30When Zebul, the governor of the city, heard the words of Gaal son of Ebed, he was furious. 31He sent messages to Abimelech at Tormahd to say, “Gaal son of Ebed and his companions have come to Shechem and they are incitingb the city against you. 32Therefore, set out at night with the forces you have with you and conceal yourself in the fields. 33Early next morning, as the sun rises, advance on the city. He and his men will thereupon come out against you, and you will do to him whatever you find possible.”
34Abimelech and all the men with him set out at night and disposed themselves against Shechem in four hiding places. 35When Gaal son of Ebed came out and stood at the entrance to the city gate, Abimelech and the army with him emerged from concealment. 36Gaal saw the army and said to Zebul, “That’s an army marching down from the hilltops!” But Zebul said to him, “The shadows of the hills look to you like men.” 37Gaal spoke up again, “Look, an army is marching down from Tabbur-erez, and another column is coming from the direction of Elon-meonenim.” 38“Well,” replied Zebul, “where is your boast, ‘Who is Abimelech that we should serve him’? There is the army you sneered at; now go out and fight it!”
39So Gaal went out at the head of the citizens of Shechem and gave battle to Abimelech. 40But he had to flee before him, and Abimelech pursued him, and many fell slain, all the way to the entrance of the gate. 41Then Abimelech stayed in Arumah,e while Zebul expelled Gaal and his companions and kept them out of Shechem.
42The next day, when people went out into the fields, Abimelech was informed. 43Taking the army, he divided it into three columns and lay in ambush in the fields; and when he saw the people coming out of the city, he pounced upon them and struck them down. 44While Abimelech and the columnf that followed him dashed ahead and took up a position at the entrance of the city gate, the other two columns rushed upon all that were in the open and struck them down. 45Abimelech fought against the city all that day. He captured the city and massacred the people in it; he razed the town and sowed it with salt.
46When all the citizens of the Tower of Shechemg learned of this, they went into the tunnelh of the temple of El-berith.i 47When Abimelech was informed that all the citizens of the Tower of Shechem had gathered [there], 48Abimelech and all the troops he had with him went up on Mount Zalmon. Taking an axj in his hand, Abimelech lopped off a tree limb and lifted it onto his shoulder. Then he said to the troops that accompanied him, “What you saw me do—quick, do the same!” 49So each of the troops also lopped off a bough; then they marched behind Abimelech and laid them against the tunnel, and set fire to the tunnel over their heads. Thus all the people of the Tower of Shechem also perished, about a thousand men and women.
50Abimelech proceeded to Thebez; he encamped at Thebez and occupied it. 51Within the town was a fortified tower; and all the citizens of the town, men and women, took refuge there. They shut themselves in, and went up on the roof of the tower. 52Abimelech pressed forward to the tower and attacked it. He approached the door of the tower to set it on fire. 53But a woman dropped an upper millstone on Abimelech’s head and cracked his skull. 54He immediately cried out to his attendant, his arms-bearer, “Draw your dagger and finish me off, that they may not say of me, ‘A woman killed him!”’ So his attendant stabbed him, and he died. 55When the men of Israel saw that Abimelech was dead, everyone went home.
56Thus God repaid Abimelech for the evil he had done to his father by slaying his seventy brothers; 57and God likewise repaid the men of Shechem for all their wickedness. And so the curse of Jotham son of Jerubbaal was fulfilled upon them.
10 After Abimelech, Tola son of Puah son of Dodo, a man of Issachar, arose to deliver Israel. He lived at Shamir in the hill country of Ephraim. 2He led Israel for twenty-three years; then he died and was buried at Shamir.
3After him arose Jair the Gileadite, and he led Israel for twenty-two years. (4He had thirty sons, who rode on thirty burros and owned thirty boroughsa in the region of Gilead; these are called Havvoth-jairb to this day.) 5Then Jair died and was buried at Kamon.
6The Israelites again did what was offensive to the LORD. They served the Baalim and the Ashtaroth, and the gods of Aram, the gods of Sidon, the gods of Moab, the gods of the Ammonites, and the gods of the Philistines; they forsook the LORD and did not serve Him. 7And the LORD, incensed with Israel, surrendered them to the Philistines and to the Ammonites. 8That year they battered and shattered the Israelites— forc eighteen years—all the Israelites beyond the Jordan, in [what had been] the land of the Amorites in Gilead. 9The Ammonites also crossed the Jordan to make war on Judah, Benjamin, and the House of Ephraim. Israel was in great distress.
10Then the Israelites cried out to the LORD, “We stand guilty before You, for we have forsaken our God and served the Baalim.” 11But the LORD said to the Israelites, “[I have rescued you] from the Egyptians, from the Amorites, from the Ammonites, and from the Philistines. 12The Sidonians, Amalek, and Maond also oppressed you; and when you cried out to Me, I saved you from them. 13Yet you have forsaken Me and have served other gods. No, I will not deliver you again. 14Go cry to the gods you have chosen; let them deliver you in your time of distress!” 15But the Israelites implored the LORD: “We stand guilty. Do to us as You see fit; only save us this day!” 16They removed the alien gods from among them and served the LORD; and He could not bear the miseries of Israel.
17The Ammonites mustered and they encamped in Gilead; and the Israelites massed and they encamped at Mizpah. 18The troops—the officers of Gilead—said to one another, “Let the man who is the first to fight the Ammonites be chieftain over all the inhabitants of Gilead.”
11 Jephthah the Gileadite was an able warrior, who was the son of a prostitute. Jephthal’s father was Gilead; 2but Gilead also had sons by his wife, and when the wife’s sons grew up, they drove Jephthah out. They said to him, “You shall have no share in our father’s property, for you are the son of an outsider.”a 3So Jephthah fled from his brothers and settled in the Tob country. Men of low character gathered about Jephthah and went out raiding with him.
4Some time later, the Ammonites went to war against Israel. 5And when the Ammonites attacked Israel, the elders of Gilead went to bring Jephthah back from the Tob country. 6They said to Jephthah, “Come be our chief, so that we can fight the Ammonites.” 7Jephthah replied to the elders of Gilead, “You are the very people who rejected me and drove me out of my father’s house. How can you come to me now when you are in trouble?” 8The elders of Gilead said to Jephthah, “Honestly, we have now turned back to you. If you come with us and fight the Ammonites, you shall be our commander over all the inhabitants of Gilead.” 9Jephthah said to the elders of Gilead, “[Very well,] if you bring me back to fight the Ammonites and the LORD delivers them to me, I am to be your commander.” 10And the elders of Gilead answered Jepthah, “The LORD Himself shall be witness between us: we will do just as you have said.”
11Jephthah went with the elders of Gilead, and the people made him their commander and chief. And Jephthah repeated all these terms before the LORD at Mizpah.
12Jephthah then sent messengers to the king of the Ammonites, saying, “What have you against me that you have come to make war on my country?” 13The king of the Ammonites replied to Jephthah’s messengers, “When Israel came from Egypt, they seized the land which is mine, from the Arnon to the Jabbok as far as the Jordan. Now, then, restore it peaceably.”
14Jephthah again sent messengers to the king of the Ammonites. 15He said to him, “Thus said Jephthah: Israel did not seize the land of Moab or the land of the Ammonites. 16When they left Egypt, Israel traveled through the wilderness to the Sea of Reeds and went on to Kadesh. 17Israel then sent messengers to the king of Edom, saying, ‘Allow us to cross your country.’ But the king of Edom would not consent. They also sent a mission to the king of Moab, and he refused. So Israel, after staying at Kadesh, 18traveled on through the wilderness, skirting the land of Edom and the land of Moab. They
