Judges 9:42-57

The next day Abimelech found out that the people of Shechem were planning to go out on a foray into the countryside. So he divided his men into three groups, and they set out to ambush the Shechemites in the fields. As soon as Abimelech saw the people leaving the city, he sprang up and attacked them. Abimelech and his men advanced rapidly and occupied the city gate. The other two companies chased them down out into the open fields and killed them. Abimelech fought hard all day at the gate of Shechem until he had captured the city. He massacred all its people, leveled the city to rubble, and scattered salt over it. When they heard the news, the leading citizens living in the Shechem Tower ran into the stronghold of the temple of Baal-Berith. When Abimelech heard that they had assembled there, he and all his forces went up Mount Zalmon. Taking an axe in his hand, he cut off some branches and hoisted the bundle onto his shoulders. He ordered the men with him, “Quick! Do the same!” So each one cut a bundle of branches and followed Abimelech. They piled them against the walls of the temple and with the people inside they set it on fire. So everyone who fled into the tower of Shechem died; nearly a thousand men and women perished. Next, Abimelech attacked the city of Thebez and captured it. All the people had fled to the Tower of Strength in the middle of the city. They locked themselves in and climbed up onto the tower roof. Abimelech advanced as far as the tower, stormed it, and set it on fire. But a woman dropped a millstone on his head and fractured his skull. Abimelech cried out to his armor-bearer, “Kill me with your sword so no one can say I was killed by a woman.” So his servant ran him through, and he died. When the Israelites saw that Abimelech was dead, everyone went home. God avenged the evil that Abimelech had done to his father by murdering his seventy brothers. God also punished the Shechemites for all their wickedness. That day, the curse of Jotham son of Baal-Fighter was fulfilled.

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