46. There were some people who lived at the Tower of Shechem. When they heard what had happened to Shechem, they gathered together in the safest room of the temple of the god El Berith.
47. Abimelech heard that all the leaders of the Tower of Shechem had gathered together.
48. So Abimelech and all his men went up to Mount Zalmon. Abimelech took an ax and cut off some branches and carried them on his shoulders. Then Abimelech said to the men with him, “Hurry! Do the same thing that I have done.”
49. So all the men cut branches and followed Abimelech. They piled the branches against the safest room of the temple of the god El Berith. Then they set the branches on fire and burned the people in the room. About 1000 men and women living near the Tower of Shechem died.
50. Then Abimelech and his men went to the city of Thebez and captured that city.
51. But inside the city there was a strong tower, so all the leaders and other men and women of that city ran to the tower. When the people were inside the tower, they locked the door behind them. Then they climbed up to the roof of the tower.
52. Abimelech and his men came to the tower to attack it. Abimelech went up to the door of the tower to burn it.
53. But, while Abimelech was standing at the door of the tower, a woman on the roof dropped a grinding stone on his head. The grinding stone crushed his skull.
54. Abimelech quickly said to the servant who carried his weapons, “Take out your sword and kill me. I want you to kill me so that people will not say, ‘A woman killed Abimelech.’” So the servant stabbed Abimelech with his sword, and he died.
55. The Israelites saw that Abimelech was dead, so they all went back home.
56. In that way God punished Abimelech for all the bad things he had done. Abimelech sinned against his own father by killing his 70 brothers.
57. God also punished the men of the city of Shechem for the bad things they had done. So the things said by Jotham son of Gideon came true.