New English Translation

Judges 9:51-57 New English Translation (NET)

51. There was a fortified tower in the center of the city, so all the men and women, as well as the city’s leaders, ran into it and locked the entrance. Then they went up to the roof of the tower.

52. Abimelech came and attacked the tower. When he approached the entrance of the tower to set it on fire,

53. a woman threw an upper millstone down on his head and shattered his skull.

54. He quickly called to the young man who carried his weapons, “Draw your sword and kill me, so they will not say, ‘A woman killed him.’” So the young man stabbed him and he died.

55. When the Israelites saw that Abimelech was dead, they went home.

56. God repaid Abimelech for the evil he did to his father by murdering his seventy half-brothers.

57. God also repaid the men of Shechem for their evil deeds. The curse spoken by Jotham son of Jerub-Baal fell on them.