1. Gideon's son Abimelech went to the town of Shechem, where all his mother's relatives lived, and told them
2. to ask the men of Shechem, “Which would you prefer? To be governed by all seventy of Gideon's sons or by just one man? Remember that Abimelech is your own flesh and blood.”
3. His mother's relatives talked to the men of Shechem about this for him, and the men of Shechem decided to follow Abimelech because he was their relative.
4. They gave him seventy pieces of silver from the temple of Baal-of-the-Covenant, and with this money he hired a bunch of worthless scoundrels to join him.
5. He went to his father's house at Ophrah, and there on the top of a single stone he killed his seventy brothers, Gideon's sons. But Jotham, Gideon's youngest son, hid and was not killed.
6. Then all the men of Shechem and Bethmillo got together and went to the sacred oak tree at Shechem, where they made Abimelech king.
7. When Jotham heard about this, he went and stood on top of Mount Gerizim and shouted out to them, “Listen to me, you men of Shechem, and God may listen to you!
8. Once upon a time the trees got together to choose a king for themselves. They said to the olive tree, ‘Be our king.’
9. The olive tree answered, ‘In order to govern you, I would have to stop producing my oil, which is used to honour gods and human beings.’
10. Then the trees said to the fig tree, ‘You come and be our king.’
11. But the fig tree answered, ‘In order to govern you, I would have to stop producing my good sweet fruit.’
12. So the trees then said to the grapevine, ‘You come and be our king.’
13. But the vine answered, ‘In order to govern you, I would have to stop producing my wine, that makes gods and human beings happy.’