Abimelech’s Death

⁵⁰ Then Abimelech went to the city of Thebez. He ·surrounded the city, attacked it, [^Lbesieged/encamped against Thebez] and captured it. ⁵¹ But inside the city was a strong ·tower [or fortress], so all the men, women, and ·leaders [leading citizens; lords] 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 [^Cto fight back and avoid the fate of the people of Shechem; v. 49]. ⁵² Abimelech came to the tower to attack it. He approached the door of the tower to set it on fire, ⁵³ but as he came near, a woman dropped a ·grinding stone [^Lupper millstone; ^Cthe smaller stone (about 10 inches long) that was rolled by hand over the top of the larger lower millstone; Deut. 24:6] on his head, crushing his skull.

⁵⁴ He quickly called to the officer who carried his armor and said, “Draw your sword and kill me. I don’t want people to say, ‘A woman killed Abimelech [^Ca humiliation for a warrior; 4:17–24; 1 Sam. 31:4].’” So ·the officer [his servant; or the young man] stabbed Abimelech, and he died. ⁵⁵ When the people of Israel saw Abimelech was dead, they all returned ·home [^Leach man to his place].

⁵⁶ In that way God ·punished [repaid; returned to] Abimelech for all the evil he had done to his father by killing his seventy brothers. ⁵⁷ God also ·punished [repaid; ^Lreturned on the heads of] the men of Shechem for the evil they had done. So the curse spoken by Jotham, the son of Jerub-Baal [^CGideon], came ·true [^Lon them].