King James Version › Judges › 9

Judges

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1 And Abim­elech the son of Jerub­baal went to Shechem unto his mother's brethren, and com­muned with them, and with all the fam­i­ly of the house of his mother's fa­ther, say­ing, 2 Speak, I pray you, in the ears of all the men of Shechem, Whether is bet­ter for you, ei­ther that all the sons of Jerub­baal, which are three­score and ten per­sons, reign over you, or that one reign over you? re­mem­ber also that I am your bone and your flesh. 3 And his mother's brethren spake of him in the ears of all the men of Shechem all these words: and their hearts in­clined to fol­low Abim­elech; for they said, He is our broth­er. 4 And they gave him three­score and ten pieces of sil­ver out of the house of Baal­berith, where­with Abim­elech hired vain and light per­sons, which fol­lowed him. 5 And he went unto his father's house at Ophrah, and slew his brethren the sons of Jerub­baal, being three­score and ten per­sons, upon one stone: notwith­stand­ing yet Jotham the youngest son of Jerub­baal was left; for he hid him­self. 6 And all the men of Shechem gath­ered to­geth­er, and all the house of Mil­lo, and went, and made Abim­elech king, by the plain of the pil­lar that was in Shechem. 7 And when they told it to Jotham, he went and stood in the top of mount Ger­iz­im, and lift­ed up his voice, and cried, and said unto them, Hear­ken unto me, ye men of Shechem, that God may hear­ken unto you. 8 The trees went forth on a time to anoint a king over them; and they said unto the olive tree, Reign thou over us. 9 But the olive tree said unto them, Should I leave my fat­ness, where­with by me they hon­our God and man, and go to be pro­mot­ed over the trees? 10 And the trees said to the fig tree, Come thou, and reign over us. 11 But the fig tree said unto them, Should I for­sake my sweet­ness, and my good fruit, and go to be pro­mot­ed over the trees? 12 Then said the trees unto the vine, Come thou, and reign over us. 13 And the vine said unto them, Should I leave my wine, which cheereth God and man, and go to be pro­mot­ed over the trees? 14 Then said all the trees unto the bram­ble, Come thou, and reign over us. 15 And the bram­ble said unto the trees, If in truth ye anoint me king over you, then come and put your trust in my shad­ow: and if not, let fire come out of the bram­ble, and de­vour the cedars of Lebanon. 16 Now there­fore, if ye have done tru­ly and sin­cere­ly, in that ye have made Abim­elech king, and if ye have dealt well with Jerub­baal and his house, and have done unto him ac­cord­ing to the de­serv­ing of his hands; 17 (For my fa­ther fought for you, and ad­ven­tured his life far, and de­liv­ered you out of the hand of Mid­i­an: 18 And ye are risen up against my father's house this day, and have slain his sons, three­score and ten per­sons, upon one stone, and have made Abim­elech, the son of his maid­ser­vant, king over the men of Shechem, be­cause he is your broth­er;) 19 If ye then have dealt tru­ly and sin­cere­ly with Jerub­baal and with his house this day, then re­joice ye in Abim­elech, and let him also re­joice in you: 20 But if not, let fire come out from Abim­elech, and de­vour the men of Shechem, and the house of Mil­lo; and let fire come out from the men of Shechem, and from the house of Mil­lo, and de­vour Abim­elech. 21 And Jotham ran away, and fled, and went to Beer, and dwelt there, for fear of Abim­elech his broth­er. 22 When Abim­elech had reigned three years over Is­rael, 23 Then God sent an evil spir­it be­tween Abim­elech and the men of Shechem; and the men of Shechem dealt treach­er­ous­ly with Abim­elech: 24 That the cru­el­ty done to the three­score and ten sons of Jerub­baal might come, and their blood be laid upon Abim­elech their broth­er, which slew them; and upon the men of Shechem, which aid­ed him in the killing of his brethren. 25 And the men of Shechem set liers in wait for him in the top of the moun­tains, and they robbed all that came along that way by them: and it was told Abim­elech. 26 And Gaal the son of Ebed came with his brethren, and went over to Shechem: and the men of Shechem put their con­fi­dence in him. 27 And they went out into the fields, and gath­ered their vine­yards, and trode the grapes, and made mer­ry, and went into the house of their god, and did eat and drink, and cursed Abim­elech. 28 And Gaal the son of Ebed said, Who is Abim­elech, and who is Shechem, that we should serve him? is not he the son of Jerub­baal? and Ze­bul his of­fi­cer? serve the men of Hamor the fa­ther of Shechem: for why should we serve him? 29 And would to God this peo­ple were un­der my hand! then would I re­move Abim­elech. And he said to Abim­elech, In­crease thine army, and come out. 30 And when Ze­bul the ruler of the city heard the words of Gaal the son of Ebed, his anger was kin­dled. 31 And he sent mes­sen­gers unto Abim­elech priv­i­ly, say­ing, Be­hold, Gaal the son of Ebed and his brethren be come to Shechem; and, be­hold, they for­ti­fy the city against thee. 32 Now there­fore up by night, thou and the peo­ple that is with thee, and lie in wait in the field: 33 And it shall be, that in the morn­ing, as soon as the sun is up, thou shalt rise ear­ly, and set upon the city: and, be­hold, when he and the peo­ple that is with him come out against thee, then mayest thou do to them as thou shalt find oc­ca­sion. 34 And Abim­elech rose up, and all the peo­ple that were with him, by night, and they laid wait against Shechem in four com­pa­nies. 35 And Gaal the son of Ebed went out, and stood in the en­ter­ing of the gate of the city: and Abim­elech rose up, and the peo­ple that were with him, from ly­ing in wait. 36 And when Gaal saw the peo­ple, he said to Ze­bul, Be­hold, there come peo­ple down from the top of the moun­tains. And Ze­bul said unto him, Thou seest the shad­ow of the moun­tains as if they were men. 37 And Gaal spake again and said, See there come peo­ple down by the mid­dle of the land, and an­oth­er com­pa­ny come along by the plain of Me­o­nen­im. 38 Then said Ze­bul unto him, Where is now thy mouth, where­with thou saidst, Who is Abim­elech, that we should serve him? is not this the peo­ple that thou hast de­spised? go out, I pray now, and fight with them. 39 And Gaal went out be­fore the men of Shechem, and fought with Abim­elech. 40 And Abim­elech chased him, and he fled be­fore him, and many were over­thrown and wound­ed, even unto the en­ter­ing of the gate. 41 And Abim­elech dwelt at Arumah: and Ze­bul thrust out Gaal and his brethren, that they should not dwell in Shechem. 42 And it came to pass on the mor­row, that the peo­ple went out into the field; and they told Abim­elech. 43 And he took the peo­ple, and di­vid­ed them into three com­pa­nies, and laid wait in the field, and looked, and, be­hold, the peo­ple were come forth out of the city; and he rose up against them, and smote them. 44 And Abim­elech, and the com­pa­ny that was with him, rushed for­ward, and stood in the en­ter­ing of the gate of the city: and the two other com­pa­nies ran upon all the people that were in the fields, and slew them. 45 And Abim­elech fought against the city all that day; and he took the city, and slew the peo­ple that was there­in, and beat down the city, and sowed it with salt. 46 And when all the men of the tow­er of Shechem heard that, they en­tered into an hold of the house of the god Berith. 47 And it was told Abim­elech, that all the men of the tow­er of Shechem were gath­ered to­geth­er. 48 And Abim­elech gat him up to mount Zal­mon, he and all the peo­ple that were with him; and Abim­elech took an axe in his hand, and cut down a bough from the trees, and took it, and laid it on his shoul­der, and said unto the peo­ple that were with him, What ye have seen me do, make haste, and do as I have done. 49 And all the peo­ple like­wise cut down ev­ery man his bough, and fol­lowed Abim­elech, and put them to the hold, and set the hold on fire upon them; so that all the men of the tow­er of Shechem died al­so, about a thou­sand men and wom­en. 50 Then went Abim­elech to The­bez, and en­camped against The­bez, and took it. 51 But there was a strong tow­er with­in the city, and thith­er fled all the men and wom­en, and all they of the city, and shut it to them, and gat them up to the top of the tow­er. 52 And Abim­elech came unto the tow­er, and fought against it, and went hard unto the door of the tow­er to burn it with fire. 53 And a cer­tain wom­an cast a piece of a mill­stone upon Abimelech's head, and all to brake his skull. 54 Then he called hasti­ly unto the young man his ar­mourbear­er, and said unto him, Draw thy sword, and slay me, that men say not of me, A wom­an slew him. And 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 unto his place. 56 Thus God ren­dered the wicked­ness of Abim­elech, which he did unto his fa­ther, in slay­ing his sev­en­ty brethren: 57 And all the evil of the men of Shechem did God ren­der upon their heads: and upon them came the curse of Jotham the son of Jerub­baal.