Judges 9:46-57

New International Reader's Version

⁴⁶ The citizens in the tower of Shechem heard about what was happening. So they went to the safest place in the temple of the god named El-Berith. ⁴⁷ Abimelek heard that they had gathered together there. ⁴⁸ He and all his men went up Mount Zalmon. He got an ax and cut off some branches. He carried them on his shoulders. He ordered the men with him to do the same thing. “Quick!” he said. “Do what you have seen me do!” ⁴⁹ So all the men cut branches and followed Abimelek. They piled them against the place where the people had gone for safety. Then they set the place on fire with the people still inside. There were about 1,000 men and women in the tower of Shechem. All of them died.

⁵⁰ Next, Abimelek went to Thebez. He surrounded it. Then he attacked it and captured it. ⁵¹ But inside the city there was a strong tower. All the people in the city had run to it for safety. All the men and women had gone into it. They had locked themselves in. They had climbed up on the roof of the tower. ⁵² Abimelek went to the tower and attacked it. He approached the entrance to the tower to set it on fire. ⁵³ But a woman dropped a large millstone on him. It broke his head open.

⁵⁴ He quickly called out to the man carrying his armor. He said, “Pull out your sword and kill me. Then people can’t say, ‘A woman killed him.’ ” So his servant stuck his sword through him. And Abimelek died. ⁵⁵ When the Israelites saw he was dead, they went home.

⁵⁶ That’s how God punished Abimelek for the evil thing he had done to his father. He had murdered his 70 brothers. ⁵⁷ God also made the people of Shechem pay for all the evil things they had done. The curse of Jotham came down on them. He was the son of Jerub-Baal.