1And Abimelech son of Jerubaal went to his mother’s brothers and to all the clan of his mother’s patriarchal house, saying, 2“Speak, pray, in the hearing of all the notables of Shechem: ‘What is better for you, that seventy men should rule over you, all the sons of Jerubaal, or that one man should rule over you? And you should remember that I am your bone and your flesh.’” 3And his mother’s brothers spoke about him all these words in the hearing of the notables of Shechem and their heart was swayed to follow Abimelech, for they said, “He is our kinsman.” 4And they gave him seventy shekels of silver from the house of Baal-Berith, and Abimelech hired with them no-account reckless men, and they followed him. 5And he came to his father’s house in Ophrah and killed his brothers, the sons of Jerubaal, seventy men on one stone, and Jotham the youngest son of Jerubaal was left, for he had hidden. 6And all the notables of Shechem and all Beth-Millo gathered and proclaimed Abimelech king by the standing terebinth which is in Shechem. 7And they told Jotham, and he went and stood on the top of Mount Gerizim, and he raised his voice and called out and said to them: “Listen to me, O notables of Shechem, that God may listen to you. 8Once upon a time the trees went to anoint a king over them. And they said to the olive tree, ‘Reign over us.’ 9And the olive tree said, ‘Have I left off my rich oil, for which God and men honor me, that I should go sway over the trees?’ 10And the trees said to the fig tree, ‘Go, you, reign over us.’ 11And the fig tree said to them, ‘Have I left off my sweetness and my goodly yield that I should go sway over the trees?’ 12And the trees said to the vine, ‘Go, you, reign over us.’ 13And the vine said to them, ‘Have I left off my new wine, that gladdens God and men, that I should go sway over the trees?’ 14And all the trees said to the thornbush, ‘Go, you, reign over us.’ 15And the thornbush said to the trees, ‘If you are really about to anoint me king over you, come shelter in my shade. And if not, a fire shall come out from the thornbush and consume the cedars of Lebanon.’ 16And now, if you have acted truly and honestly in making Abimelech king over you and if you have acted well toward Jerubaal and his house and have acted toward him as he deserves, 17for my father fought for you and risked his life and saved you from the hand of Midian, 18yet you rose up against my father’s house today and killed seventy men on one stone and made Abimelech the son of his slavegirl king over the notables of Shechem, for he was your kinsman. 19And if you have acted truly and honestly toward Jerubaal and toward his house on this day, rejoice in Abimelech and let him, too, rejoice in you. 20And if not, let a fire come out from Abimelech and consume the notables of Shechem and Beth-Millo, and let a fire come out from the notables of Shechem and from Beth-Millo and consume Abimelech.” 21And Jotham fled and ran off and went to Beer and stayed there because of Abimelech his brother. 22And Abimelech lorded it over Israel three years. 23And God sent an evil spirit between Abimelech and the notables of Shechem, and the notables of Shechem betrayed Abimelech, 24that the outage of the seventy sons of Jerubaal and their blood should come upon Abimelech their brother, who killed them, and upon the notables of Shechem, who abetted him in killing his brothers. 25And the notables of Shechem laid ambushes for him on the mountaintops, and they robbed whoever passed over them on the way. And it was told to Abimelech. 26And Gaal son of Ebed came with his kinsmen and passed through Shechem, and the notables of Shechem trusted him. 27And they went out to the field and harvested their vineyards and trod the vintage and held a celebration and came to the house of their god and ate and drank and reviled Abimelech. 28And Gaal son of Ebed said, “Who is Abimelech and who the men of Shechem that we should be subject to them? Were not the son of Jerubaal and Zebul his officer subject to the men of Hamor father of Shechem? So why should we be subject to him? 29Would that this people were in my hands. I would remove Abimelech, and I would say to Abimelech, ‘Muster the full strength of your army and sally forth.’” 30And Zebul, the commander of the town, heard the words of Gaal son of Ebed, and his wrath flared. 31And he sent messengers to Abimelech in Arumah, saying, “Look, Gaal son of Ebed and his kinsmen are coming to Shechem, and they are about to turn the town against you. 32And now rise in the night, you and the troops who are with you, and lie in ambush in the field. 33And so, in the morning, as the sun comes up, rise early and attack the town, and, look, he and the troops who are with him will be coming out toward you, and you shall do whatever you are able.” 34And Abimelech rose, and all the troops who were with him, in the night, and they lay in ambush against Shechem in four columns. 35And Gaal son of Ebed came out and stood at the entrance of the gate of the town, and Abimelech and the troops who were with him rose up from the ambush. 36And Gaal saw the troops and said to Zebul, “Look, troops are coming down from the mountaintops.” And Zebul said to him, “You are seeing the shadows of the mountains as though they were men.” 37And Gaal spoke again and said, “Look, troops are coming down from the heartland and one column is coming from Elon Meonenim.” 38And Zebul said to him, “Where then is your big mouth that you should have said, ‘Who is Abimelech that we should be subject to him?’ Are not these the troops whom you scorned? Sally forth now, pray, and do battle with them.” 39And Gaal sallied forth before the notables of Shechem and did battle with Abimelech. 40And Abimelech pursued him, and he fled from him, and many slain fell as far as the entrance of the gate. 41And Abimelech stayed in Arumah, and Zebul drove out Gaal and his kinsmen from dwelling in Shechem. 42And it happened the next day that the troops sallied forth to the field, and they told Abimelech. 43And he took his troops and split them into three columns and lay in ambush in the field. And he saw and, look, the troops were sallying forth from the town, and he rose against them and struck them. 44And Abimelech and the column that was with him attacked and took a stance at the entrance of the town’s gate, and the two columns attacked whoever was in the field. 45And Abimelech did battle with the town all that day, and he took the town and killed the people who were in it and smashed the town and sowed it with salt. 46And all the notables of Shechem Tower heard, and they went into the redoubt of the house of El-Berith. 47And it was told to Abimelech that all the notables of Shechem Tower had gathered together. 48And Abimelech went up Mount Zalmon, he and all the troops who were with him, and he took one of the axes in his hand and cut down a bough and lifted it up and put it on his shoulder. And he said to the troops who were with him, “What you saw me doing, quick, do as I do.” 49And all the troops cut down each one his bough and followed Abimelech and put them against the redoubt and set fire with them to the redoubt. And all the people of Shechem Tower died, about a thousand men and women. 50And Abimelech went to Thebez and camped against Thebez and took it. 51And there was a tower stronghold within the town, and all the men and women and all the notables of the town fled there and shut themselves in and went up on the roof of the tower. 52And Abimelech came up to the tower and did battle against it. And he approached the entrance of the tower to burn it in fire. 53And a certain woman flung down an upper millstone on Abimelech’s head and shattered his skull. 54And he called quickly to the lad who was his armor bearer and said to him, “Draw your sword and put me to death lest they say, ‘A woman killed him.’” And his lad ran him through and he died. 55And the men of Israel saw that Abimelech had died and each man went back to his place. 56And God turned back the evil of Abimelech that he had done to his father to kill his seventy brothers. 57And all the evil of the men of Shechem God turned back on their heads, and the curse of Jotham son of Jerubaal came down upon them.
CHAPTER 9 NOTES
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1. to his mother’s brothers and to all the clan of his mother’s patriarchal house. The initial base of support that he enlists is his relatives—first his uncles and then the larger clan.
2. that one man should rule over you. His language takes us back to the proposal of Gideon’s warriors that he rule over them, with the scoundrel Abimelech obviously assuming the opposite view from Gideon’s about the advisability of monarchic rule.
4. the house of Baal-Berith. This is the local pagan temple. One should keep in mind throughout this story that the principal actors are Canaanites, not Israelites, and that Abimelech, though his father was an Israelite, shows no allegiance to the people or the God of Israel.
5. on one stone. This detail, which is repeated in the story, suggests an execution-style killing: first he captures and fetters his brothers, then murders them one by one, probably either by stabbing or beheading.
6. the standing terebinth. Though this is a reasonable construction of the two Hebrew words, they look odd syntactically.
8. Once upon a time. The Hebrew formula hayoh hayah signals the beginning of a parable. The attempts of some scholars to scan it as formal verse are unconvincing, but its rhythmic character and its use of stylized repetition, with the three-plus-one folktale structure, set it apart formally from the surrounding narrative.
13. gladdens God and men. This might also justifiably be construed as “gladdens gods and men,” reflecting a mythological background in which the gods, as in Greek tradition, quaff wine.
15. come shelter in my shade. This is, of course, sarcastic—the lowly thornbush gives no shade. The argument of the parable works both against Abimelech—a low and prickly character—and against the institution of kingship: only a nasty and unproductive type would aspire to the power of a king.
a fire shall come out. It is in the nature of kings to broadcast destruction, as Abimelech has already done in murdering his seventy brothers and as he will do much more extensively. In the last moments of his lethal career, he will in fact use fire as a weapon.
18. the son of his slavegirl. Jotham chooses a term of opprobrium for the concubine, just as Sarah does for Hagar in Genesis 21:10.
24. abetted him. Literally, “strengthened his hands.”
25. they robbed whoever passed. Despoiling wayfarers is hardly required to combat Abimelech, and so it is a sign that the notables of Shechem are as scurrilous as he, and both parties will come to a bad end. In fact, these depredations may be what gives away to Abimelech their location on the heights.
26. Gaal son of Ebed. The patronymic means either “son of a slave” or Ebed is a shortened form for “Obadiah,” which means “slave/servant of God.”
27. held a celebration. The vintage celebration involves drinking, and it is in a state of drunkenness that Gaal can confidently incite the celebrants to rebel against Abimelech, who is, after all, a ruthless killer and also, as will become clear, a savvy military commander.
28. Were not the son of Jerubaal and Zebul his officer subject to . . . Hamor father of Shechem? Abimelech is the son of an Israelite father who was not a native of Shechem. As such, he has no legitimate claim to dominate the Shechemites.
29. Muster the full strength of your army. Literally, “multiply your army,” the idea being: show me all you have—I can handle it.
31. Arumah. The received text says Tormah, but Abimelech is in Arumah.
36. the shadows of the mountains. The Hebrew has a singular “shadow.” Zebul’s canny strategem is to make Gaal think there is no army swooping down on him until it is too late. Given that it is very early in the morning, mountains to the east would cast long shadows.
37. troops are coming down from the heartland. Some time has elapsed, and Gaal now can clearly see that these are troops, and that one column is headed toward him from a particular place, Elon Meonenim (which means “Soothsayers’ Terebinth”). The exact meaning of tabur haʾarets, translated here as “heartland,” is uncertain because tabur appears only here and in Ezekiel 38:12. The Septuagint renders it as “navel of the land,” and in later Hebrew this was taken up as the word for “navel.”
38. your big mouth. The Hebrew says only “your mouth,” but a sarcastic sense of this sort is strongly implied.
42. the troops. These troops are the armed men of Shechem.
44. the column. The Masoretic Text shows a plural, but Abimelech would have to be leading only one of the three columns, and the singular is reflected in one version of the Septuagint.
45. sowed it with salt. Although there is some dispute about the meaning of this gesture, sowing a field with salt would make it infertile, so the likely intention is to mark the site as a place of eternal desolation.
46. Shechem Tower. In all likelihood this name indicates a place close to Shechem but not part of it.
the redoubt. The Hebrew tsariaḥ is a rare term, and its exact meaning is uncertain. Its occurrence in 1 Samuel 13:6 suggests it was some sort of fortified underground structure.
the house of El-Berith. The god to which this temple is dedicated is probably the same as Baal-Berith, mentioned in verse 4.
48. one of the axes. The received text reads “the axes,” but the Septuagint appears to have used a Hebrew text that showed “one of the axes.”
53. a certain woman. It is noteworthy that in this book based on a male warrior culture, first Jael and now this anonymous woman of Thebez deliver deathblows to an enemy. In a more seductive feminine mode, Delilah will bring down the Israelite hero Samson.
an upper millstone. This is the lighter of the two millstones and therefore feasible for a woman to lift up and drop from the tower.
54. lest they say, “A woman killed him.” In 2 Samuel 11:21, we learn from Joab’s words to the messenger that in fact Abimelech’s death by the hand of a woman had become proverbial. His last wish, then, is frustrated.