CHAPTER 9
1 Forsooth Abimelech, the son of Jerubbaal, went into Shechem to the brethren of his mother; and he spake to them, and to all the kindred of the house of his mother, and said,
2 Speak ye to all the men of Shechem, What is better to you, that seventy men, all the sons of Jerubbaal, be lords of you, whether that one man be lord to you? and also behold, that I am your bone, and your flesh.
3 And the brethren of his mother spake of him all these words to all the men of Shechem; and they bowed their hearts after Abimelech, and said, He is our brother.
4 And they gave to him seventy plates or pieces of silver of the temple of Baalberith; and he hired to him thereof men poor and having no certain dwelling, and they pursued [or followed] him.
5 And he came into the house of his father in Ophrah, and killed his brethren the sons of Jerubbaal, seventy men, on one stone. And Jotham, the youngest son of Jerubbaal, was left, and hid.
6 And all the men of Shechem, and all the meines of the city of Millo, were gathered together, and they went, and made Abimelech king, beside the oak that stood in Shechem.
7 And when this thing was told to Jotham, he went, and stood in the top of the hill Gerizim, and cried with voice raised [up], and said, Ye men of Shechem, hear me, so that God hear you.
8 Trees went to anoint a king on them; and they said to the olive tree, Command thou to us.
9 Which answered, Whether I may forsake my fatness, which both Gods and men use, and come, that I be advanced among trees?
10 And the trees said to the fig tree, Come thou, and take the realm on us. Which answered to them,
11 Whether I may forsake my sweet-ness, and my full sweet fruits, and go that I be advanced among other trees?
12 Also the trees spake to the vine, Come thou, and command to us.
13 Which answered, Whether I may forsake my wine, that gladdeth God and men, and be advanced among other trees?
14 And all the trees said to the rhamn, or the thieve-thorn, Come thou, and be lord on us.
15 Which answered to them, If ye make me verily king to you, come, and rest ye under my shadow; and, if ye will not, fire go out of the rhamn, and devour the cedars of Lebanon.
16 Now therefore, if rightfully [or rightly] and without sin ye have made Abimelech king on you, and if ye have done well with Jerubbaal, and with his house, and if ye have yielded while to the beneficences [or benefits] of him,
17 that fought for you, and gave his life for perils, that he should deliver you from the hand of Midian;
18 and ye have risen now against the house of my father, and have slain his sons, seventy men, on one stone, and have made Abimelech, [the] son of his handmaid, king on the dwellers of Shechem, for he is your brother;
19 therefore if ye have done right-fully [or rightly], and without sin with Jerubbaal and his house, today be ye glad in Abimelech, and be he glad in you;
20 but if ye have done waywardly, fire go out from Abimelech, and waste the dwellers of Shechem, and the city of Millo; and fire go out from the men of Shechem, and from the city of Millo, and devour Abimelech.
21 And when Jotham had said these things, he fled, and went into Beer, and dwelled there, for dread of Abimelech, his brother.
22 And Abimelech reigned on Israel three years.
23 And the Lord sent the worst spirit betwixt Abimelech and the dwellers of Shechem, which began to hold him abominable,
24 and to areckon the felony of [the] slaying of the seventy sons of Jerub-baal, and the shedding out of their blood, into Abimelech their brother, and into [the] other princes of Shechem, that had helped him.
25 And men of Shechem set ambush-ments against the king in the highness [or tops] of hills; and while they abode his coming, they haunted thefts, and took preys of men passing thereforth; and it was told to Abimelech.
26 And Gaal, the son of Ebed, came with his brethren, and passed into Shechem; at whose entering the dwellers of Shechem were raised,
27 and went out into [the] fields, and wasted vineries [or vines], and trode grapes; and with companies of singers made, they entered into the temple of their God, and among meats and drinks they cursed Abimelech,
28 while Gaal, the son of Ebed, cried, Who is this Abimelech? And what is Shechem, that we serve him? Whether he is not the son of Jerub-baal, and made Zebul, his servant, prince on the men of Hamor, the father of Shechem? Why therefore shall we serve him?
29 Would God, some man would give this people under mine hand, and I should do away Abimelech from the midst of Shechem. And it was said to Abimelech, Gather thou the multitude of an host, and come thou.
30 For when the words of Gaal, the son of Ebed, were heard, Zebul, the prince of the city was full wroth;
31 and he sent privily messengers to Abimelech, and said, Lo! Gaal, the son of Ebed, is come into Shechem with his brethren, and he exciteth the city to fight against thee;
32 therefore rise thou by night, with the people that is with thee, and be thou hid in the field;
33 and first in the morrowtide, when the sun riseth, fall thou upon the city; and when Gaal goeth out with his people against thee, do thou to him that that thou mayest.
34 And so Abimelech rose with all his host by night, and set ambush-ments beside Shechem, in four places.
35 And Gaal, the son of Ebed, went out, and stood in the entering of the gate of the city. And Abimelech, and all the host with him, rose from the place of [the] ambushments.
36 And when Gaal had seen the people, he said to Zebul, Lo! a multitude cometh down from the hills. To whom Zebul answered, Thou seest the shadows of hills as the heads of men, and thou art deceived by this error.
37 And again Gaal said, Lo! a people cometh down from the midst of the earth, and one company cometh by the way that beholdeth the oak.
38 To whom Zebul said, Where is now thy mouth, by which thou speakest, Who is Abimelech, that we serve him? Whether this is not the people, whom thou despisedest? Go thou out, and fight against him.
39 Therefore Gaal went, while the people of Shechem abode; and he fought against Abimelech.
40 And pursued him fleeing, and constrained him to flee into the city; and full many of the part of Gaal felled down, unto the gate of the city.
41 And Abimelech sat in Arumah; and Zebul put Gaal and his fellows out of the city of Shechem, and he suffered them not to dwell therein.
42 Therefore in the day pursuing [or following], the people went out into the field; and when this thing was told to Abimelech,
43 he took his host, and parted it in three companies, and he set ambush-ments in the fields; and he saw that the people went out of the city, and he rose, and felled upon them with his company,
44 and besieged them and fought against the city. And two companies went about openly by the field, and pursued their adversaries.
45 And Abimelech fought against that city all that day, the which he took, when the dwellers thereof were slain, and that city was destroyed, so that he sprinkled abroad salt therein.
46 And when they, that dwelled in the tower of Shechem, had heard this, they entered into the temple of their god Berith, where they had made [a] bond of peace with him; and of that idol the place took the name, the which place was full strong.
47 And Abimelech heard that [the] men of the tower of Shechem were gathered together,
48 and he went up into the hill of Zalmon with all his people; and with an ax taken, he cut down a bough of a tree, and he bare it, put upon his shoulder, and he said to his fellows, Do ye anon this thing, that ye see me do.
49 Therefore with strife they cutted down boughs of the trees, and pursued [or followed] the duke; the which compassed the tower and burnt it up; and so it was done, that with smoke and fire a thousand men were slain, men and women together, of the dwellers of the tower of Shechem.
50 And Abimelech went forth from thence, and came to the city of Thebez, which he compassed, and besieged with an host.
51 And the tower was high in the midst of the city, to which men and women fled together, and all the princes of the city, while the gate was closed full strongly; and they stood on the roof of the tower by [the] turrets.
52 And Abimelech came beside the tower, and fought strongly against it, and he nighed to the door, and enforced or endeavoured him to put fire under it;
53 and lo! a woman casted from above a gobbet of a mill-stone, and hurtled to the head of Abimelech, and it brake his noll.
54 And he called anon his squire, and said to him, Draw out thy sword, and slay me, lest peradventure it be said, that I am slain of a woman. Which performed the commandments, and killed Abimelech;
55 and when Abimelech was dead, all men of Israel that were with him turned again to their places.
56 And God yielded to Abimelech the evil that he did against his father, for he killed his seventy brethren.
57 Also that evil was yielded to [the] men of Shechem, that they wrought, and the curse of Jotham, the son of Jerubbaal, came upon them.