimelech told him, “Take out your sword and kill me. I don't want people to say that I was killed by a woman!”

So the soldier ran his sword through Abimelech. ⁵⁵ And when the Israelite soldiers saw that their leader was dead, they went back home.

⁵⁶ That's how God punished Abimelech for killing his brothers and bringing shame on his father's family. ⁵⁷ God also punished the people of Shechem for helping Abimelech.^[n] Everything happened just as Jotham's curse said it would.

Tola

10 Tola was the next person to rescue Israel. He belonged to the Issachar tribe, but he lived in Shamir, a town in the hill country of Ephraim. His father was Puah, and his grandfather was Dodo. ² Tola was a leader^[o] of Israel for 23 years, then he died and was buried in Shamir.

Jair

³ The next leader^[p] of Israel was Jair, who lived in Gilead. He was a leader for 22 years. ⁴ He had 30 sons, and each son had his own mule^[q] and was in charge of one town in Gilead. Those 30 towns are still called The Settlements of Jair.^{[r] 5} When he died, he was buried in the town of Kamon.

Israel Is Unfaithful to God

⁶ Before long, the Israelites began disobeying the Lord by worshiping Baal, Astarte, and gods from Syria, Sidon, Moab, Ammon, and Philistia.

⁷ The Lord was angry with Israel and decided to let Philistia and Ammon conquer them. ⁸ So the same year that Jair died, Israel's army was crushed by these two nations. For 18 years, Ammon was cruel to the Israelites who lived in Gilead, the region east of the Jordan River that had once belonged to the Amorites. ⁹ Then the Ammonites began crossing the Jordan and attacking the tribes of Judah, Benjamin, and Ephraim. Life was miserable for the Israelites. ¹⁰ They begged the Lord for help and confessed, “We were unfaithful to you, our Lord. We stopped worshiping you and started worshiping idols of Baal.”

^11-12 The Lord answered:

In the past when you came crying to me for help, I rescued you. At one time or another I've rescued you from the Egyptians, the Amorites, the Ammonites, the Philistines, the Sidonians, the Amalekites, and the Maonites.^{[s] 13-14} But I'm not going to rescue you any more! You've left me and gone off to worship other gods. If you're in such big trouble, go and cry to them for help!

¹⁵ “We have been unfaithful to you,” the Israelites admitted. “If we must be punished, do it yourself, but please rescue us from the Ammonites.”

¹⁶ Then the Israelites got rid of the idols of the foreign gods, and they began worshiping only the Lord. Finally, there came a time when the Lord could no longer stand to see them suffer.

The Ammonites Invade Gilead

¹⁷ The rulers of Ammon called their soldiers together and led them to Gilead, where they set up camp.

The Israelites gathered at Mizpah^[t] and set up camp there. ¹⁸ The leaders of Gilead asked each other, “Who can lead an attack on the Ammonites?” Then they agreed, “If we find someone who can lead the attack, we'll make him the ruler of Gilead.”

Jephthah

11 ^1-5 The leaders of the Gilead clan decided to ask a brave warrior named Jephthah son of Gilead to lead the attack against the Ammonites.

Even though Jephthah belonged to the Gilead clan, he had earlier been forced to leave the region where they had lived. Jephthah was the son of a prostitute, but his half brothers were the sons of his father's wife.

One day his half brothers told him, “You don't really belong to our family, so you can't have any of the family property.” Then they forced Jephthah to leave home.

Jephthah went to the country of Tob, where he was joined by a number of men who would do anything for money.

So the leaders of Gilead went to Jephthah and said, ⁶ “Please come back to Gilead! If you lead our army, we will be able to fight off the Ammonites.”

⁷ “Didn't you hate me?” Jephthah replied. “Weren't you the ones who forced me to leave my family? You're only coming to me now because you're in trouble.”

⁸ “But we do want you to come back,” the leaders said. “And if you lead us in battle against the Ammonites, we will make you the ruler of Gilead.”

⁹ “All right,” Jephthah said. “If I go back with you and the Lord lets me defeat the Ammonites, will you really make me your ruler?”

¹⁰ “You have our word,” the leaders answered. “And the Lord is a witness to what we have said.”

¹¹ So Jephthah went back to Mizpah^[u] with the leaders of Gilead. The people of Gilead gathered at the place of worship and made Jephthah their ruler. Jephthah also made promises to them.

¹² After the ceremony, Jephthah sent messengers to say to the king of Ammon, “Are you trying to start a war? You have invaded my country, and I want to know why!”

¹³ The king of Ammon replied, “Tell Jephthah that the land really belongs to me, all the way from the Arnon River in the south, to the Jabbok River in the north, and west to the Jordan River. When the Israelites came out of Egypt, they stole it. Tell Jephthah to return it to me, and there won't be any war.”

¹⁴ Jephthah sent the messengers back to the king of Ammon, ¹⁵ and they told him that Jephthah had said:

Israel hasn't taken any territory from Moab or Ammon. ¹⁶ When the Israelites came from Egypt, they traveled across the desert to the Red Sea^[v] and then to Kadesh. ^17 (B) They sent messengers to the king of Edom and said, “Please, let us go through your country.” But the king of Edom refused. They also sent messengers to the king of Moab, but he wouldn't let them cross his country either. And so the Israelites stayed at Kadesh.

^18 (C) A little later, the Israelites set out into the desert, going east of Edom and Moab, and camping on the eastern side of the Arnon River gorge. The Arnon is the eastern border of Moab, and since the Israelites didn't cross it, they didn't even set foot in Moab.

^19 (D) The Israelites sent messengers to the Amorite King Sihon of Heshbon. “Please,” they said, “let our people go through your country to get to our own land.”

²⁰ Sihon didn't think the Israelites could be trusted, so he called his army together. They set up camp at Jahaz, then they attacked the Israelite camp. ²¹ But the Lord God helped Israel defeat Sihon and his army. Israel took over all of the Amorite land where Sihon's people had lived, ²² from the Arnon River in the south to the Jabbok River in the north, and from the desert in the east to the Jordan River in the west.

²³ The messengers also told the king of Ammon that Jephthah had said:

The Lord God of Israel helped his nation get rid of the Amorites and take their land. Now do you think you're going to take over that same territory? ²⁴ If Chemosh your god^[w] takes over a country and gives it to you, don't you have a right to it? And if the Lord takes over a country and gives it to us, the land is ours!

^25 (E) Are you better than Balak the son of Zippor? He was the king of Moab, but he didn't quarrel with Israel or start a war with us.

²⁶ For 300 years, Israelites have been living in Heshbon and Aroer and the nearby villages, and in the towns along the Arnon River gorge. If the land really belonged to you Ammonites, you wouldn't have waited until now to try to get it back.

²⁷ I haven't done anything to you, but it's certainly wrong of you to start a war. I pray that the Lord will show whether Israel or Ammon is in the right.

²⁸ But the king of Ammon paid no attention to Jephthah's message.

²⁹ Then the Lord's Spirit took control of Jephthah, and Jephthah went through Gilead and Manasseh, raising an army. Finally, he arrived at Mizpah in Gilead, where ³⁰ he promised the Lord, “If you will let me defeat the Ammonites ³¹ and come home safely, I will sacrifice to you whoever comes out to meet me first.”

³² From Mizpah, Jephthah attacked the Ammonites, and the Lord helped him defeat them.

³³ Jephthah and his army destroyed the 20 towns between Aroer and Minnith, and others as far as Abel-Keramim. After that, the Ammonites could not invade Israel any more.

Jephthah's Daughter

³⁴ When Jephthah returned to his home in Mizpah, the first one to meet him was his daughter. She was playing a tambourine and dancing to celebrate his victory, and she was his only child.

^35 (F) “Oh no!” Jephthah cried. Then he tore his clothes in sorrow and said to his daughter, “I made a sacred promise to the Lord, and I must keep it. Your coming out to meet me has broken my heart.”

³⁶ “Father,” she said, “you made a sacred promise to the Lord, and he let you defeat the Ammonites. Now, you must do what you promised, even if it means I must die. ³⁷ But first, please let me spend two months, wandering in the hill country with my friends. We will cry together, because I can never get married and have children.”

³⁸ “Yes, you may have two months,” Jephthah said.

She and some other girls left, and for two months they wandered in the hill country, crying because she could never get married and have children. ³⁹ Then she went back to her father. He did what he had promised, and she never got married.

That's why ⁴⁰ every year, Israelite girls walk around for four days, weeping for^[x] Jephthah's daughter.

The Ephraim Tribe Fights Jephthah's Army

12 The men of the Ephraim tribe got together an army and went across the Jordan River to Zaphon to meet with Jephthah. They said, “Why did you go to war with the Ammonites without asking us to help? Just for that, we're going to burn down your house with you inside!”

² “But I did ask for your help,” Jephthah answered. “That was back when the people of Gilead and I were having trouble with the Ammonites, and you wouldn't do a thing to help us. ³ So when we realized you weren't coming, we risked our lives and attacked the Ammonites. And the Lord let us defeat them. There's no reason for you to come here today to attack me.”

⁴ But the men from Ephraim said, “You people of Gilead are nothing more than refugees from Ephraim. You even live on land that belongs to the tribes of Ephraim and Manasseh.”^[y]

So Jephthah called together the army of Gilead, then they attacked and defeated the army from Ephraim. ⁵ The army of Gilead also posted guards at all the places where the soldiers from Ephraim could cross the Jordan River to return to their own land.

Whenever one of the men from Ephraim would try to cross the river, the guards would say, “Are you from Ephraim?”

“No,” the man would answer, “I'm not from Ephraim.”

⁶ The guards would then tell them to say “Shibboleth,” because they knew that people of Ephraim could say “Sibboleth,” but not “Shibboleth.”

If the man said “Sibboleth,” the guards would grab him and kill him right there. Altogether, 42,000 men from Ephraim were killed in the battle and at the Jordan.

⁷ Jephthah was a leader^[z] of Israel for six years, before he died and was buried in his hometown Mizpah^[aa] in Gilead.

Ibzan

⁸ Ibzan, the next leader^[ab] of Israel, came from Bethlehem. ⁹ He had 30 daughters and 30 sons, and he let them all marry outside his clan.

Ibzan was a leader for seven years, ¹⁰ before he died and was buried in Bethlehem.

Elon

¹¹ Elon from the Zebulun tribe was the next leader^[ac] of Israel. He was a leader for ten years, ¹² before he died and was buried in Aijalon that belonged to the Zebulun tribe.

Abdon

^13-15 Abdon the son of Hillel was the next leader^[ad] of Israel. He had 40 sons and 30 grandsons, and each one of them had his own donkey.^[ae] Abdon was a leader for eight years, before he died and was buried in his hometown of Pirathon, which is located in the part of the hill country of Ephraim where Amalekites used to live.