So Abimelech and all the people who were with him arose by night and lay in wait against Shechem in four companies. Now Gaal the son of Ebed went out and stood in the entrance of the city gate; and Abimelech and the people who were with him arose from the abush. When Gall saw the people, he said to Zebul, "Look, people are coming down from the tops of the mountains." But Zebual said to him, "You are seeing the shadow of the mountains as if they were men." Gaal spoke again and said, "Behold, people are coming down from the highest part of the land, and one company comes by way of the diviner's oak." Then Zebul said to him, "Where is your boasting now with which your said, 'Who is Abimelech that we should serve him?' Is this now the people whom you despised? Go out now and fight with them!" So Gaal went out before the leaders of Shechem and fought with Abimelech. Abimelech chased him, and he fled before him; and many fell wounded up to the entrance of the gate. Then Abimelech remained at Arumah, but Zebul drove out Gaal and his relatives so that they could not remain in Shechem.
Now Gaal the son of Ebed went out and stood in the entrance of the city gate: In the morning, Zebul and Gaal were standing inside the open city gate. They were both looking to see if Abimelech was anywhere to be seen. Obviously, Gaal did not know that Zebul had sent for Abimelech. When Gall sees Abimelech's men moving on the mountainside, with the morning light still dim and the shadows long, Zebul tries to convince Gall that he was just seeing things. This would give Abimelech's men more time to get closer to the city before they were discovered.
Where is your boasting now: When it was not possible to conceal the plan any longer, Zebul tunred and flings Gaal's boastful words right back into his face. Zebul turns the tables and provokes Gaal to leave the safety of the thick defensive walls of Shechem to go out and take on the man he had so little regard for.
Abimelech chased him: No details are given about the battle. We are only given the outcome. We know Abimelech gave chase, Gaal took flight and many fell wounded and strewn all along the way to the city gate. Abimelech returns back to Arumah. Zebul is left to drive out what few members of Gaal's gang remain inside Shechem.
5. (Judges 9:42-45) Abimelech attacks the citizens of Shechem and conquers the city
Now it came about the next day, that the people went out to the field, and it was told to Abimelech. So he took his people and divided them into three companies, and lay in wait in the field; when he looked and saw the people coming out from the city, he arose against them and slew them. Then Abimelech and the company who was with him dashed forward and stood in the entrance of the city gates; the other two companies then dashed against all who were in the field and slew them. Abimelech fought against the city all that day, and he captured the city and klilled the people who were in it; then he razed the city and sowed it with salt.
Now it came about the next day: With Gaal now banished from Shechem, Abimelech could do almost anything he pleased in bringing full destruction to those who rebelled against him. The morning after the last of Gaal's men were expelled, the regular townsfolk of Shechem went out the cuty gates to tend their fields. They figured the fighting was over. It was time to get back to normal life. However, this was wrong. Abimelech and his men were laying wait to take revenge. As soon as the Shechemites were in the fields and deep into their hoeing, pruning and harvesting, then the attack would come.
So he took his people and divided them into three companies: Abimelech used the rather standard battle tactic of dividing his men into three groups. (This same technique was used by his father Gideon to defeat the Midianites.) The one company he led which immediately headed to the city gates where he secured the entrance to the city. By doing this, the townsfolk, out in the field, had no where to run. They were slaughtered in the fields by the other two companies of men. When this act was completed, Abimelech led his troops inside the city to begin destruction there.
Abimelech fought against the city all that day: The text says the fighting and destruction went on all day. Abimelech effected a rather senseless slaughter of all the inhabitants of Shechem, destroyed the buildings and sowed the land with salt. Sowing the land with salk is not lliteral, although it may have been ceremonial. It simply means that the land and the city became a wasteland and was unusable.
6. (Judges 9:46-49) The massacre at the tower of Shechem
When all the leaders of the tower of Shechem heard of it, they entered the inner chamber of the temple of El-berith. It was told Abimelech that all the leaders of the tower of Shechem were gathered together. So Abimelech went up to Mount Zalmon, he and all the people who were with him; and Abimelech took an axe in his hand and cut down a branch from the trees, and lifted it and laid it on his shoulder. Then he said to the people who were with him, :What you have seen me do, hurry and do likewise." All the people also cut down each one his branch and followed Abimelech, and put them in the inner chamber and set the inner chamber on fire over those inside, so that all the men of the tower of Shechem also died, about a thousand men and women.
When all the leaders of the tower of Shechem heard of it: Now as it happens in an aristocracy, while to common folks were fighting and dying, the upper class (who lived in another area of the city) made a mad dash to a place for their special protection. They fled from their normal quarters insde the city to the fortess-temple of their called called El-berith, meaning covenant with El. El was the Canaanit word for "highest god". It was usually considered to be above Baal. While the move from inside the city was obviously because the lords of Shechem and their families felt the temple-fortress was the strongest building available to protect them. However, without a doubt, the main reason they went there was in hopes that their god, El, would protec tthem.
It was told Abimelech that all the leaders of the tower of Shechem were gathered together: When Abimelech heard about the movements of the town's leadership, he took counter measures. He led his men to a nearby hill which had a dense growth of fir tress. he and his men chopped off branches, brought them to the temple-tower now oacked with the upper crust of Shechem, laid the branchs against it and then light them on fire. The greenness of the branches would have made for a horrible smoking while it burned through the wooden door and wooden roof which were standard for that time. Thus, many were killed as they sat huddled together. Over 1000 men and women were killed at the base of El's temple.
7. (Judges 9:50-55) God's judgment on Abimelech
Then Abimelech went to Thebez, and he camped against Thebez and captured it. But there was a strong tower in the center of the city, and all the men and women with all the leaders of the city fled there and shut themselves in; and they went up on the roof of the tower. So Abimelech came to the tower and fought against it, and approached the entrance of the tower to burn it with fire. But a certain woman threw an upper millstone on Abimelech's head, crushing his skull. Then he called quickly to the young man, his armor bearer, and said to him, "Draw your sword and kill me, so that it will not be said of me, 'A woman slew him.'" So the young man pierced him through, and he died. When the men of Israel saw that Abimelech was dead, each departed to his home.
Then Abimelech went to Thebez: With the central city of Shechem now in ruins, Abimelech moved against the neighboring coty of Thebez. This city was about nine northeast of Shechem. Thebez had apparently acted in sympathy with Shechem. The central part of Thebez was taken rapidly. Many of the people, not just the aristocracy, fled to the refuge of what is called a fortified tower.
Abimelech came to the tower and fought against it: Never one to waste a successful tactic, Abimelech used fire to force those who took refuge in the tower to come out or die by smoke and fire. But, this time, there was a different result. Abimelech approached the side of the tower to take hateful revenge by personally setting the branches against it which were lit on fire, a woman in the roof flung an upper millstone over the edge, striking Abimelech on his head and crushing his skull.
An upper millstone: An upper millstone was around 15 inches in diameter and about 3-4 inches thick. It would have weighed around 20 pounds. It must have struck at a glancing blow because if it would have hit Abimelech's head bluntly, he would have died instantly. However, Abimelech was aware enough to know it was a woman who threw the stone. He asks his armor bearer to run him through so that he would not suffer what was seen as the humiliation of being killed by a woman in battle.
8. (Judges 9:56-57) Summation: The certainty of God's judgments
Thus God repaid the wickedness of Abimelech, which he had done to his father in killing his seventy brothers. Also God returned all the wickedness of the men of Shechem on their heads, and the curse of Jotham the son of Jerubbaal came upon them.
Verse 56 and 57 explains God pays back those for whom judgment is due. Perhaps, we as Believers, are not to pay back, but God does. God repaid Abimelech and the men of Shechem for all the wrong they had done. If God does not pay back, then His justice system is a farce. What is justice if there is no punishment for a crime.
Paul brings up this exact principle in Galatians chapter 6:
Do not be deceived, God is not mocked; for whatever a man sows, this he will also reap. (Galatians 6:7)
God's law of retribution will not be foiled. It may not happen in this world, but it will occur in the next.
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