A Millstone from the Tower
42 On the next day, the people went out into the field; and they told Abimelech. 43 He took the people and divided them into three companies, and laid wait in the field; and he looked, and behold, the people came out of the city. So, he rose up against them and struck them. 44 Abimelech and the companies that were with him rushed forward and stood in the entrance of the gate of the city; and the two companies rushed on all who were in the field and struck them. 45 Abimelech fought against the city all that day; and he took the city and killed the people in it. He beat down the city and sowed it with salt. 46 When all the men of the tower of Shechem heard of it, they entered into the stronghold of the house of Elberith. 47 Abimelech was told that all the men of the tower of Shechem were gathered together. 48 Abimelech went up to Mount Zalmon, he and all the people who were with him; and Abimelech took an ax in his hand, and cut down a bough from the trees, and took it up, and laid it on his shoulder. Then he said to the people who were with him, “What you have seen me do, make haste, and do as I have done!” 49 All the people likewise each cut down his bough, followed Abimelech, and put them at the base of the stronghold, and set the stronghold on fire over them, so that all the people of the tower of Shechem died also, about a thousand men and women. 50 Then Abimelech went to Thebez and encamped against Thebez, and took it. 51 But there was a strong tower within the city, and all the men and women of the city fled there, and shut themselves in, and went up to the roof of the tower. 52 Abimelech came to the tower and fought against it, and came near to the door of the tower to burn it with fire. 53 A certain woman cast an upper millstone on Abimelech’s head, and broke his skull. 54 Then he called hastily to the young man, his armor bearer, and said to him, “Draw your sword and kill me, that men not say of me, ‘A woman killed him.’ His young man thrust him through, and he died.” 55 When the men of Israel saw that Abimelech was dead, they each departed to his place. 56 Thus God repaid the wickedness of Abimelech, which he did to his father in killing his seventy brothers; 57 and God repaid all the wickedness of the men of Shechem on their heads; and the curse of Jotham the son of Jerubbaal came on them.
Fire comes out of the bramble and consumes Shechem, and then a woman with a millstone ends the man who burned a thousand people.
Abimelech fought against the city all that day; and he took the city and killed the people in it. He beat down the city and sowed it with salt.
The reprisal is total. Not a punishment of the ringleaders but the destruction of the city that crowned him, and sowed it with salt is a gesture of permanence — a curse on the ground, meaning nothing is to grow here again. The men who bought him with temple silver Judges 9:4 are killed by what they bought.
Abimelech went up to Mount Zalmon, he and all the people who were with him; and Abimelech took an ax in his hand, and cut down a bough from the trees, and took it up, and laid it on his shoulder. Then he said to the people who were with him, “What you have seen me do, make haste, and do as I have done!”
A thousand survivors have shut themselves into the stronghold of their god's temple Judges 9:46, and Abimelech's answer is brushwood. Each man cuts a bough, piles it against the walls, and set the stronghold on fire over them, so that all the people of the tower of Shechem died also, about a thousand men and women Judges 9:49.
Jotham's fable is now literal. He had said let fire come out of the bramble, and devour the cedars of Lebanon Judges 9:15 and let fire come out from Abimelech and devour the men of Shechem Judges 9:20 — and the instrument is cut wood, carried by men following a leader who told them to do as he did. The bramble king burns the trees.
Then Abimelech went to Thebez and encamped against Thebez, and took it.
He moves on to another town, for no stated reason, which is the point: violence that has worked twice does not need a grievance. The same situation recurs — a strong tower, the population on the roof — and he approaches the door of the tower to burn it with fire Judges 9:52, repeating the tactic that succeeded.
A certain woman cast an upper millstone on Abimelech’s head, and broke his skull.
The upper millstone was the hand-turned stone a woman used daily for grinding grain — heavy enough to crush and light enough to lift. So the man who murdered seventy brothers on one stone is killed by a stone dropped by an unnamed woman from a roof, and the book's pattern of unlikely instruments holds to the end: an ox goad, a tent peg, a jar and a torch, and now a piece of kitchen equipment Judges 3:31 Judges 4:21 Judges 7:20.
Then he called hastily to the young man, his armor bearer, and said to him, “Draw your sword and kill me, that men not say of me, ‘A woman killed him.’ His young man thrust him through, and he died.”
His last concern is his reputation, and the attempt to protect it is the reason everyone knows. The armor bearer obeys; the sentence recording it also records what he was trying to hide.
56 Thus God repaid the wickedness of Abimelech, which he did to his father in killing his seventy brothers; 57 and God repaid all the wickedness of the men of Shechem on their heads; and the curse of Jotham the son of Jerubbaal came on them.
The chapter ends with the narrator's own verdict, and it is the plainest moral statement in the book: God repaid, both parties, and Jotham's curse came true. When the men of Israel see Abimelech dead they simply go home Judges 9:55 — no deliverance has occurred and nothing has been gained. Israel's first experiment with a king of its own choosing cost seventy sons, a city, and a thousand people in a burning tower.
settled What this mark means