Judges 9:48-57

48 so he led all his men up to Mount Tzalmon, where he took an axe in his hand, cut a branch off a tree, and laid it on his shoulder. Then he said to those with him, "Quick! Do just what you saw me do!"

49 They all did likewise, each man cutting off his branch; and they followed Avimelekh. They put the branches up against the stronghold, set them on fire, and burned down the stronghold; so that all the people from the Sh'khem fortress died, about a thousand men and women.

50 Then Avimelekh went to Tevetz, set up camp against Tevetz and captured it.

51 But there was a fortified tower inside the city; and all the men and women took refuge in it, everyone in the city. They shut themselves inside and went up onto the roof of the tower.

52 However, when Avimelekh approached the tower, attacked it, and then came up close to the tower's door in order to burn it down,

53 a woman dropped an upper millstone on Avimelekh's head, cracking his skull.

54 He quickly called out to the young man holding his armor, "Draw your sword, and finish me off, so that people won't say a woman killed me." So his attendant ran him through, and he died.

55 When the men of Isra'el saw that Avimelekh was dead, they all went back home.

56 This is how God paid back Avimelekh for the wrong he did to his father in murdering his seventy brothers.

57 God also repaid the men of Sh'khem for all the wrong they had done; on them came the curse of Yotam the son of Yeruba'al.

Judges 9:48-57 Meaning and Commentary

INTRODUCTION TO JUDGES 9

This chapter contains an account of the craft and cruelty of Abimelech, by which he got himself made king of the Shechemites, Jud 9:1-6 of the parable of Jotham, the youngest son of Gideon, concerning the trees, in which he exposes their folly in making Abimelech king, and foretells the ruin of them both, Jud 9:7-21 of the contentions which arose between Abimelech, and the men of Shechem, increased by Gaal the son of Ebed, Jud 9:22-29 who was drawn into a battle with Abimelech, and beaten and forced to fly, Jud 9:30-41 but the quarrel between Abimelech and the men of Shechem ceased not, but still continued, which issued in the entire ruin of the city and the inhabitants of it, Jud 9:42-49 and in the death of Abimelech himself, according to Jotham's curse, Jud 9:50-57.