Judges 8–10

The Final Defeat of the Midianites

8Then the men of Ephraim said to Gideon, “Why didn’t you call us when you went to fight the Midianites? Why did you treat us like this?” They complained bitterly about it.

²But he said, “What I was able to do is nothing compared with what you have done. Even the little that you men of Ephraim did is worth more than what my whole clan has done. ^3*After all, through the power of God you killed the two Midianite chiefs, Oreb and Zeeb. What have I done to compare with that?” When he said this, they were no longer so angry.

^4*By this time Gideon and his 300 men had come to the River Jordan and had crossed it. They were exhausted, but were still pursuing the enemy. ^5*When they arrived at Sukkoth, he said to the men of the town, “Please give my men some loaves of bread. They are exhausted, and I am pursuing Zebah and Zalmunna, the Midianite kings.”

⁶But the leaders of Sukkoth said, “Why should we give your army any food? You haven’t captured Zebah and Zalmunna yet.”

⁷So Gideon said, “All right! When the Lord has handed Zebah and Zalmunna over to me, I will beat you with thorns and briars from the desert!” ⁸Gideon went on to Penuel and made the same request of the people there, but the men of Penuel gave the same answer as the men of Sukkoth. ⁹So he said to them, “I am going to come back safe and sound, and when I do, I will tear your tower down!”

¹⁰Zebah and Zalmunna were at Karkor with their army. Of the whole army of desert tribesmen, only about 15,000 were left; 120,000 soldiers had been killed. ¹¹Gideon went along the road by the edge of the desert, east of Nobah and Jogbehah, and attacked the army by surprise. ¹²The two Midianite kings, Zebah and Zalmunna, ran away, but he pursued them and captured them, and caused their whole army to panic.

¹³When Gideon was returning from the battle by way of Heres Pass, ¹⁴he captured a young man from Sukkoth and questioned him. The young man wrote down for Gideon the names of the 77 leading men of Sukkoth. ¹⁵Then Gideon went to the men of Sukkoth and said, “Remember when you refused to help me? You said that you couldn’t give any food to my exhausted army because I hadn’t captured Zebah and Zalmunna yet. Well, here they are!” ¹⁶He then took thorns and briars from the desert and used them to punish the leaders of Sukkoth. ¹⁷He also tore down the tower at Penuel and killed the men of that city.

¹⁸Then Gideon asked Zebah and Zalmunna, “What about the men you killed at Tabor?” They

answered, “They looked like you—every one of them like the son of a king.”

¹⁹Gideon said, “They were my brothers, my own mother’s sons. I solemnly swear that if you had not killed them, I would not kill you.” ²⁰Then he said to Jether, his eldest son, “Go ahead, kill them!” But the boy did not draw his sword. He hesitated, because he was still only a boy.

²¹Then Zebah and Zalmunna said to Gideon, “Come on, kill us yourself. It takes a man to do a man’s job.” So Gideon killed them and took the ornaments that were on the necks of their camels.

²²After that, the Israelites said to Gideon, “Be our ruler—you and your descendants after you. You have saved us from the Midianites.”

²³Gideon answered, “I will not be your ruler, nor will my son. The Lord will be your ruler.” ²⁴But he went on to say, “Let me ask one thing of you. Every one of you give me the earrings you took.” (The Midianites, like other desert people, wore gold earrings.)

²⁵The people answered, “We’ll be glad to give them to you.” They spread out a cloth, and everyone put on it the earrings that he had taken. ²⁶The gold earrings that Gideon received weighed nearly 20 kilogrammes, and this did not include the ornaments, necklaces, and purple clothes that the kings of Midian wore, nor the collars that were round the necks of their camels. ²⁷Gideon made an idol from the gold and put it in his home town, Ophrah. All the Israelites abandoned God and went there to worship the idol. It was a trap for Gideon and his family.

²⁸So Midian was defeated by the Israelites and was no longer a threat. The land was at peace for 40 years, until Gideon died.

The Death of Gideon

²⁹Gideon went back to his own home and lived there. ³⁰He had 70 sons, because he had many wives. ³¹He also had a concubine in Shechem; she bore him a son, and he named him Abimelech. ³²Gideon son of Joash died at a ripe old age and was buried in the tomb of his father Joash, at Ophrah, the town of the clan of Abiezer.

³³After Gideon’s death the people of Israel were again unfaithful to God and worshipped the Baals. They made Baal-of-the-Covenant their god, ³⁴and no longer served the Lord their God, who had saved them from all their enemies round them. ³⁵They were not grateful to the family of Gideon for all the good that he had done for Israel.

Abimelech

9Gideon’s son Abimelech went to the town of Shechem, where all his mother’s relatives lived, and told them ²to ask the men of Shechem, “Which would you prefer? To be governed by all seventy of Gideon’s sons or by just one man? Remember that Abimelech is your own flesh and blood.” ³His mother’s relatives talked to the men of Shechem about this for him, and the men of Shechem decided to follow Abimelech because he was their relative. ⁴They gave him 70 pieces of silver from the temple of Baal-of-the-Covenant, and with this money he hired a bunch of worthless scoundrels to join him. ⁵He went to his father’s house at Ophrah, and there on the top of a single stone he killed his 70 brothers, Gideon’s sons. But Jotham, Gideon’s youngest son, hid and was not killed. ⁶Then all the men of Shechem and Bethmillo got together and went to the sacred oak tree at Shechem, where they made Abimelech king.

⁷When Jotham heard about this, he went and stood on top of Mount Gerizim and shouted out to them, “Listen to me, you men of Shechem, and God may listen to you! ⁸Once upon a time the trees got together to choose a king for themselves. They said to the olive tree, ‘Be our king.’ ⁹The olive tree answered, ‘In order to govern you, I would have to stop producing my oil, which is used to honour gods and human beings.’ ¹⁰Then the trees said to the fig tree, ‘You come and be our king.’ ¹¹But the fig tree answered, ‘In order to govern you, I would have to stop producing my good sweet fruit.’ ¹²So the trees then said to the grapevine, ‘You come and be our king.’ ¹³But the vine answered, ‘In order to govern you, I would have to stop producing my wine, that makes gods and human beings happy.’ ¹⁴So then all the trees said to the thorn bush, ‘You come and be our king.’ ¹⁵The thorn bush answered, ‘If you really want to make me your king, then come and take shelter in my shade. If you don’t, fire will blaze out of my thorny branches and burn up the cedars of Lebanon.’

¹⁶“Now then,” Jotham continued, “were you really honest and sincere when you made Abimelech king? Did you respect Gideon’s memory and treat his family properly, as his actions deserved? ¹⁷Remember that my father fought for you. He risked his life to save you from the Midianites. ¹⁸But today you turned against my father’s family. You killed his sons—seventy men on a single stone—and just because Abimelech, his son by his servant woman, is your relative, you have made him king of Shechem. ¹⁹Now then, if what you did today to Gideon and his family was sincere and honest, then be happy with Abimelech and let him be happy with you. ²⁰But if not, may fire blaze out from Abimelech and burn up the men of Shechem and Bethmillo. May fire blaze out from the men of Shechem and Bethmillo and burn Abimelech up.” ²¹Then because he was afraid of his brother Abimelech, Jotham ran away and went to live at Beer.

²²Abimelech ruled Israel for three years. ²³Then God made Abimelech and the men of Shechem hostile to each other, and they rebelled against him. ²⁴This happened so that Abimelech and the men of Shechem, who encouraged him to murder Gideon’s 70 sons, would pay for their crime. ²⁵The men of Shechem put men in ambush against Abimelech on the mountain tops, and they robbed everyone who passed their way. Abimelech was told about this.

²⁶Then Gaal son of Ebed came to Shechem with his brothers, and the men of Shechem put their confidence in him. ²⁷They all went out into their vineyards and picked the grapes, made wine from them, and held a festival. They went into the temple of their god, where they ate and drank and spoke scornfully of Abimelech. ²⁸Gaal said, “What kind of men are we in Shechem? Why are we serving Abimelech? Who is he, anyway? The son of Gideon! And Zebul takes orders from him, but why should we serve him? Be loyal to your ancestor Hamor, who founded your clan! ²⁹I wish I were leading this people! I would get rid of Abimelech! I would say^u to him, ‘Reinforce your army, come on out and fight!’ ”

³⁰Zebul, the ruler of the city, became angry when he heard what Gaal had said. ³¹He sent messengers to Abimelech at Arumah^v to say, “Gaal son of Ebed and his brothers have come to Shechem, and they are not going to let you into the city. ³²Now then, you and your men should move by night and hide in the fields. ³³Get up tomorrow morning at sunrise and make a sudden attack on the city. Then when Gaal and his men come out against you, hit them as hard as you can!”

³⁴So Abimelech and all his men made their move at night and hid outside Shechem in four groups. ³⁵When Abimelech and his men saw Gaal come out and stand at the city gate, they got up from their hiding places. ³⁶Gaal saw them and said to Zebul, “Look! There are men coming down from the mountain tops!”

“Those are not men,” Zebul answered. “They are just shadows on the mountains.”

³⁷Gaal said again, “Look! There are men coming down the crest of the mountain and one group is coming along the road from the oak tree of the fortune tellers!”

³⁸Then Zebul said to him, “Where is all your big talk now? You were the one who asked why we should serve this man Abimelech. These are the men you were treating so…