50 Abimelech went to Thebez,g camped against it, and captured it. 51 There was a strong tower inside the city,h and all the men, women, and citizens of the city fled there. They locked themselves in and went up to the roof of the tower. 52 When Abimelech came to attack the tower, he approached its entrance to set it on fire. 53 But a woman threw the upper portion of a millstone on Abimelech’s head and fractured his skull. 54 He quickly called his armor-bearer and said to him, “Draw your sword and kill me, or they’ll say about me, ‘A woman killed him.’ ” So his armor-bearer ran him through, and he died. 55 When the Israelites saw that Abimelech was dead, they all went home.

56 In this way, God brought back Abimelech’s evil—the evil that Abimelech had done to his father when he killed his seventy brothers. 57 God also brought back to the men of Shechem all their evil.a So the curse of Jotham son of Jerubbaal came upon them.b