This happened so that the violence done to the seventy sons of Jerubbaal might be avenged[31 (#ulink_f8a6361f-8174-5db2-ac73-869fa700637c)] and their blood be laid on their brother Abimelech, who killed them, and on the lords of Shechem, who strengthened his hands to kill his brothers.
So, out of hostility to him, the lords of Shechem set ambushes on the mountain tops. They robbed all who passed by them along that way; and it was reported to Abimelech.
26 When Gaal son of Ebed moved into Shechem with his kinsfolk, the lords of Shechem put confidence in him.
They went out into the field and gathered the grapes from their vineyards, trod them, and celebrated. Then they went into the temple of their god, ate and drank, and ridiculed Abimelech.
Gaal son of Ebed said, “Who is Abimelech, and who are we of Shechem, that we should serve him? Did not the son of Jerubbaal and Zebul his officer serve the men of Hamor father of Shechem? Why then should we serve him?
If only this people were under my command! Then I would remove Abimelech; I would say[32 (#ulink_33e79ba6-ff53-53dd-b308-0e7b365189e7)] to him, ‘Increase your army, and come out.’”
30 When Zebul the ruler of the city heard the words of Gaal son of Ebed, his anger was kindled.
He sent messengers to Abimelech at Arumah,[33 (#ulink_ffeff281-976b-5fb8-b869-c6aff099fab7)] saying, “Look, Gaal son of Ebed and his kinsfolk have come to Shechem, and they are stirring up[34 (#ulink_e9f85e44-957a-5402-afec-57ff2fd72881)] the city against you.
Now therefore, go by night, you and the troops that are with you, and lie in wait in the fields.
Then early in the morning, as soon as the sun rises, get up and rush on the city; and when he and the troops that are with him come out against you, you may deal with them as best you can.”
34 So Abimelech and all the troops with him got up by night and lay in wait against Shechem in four companies.
When Gaal son of Ebed went out and stood in the entrance of the gate of the city, Abimelech and the troops with him rose from the ambush.
And when Gaal saw them, he said to Zebul, “Look, people are coming down from the mountain tops!” And Zebul said to him, “The shadows on the mountains look like people to you.”
Gaal spoke again and said, “Look, people are coming down from Tabbur-erez, and one company is coming from the direction of Elon-meonenim.”[35 (#ulink_a1d52f66-85b3-5250-9318-cfdd0b03d41d)]
Then Zebul said to him, “Where is your boast[36 (#ulink_f85593c1-ab36-5d65-8aaf-7b1c81491700)] now, you who said, ‘Who is Abimelech, that we should serve him?’ Are not these the troops you made light of ? Go out now and fight with them.”
So Gaal went out at the head of the lords of Shechem, and fought with Abimelech.
Abimelech chased him, and he fled before him. Many fell wounded, up to the entrance of the gate.
So Abimelech resided at Arumah; and Zebul drove out Gaal and his kinsfolk, so that they could not live on at Shechem.
42 On the following day the people went out into the fields. When Abimelech was told,
he took his troops and divided them into three companies, and lay in wait in the fields. When he looked and saw the people coming out of the city, he rose against them and killed them.
Abimelech and the company that was[37 (#ulink_a7214e6c-9738-5fa4-874b-d5729b24eb88)] with him rushed forward and stood at the entrance of the gate of the city, while the two companies rushed on all who were in the fields and killed them.
Abimelech fought against the city all that day; he took the city, and killed the people that were in it; and he razed the city and sowed it with salt.
46 When all the lords of the Tower of Shechem heard of it, they entered the stronghold of the temple of El-berith.
Abimelech was told that all the lords of the Tower of Shechem were gathered together.
So Abimelech went up to Mount Zalmon, he and all the troops that were with him. Abimelech took an ax in his hand, cut down a bundle of brushwood, and took it up and laid it on his shoulder. Then he said to the troops with him, “What you have seen me do, do quickly, as I have done.”
So every one of the troops cut down a bundle and following Abimelech put it against the stronghold, and they set the stronghold on fire over them, 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 encamped against Thebez, and took it.
But there was a strong tower within the city, and all the men and women and all the lords of the city fled to it and shut themselves in; and they went to the roof of the tower.
Abimelech came to the tower, and fought against it, and came near to the entrance of the tower to burn it with fire.
But a certain woman threw an upper millstone on Abimelech’s head, and crushed his skull.
Immediately he called to the young man who carried his armor and said to him, “Draw your sword and kill me, so people will not say about me, ‘A woman killed him.’” So the young man thrust him through, and he died.
When the Israelites saw that Abimelech was dead, they all went home.
Thus God repaid Abimelech for the crime he committed against his father in killing his seventy brothers;
and God also made all the wickedness of the people of Shechem fall back on their heads, and on them came the curse of Jotham son of Jerubbaal.
10 After Abimelech, Tola son of Puah son of Dodo, a man of Issachar, who lived at Shamir in the hill country of Ephraim, rose to deliver Israel.
He judged Israel twenty-three years. Then he died, and was buried at Shamir.
3 After him came Jair the Gileadite, who judged Israel twenty-two years.
He had thirty sons who rode on thirty donkeys; and they had thirty towns, which are in the land of Gilead, and are called Havvoth-jair to this day.
Jair died, and was buried in Kamon.
6 The Israelites again did what was evil in the sight of the LORD, worshiping the Baals and the Astartes, the gods of Aram, the gods of Sidon, the gods of Moab, the gods of the Ammonites, and the gods of the Philistines. Thus they abandoned the LORD, and did not worship him.
So the anger of the LORD was kindled against Israel, and he sold them into the hand of the Philistines and into the hand of the Ammonites,
and they crushed and oppressed the Israelites that year. For eighteen years they oppressed all the Israelites that were beyond the Jordan in the land of the Amorites, which is in Gilead.
The Ammonites also crossed the Jordan to fight against Judah and against Benjamin and against the house of Ephraim; so that Israel was greatly distressed.
IF GOD WERE PROUD
It is a poor thing to strike our colours to God when the ship is going down under us; a poor thing to come to Him as a last resort, to offer up “our own” when it is no longer worth keeping. If God were proud He would hardly have us on such terms: but He is not proud, He stoops to conquer, He will have us even though we have shown that we prefer everything else to Him, and come to Him because there is “nothing better” now to be had. The same humility is shown by all those Divine appeals to our fears which trouble high-minded readers of Scripture. It is hardly complimentary to God that we should choose Him as an alternative to Hell: yet even this He accepts. The creature’s illusion of self-sufficiency must, for the creature’s sake, be shattered; and by trouble or fear of trouble on earth, by crude fear of the eternal flames, God shatters it “unmindful of His glory’s diminution.”
—from The Problem of Pain
For reflection
Judges 10:6–16
10 So the Israelites cried to the LORD, saying, “We have sinned against you, because we have abandoned our God and have worshiped the Baals.”
And the LORD said to the Israelites, “Did I not deliver you[38 (#ulink_7e5bd468-237b-57a9-96d0-1f89c280bbe5)] from the Egyptians and from the Amorites, from the Ammonites and from the Philistines?
