Abimelech’s Conspiracy

¹Now Abimelech son of Jerubbaalwent to his mother’s brothers at Shechem and said to them and to all the clan of his mother,

²“Please ask all the leaders of Shechem, ‘Is it better for you that seventy men, all the sons of Jerubbaal, rule over you, or just one man?’ Remember that I am your own flesh and blood.”

³And when his mother’s brothers spoke all these words about him in the presence of all the leaders of Shechem, their hearts were inclined to follow Abimelech, for they said, “He is our brother.”

⁴So they gave him seventy shekels of silverfrom the temple of Baal-berith, with which Abimelech hired some worthless and reckless men to follow him.

⁵He went to his father’s house in Ophrah, and on one stone murdered his seventy brothers, the sons of Jerubbaal. But Jotham, the youngest son of Jerubbaal, survived, because he hid himself.

⁶Then all the leaders of Shechem and Beth-millo gathered beside the oakat the pillar in Shechem and proceeded to make Abimelech their king.

Jotham’s Parable

⁷When this was reported to Jotham, he climbed to the top of Mount Gerizim, raised his voice, and cried out:“Listen to me, O leaders of Shechem,and may God listen to you.

⁸One day the trees set outto anoint a king for themselves.They said to the olive tree,‘Reign over us.’

⁹But the olive tree replied,‘Should I stop giving my oilthat honors both God and man,to hold sway over the trees?’

¹⁰Then the trees said to the fig tree,‘Come and reign over us.’

¹¹But the fig tree replied,‘Should I stop giving my sweetnessand my good fruit,to hold sway over the trees?’

¹²Then the trees said to the grapevine,‘Come and reign over us.’

¹³But the grapevine replied,‘Should I stop giving my winethat cheers both God and man,to hold sway over the trees?’

¹⁴Finally all the trees said to the thornbush,‘Come and reign over us.’

¹⁵But the thornbush replied,‘If you really are anointing me as king over you,come and find refuge in my shade.But if not, may fire come out of the thornbushand consume the cedars of Lebanon.’

¹⁶Now if you have acted faithfully and honestly in making Abimelech king, if you have done well by Jerubbaal and his family, and if you have done to him as he deserves—

¹⁷for my father fought for you and risked his life to deliver you from the hand of Midian,

¹⁸but you have risen up against my father’s house this day and killed his seventy sons on a single stone, and you have made Abimelech, the son of his maidservant, king over the leaders of Shechem because he is your brother—

¹⁹if you have acted faithfully and honestly toward Jerubbaal and his house this day, then may you rejoice in Abimelech, and he in you.

²⁰But if not, may fire come from Abimelech and consume the leaders of Shechem and Beth-millo, and may fire come from the leaders of Shechem and Beth-millo and consume Abimelech.”

²¹Then Jotham ran away, escaping to Beer, and he lived there for fear of his brother Abimelech.

Gaal Conspires with the Shechemites

²²After Abimelech had reigned over Israel for three years,

²³God sent a spirit of animositybetween Abimelech and the leaders of Shechem and caused them to treat Abimelech deceitfully,

²⁴in order that the crime against the seventy sons of Jerubbaal might come to justice and their blood be avenged on their brother Abimelech and on the leaders of Shechem, who had helped him murder his brothers.

²⁵The leaders of Shechem set up an ambush against Abimelech on the hilltops, and they robbed all who passed by them on the road. So this was reported to Abimelech.

²⁶Meanwhile, Gaal son of Ebed came with his brothers and crossed into Shechem, and the leaders of Shechem put their confidence in him.

²⁷And after they had gone out into the fields, gathered grapes from their vineyards, and trodden them, they held a festival and went into the house of their god; and as they ate and drank, they cursed Abimelech.

²⁸Then Gaal 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? You are to serve the men of Hamor, the father of Shechem. Why should we serve Abimelech?

²⁹If only this people were under my authority, I would remove Abimelech; I would say to him, ‘Muster your army and come out!’”

The Fall of Shechem

³⁰When Zebul the governor of the city heard the words of Gaal son of Ebed, he burned with anger.

³¹So he covertly sent messengers to Abimelechto say, “Look, Gaal son of Ebed and his brothers have come to Shechem and are stirring upthe city against you.

³²Now then, tonight you and the people with you are to come and lie in wait in the fields.

³³And in the morning at sunrise, get up and advance against the city. When Gaal and his men come out against you, do to them whatever you are able.”

³⁴So Abimelech and all his troops set out by night and lay in wait against Shechem in four companies.

³⁵Now Gaal son of Ebed went out and stood at the entrance of the city gate just as Abimelech and his men came out from their hiding places.

³⁶When Gaal saw the people, he said to Zebul, “Look, people are coming down from the mountains!”But Zebul replied, “The shadows of the mountains look like men to you.”

³⁷Then Gaal spoke up again, “Look, people are coming down from the center of the land,and one company is coming by way of the Diviners’ Oak.”

³⁸“Where is your gloating now?” Zebul replied. “You said, ‘Who is Abimelech that we should serve him?’ Are these not the people you ridiculed? Go out now and fight them!”

³⁹So Gaal went out before the leaders of Shechem and fought against Abimelech,

⁴⁰but Abimelech pursued him, and Gaal fled before him. And many Shechemites fell wounded all the way to the entrance of the gate.

⁴¹Abimelech stayed in Arumah, and Zebul drove Gaal and his brothers out of Shechem.

⁴²The next day the people of Shechem went out into the fields, and this was reported to Abimelech.

⁴³So he took his men, divided them into three companies, and lay in wait in the fields. When he saw the people coming out of the city, he rose up against them and attacked them.

⁴⁴Then Abimelech and the companies with him rushed forward and took their stand at the entrance of the city gate. The other two companies rushed against all who were in the fields and struck them down.

⁴⁵And all that day Abimelech fought against the city until he had captured it and killed its people. Then he demolished the city and sowed it with salt.

⁴⁶On hearing of this, all the leaders in the tower of Shechem entered the inner chamber of the temple of El-berith.

⁴⁷And when Abimelech was told that all the leaders in the tower of Shechem were gathered there,

⁴⁸he and all his men went up to Mount Zalmon. Abimelech took his axe in his hand and cut a branch from the trees, which he lifted to his shoulder, saying to his men, “Hurry and do what you have seen me do.”

⁴⁹So each man also cut his own branch and followed Abimelech. Then they piled the branches against the inner chamber and set it on fire above them, killing everyone in the tower of Shechem, about a thousand men and women.

Abimelech’s Punishment

⁵⁰Then Abimelech went to Thebez, encamped against it, and captured it.

⁵¹But there was a strong tower inside the city, and all the men, women, and leaders of the city fled there. They locked themselves in and went up to the roof of the tower.

⁵²When Abimelech came to attack the tower, he approached its entrance to set it on fire.

⁵³But a woman dropped an upper millstone on Abimelech’s head, crushing his skull.

⁵⁴He quickly called his armor-bearer, saying, “Draw your sword and kill me, lest they say of me, ‘A woman killed him.’”So Abimelech’s armor-bearer ran his sword through him, and he died.

⁵⁵And when the Israelites saw that Abimelech was dead, they all went home.

⁵⁶In this way God repaid the wickedness that Abimelech had done to his father in murdering his seventy brothers.

⁵⁷And God also brought all the wickedness of the men of Shechem back upon their own heads. So the curse of Jotham son of Jerubbaal came upon them.

The Ark Returned to Israel

¹When the ark of the LORD had been in the land of the Philistines seven months,

²the Philistines summoned the priests and diviners, saying, “What shall we do with the ark of the LORD? Tell us how to send it back to its place.”

³They replied, “If you return the ark of the God of Israel, do not send it away empty, but by all means return it to Him with a guilt offering. Then you will be healed, and you will understand why His hand has not been lifted from you.”

⁴“What guilt offering should we send back to Him?” asked the Philistines.“Five gold tumors and five gold rats,” they said, “according to the number of rulers of the Philistines, since the same plague has struck both you and your rulers.

⁵Make images of your tumors and of the rats that are ravaging the land. Give glory to the God of Israel, and perhaps He will lift His hand from you and your gods and your land.

⁶Why hardenyour hearts as the Egyptians and Pharaoh hardened theirs? When He afflicted them, did they not send the people out so they could go on their way?

⁷Now, therefore, prepare one new cart with two milk cows that have never been yoked. Hitch the cows to the cart, but take their calves away and pen them up.

⁸Take the ark of the LORD, set it on the cart, and in a chest beside it put the gold objects you are sending back to Him as a guilt offering.Then send the ark on its way,

⁹but keep watching it. If it goes up the road to its homeland, toward Beth-shemesh, it is the LORD who has brought on us this great disaster. But if it does not, then we will know that it was not His hand that punished us and that it happened by chance.”

¹⁰So the men did as instructed. They took two milk cows, hitched them to the cart, and penned up their calves.

¹¹Then they put the ark of the LORD on the cart, along with the chest containing the gold rats and the images of the tumors.

¹²And the cows headed straight up the road toward Beth-shemesh, staying on that one highway and lowing as they went, never straying to the right or to the left. The rulers of the Philistines followed behind them to the border of Beth-shemesh.

¹³Now the people of Beth-shemesh were harvesting wheat in the valley, and when they looked up and saw the ark, they were overjoyed at the sight.

¹⁴The cart came to the field of Joshua of Beth-shemesh and stopped there near a large rock. The people chopped up the cart and offered the cows as a burnt offering to the LORD.

¹⁵And the Levites took down the ark of the LORD and the chest containing the gold objects, and they placed them on the large rock. That day the men of Beth-shemesh offered burnt offerings and made sacrifices to the LORD.

¹⁶And when the five rulers of the Philistines saw this, they returned to Ekron that same day.

¹⁷As a guilt offering to the LORD, the Philistines had sent back one gold tumor for each city: Ashdod, Gaza, Ashkelon, Gath, and Ekron.

¹⁸The number of gold rats also corresponded to the number of Philistine cities belonging to the five rulers—the fortified cities and their outlying villages. And the large rockon which they placed the ark of the LORD stands to this day in the field of Joshua of Beth-shemesh.

¹⁹But God struck down some of the people of Beth-shemesh because they looked inside the ark of the LORD. He struck down seventy men,and the people mourned because the LORD had struck them with a great slaughter.

²⁰The men of Beth-shemesh asked, “Who can stand in the presence of the LORD, this holy God? To whom should the ark go up from here?”

²¹So they sent messengers to the people of Kiriath-jearim, saying, “The Philistines have returned the ark of the LORD. Come down and take it up with you.”

The Ark Afflicts the Philistines

¹After the Philistines had captured the ark of God, they took it from Ebenezer to Ashdod,

²carried it into the temple of Dagon, and set it beside his statue.

³When the people of Ashdod got up early the next morning, there was Dagon, fallen on his face before the ark of the LORD. So they took Dagon and returned him to his place.

⁴But when they got up early the next morning, there was Dagon, fallen on his face before the ark of the LORD, with his head and his hands broken off and lying on the threshold. Only the torso remained.

⁵That is why, to this day, the priests of Dagon and all who enter the temple of Dagon in Ashdod do not step on the threshold.

⁶Now the hand of the LORD was heavy on the people of Ashdod and its vicinity, ravaging them and afflicting them with tumors.

⁷And when the men of Ashdod saw what was happening, they said, “The ark of the God of Israel must not stay here with us, because His hand is heavy upon us and upon our god Dagon.”

⁸So they called together all the rulers of the Philistines and asked, “What shall we do with the ark of the God of Israel?”“It must be moved to Gath,” they replied. So they carried away the ark of the God of Israel.

⁹But after they had moved the ark to Gath, the LORD’s hand was also against that city, throwing it into great confusion and afflicting the men of the city, both young and old, with an outbreak of tumors.

¹⁰So they sent the ark of God to Ekron, but as it arrived, the Ekronites cried out, “They have brought us the ark of the God of Israel in order to kill us and our people!”

¹¹Then the Ekronites called together all the rulers of the Philistines and said, “Send away the ark of the God of Israel. It must return to its place, so that it will notkill us and our people!”For a deadly confusion had pervaded the city; the hand of God was very heavy upon it.

¹²Those who did not die were afflicted with tumors, and the outcry of the city went up to heaven.

The Earth Is the LORD’s

¹The earth is the LORD’s, and the fullness thereof,the world and all who dwell therein.

²For He has founded it upon the seasand established it upon the waters.

³Who may ascend the hill of the LORD?Who may stand in His holy place?

⁴He who has clean hands and a pure heart,who does not lift up his soul to an idolor swear deceitfully.

⁵He will receive blessing from the LORDand vindication from the God of his salvation.

⁶Such is the generation of those who seek Him,who seek Your face, O God of Jacob.Selah

⁷Lift up your heads, O gates!Be lifted up, O ancient doors,that the King of Glory may enter!

⁸Who is this King of Glory?The LORD strong and mighty,the LORD mighty in battle.

⁹Lift up your heads, O gates!Be lifted up, O ancient doors,that the King of Glory may enter!

¹⁰Who is He, this King of Glory?The LORD of Hosts—He is the King of Glory.Selah