Judges 9

³¹His concubine, who dwelt in Shechem, also bore him a son, and he named him Abimelech.

²See how Your enemies rage, how Your foes have reared their heads.

³With cunning they scheme against Your people and conspire against those You cherish,

²When Shechem son of Hamor the Hivite, the prince of the region, saw her, he took her and lay with her by force.

¹Then Rehoboam went to Shechem, for all Israel had gone there to make him king.

¹⁸After Jacob had come from Paddan-aram, he arrived safely at the city of Shechem in the land of Canaan, and he camped just outside the city.

²⁰When all Israel heard that Jeroboam had returned, they summoned him to the assembly and made him king over all Israel. Only the tribe of Judah followed the house of David.

¹⁴Then Laban declared, “You are indeed my own flesh and blood.” After Jacob had stayed with him a month,

³⁰Gideon had seventy sons of his own, since he had many wives.

¹Then all Israel came together to David at Hebron and said, “Here we are, your own flesh and blood.

¹⁴Now since the children have flesh and blood, He too shared in their humanity, so that by His death He might destroy him who holds the power of death, that is, the devil,

¹³And say to Amasa, ‘Aren’t you my flesh and blood? May God punish me, and ever so severely, if from now on you are not the commander of my army in place of Joab!’”

³⁰For we are members of His body.

¹⁵Laban said to him, “Just because you are my relative, should you work for nothing? Tell me what your wages should be.”

³For the wicked man boasts in the cravings of his heart; he blesses the greedy and reviles the Lord.

¹¹If they say, “Come along, let us lie in wait for blood, let us ambush the innocent without cause,

¹²let us swallow them alive like Sheol, and whole like those descending into the Pit.

³³And as soon as Gideon was dead, the Israelites turned and prostituted themselves with the Baals, and they set up Baal-berith as their god.

⁷Then worthless and wicked men gathered around him to resist Rehoboam son of Solomon when he was young, inexperienced, and unable to resist them.

¹¹The one who works his land will have plenty of food, but whoever chases fantasies lacks judgment.

⁵The Jews, however, became jealous. So they brought in some troublemakers from the marketplace, formed a mob, and sent the city into an uproar. They raided Jason’s house in search of Paul and Silas, hoping to bring them out to the people.

³So Jephthah fled from his brothers and settled in the land of Tob, where worthless men gathered around him and traveled with him.

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,

¹When Athaliah the mother of Ahaziah saw that her son was dead, she proceeded to annihilate all the royal heirs.

²But Jehosheba daughter of King Joram, the sister of Ahaziah, took Joash son of Ahaziah and stole him away from among the sons of the king who were being murdered. She put him and his nurse in a bedroom to hide him from Athaliah, and he was not killed.

⁴When Jehoram had established himself over his father’s kingdom, he strengthened himself by putting to the sword all his brothers along with some of the princes of Israel.

²⁴So Gideon built an altar to the Lord there and called it The Lord Is Peace. To this day it stands in Ophrah of the Abiezrites.

¹⁶When Herod saw that he had been outwitted by the Magi, he was filled with rage. Sending orders, he put to death all the boys in Bethlehem and its vicinity who were two years old and under, according to the time he had learned from the Magi.

¹⁷When Jehu came to Samaria, he struck down everyone belonging to Ahab who remained there, until he had destroyed them, according to the word that the Lord had spoken to Elijah.

²⁰“Get up!” he said. “Take the Child and His mother and go to the land of Israel, for those seeking the Child’s life are now dead.”

⁹So David took up residence in the fortress and called it the City of David. He built it up all the way around, from the supporting terraces inward.

²⁵Then Jeroboam built Shechem in the hill country of Ephraim and lived there. And from there he went out and built Penuel.

²⁰And the servants of Joash rose up and formed a conspiracy and killed him at Beth-millo, on the road down to Silla.

²⁶Joshua recorded these things in the Book of the Law of God. Then he took a large stone and set it up there under the oak that was near the sanctuary of the Lord.

²⁰When all Israel heard that Jeroboam had returned, they summoned him to the assembly and made him king over all Israel. Only the tribe of Judah followed the house of David.

¹Then Rehoboam went to Shechem, for all Israel had gone there to make him king.

²⁹When the Lord your God brings you into the land you are entering to possess, you are to proclaim the blessing on Mount Gerizim and the curse on Mount Ebal.

¹⁵When you spread out your hands in prayer, I will hide My eyes from you; even though you multiply your prayers, I will not listen. Your hands are covered with blood.

¹²“When you have crossed the Jordan, these tribes shall stand on Mount Gerizim to bless the people: Simeon, Levi, Judah, Issachar, Joseph, and Benjamin.

⁹Whoever turns his ear away from hearing the law, even his prayer is detestable.

²⁰Our fathers worshiped on this mountain, but you Jews say that the place where one must worship is in Jerusalem.”

¹⁵Call upon Me in the day of trouble; I will deliver you, and you will honor Me.”

¹⁶To the wicked, however, God says, “What right have you to recite My statutes and to bear My covenant on your lips?

¹⁰In these visions of my mind as I was lying in bed, I saw this come to pass: There was a tree in the midst of the land, and its height was great.

¹¹The tree grew large and strong; its top reached the sky, and it was visible to the ends of the earth.

²²Then the Israelites said to Gideon, “Rule over us—you and your son and grandson—for you have saved us from the hand of Midian.”

²³But Gideon replied, “I will not rule over you, nor will my son. The Lord shall rule over you.”

⁹But Jehoash king of Israel replied to Amaziah king of Judah: “A thistle in Lebanon sent a message to a cedar in Lebanon, saying, ‘Give your daughter to my son in marriage.’ Then a wild beast in Lebanon came along and trampled the thistle.

³and tell them that this is what the Lord God says: ‘A great eagle with great wings and long pinions, full of feathers of many colors, came to Lebanon and took away the top of the cedar.

⁴He plucked off its topmost shoot, carried it to the land of merchants, and planted it in a city of traders.

²along with unleavened bread, unleavened cakes mixed with oil, and unleavened wafers anointed with oil. Make them out of fine wheat flour,

¹⁵wine that gladdens the heart of man, oil that makes his face to shine, and bread that sustains his heart.

⁷“Where have you come from?” said the Lord to Satan. “From roaming through the earth,” he replied, “and walking back and forth in it.”

²⁷In fact, this is the very city where Herod and Pontius Pilate conspired with the Gentiles and the people of Israel against Your holy servant Jesus, whom You anointed.

³⁸how God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Spirit and with power, and how Jesus went around doing good and healing all who were oppressed by the devil, because God was with Him.

⁷Then take the anointing oil and anoint him by pouring it on his head.

⁶Then Jesus told this parable: “A man had a fig tree that was planted in his vineyard. He went to look for fruit on it but did not find any.

⁷So he said to the keeper of the vineyard, ‘Look, for the past three years I have come to search for fruit on this fig tree and haven’t found any. Therefore cut it down! Why should it use up the soil?’

¹⁹A feast is prepared for laughter, and wine makes life merry, but money is the answer for everything.

¹⁰Also present half a hin of wine as a drink offering. It is a food offering, a pleasing aroma to the Lord.

¹⁵wine that gladdens the heart of man, oil that makes his face to shine, and bread that sustains his heart.

⁵With the burnt offering or sacrifice of each lamb, you are to prepare a quarter hin of wine as a drink offering.

⁶Give strong drink to one who is perishing, and wine to the bitter in soul.

⁷and a third of a hin of wine as a drink offering, a pleasing aroma to the Lord.

⁹But Jehoash king of Israel replied to Amaziah king of Judah: “A thistle in Lebanon sent a message to a cedar in Lebanon, saying, ‘Give your daughter to my son in marriage.’ Then a wild beast in Lebanon came along and trampled the thistle.

²They set out to go down to Egypt without asking My advice, to seek shelter under Pharaoh’s protection and take refuge in Egypt’s shade.

¹³against all the cedars of Lebanon, lofty and lifted up, against all the oaks of Bashan,

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.”

⁷They will return and dwell in his shade; they will grow grain and blossom like the vine. His renown will be like the wine of Lebanon.

²⁴Through your servants you have taunted the Lord, and you have said: “With my many chariots I have ascended to the heights of the mountains, to the remote peaks of Lebanon. I have cut down its tallest cedars, the finest of its cypresses. I have reached its farthest heights, the densest of its forests.

¹²Its leaves were beautiful, its fruit was abundant, and upon it was food for all. Under it the beasts of the field found shelter, in its branches the birds of the air nested, and from it every creature was fed.

³⁵They did not show kindness to the house of Jerubbaal (that is, Gideon) for all the good things he had done for Israel.

⁸But God proves His love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.

¹Early in the morning Jerubbaal (that is, Gideon) and all the men with him camped beside the spring of Harod. And the camp of Midian was north of them in the valley near the hill of Moreh.

²Then the Lord said to Gideon, “You have too many men for Me to deliver Midian into their hands, lest Israel glorify themselves over Me, saying, ‘My own hand has saved me.’

¹¹They have conquered him by the blood of the Lamb and by the word of their testimony. And they did not love their lives so as to shy away from death.

¹⁶“Go and assemble all the Jews who can be found in Susa, and fast for me. Do not eat or drink for three days, night or day, and I and my maidens will fast as you do. After that, I will go to the king, even though it is against the law. And if I perish, I perish!”

⁴who have risked their lives for me. Not only I but all the churches of the Gentiles are grateful to them.

⁴Then Gideon and his three hundred men came to the Jordan and crossed it, exhausted yet still in pursuit.

⁵So Gideon said to the men of Succoth, “Please give my troops some bread, for they are exhausted, and I am still pursuing Zebah and Zalmunna, the kings of Midian.”

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 oak at the pillar in Shechem and proceeded to make Abimelech their king.

⁴In return for my love they accuse me, but I am a man of prayer.

³⁵They did not show kindness to the house of Jerubbaal (that is, Gideon) for all the good things he had done for Israel.

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

³⁰Gideon had seventy sons of his own, since he had many wives.

³¹His concubine, who dwelt in Shechem, also bore him a son, and he named him Abimelech.

⁶“Because this people has rejected the gently flowing waters of Shiloah and rejoiced in Rezin and the son of Remaliah,

¹⁶As it is, you boast in your proud intentions. All such boasting is evil.

³For it is we who are the circumcision, we who worship by the Spirit of God, who glory in Christ Jesus, and who put no confidence in the flesh—

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 thornbush and consume the cedars of Lebanon.’

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.

¹⁰May burning coals fall on them; may they be thrown into the fire, into the miry pits, never to rise again.

²²The moment they began their shouts and praises, the Lord set ambushes against the men of Ammon, Moab, and Mount Seir who had come against Judah, and they were defeated.

²³The Ammonites and Moabites rose up against the inhabitants of Mount Seir, devoting them to destruction. And when they had finished off the inhabitants of Seir, they helped to destroy one another.

⁴Repay them according to their deeds and for their works of evil. Repay them for what their hands have done; bring back on them what they deserve.

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

¹⁶From there they went on to Beer, the well where the Lord said to Moses, “Gather the people so that I may give them water.”

⁸and all the villages surrounding these cities as far as Baalath-beer (Ramah of the Negev). This was the inheritance of the clans of the tribe of Simeon.

¹⁴Sheba passed through all the tribes of Israel to Abel-beth-maacah and through the entire region of the Berites, who gathered together and followed him.

¹Woe to you, O destroyer never destroyed, O traitor never betrayed! When you have finished destroying, you will be destroyed. When you have finished betraying, you will be betrayed.

¹⁴The Lord has poured into her a spirit of confusion. Egypt has been led astray in all she does, as a drunkard staggers through his own vomit.

¹¹For this reason God will send them a powerful delusion so that they believe the lie,

¹²in order that judgment may come upon all who have disbelieved the truth and delighted in wickedness.

²“So I will incite Egyptian against Egyptian; brother will fight against brother, neighbor against neighbor, city against city, and kingdom against kingdom.

⁹And from that day forward Saul kept a jealous eye on David.

¹⁰The next day a spirit of distress sent from God came upon Saul, and he prophesied inside the house while David played the harp as usual. Now Saul was holding a spear,

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 thornbush and 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—

³²The Lord will bring his bloodshed back upon his own head, for without the knowledge of my father David he struck down two men more righteous and better than he when he put to the sword Abner son of Ner, commander of Israel’s army, and Amasa son of Jether, commander of Judah’s army.

¹⁶His trouble recoils on himself, and his violence falls on his own head.

²⁵But when it came before the king, he commanded by letter that the wicked scheme which Haman had devised against the Jews should come back upon his own head, and that he and his sons should be hanged on the gallows.

²⁵‘Cursed is he who accepts a bribe to kill an innocent person.’ And let all the people say, ‘Amen!’

³⁴Because of this, I am sending you prophets and wise men and teachers. Some of them you will kill and crucify, and others you will flog in your synagogues and persecute from town to town.

³⁵And so upon you will come all the righteous blood shed on earth, from the blood of righteous Abel to the blood of Zechariah son of Berechiah, whom you murdered between the temple and the altar.

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.

¹¹If they say, “Come along, let us lie in wait for blood, let us ambush the innocent without cause,

¹²let us swallow them alive like Sheol, and whole like those descending into the Pit.

¹²Now Joshua had taken about five thousand men and set up an ambush between Bethel and Ai, to the west of the city.

¹³So the forces were stationed with the main camp to the north of the city and the rear guard to the west of the city. And that night Joshua went into the valley.

⁴with these orders: “Pay attention. You are to lie in ambush behind the city, not too far from it. All of you must be ready.

⁸So Abram said to Lot, “Please let there be no contention between you and me, or between your herdsmen and my herdsmen. After all, we are kinsmen.

⁷“Please, my brothers,” he pleaded, “don’t do such a wicked thing!

²⁶Just as it was in the days of Noah, so also will it be in the days of the Son of Man:

²⁷People were eating and drinking, marrying and being given in marriage, up to the day Noah entered the ark. Then the flood came and destroyed them all.

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

¹Later, King Belshazzar held a great feast for a thousand of his nobles, and he drank wine with them.

²Under the influence of the wine, Belshazzar gave orders to bring in the gold and silver vessels that Nebuchadnezzar his father had taken from the temple in Jerusalem, so that the king could drink from them, along with his nobles, his wives, and his concubines.

²³Now the lords of the Philistines gathered together to offer a great sacrifice to their god Dagon. They rejoiced and said, “Our god has delivered Samson our enemy into our hands.”

³You dismiss the day of calamity and bring near a reign of violence.

⁴You lie on beds inlaid with ivory, and lounge upon your couches. You dine on lambs from the flock and calves from the stall.

²³Instead, you have exalted yourself against the Lord of heaven. The vessels from His house were brought to you, and as you drank wine from them with your nobles, wives, and concubines, you praised your gods of silver and gold, bronze and iron, wood and stone, which cannot see or hear or understand. But you have failed to glorify the God who holds in His hand your very breath and all your ways.

¹⁰But Nabal asked them, “Who is David? Who is this son of Jesse? Many servants these days are breaking away from their masters.

²When Shechem son of Hamor the Hivite, the prince of the region, saw her, he took her and lay with her by force.

⁶Meanwhile, Shechem’s father Hamor came to speak with Jacob.

¹⁶When all Israel saw that the king had refused to listen to them, they answered the king: “What portion do we have in David, and what inheritance in the son of Jesse? To your tents, O Israel! Look now to your own house, O David!” So the Israelites went home,

¹Now a worthless man named Sheba son of Bichri, a Benjamite, happened to be there, and he blew the ram’s horn and shouted: “We have no share in David, no inheritance in Jesse’s son. Every man to his tent, O Israel!”

⁴And he would add, “If only someone would appoint me judge in the land, then everyone with a grievance or dispute could come to me, and I would give him justice.”

³⁰slanderers, God-haters, insolent, arrogant, and boastful. They invent new forms of evil; they disobey their parents.

³¹They are senseless, faithless, heartless, merciless.

³For the wicked man boasts in the cravings of his heart; he blesses the greedy and reviles the Lord.

⁸Then Amaziah sent messengers to the king of Israel Jehoash son of Jehoahaz, the son of Jehu. “Come, let us meet face to face,” he said.

²³Now, therefore, make a bargain with my master, the king of Assyria. I will give you two thousand horses—if you can put riders on them!

⁸Now, therefore, make a bargain with my master, the king of Assyria. I will give you two thousand horses—if you can put riders on them!

⁹For how can you repel a single officer among the least of my master’s servants when you depend on Egypt for chariots and horsemen?

¹⁶For they cannot sleep unless they do evil; they are deprived of slumber until they make someone fall.

¹¹If they say, “Come along, let us lie in wait for blood, let us ambush the innocent without cause,

¹²let us swallow them alive like Sheol, and whole like those descending into the Pit.

¹⁵“Their feet are swift to shed blood;

¹⁴When daylight is gone, the murderer rises to kill the poor and needy; in the night he is like a thief.

¹⁵The eye of the adulterer watches for twilight. Thinking, ‘No eye will see me,’ he covers his face.

⁴Even on his bed he plots wickedness; he sets himself on a path that is not good; he fails to reject evil.

⁷When these signs have come, do as the occasion demands, for God is with you.

¹⁰Whatever you find to do with your hands, do it with all your might, for in Sheol, where you are going, there is no work or planning or knowledge or wisdom.

²⁶Or if a man has no one to redeem it for him, but he prospers and acquires enough to redeem his land,

⁸Ask your young men, and they will tell you. So let my young men find favor with you, for we have come on the day of a feast. Please give whatever you can spare to your servants and to your son David.’”

⁷Doom has come to you, O inhabitants of the land. The time has come; the day is near; there is panic on the mountains instead of shouts of joy.

²⁴The man looked up and said, “I can see the people, but they look like trees walking around.”

¹⁴Though these nations, which you will dispossess, listen to conjurers and diviners, the Lord your God has not permitted you to do so.

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!’”

²⁸But where are the gods you made for yourselves? Let them rise up in your time of trouble and save you if they can; for your gods are as numerous as your cities, O Judah.

⁸Then Amaziah sent messengers to the king of Israel Jehoash son of Jehoahaz, the son of Jehu. “Come, let us meet face to face,” he said.

⁹But Jehoash king of Israel replied to Amaziah king of Judah: “A thistle in Lebanon sent a message to a cedar in Lebanon, saying, ‘Give your daughter to my son in marriage.’ Then a wild beast in Lebanon came along and trampled the thistle.

²⁶Then Abner called out to Joab: “Must the sword devour forever? Do you not realize that this will only end in bitterness? How long before you tell the troops to stop pursuing their brothers?”

²⁷“As surely as God lives,” Joab replied, “if you had not spoken up, the troops would have continued pursuing their brothers until morning.”

³⁰The rest of them fled into the city of Aphek, where the wall fell on twenty-seven thousand of the remaining men. Ben-hadad also fled to the city and hid in an inner room.

¹⁸“If they have marched out in peace,” he said, “take them alive. Even if they have marched out for war, take them alive.”

¹⁹Meanwhile, these young officers of the district governors marched out of the city, with the army behind them,

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

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?

¹⁵But if you keep on biting and devouring one another, watch out, or you will be consumed by one another.

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.”

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 thornbush and consume the cedars of Lebanon.’

²⁵They destroyed the cities, and each man threw stones on every good field until it was covered. They stopped up every spring and cut down every good tree. Only Kir-haraseth was left with stones in place, but men with slings surrounded it and attacked it as well.

²³All its soil will be a burning waste of sulfur and salt, unsown and unproductive, with no plant growing on it, just like the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah, Admah and Zeboiim, which the Lord overthrew in His fierce anger.

²⁵Then Jeroboam built Shechem in the hill country of Ephraim and lived there. And from there he went out and built Penuel.

³⁴and fruitful land into fields of salt, because of the wickedness of its dwellers.

¹¹But the swamps and marshes will not become fresh; they will be left for salt.

¹³For judgment without mercy will be shown to anyone who has not been merciful. Mercy triumphs over judgment.

³³And as soon as Gideon was dead, the Israelites turned and prostituted themselves with the Baals, and they set up Baal-berith as their god.

⁸Those who make them become like them, as do all who trust in them.

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

³⁸One day, while he was worshiping in the temple of his god Nisroch, his sons Adrammelech and Sharezer put him to the sword and escaped to the land of Ararat. And his son Esar-haddon reigned in his place.

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.

¹⁵For you said, “We have made a covenant with death; we have fashioned an agreement with Sheol. When the overwhelming scourge passes through it will not touch us, because we have made lies our refuge and falsehood our hiding place.”

¹⁶So this is what the Lord God says: “See, I lay a stone in Zion, a tested stone, a precious cornerstone, a sure foundation; the one who believes will never be shaken.

¹⁴When the Almighty scattered the kings in the land, it was like the snow falling on Zalmon.

¹⁷“Watch me and do as I do,” Gideon said. “When I come to the outskirts of the camp, do exactly as I do.

¹⁸When I and all who are with me blow our horns, then you are also to blow your horns from all around the camp and shout, ‘For the Lord and for Gideon!’”

¹¹If they say, “Come along, let us lie in wait for blood, let us ambush the innocent without cause,

¹²let us swallow them alive like Sheol, and whole like those descending into the Pit.

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 thornbush and consume the cedars of Lebanon.’

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.”

¹⁵But if you keep on biting and devouring one another, watch out, or you will be consumed by one another.

¹⁶For where jealousy and selfish ambition exist, there will be disorder and every evil practice.

¹⁶At that time Menahem, starting from Tirzah, attacked Tiphsah and everyone in its vicinity, because they would not open their gates. So he attacked Tiphsah and ripped open all the pregnant women.

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.

¹⁰You have indeed defeated Edom, and your heart has become proud. Glory in that and stay at home. Why should you stir up trouble so that you fall—you and Judah with you?”

²¹Who struck Abimelech son of Jerubbesheth? Was it not a woman who dropped an upper millstone on him from the wall, so that he died in Thebez? Why did you get so close to the wall?’ If he asks you this, then you are to say, ‘Your servant Uriah the Hittite is dead as well.’”

³Does not disaster come to the unjust and calamity to the workers of iniquity?

²⁰Therefore hear the plans that the Lord has drawn up against Edom and the strategies He has devised against the people of Teman: Surely the little ones of the flock will be dragged away; certainly their pasture will be made desolate because of them.

⁴⁵Therefore hear the plans that the Lord has drawn up against Babylon and the strategies He has devised against the land of the Chaldeans: Surely the little ones of the flock will be dragged away; certainly their pasture will be made desolate because of them.

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.”

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 thornbush and consume the cedars of Lebanon.’

⁴Then Saul said to his armor-bearer, “Draw your sword and run me through with it, or these uncircumcised men will come and run me through and torture me!” But his armor-bearer was terrified and refused to do it. So Saul took his own sword and fell on it.

⁵When his armor-bearer saw that Saul was dead, he too fell on his own sword and died with him.

¹⁰Drive out the mocker, and conflict will depart; even quarreling and insults will cease.

¹⁶Then Joab blew the ram’s horn, and the troops broke off their pursuit of Israel because Joab had restrained them.

²¹That is not the case. But a man named Sheba son of Bichri, from the hill country of Ephraim, has lifted up his hand against the king, against David. Deliver him alone, and I will depart from the city.” “Look,” the woman replied, “his head will be thrown to you over the wall.”

²²Then the woman went to all the people with her wise counsel, and they cut off the head of Sheba son of Bichri and threw it to Joab. So he blew the ram’s horn and his men dispersed from the city, each to his own home. And Joab returned to the king in Jerusalem.

³⁵The battle raged throughout that day, and the king was propped up in his chariot facing the Arameans. And the blood from his wound ran out onto the floor of the chariot, and that evening he died.

³⁶As the sun was setting, the cry rang out in the army: “Every man to his own city, and every man to his own land!”

²³He will bring upon them their own iniquity and destroy them for their wickedness. The Lord our God will destroy them.

²²The iniquities of a wicked man entrap him; the cords of his sin entangle him.

⁶On the wicked He will rain down fiery coals and sulfur; a scorching wind will be their portion.

¹⁰The righteous will rejoice when they see they are avenged; they will wash their feet in the blood of the wicked.

¹¹Then men will say, “There is surely a reward for the righteous! There is surely a God who judges the earth!”

²For with the same judgment you pronounce, you will be judged, and with the measure you use, it will be measured to you.

⁷Do not be deceived: God is not to be mocked. Whatever a man sows, he will reap in return.

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.”

³⁴In Ahab’s days, Hiel the Bethelite rebuilt Jericho. At the cost of Abiram his firstborn he laid its foundation, and at the cost of Segub his youngest he set up its gates, according to the word that the Lord had spoken through Joshua son of Nun.

²⁶At that time Joshua invoked this solemn oath: “Cursed before the Lord is the man who rises up and rebuilds this city, Jericho; at the cost of his firstborn he will lay its foundations; at the cost of his youngest he will set up its gates.”

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.