The Downfall of Abimelech

Judges 9

22 After Abimelech had reigned over Israel three years, 23 y God sent a z spirit of ill will between Abimelech and the men of Shechem; and the men of Shechem a dealt treacherously with Abimelech, 24 b that the crime done to the seventy sons of Jerubbaal might be settled and their c blood be laid on Abimelech their brother, who killed them, and on the men of Shechem, who aided him in the killing of his brothers. 25 And the men of Shechem set 1 men in ambush against him on the tops of the mountains, and they robbed all who passed by them along that way; and it was told Abimelech.

26 Now Gaal the son of Ebed came with his brothers and went over to Shechem; and the men of Shechem put their confidence in him. 27 So they went out into the fields, and gathered grapes from their vineyards and trod them, and 2 made merry. And they went into d the house of their god, and ate and drank, and cursed Abimelech. 28 Then Gaal the son of Ebed said, e "Who is Abimelech, and who is Shechem, that we should serve him? Is he not the son of Jerubbaal, and is not Zebul his officer? Serve the men of f Hamor the father of Shechem; but why should we serve him? 29 g "If only this people were under my 3 authority! Then I would remove Abimelech." So 4 he said to Abimelech, "Increase your army and come out!"

30 When Zebul, the ruler of the city, heard the words of Gaal the son of Ebed, his anger was aroused. 31 And he sent messengers to Abimelech secretly, saying, "Take note! Gaal the son of Ebed and his brothers have come to Shechem; and here they are, fortifying the city against you. 32 "Now therefore, get up by night, you and the people who are with you, and 5 lie in wait in the field. 33 "And it shall be, as soon as the sun is up in the morning, that you shall rise early and rush upon the city; and when he and the people who are with him come out against you, you may then do to them 6 as you find opportunity."

34 So Abimelech and all the people who were with him rose by night, and 7 lay in wait against Shechem in four companies. 35 When Gaal the son of Ebed went out and stood in the entrance to the city gate, Abimelech and the people who were with him rose from lying in wait. 36 And when Gaal saw the people, he said to Zebul, "Look, people are coming down from the tops of the mountains!" But Zebul said to him, "You see the shadows of the mountains as if they were men." 37 So Gaal spoke again and said, "See, people are coming down from the center of the land, and another company is coming from the 8 Diviners' Terebinth Tree." 38 Then Zebul said to him, "Where indeed is your mouth now, with which you h said, 'Who is Abimelech, that we should serve him?' Are not these the people whom you despised? Go out, if you will, and fight with them now." 39 So Gaal went out, leading the men of Shechem, and fought with Abimelech. 40 And Abimelech chased him, and he fled from him; and many fell wounded, to the very entrance of the gate. 41 Then Abimelech dwelt at Arumah, and Zebul 9 drove out Gaal and his brothers, so that they would not dwell in Shechem.

42 And it came about on the next day that the people went out into the field, and they told Abimelech. 43 So he took his people, divided them into three companies, and lay in wait in the field. And he looked, and there were the people, coming out of the city; and he rose against them and 10 attacked them. 44 Then Abimelech and the company that was with him rushed forward and stood at the entrance of the gate of the city; and the other two companies rushed upon all who were in the fields and killed them. 45 So Abimelech fought against the city all that day; i he took the city and killed the people who were in it; and he j demolished the city and sowed it with salt.

46 Now when all the men of the tower of Shechem had heard that, they entered the 11 stronghold of the temple k of the god Berith. 47 And it was told Abimelech that all the men of the tower of Shechem were gathered together. 48 Then Abimelech went up to Mount l Zalmon, he and all the people who were with him. And Abimelech took an ax in his hand and cut down a bough from the trees, and took it and laid it on his shoulder; then he said to the people who were with him, "What you have seen me do, make haste and do as I have done." 49 So each of the people likewise cut down his own bough and followed Abimelech, put them against the 12 stronghold, and set the stronghold on fire above them, so that all the people of the tower of Shechem died, about a thousand men and women.

50 Then Abimelech went to Thebez, and he 13 encamped against Thebez and took it. 51 But there was a strong tower in the city, and all the men and women - all the people of the city - fled there and shut themselves in; then they went up to the top of the tower. 52 So Abimelech came as far as the tower and fought against it; and he drew near the door of the tower to burn it with fire. 53 But a certain woman m dropped an upper millstone on Abimelech's head and crushed his skull. 54 Then n he called quickly to the young man, his armorbearer, and said to him, "Draw your sword and kill me, lest men say of me, 'A woman killed him.' " So his young man thrust him through, and he died. 55 And when the men of Israel saw that Abimelech was dead, they departed, every man to his 14 place. 56 o Thus God repaid the wickedness of Abimelech, which he had done to his father by killing his seventy brothers. 57 And all the evil of the men of Shechem God returned on their own heads, and on them came p the curse of Jotham the son of Jerubbaal.

  1. Cross References
    1 Kings 12:15
    So the king did not listen to the people; for the turn of events was from the LORD, that He might fulfill His word, which the LORD had spoken by Ahijah the Shilonite to Jeroboam the son of Nebat.
    Isaiah 19:14
    The LORD has mingled a perverse spirit in her midst; And they have caused Egypt to err in all her work, As a drunken man staggers in his vomit.
  2. Cross References
    1 Samuel 16:14
    But the Spirit of the LORD departed from Saul, and a distressing spirit from the LORD troubled him.
    1 Samuel 18:9
    So Saul eyed David from that day forward.
    1 Samuel 18:10
    And it happened on the next day that the distressing spirit from God came upon Saul, and he prophesied inside the house. So David played music with his hand, as at other times; but there was a spear in Saul's hand.
    1 Kings 22:22
    "The LORD said to him, 'In what way?' So he said, 'I will go out and be a lying spirit in the mouth of all his prophets.' And the LORD said, 'You shall persuade him, and also prevail. Go out and do so.'
    2 Chronicles 18:22
    "Therefore look! The LORD has put a lying spirit in the mouth of these prophets of yours, and the LORD has declared disaster against you."
  3. Cross References
    Isaiah 33:1
    Woe to you who plunder, though you have not been plundered; And you who deal treacherously, though they have not dealt treacherously with you! When you cease plundering, You will be plundered; When you make an end of dealing treacherously, They will deal treacherously with you.
  4. Cross References
    1 Kings 2:32
    So the LORD will return his blood on his head, because he struck down two men more righteous and better than he, and killed them with the sword - Abner the son of Ner, the commander of the army of Israel, and Amasa the son of Jether, the commander of the army of Judah - though my father David did not know it.
    Esther 9:25
    But when Esther came before the king, he commanded by letter that this wicked plot which Haman had devised against the Jews should return on his own head, and that he and his sons should be hanged on the gallows.
    Matthew 23:35
    That on you may come all the righteous blood shed on the earth, from the blood of righteous Abel to the blood of Zechariah, son of Berechiah, whom you murdered between the temple and the altar.
    Matthew 23:36
    Assuredly, I say to you, all these things will come upon this generation.
  5. Cross References
    Numbers 35:33
    So you shall not pollute the land where you are; for blood defiles the land, and no atonement can be made for the land, for the blood that is shed on it, except by the blood of him who shed it.
  6. Cross References
    Judges 9:4
    So they gave him seventy shekels of silver from the temple of BaalBe'rith, with which Abimelech hired worthless and reckless men; and they followed him.
  7. Cross References
    1 Samuel 25:10
    Then Nabal answered David's servants, and said, "Who is David, and who is the son of Jesse? There are many servants nowadays who break away each one from his master.
    1 Kings 12:16
    Now when all Israel saw that the king did not listen to them, the people answered the king, saying: "What share have we in David? We have no inheritance in the son of Jesse. To your tents, O Israel! Now, see to your own house, O David!" So Israel departed to their tents.
  8. Cross References
    Genesis 34:2
    And when Shechem the son of Hamor the Hivite, prince of the country, saw her, he took her and lay with her, and violated her.
    Genesis 34:6
    Then Hamor the father of Shechem went out to Jacob to speak with him.
    Joshua 24:32
    The bones of Joseph, which the children of Israel had brought up out of Egypt, they buried at Shechem, in the plot of ground which Jacob had bought from the sons of Hamor the father of Shechem for one hundred pieces of silver, and which had become an inheritance of the children of Joseph.
  9. Cross References
    2 Samuel 15:4
    Moreover Absalom would say, "Oh, that I were made judge in the land, and everyone who has any suit or cause would come to me; then I would give him justice.
  10. Cross References
    Judges 9:28
    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 not Zebul his officer? Serve the men of Hamor the father of Shechem; but why should we serve him?
    Judges 9:29
    "If only this people were under my authority! Then I would remove Abimelech." So he said to Abimelech, "Increase your army and come out!"
  11. Cross References
    Judges 9:20
    "But if not, let fire come from Abimelech and devour the men of Shechem and Beth Millo; and let fire come from the men of Shechem and from Beth Millo and devour Abimelech!"
  12. Cross References
    Deuteronomy 29:23
    'The whole land is brimstone, salt, and burning; it is not sown, nor does it bear, nor does any grass grow there, like the overthrow of Sodom and Gomorrah, Admah, and Zeboiim, which the LORD overthrew in His anger and His wrath.'
    2 Kings 3:25
    Then they destroyed the cities, and each man threw a stone on every good piece of land and filled it; and they stopped up all the springs of water and cut down all the good trees. But they left the stones of Kir Haraseth intact. However the slingers surrounded and attacked it.
  13. Cross References
    Judges 8:33
    So it was, as soon as Gideon was dead, that the children of Israel again played the harlot with the Baals, and made BaalBe'rith their god.
  14. Cross References
    Psalms 68:14
    When the Almighty scattered kings in it, It was white as snow in Zalmon.
  15. Cross References
    2 Samuel 11:21
    'Who struck Abimelech the son of Jerubbesheth? Was it not a woman who cast a piece of a millstone on him from the wall, so that he died in Thebez? Why did you go near the wall?' - then you shall say, 'Your servant Uriah the Hittite is dead also.'"
  16. Cross References
    1 Samuel 31:4
    Then Saul said to his armorbearer, "Draw your sword, and thrust me through with it, lest these uncircumcised men come and thrust me through and abuse me." But his armorbearer would not, for he was greatly afraid. Therefore Saul took a sword and fell on it.
  17. Cross References
    Judges 9:24
    That the crime done to the seventy sons of Jerubbaal might be settled and their blood be laid on Abimelech their brother, who killed them, and on the men of Shechem, who aided him in the killing of his brothers.
    Job 31:3
    Is it not destruction for the wicked, And disaster for the workers of iniquity?
    Proverbs 5:22
    His own iniquities entrap the wicked man, And he is caught in the cords of his sin.
  18. Cross References
    Judges 9:20
    "But if not, let fire come from Abimelech and devour the men of Shechem and Beth Millo; and let fire come from the men of Shechem and from Beth Millo and devour Abimelech!"
New King James Version (NKJV) Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson, Inc.
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