⁵⁰ Abimelech went to Thebez,^(A) camped against it, and captured it. ⁵¹ There was a strong tower inside the city,^(B) and all the men, women, and citizens of the city fled there. They locked themselves in and went up to the roof of the tower. ⁵² When Abimelech came to attack the tower, he approached its entrance to set it on fire. ⁵³ But a woman threw the upper portion of a millstone on Abimelech’s head and fractured his skull. ⁵⁴ He quickly called his armor-bearer and said to him, “Draw your sword and kill me, or they’ll say about me, ‘A woman killed him.’” So his armor-bearer ran him through, and he died. ⁵⁵ When the Israelites saw that Abimelech was dead, they all went home.

⁵⁶ In this way, God brought back Abimelech’s evil—the evil that Abimelech had done to his father when he killed his seventy brothers.

²¹ At Thebez, who struck Abimelech son of Jerubbesheth?^[a][b] Didn’t a woman drop an upper millstone on him from the top of the wall so that he died?^(A) Why did you get so close to the wall?’—then say, ‘Your servant Uriah the Hethite is dead also.’”