22. Abimelech had been a military commander of Israel for three years,
23-24. when God decided to punish him and the leaders of Shechem for killing Gideon's seventy sons.So God turned the leaders of Shechem against Abimelech.
25. Then they sent some men to hide on the hilltops and watch for Abimelech and his troops, while they sent others to rob everyone who went by on the road. But Abimelech found out what they were doing.
26. One day, Gaal son of Ebed went to live in Shechem. His brothers moved there too, and soon the leaders of Shechem started trusting him.
27. The time came for the grape harvest, and the people of Shechem went into their vineyards and picked the grapes. They put the grapes in their wine-pits and walked on them to squeeze out the juice in order to make wine. Then they went into the temple of their god and threw a big party. There was a lot of eating and drinking, and before long they were cursing Abimelech.
28. Gaal said:Hamor was the founder of Shechem, and one of his descendants should be our ruler. But Abimelech's father was Gideon, so Abimelech isn't really one of us. He shouldn't be our king, and we shouldn't have to obey him or Zebul, who rules Shechem for him.
29. If I were the ruler of Shechem, I'd get rid of that Abimelech. I'd tell him, “Get yourself an even bigger army, and we will still defeat you.”
30. Zebul was angry when he found out what Gaal had said.
31. And so he sent some messengers to Abimelech. But they had to pretend to be doing something else, or they would not have been allowed to leave Shechem. Zebul told the messengers to say:Gaal the son of Ebed has come to Shechem along with his brothers, and they have persuaded the people to let Gaal rule Shechem instead of you.