42. The next day the people of Shechem went out to the fields. Abimelech was told about it.
43. So he separated his men into three groups. And he hid them in the fields. When he saw the people coming out of the city, he jumped up and attacked them.
44. Abimelech and his group ran to the entrance gate to the city. The other two groups ran out to the people in the fields and killed them.
45. Abimelech and his men fought the city of Shechem all day. They captured it and killed its people. Then Abimelech tore down the city. And he threw salt over the ruins so nothing would ever grow there.
46. The people who lived at the nearby Tower of Shechem heard what had happened to Shechem. So the leaders gathered in the safest room of the temple of the god Baal-of-the-Agreement.
47. Abimelech heard that all the leaders of the Tower of Shechem had gathered there.
48. So he and all his men went up to Mount Zalmon, near Shechem. Abimelech took an ax and cut some branches. Then he put them on his shoulders. He said to all his men with him, “Hurry! Do what I have done!”
49. So all those men cut branches and followed Abimelech. They piled the branches against the safest room of the temple. Then they set them on fire and burned the people in the room. So all the people who lived at the Tower of Shechem also died. There were about 1,000 men and women.
50. Then Abimelech went to the city of Thebez. He surrounded the city, attacked it and captured it.
51. But inside the city was a strong tower. All the men and women of that city ran to the tower. When they got inside, they locked the door behind them. Then they climbed up to the roof of the tower.
52. Abimelech came to the tower and attacked it. He went up to the door of the tower to set it on fire.