CHAPTER 9
1 Forsooth Abimelech, the son of Jerubbaal, went into Shechem to the brethren of his mother; and he spake to them, and to all the kindred of the house of his mother, and said, (And Abimelech, the son of Jerubbaal, went into Shechem to his mother’s brothersand her kinsmen; and he spoke to them, and to all the kindred of the house of his mother, and said,)
2 Speak ye to all the men of Shechem, (and say), What is better to you, that seventy men, all the sons of Jerubbaal, be lords of you, whether that one man be lord to you? and also behold, that I am your bone, and your flesh. (Say ye to all the men of Shechem, What is better for you, that seventy men, all the sons of Jerubbaal, rule over you, or that one man rule over you? and also remember, that I am your own flesh and blood.)
3 And the brethren of his mother spake of him all these words to all the men of Shechem; and they bowed their hearts after Abimelech, and said, He is our brother. (And his mother’s kinsmen spoke all these words about him to all the men of Shechem; and they turned their hearts to Abimelech, and said, He is our kinsman.)
4 And they gave to him seventy pieces of silver (out) of the temple of Baalberith; and he hired to him thereof men poor and having no certain dwelling, (or and with it he hired men to join him who were poor, and who had no certain dwelling), and they followed him.
5 And he came into the house of his father in Ophrah, and killed his brethren the sons of Jerubbaal, seventy men, on one stone. And Jotham, the youngest son of Jerubbaal, was left, and hid. (And he came to his father’s house in Ophrah, and killed his brothers the sons of Jerubbaal, seventy men, on one stone. But Jotham, the youngest son of Jerubbaal, was left alive, for he had hid himself.)
6 And all the men of Shechem, and all the families of the city of Millo, were gathered together, and they went, and made Abimelech king, beside the oak that stood in Shechem.
7 And when this thing was told to Jotham, he went, and stood in the top of the hill Gerizim (or and stood on the top of Mount Gerizim), and cried (out) with (a) voice raised [up], and said, Ye men of Shechem, hear me, so that God (may) hear you.
8 Trees went to anoint a king on them (or The trees went to anoint a king over themselves); and they said to the olive tree, Command thou to us.
9 Which answered, Whether I may forsake my fatness, which both Gods and men use, and come, that I be advanced among trees? (Which answered, Can I forsake my rich oil, which is used to honour both gods and men, and go that I be advanced over the other trees?)
10 And the trees said to the fig tree, Come thou, and take the realm on us, (or Come thou, and take the kingdom, and reign over us). Which answered to them,
11 Whether I may forsake my sweetness, and my full sweet fruits, and go that I be advanced among other trees? (Can I forsake my sweetness, and my full sweet fruits, and go that I be advanced over the other trees?)
12 Also the trees spake to the vine, (and said), Come thou, and command to us.
13 Which answered, Whether I may forsake my wine, that gladdeth God and men, and be advanced among other trees? (Which answered, Can I forsake my wine, that gladdeneth both the gods and people, and go that I be advanced over the other trees?)
14 And all the trees said to the rhamn, or the thieve-thorn, Come thou, and be lord on us, (or Come thou, and be lord over us).
15 Which answered to them, If ye make me verily king to you, come, and rest ye under my shadow; and, if ye will not, fire go out of the rhamn, and devour the cedars of Lebanon. (Which answered to them, If ye truly shall make me king over you, come, and rest ye under my shadow; but if ye will not, then let fire go out of the rhamn, and devour Lebanon’s cedars.)
16 Now therefore, if rightfully and without sin ye have made Abimelech king on you, and if ye have done well with Jerubbaal, and with his house, and if ye have yielded while to the beneficences of him, (And so now, if rightfully and without sin ye have made Abimelech king over you, and if ye have done the right thing with Jerubbaal, and with his household, and if ye have yielded to him according to his good deeds,)
17 that fought for you, and gave his life for perils, that he should deliver you from the hand of Midian; (yea, he who fought for you, and gave, or risked, his life to perils, so that he could save you from the hands of the Midianites;)
18 and ye have risen now against the house of my father, and have slain his sons, seventy men, on one stone, and have made Abimelech, [the] son of his handmaid, king on the dwellers of Shechem, for he is your brother; (and ye have risen up now against my father’s household,or his family, and have killed his sons, seventy men, on one stone, and have made Abimelech, the son of his slave-girl, king over the inhabitants of Shechem, for he is your kinsman;)
19 therefore if ye have done rightfully, and without sin with Jerubbaal and his house, today be ye glad in Abimelech, and be he glad in you; (and so if ye have done rightfully, and without sin with Jerubbaal and with his household, or his family, today, then be ye happy with Abimelech, and let him be happy with you;)
20 but if ye have done waywardly, (may) fire go out from Abimelech, and waste the dwellers of Shechem, and the city of Millo; and (may) fire go out from the men of Shechem, and from the city of Millo, and devour Abimelech.
21 And when Jotham had said these things, he fled, and went into Beer, and dwelled there, for dread of Abimelech, his brother (or in fear of his brother Abimelech).
22 And Abimelech reigned on Israel three years. (And Abimelech reigned over Israel for three years.)
23 And the Lord sent the worst spirit betwixt Abimelech and the dwellers of Shechem, which began to hold him abominable, (And the Lord sent the worst spirit between Abimelech and the inhabitants of Shechem, who began to hold him as abominable,)
24 and to areckon the felony of [the] slaying of the seventy sons of Jerubbaal, and the shedding out of their blood, into Abimelech their brother, and into [the] other princes of Shechem, that had helped him. (and to reckon the felony of the slaughter of the seventy sons of Jerubbaal, yea, the shedding out of their blood, unto their brother Abimelech, and unto those other men of Shechem, who had helped him.)
25 And men of Shechem set ambushments against the king in the highness of hills; and while they abode his coming, they haunted thefts, and took preys of men passing thereforth; and it was told to Abimelech. (And so the men of Shechem set men in ambush against the king in the highness of the hills; and while they waited for him, they robbed, and took plunder, from those who passed by; and this was told to Abimelech.)
26 And Gaal, the son of Ebed, came with his brethren, and passed into Shechem; at whose entering the dwellers of Shechem were raised, (And Gaal, the son of Ebed, came with his kinsmen, and went into Shechem; at whose entry, the inhabitants of Shechem were raised up, and turned to him,)
27 and went out into [the] fields, and wasted vineries, and trode grapes; and with companies of singers made, they entered into the temple of their God, and among meats and drinks they cursed Abimelech, (and they went into the fields, and emptied out their vineyards, and trod down the grapes at the winepress, and made merry; and they entered into the temple of their god, and over food and drink they cursed Abimelech,)
28 while Gaal, the son of Ebed, cried, Who is this Abimelech? And what is Shechem, that we serve him? Whether he is not the son of Jerubbaal, and made Zebul, his servant, prince on the men of Hamor, the father of Shechem? Why therefore shall we serve him? (while Gaal, the son of Ebed, cried, Who is this Abimelech? And why should we Shechemites serve him? Is he not the son of Jerubbaal? Is not Zebul but his servant? Yea, we should serve the men of Hamor, the father of Shechem! Why do we serve him?)
29 Would God, (that) some man would give this people (to be) under mine hand, and (then) I should do away Abimelech from the midst of Shechem. And it was said to Abimelech, Gather thou the multitude of an host, and come thou, (or And then he said to Abimelech, as if he were there, Gather thou the multitude of thy army, and come thou out, if thou darest).
30 For when the words of Gaal, the son of Ebed, were heard, Zebul, the prince of the city was full wroth; (And when the words of Gaal, the son of Ebed, were heard, Zebul, the leader of the city was very angry;)
31 and he sent privily messengers to Abimelech, and said, Lo! Gaal, the son of Ebed, is come into Shechem with his brethren, and he exciteth the city to fight against thee; (and he sent messengers privately, or secretly, to Abimelech, and said, Behold! Gaal, the son of Ebed, is come into Shechem with his kinsmen, and he exciteth, or rouseth, the city to fight against thee;)
32 therefore rise thou by night (or and so rise thou up tonight), with the people that is with thee, and be thou hid in the field;
33 and first in the morrowtide, when the sun riseth, fall thou upon the city; and when Gaal goeth out with his people against thee, do thou to him that that thou mayest.
34 And so Abimelech rose with all his host by night, and set ambushments beside Shechem, in four places. (And so Abimelech and all his army rose up that night, and set men in ambush beside Shechem, in four places.)
35 And Gaal, the son of Ebed, went out (the next morning), and stood in the entering of the gate of the city (or and stood at the entrance to the city gate). And Abimelech, and all the host with him, rose (up) from the place of [the] ambushments.
36 And when Gaal had seen the people, he said to Zebul, Lo! a multitude cometh down from the hills. To whom Zebul answered, Thou seest the shadows of hills as the heads of men, and thou art deceived by this error.
37 And again Gaal said, Lo! a people cometh down from the midst of the earth, and one company cometh by the way that beholdeth the oak. (And Gaal said again, Behold! many people cometh down from the midst of the land, and one company, or one group, cometh along the road of the Soothsayers? Oak.)
38 To whom Zebul said, Where is now thy mouth, by which thou speakest, Who is Abimelech, that we serve him? (or And then Zebul said to him, Now where is thy mouth, by which thou speakest, and saith, Who is this Abimelech, that we should serve him?) Whether this is not the people, whom thou despisedest? Go thou out, and fight against him.
39 Therefore Gaal went (out), while the people of Shechem abode; and he fought against Abimelech. (And so Gaal led out the men of Shechem; and they fought against Abimelech.)
40 And pursued him fleeing, and constrained him to flee into the city; and full many of the part of Gaal felled down, unto the gate of the city. (And Abimelech fought back, and pursued after them, and sent themfleeing; and a great many of Gaal’s men were killed, all the way back to the city gate.)
41 And (then) Abimelech sat in Arumah; and Zebul put Gaal and his fellows out of the city of Shechem, and he suffered them not to dwell therein (or and he did not allow them to stay there).
42 Therefore in the day following, the people went out into the field, (or And on the following day, the people came out into the open); and when this thing was told to Abimelech,
43 he took his host, and parted it in three companies, and he set ambushments in the fields; and he saw that the people went out of the city, and he rose, and felled upon them with his company, (he took his army, and divided it into three companies, or three groups, and he set men in ambush in the fields; and when he saw the people go out of the city, he rose up, and attacked them with his company,)
44 and (he) besieged them and fought against the (men of the) city. And two companies went about openly by the field (or And the other two companies went about openly in the field), and pursued their adversaries.
45 And Abimelech fought against that city all that day, the which he took, when the dwellers thereof were slain, and that city was destroyed, so that he sprinkled abroad salt therein (or and then he sprinkled salt on it).
46 And when they, that dwelled in the tower of Shechem, had heard this, they entered into the temple of their god Berith, where they had made [a] bond of peace with him; and of that idol the place took the name, the which place was full strong. (And when they, who lived in the tower of Shechem, had heard this, they entered into the temple of their god Berith, where they had made a covenant with him; and that place took the name of that idol, and it was well-fortified.)
47 And Abimelech heard that (all)[the] men of the tower of Shechem were gathered together (there),
48 and he went up into the hill of Zalmon with all his people (or and so he went up to Mount Zalmon with all his people); and with an ax taken, he cut down a bough of a tree, and he bare it, put upon his shoulder, and he said to his fellows, Do ye anon (or at once) this thing, that ye see me do.
49 Therefore with strife they cutted down boughs of the trees, and followed the duke; the which compassed the tower and burnt it up; and so it was done, that with smoke and fire a thousand men were slain, men and women together, of the dwellers of the tower of Shechem. (And so they cut off the boughs of the trees, and then followed their leader; and they surrounded the temple, and then burned it down; and so it was, that with smoke and fire, a thousand people were killed, men and women together, all those of the tower of Shechem.)
50 And Abimelech went forth from thence, and came to the city of Thebez, which he compassed, and besieged with an host. (And then Abimelech went forth from there, and came to the city of Thebez, which he surrounded, and besieged with his army.)
51 And the tower was high in the midst of the city, to which men and women fled together, and all the princes of the city, while the gate was closed full strongly; and they stood on the roof of the tower by [the] turrets. (And the tower there was high in the middle of the city, to which all the men and women, and all the city leaders fled, and then the gate was securely closed; and they stood on the roof of the tower by the turrets.)
52 And Abimelech came beside the tower, and fought strongly against it, and he nighed to the door, and enforced him to put fire under it, (or and he came up to the door, and he endeavoured to put fire under it);
53 and lo! a woman casted from above a gobbet of a millstone, and hurtled to the head of Abimelech, and it brake his noll. (and behold! a woman threw a piece of a millstone down from above, and hurtled it onto Abimelech’s head, and it broke, or it cracked, his skull.)
54 And he called anon his squire, and said to him, Draw out thy sword, and slay me, lest peradventure it be said, that I am slain of a woman. Which performed the commandments, and killed Abimelech; (And he called out at once to his squire, and said to him, Draw out thy sword, and kill me, lest it be said that I was killed by a woman. And he followed the order, and killed Abimelech;)
55 and when Abimelech was dead, all (the) men of Israel that were with him turned again to their places.
56 And God yielded to Abimelech the evil that he did against his father, for he killed his seventy brethren.
57 Also that evil was yielded to [the] men of Shechem, (for) that (that) they wrought, and (so) the curse of Jotham, the son of Jerubbaal, came upon them.