⁴² The next day, the people went out to the field, and Abimelech learned about it. ⁴³ So he took his army, divided it into three separate companies, and laid in ambush out in the field. When Abimelech^[a] noticed the people coming out from the city, his^[b] army attacked them and killed them. ⁴⁴ Then Abimelech and the soldiers who were with him rushed forward and commandeered the entrance to the city gate while the other two companies ran out to kill everyone who was in the field. ⁴⁵ Abimelech fought against the city all that day, captured the city, killed the people in it, then tore the city to the ground and sowed it with salt.

⁴⁶ When all the “lords” at the tower of Shechem heard what had happened, they retreated into the inner chamber of the temple of El-berith. ⁴⁷ Abimilech was told that all of the “lords” of the Shechem Tower had assembled there. ⁴⁸ So he^[c] went up to Mount Zalmon, accompanied by his entire army. Abimelech had an axe in his hand, so he cut down a branch from a tree, lifted it up, and laid it on his shoulder. Then he told the army that had accompanied^[d] him, “You’ve seen what I just did. Hurry up! Do the same thing!”

⁴⁹ Then his entire army also cut down a branch for each soldier, followed Abimelech to the inner chamber, and set fire to it^[e] while they were inside. As a result, all the men of the tower of Shechem died, including about a thousand men and women.

The Death of Abimelech

⁵⁰ Later on, Abimelech went to Thebez, set up a siege encampment there, and captured it. ⁵¹ But there was a fortified tower in the center of the city, and all the men, women, and leaders of the city escaped to it, shut themselves in, and went up to the roof of the tower. ⁵² So Abimelech approached the tower, attacked it, and approached the tower’s gate, intending^[f] to burn it down. ⁵³ But a certain woman threw an upper millstone down on Abimelech’s head, fracturing his skull.

⁵⁴ So he cried out to his young armor bearer and ordered him, “Draw your sword and kill me, so no one will say about me that ‘A woman killed him.’” So the young man pierced him through, and he died. ⁵⁵ When the men of Israel noticed that Abimelech was dead, they each left for home.^{[g] 56} That’s how God repaid Abimelech for the evil thing he did to his father by killing his 70 brothers. ⁵⁷ God also repaid^[h] the men of Shechem for their wickedness, and the curse of Jerubbaal’s son Jotham came true for them.