Judges 9:1-6

Christian Standard Bible

Abimelech Becomes King

9 Abimelech son of Jerubbaal went to Shechem and spoke to his uncles and to his mother’s whole clan, saying, ² “Please speak in the hearing of all the citizens of Shechem, ‘Is it better for you that seventy men, all the sons of Jerubbaal,^(A) rule over you or that one man rule over you?’ Remember that I am your own flesh and blood.”^[a]

³ His mother’s relatives spoke all these words about him in the hearing of all the citizens of Shechem, and they were favorable to Abimelech, for they said, “He is our brother.” ⁴ So they gave him seventy pieces of silver from the temple of Baal-berith.^[b] Abimelech used it to hire worthless and reckless men, and they followed him. ⁵ He went to his father’s house in Ophrah and killed his seventy brothers, the sons of Jerubbaal, on top of a large stone. But Jotham, the youngest son of Jerubbaal, survived, because he hid. ⁶ Then all the citizens of Shechem and of Beth-millo gathered together and proceeded to make Abimelech king at the oak of the pillar in Shechem.