38. Then 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 scornfully. Go on out now and fight them.”
39. Gaal led the men of Shechem out and fought Abimelech.
40. Gaal fled, and Abimelech pursued him. Many were wounded, even at the city gate.
41. Abimelech lived in Arumah, and Zebul drove Gaal and his brothers out of Shechem, so that they could no longer live there.
42. The next day Abimelech found out that the people of Shechem were planning to go out into the fields,
43. so he took his men, divided them into three groups, and hid in the fields, waiting. When he saw the people coming out of the city, he came out of hiding to kill them.
44. While Abimelech and his group hurried forward to guard the city gate, the other two companies attacked the people in the fields and killed them all.
45. The fighting continued all day long. Abimelech captured the city, killed its people, tore it down, and covered the ground with salt.
46. When all the leading men in the fort at Shechem heard about this, they sought safety in the stronghold of the temple of Baal-of-the-Covenant.
47. Abimelech was told that they had gathered there,
48. so he went up to Mount Zalmon with his men. There he took an axe, cut a branch off a tree, and put it on his shoulder. He told his men to be quick and do the same thing.
49. So every man cut off a branch of a tree; then they followed Abimelech and piled the wood up against the stronghold. They set it on fire, with the people inside, and all the people of the fort died — about a thousand men and women.
50. Then Abimelech went to Thebez, surrounded that city, and captured it.
51. There was a strong tower there, and every man and woman in the city, including the leaders, ran to it. They locked themselves in and went up to the roof.
52. When Abimelech came to attack the tower, he went up to the door to set the tower on fire.
53. But a woman threw a millstone down on his head and fractured his skull.
54. Then he quickly called the young man who was carrying his weapons and ordered, “Draw your sword and kill me. I don't want it said that a woman killed me.” So the young man ran him through, and he died.
55. When the Israelites saw that Abimelech was dead, they all went home.
56. In this way God paid Abimelech back for the crime that he committed against his father in killing his seventy brothers.
57. God also made the men of Shechem suffer for their wickedness, just as Jotham, Gideon's son, said they would when he cursed them.