Shechem and Abimelech Fall

²² Now Abimelech ruled over Israel for three years. ^23 (A)Then God sent an evil spirit between Abimelech and the ^[a]leaders of Shechem; and the ^[b]leaders of Shechem ^(B)dealt treacherously with Abimelech, ^24 (C)so that the violence ^[c]done to the seventy sons of Jerubbaal would come, and the responsibility for ^(D)their blood would be placed on their brother Abimelech, who killed them, and on the ^[d]leaders of Shechem, who ^[e]encouraged him to kill his brothers. ²⁵ The ^[f]leaders of Shechem set up men in ambush against him on the tops of the mountains, and they robbed everyone who would pass by them on the road; and it was reported to Abimelech.

²⁶ Now Gaal the son of Ebed came with his relatives, and crossed over into Shechem; and the ^[g]leaders of Shechem trusted him. ²⁷ So they went out to the field and gathered the grapes of their vineyards and trampled them, and held a festival; and they went into the house of ^(E)their god, and ate and drank and cursed Abimelech. ²⁸ Then Gaal the son of Ebed said, “Who is Abimelech, and who is Shechem, that we should serve him? Is he not the son of Jerubbaal, and is Zebul not his governor? Serve the men of ^(F)Hamor the father of Shechem; but why should we serve him? ^29 [h](G)If only this people were under my authority! Then I would do away with Abimelech.” And he said to Abimelech, “Enlarge your army and come out!”

³⁰ When Zebul the leader of the city heard the words of Gaal the son of Ebed, his anger burned. ³¹ So using deception, he successfully sent messengers to Abimelech, saying, “Behold, Gaal the son of Ebed and his relatives have come to Shechem; and behold, they are ^[i]stirring up the city against you. ³² So now, arise by night, you and the people who are with you, and lie in wait in the field. ³³ Then in the morning, as soon as the sun is up, you shall rise early and attack the city; and behold, when he and the people who are with him come out against you, you shall ^(H)do to them ^[j]whatever you can.”

³⁴ So Abimelech and all the people who were with him got up at night, and lay in wait against Shechem, in four ^[k]units. ³⁵ Now Gaal the son of Ebed went out and stood at the entrance of the city gate; and Abimelech and the people who were with him arose from the ambush. ³⁶ When Gaal saw the people, he said to Zebul, “^[l]Look, people are coming down from the tops of the mountains.” But Zebul said to him, “You are seeing the shadow of the mountains as if they were people.” ³⁷ And Gaal spoke yet again and said, “Look, people are coming down from ^(I)the ^[m]highest part of the land, and one ^[n]unit is coming by way of ^[o]the diviners’ ^[p]oak.” ³⁸ Then Zebul said to him, “Where then is your ^[q]boasting with which you said, ‘Who is Abimelech that we should serve him?’ Is this not the people whom you rejected? Go out now and fight them!” ³⁹ So Gaal went out ^[r]in the sight of the ^[s]leaders of Shechem and fought Abimelech. ⁴⁰ But Abimelech chased him, and he fled from him; and many fell wounded up to the entrance of the gate. ⁴¹ Then Abimelech stayed in Arumah, but Zebul drove out Gaal and his relatives so that they could not stay in Shechem.

⁴² Now it came about the next day, that the people went out to the field, and it was reported to Abimelech. ⁴³ So he took ^[t]his people and divided them into three ^[u]units, and lay in wait in the field; when he looked and ^[v]saw the people coming out from the city, he ^[w]attacked them and killed them. ⁴⁴ Then Abimelech and the ^[x]company who was with him rushed forward and stood at the entrance of the city gate; the other two ^[y]companies then attacked all who were in the field and killed them. ⁴⁵ Abimelech fought against the city that whole day, and he captured the city and killed the people who were in it; then he ^(J)tore down the city and sowed it with salt.

⁴⁶ When all the ^[z]leaders of the tower of Shechem heard about it, they entered the inner chamber of the ^[aa]temple of ^(K)El-berith. ⁴⁷ And it was reported to Abimelech that all the ^[ab]leaders of the tower of Shechem were gathered together. ⁴⁸ So Abimelech went up to Mount ^(L)Zalmon, he and all the people who were with him; and Abimelech took ^[ac]an axe in his hand and cut down a branch from the trees, and lifted it and put it on his shoulder. Then he said to the people who were with him, “What you saw me do, hurry and do ^[ad]likewise.” ⁴⁹ So all the people also cut down, each one, his branch and followed Abimelech, and put them on top of the inner chamber and set the inner chamber on fire over those inside, so that all the people of the tower of Shechem also died, about a thousand men and women.

⁵⁰ Then Abimelech went to Thebez, and he camped against Thebez and captured it. ⁵¹ But there was a strong tower in the center of the city, and all the men and women with all the ^[ae]leaders of the city fled there and shut themselves in; and they went up on the roof of the tower. ⁵² So Abimelech came to the tower and fought against it, and approached the entrance of the tower to burn it down with fire. ⁵³ But ^(M)a woman threw an upper millstone on Abimelech’s head, crushing his skull. ⁵⁴ Then ^(N)he called quickly to the young man, his armor bearer, and said to him, “Draw your sword and kill me, so that it will not be said of me, ‘A woman killed him.’” So ^[af]the young man pierced him through, and he died. ⁵⁵ Now when the men of Israel saw that Abimelech was dead, each left for his ^[ag]home. ⁵⁶ So ^(O)God repaid the wickedness of Abimelech, which he had done to his father in killing his seventy brothers. ⁵⁷ God also returned all the wickedness of the men of Shechem on their heads, and the curse of Jotham the son of Jerubbaal came ^[ah]upon them.

Oppression by Philistines and Ammonites

10 Now after Abimelech died, Tola the son of Puah, the son of Dodo, a man of Issachar, ^(P)rose up to save Israel; and he lived in Shamir in the hill country of Ephraim. ² He judged Israel for twenty-three years. Then he died and was buried in Shamir.

³ After him, Jair the Gileadite rose up and judged Israel for twenty-two years. ⁴ And he had thirty sons who rode on thirty donkeys, and they had thirty cities ^[ai]in the land of Gilead ^(Q)that are called ^[aj]Havvoth-jair to this day. ⁵ And Jair died and was buried in Kamon.

⁶ Then the sons of Israel again did evil in the sight of the Lord, and ^(R)they served the Baals and the Ashtaroth, the gods of Aram, the gods of Sidon, the gods of Moab, ^(S)the gods of the sons of Ammon, and the gods of the Philistines; so ^(T)they abandoned the Lord and did not serve Him. ⁷ And the anger of the Lord burned against Israel, and He ^(U)sold them into the hands of the Philistines, and into the hands of the sons of Ammon. ⁸ And they ^[ak]afflicted and oppressed the sons of Israel ^[al]that year; for eighteen years they oppressed all the sons of Israel who were beyond the Jordan, ^[am]in Gilead in the land of the Amorites. ⁹ And the sons of Ammon crossed the Jordan to fight also against Judah, Benjamin, and the house of Ephraim, so that Israel was in great difficulty.

¹⁰ Then the ^(V)sons of Israel cried out to the Lord, saying, “We have sinned against You, for indeed, we have abandoned our God and served the Baals.” ¹¹ And the Lord said to the sons of Israel, “Did I not save you ^(W)from the Egyptians, ^(X)the Amorites, ^(Y)the sons of Ammon, and the Philistines? ¹² And when the Sidonians, the Amalekites, and the Maonites ^(Z)oppressed you, you cried out to Me, and I saved you from their hands. ¹³ Yet ^(AA)you abandoned Me and served other gods; therefore I will no longer save you. ^14 (AB)Go and cry out to the gods which you have chosen; let them save you in the time of your distress.” ¹⁵ Then the sons of Israel said to the Lord, “We have sinned, ^(AC)do to us whatever ^[an]seems good to You; only please save us this day.” ^16 (AD)So they removed the foreign gods from among them and served the Lord; and ^[ao](AE)He could no longer endure the misery of Israel.

¹⁷ Then the sons of Ammon were summoned, and they camped in Gilead. And the sons of Israel gathered together and camped in ^(AF)Mizpah. ¹⁸ And the people, the leaders of Gilead, said to one another, “Who is the man who will begin to fight against the sons of Ammon? He shall become head over all the inhabitants of Gilead.”

The Road to Emmaus

¹³ And behold, on that very day ^(A)two of them were going to a village named Emmaus, which was ^[a]sixty stadia from Jerusalem. ¹⁴ And they were talking with each other about all these things which had taken place. ¹⁵ While they were talking and discussing, Jesus Himself approached and began traveling with them. ¹⁶ But ^(B)their eyes were kept from recognizing Him. ¹⁷ And He said to them, “What are these words that you are exchanging with one another as you are walking?” And they came to a stop, looking sad. ¹⁸ One of them, named Cleopas, answered and said to Him, “Are You possibly the only one living near Jerusalem ^[b]who does not know about the things that happened here in these days?” ¹⁹ And He said to them, “What sort of things?” And they said to Him, “Those about ^(C)Jesus the Nazarene, who proved to be a ^(D)prophet mighty in deed and word in the sight of God and all the people, ²⁰ and how the chief priests and our ^(E)rulers handed Him over to be sentenced to death, and crucified Him. ²¹ But we ^[c]were hoping that it was He who was going to ^(F)redeem Israel. Indeed, besides all this, it is now the third day since these things happened. ²² But also some women among us left us bewildered. ^(G)When they were at the tomb early in the morning, ²³ and did not find His body, they came, saying that they had also seen a vision of angels who said that He was alive. ²⁴ And so some of those who were with us went to the tomb, and found it just exactly as the women also had said; but Him they did not see.” ²⁵ And then He said to them, “^[d]You foolish men and slow of heart to believe in all that ^(H)the prophets have spoken! ^26 (I)Was it not necessary for the ^[e]Christ to suffer these things and to come into His glory?” ²⁷ Then beginning ^[f]with ^(J)Moses and ^[g]with all the ^(K)Prophets, He explained to them the things written about Himself in all the Scriptures.

²⁸ And they approached the village where they were going, and ^(L)He gave the impression that He was going farther. ²⁹ And so they strongly urged Him, saying, “Stay with us, for it is getting toward evening, and the day ^[h]is now nearly over.” So He went in to stay with them. ³⁰ And it came about, when He had reclined at the table with them, that He took the bread and ^(M)blessed it, and He broke it and began giving it to them. ³¹ And then their ^(N)eyes were opened and they recognized Him; and He vanished from ^[i]their sight. ³² They said to one another, “^[j]Were our hearts not burning within us when He was speaking to us on the road, while He ^(O)was ^[k]explaining the Scriptures to us?” ³³ And they got up that very hour and returned to Jerusalem, and ^(P)found the eleven gathered together and ^(Q)those who were with them, ³⁴ saying, “^(R)The Lord has really risen and ^(S)has appeared to Simon!” ³⁵ They began to relate ^[l]their experiences on the road, and how ^(T)He was recognized by them at the breaking of the bread.

Other Appearances

³⁶ Now while they were telling these things, ^(U)Jesus Himself suddenly stood in their midst and *said to them, “Peace be to you.” ³⁷ But they were startled and frightened, and thought that they were looking at ^(V)a spirit. ³⁸ And He said to them, “Why are you frightened, and why are doubts arising in your ^[m]hearts? ^39 (W)See My hands and My feet, that ^[n]it is I Myself; ^(X)touch Me and see, because a spirit does not have flesh and bones as you plainly see that I have.” ⁴⁰ And when He had said this, He showed them His hands and His feet. ⁴¹ While they still ^[o](Y)could not believe it because of their joy and astonishment, He said to them, “^(Z)Have you anything here to eat?” ⁴² They served Him a piece of broiled fish; ⁴³ and He took it and ^(AA)ate it in front of them.

⁴⁴ Now He said to them, “^(AB)These are My words which I spoke to you while I was still with you, that all the things that are written about Me in the ^(AC)Law of Moses and the Prophets and ^(AD)the Psalms must be fulfilled.” ⁴⁵ Then He ^(AE)opened their ^[p]minds to understand the Scriptures, ⁴⁶ and He said to them, “^(AF)So it is written, that the ^[q]Christ would suffer and ^(AG)rise from the dead on the third day, ⁴⁷ and that ^(AH)repentance ^[r]for forgiveness of sins would be proclaimed ^[s]in His name to ^(AI)all the nations, beginning from Jerusalem. ⁴⁸ You are ^(AJ)witnesses of these things. ⁴⁹ And behold, ^(AK)I am sending the promise of My Father upon you; but ^(AL)you are to stay in the city until you are clothed with power from on high.”

The Ascension

⁵⁰ And He led them out as far as ^(AM)Bethany, and He lifted up His hands and blessed them. ⁵¹ While He was blessing them, He parted from them and was carried up into heaven. ⁵² And they, after worshiping Him, returned to Jerusalem with great joy, ⁵³ and were continually in the temple ^[t]praising God.

All People Exhorted to Praise God.

A Psalm for ^[a]Thanksgiving.