The Judges · c. 1180 BC
Chapter 5
The Bramble King
Gideon said to them, “I will not rule over you, neither shall my son rule over you. Yahweh shall rule over you.”
For parents
Gideon punishes the elders of Succoth with thorns and briers and kills the men of Penuel (Judges 8:16–17), and kills two captured kings (8:21). His son Abimelech kills his seventy brothers on one stone (9:5), burns about a thousand men and women in a stronghold (9:49), and dies when a woman drops a millstone on his head and his armor-bearer, at his order, kills him (9:53–54). Israel’s worship of the ephod and of the Baals is called acting like a prostitute (8:27, 33).
The men of scolded sharply. “Why have you treated us like this?” they said. “You didn’t call us when you went to fight .”
He answered them, “What have I done, compared with you? Aren’t Ephraim’s leftover grapes better than the whole grape harvest of ? God handed and , the princes of Midian, over to you! What was I able to do, compared with you?” When he said that, their anger against him cooled.
Gideon and the three hundred men with him came to the and crossed it. They were worn out, but they kept on chasing. “Please give some loaves of bread to the people following me,” he said to the men of . “They’re worn out, and I’m chasing and , the kings of Midian.”
The leaders of Succoth answered, “Have you caught Zebah and Zalmunna yet? Why should we feed your army?”
“Then here is what I’ll do,” Gideon said. “When the has put Zebah and Zalmunna in my hands, I will tear your flesh with the thorns of the wilderness, and with briers.”
He went up to and asked the same thing there, and got the same answer. He told the men of Penuel, “When I come back safe, I will break down this tower.”
Zebah and Zalmunna were at Karkor with their armies, about fifteen thousand men. That was all that was left of the whole army of the people of the east, because a hundred and twenty thousand men who carried swords had fallen.
Gideon went up by the tent-dwellers’ road, east of Nobah and Jogbehah. The army felt safe, and he attacked it. Zebah and Zalmunna ran, and he chased them. He caught both kings and sent their whole army into confusion.
Gideon son of came back from the battle by the slope of Heres. He caught a young man from Succoth and questioned him, and the young man listed for him the leaders and of Succoth, seventy-seven men.
Then Gideon came to the men of Succoth. “Look,” he said, “here are Zebah and Zalmunna. You mocked me about them. You said, ‘Have you caught Zebah and Zalmunna yet? Why should we feed your tired men?’”
He took the elders of the city, and thorns and briers from the wilderness, and he punished the men of Succoth with them.
He broke down the tower of Penuel and killed the men of the city.
Then Gideon asked Zebah and Zalmunna, “What were they like, the men you killed at ?” “They were like you,” they answered. “Every one of them looked like a king’s son.”
“They were my brothers,” Gideon said, “my own mother’s sons. As the Lord lives, if you had spared them, I wouldn’t kill you.”
He said to Jether, his oldest son, “Get up and kill them!” But the young man didn’t draw his sword. He was afraid, because he was still young.
“You get up and attack us,” Zebah and Zalmunna said. “A grown man has a grown man’s strength.” Gideon got up and killed Zebah and Zalmunna, and took the crescents, the moon-shaped ornaments, that were on their camels’ necks.
“Rule over us,” the men of said to Gideon, “you, and your son, and your grandson too, because you have saved us from the power of Midian.”
“I will not rule over you,” Gideon said to them. “Neither will my son. The Lord will rule over you.”
Then Gideon said to them, “I do have one request. Each of you, give me the earrings from your share of the plunder.” (The army they had beaten had gold earrings, because they were .)
“We’ll gladly give them,” they answered. They spread out a cloak, and every man threw the earrings from his plunder onto it. The gold earrings Gideon asked for weighed seventeen hundred , about thirty-seven pounds. That didn’t count the crescents, the pendants, the purple clothes of the kings of Midian, or the chains around their camels’ necks.
Gideon made the gold into an and put it in his own town, . Then all Israel chased after it there like a , and it turned into a trap for Gideon and his family.
So Midian was beaten, and never rose against Israel again. The land was at peace for forty years, in Gideon’s days.
Jerubbaal, as Gideon was also called, went home and lived in his own house.
Gideon had seventy sons of his own, because he had many wives. His in also gave him a son, and he named him .
Gideon lived to a good old age, and died. He was buried in his father Joash’s tomb, in Ophrah of the Abiezrites.
As soon as Gideon was dead, the Israelites turned away again and chased after the like a prostitute. They made their god.
The Israelites didn’t remember the Lord their God, who had saved them from the power of all their enemies around them. And they weren’t kind to Gideon’s family, after all the good he had done for Israel.
Abimelech, Jerubbaal’s son, went to his mother’s brothers in Shechem. He said to them and to his mother’s whole clan, “Please ask all the men of Shechem this: ‘Is it better for you to be ruled by all seventy of Jerubbaal’s sons, or by one man?’ And remember, I am your own flesh and blood.”
His mother’s brothers spoke for him and told all the men of Shechem everything he had said, and the men of Shechem were ready to follow Abimelech. “He is our brother,” they said.
They gave him seventy pieces of silver from Baal Berith’s temple. With it Abimelech hired worthless, reckless men, who followed him.
He went to his father’s house at Ophrah and killed his brothers, the seventy sons of Jerubbaal, on one stone. But , Jerubbaal’s youngest son, was left alive, because he hid.
Then all the men of Shechem came together with all the house of Millo, and went and made Abimelech king by the oak of the pillar in Shechem.
When Jotham was told about it, he stood on top of and called out to them. “Listen to me, men of Shechem,” he said, “so that God may listen to you.
“The trees set out to a king over themselves. They said to the olive tree, ‘Reign over us.’
“But the olive tree said to them, ‘Should I give up my oil, which is used to honor God and people, and go and sway back and forth over the trees?’
“The trees said to the fig tree, ‘Come and reign over us.’ But the fig tree said to them, ‘Should I leave my sweetness and my good fruit, to go and wave back and forth over the trees?’
“Then the trees said to the vine, ‘Come and reign over us.’ The vine said to them, ‘Should I give up my new wine, which cheers God and people, and go and sway back and forth over the trees?’
“Then all the trees said to the , ‘Come and reign over us.’ The bramble answered the trees, ‘If you truly mean to anoint me king over you, then come and take refuge in my shade. And if not, let fire come out of the bramble and devour the of .’
“Now think about it. Were you honest, and did you do right, when you made Abimelech king? Have you treated Jerubbaal and his family well? Have you given him what his deeds deserved?
“My father fought for you. He risked his life and rescued you from the power of Midian. And today you have risen up against my father’s family. You have killed his sons, seventy of them, on one stone. And you have made Abimelech, the son of his servant woman, king over the men of Shechem, because he is your brother.
“So if you have been honest and right with Jerubbaal and his family today, then be happy with Abimelech, and may he be happy with you. But if not, let fire come out from Abimelech and devour the men of Shechem and the house of Millo. And let fire come out from the men of Shechem and the house of Millo, and devour Abimelech.”
Then Jotham ran away to and lived there, afraid of his brother Abimelech.
Abimelech ruled over Israel for three years.
Then God sent an evil spirit between Abimelech and the men of Shechem, and the men of Shechem betrayed Abimelech. This was so that the violence done to Jerubbaal’s seventy sons would be paid back. Abimelech their brother had killed them, and the men of Shechem had backed him in killing his brothers. Now he and the men of Shechem would answer for their deaths.
The men of Shechem put men on the mountaintops to lie in wait for him, and they robbed everyone who came past them on that road. Abimelech was told about it.
Then son of Ebed came with his brothers and went over to Shechem, and the men of Shechem put their trust in him. They went out into the fields, picked the grapes in their vineyards, trampled them, and held a celebration. They went into the temple of their god, and there they ate and drank, and cursed Abimelech.
“Who is Abimelech,” said Gaal, “and who is Shechem? Why should we serve him? Isn’t he the son of Jerubbaal? Isn’t his officer? Serve the men of , the father of Shechem! But why should we serve Abimelech? If only I were in charge of these people! Then I would get rid of Abimelech.” And he said to Abimelech, “Make your army bigger, and come out!”
When Zebul, the ruler of the city, heard what Gaal had said, his anger burned. He slyly sent messengers to Abimelech to say, “Look, Gaal has come to Shechem with his brothers, and now they’re turning the city against you.
“So go up by night, you and the men with you, and lie in wait in the field. In the morning, as soon as the sun is up, get up early and rush at the city. When Gaal comes out against you with his men, do to them whatever you can.”
That night Abimelech and all his men set out, and they lay in wait for Shechem in four groups.
Gaal went out to the city gate and stood in its entrance. Abimelech and the men with him came up out of hiding.
When Gaal saw the people, he said to Zebul, “Look, people are coming down from the tops of the mountains!”
Zebul said to him, “You’re seeing the shadows of the mountains as if they were men.”
Gaal spoke again. “Look,” he said, “people are coming down from the middle of the land, and one group is coming by way of the oak of Meonenim.”
Then Zebul said to him, “Where’s all your boasting now? You were the one who said, ‘Who is Abimelech? Why should we serve him?’ Here they are, the people you looked down on. Go out now and fight them!”
Gaal went out ahead of the men of Shechem and fought Abimelech. Abimelech chased him, and Gaal ran from him. Many fell wounded, all the way to the entrance of the gate.
Abimelech stayed at Arumah, and Zebul drove Gaal and his brothers out, so that they couldn’t live in Shechem.
The next day the people went out into the field, and word reached Abimelech. He split his men into three groups and waited in hiding in the field. When the people came out of the city, he rose up and struck them down. He and the groups with him rushed forward and stood in the entrance of the city gate, while the two groups rushed at everyone in the field and struck them down.
All that day Abimelech fought against the city. He took it and killed the people in it, and he tore the city down and scattered salt over it.
When all the men of the tower of Shechem heard about it, they went into the stronghold of the temple of Elberith. Abimelech was told that they had gathered there.
Abimelech went up Mount Zalmon with all his men. He took an ax in his hand, cut a branch from the trees, lifted it up and put it on his shoulder. Then he said to the men with him, “You’ve seen what I did. Hurry, and do the same!”
Each of his men cut a branch too, and they followed Abimelech. They put the branches against the base of the stronghold and set the stronghold on fire over the people in it. So all the people of the tower of Shechem died too, about a thousand men and women.
Then Abimelech went to Thebez. He camped against Thebez and captured it.
But there was a strong tower within the city, and all the men and women of the city fled to it. They shut themselves in and went up onto the roof of the tower.
Abimelech came to the tower and fought against it. He went up close to the door of the tower to set it on fire.
A woman threw down a millstone, the upper stone of a grain mill, onto Abimelech’s head, and broke his skull.
He quickly called to the young man who carried his armor. “Draw your sword and kill me,” he said, “so that people won’t say about me, ‘A woman killed him.’” The young man drove his sword through him, and he died.
When the men of Israel saw that Abimelech was dead, they all went home.
This is how God paid Abimelech back for the wickedness he did to his father by killing his seventy brothers. And God made the men of Shechem pay for all their wickedness, and the curse of Jotham son of Jerubbaal came on them.