46. The people who lived at the nearby Tower of Shechem heard what had happened to Shechem. So the leaders gathered in the safest room of the temple of the god Baal-of-the-Agreement.
47. Abimelech heard that all the leaders of the Tower of Shechem had gathered there.
48. So he and all his men went up to Mount Zalmon, near Shechem. Abimelech took an ax and cut some branches. Then he put them on his shoulders. He said to all his men with him, “Hurry! Do what I have done!”
49. So all those men cut branches and followed Abimelech. They piled the branches against the safest room of the temple. Then they set them on fire and burned the people in the room. So all the people who lived at the Tower of Shechem also died. There were about 1,000 men and women.
50. Then Abimelech went to the city of Thebez. He surrounded the city, attacked it and captured it.
51. But inside the city was a strong tower. All the men and women 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.
52. Abimelech came to the tower and attacked it. He went up to the door of the tower to set it on fire.
53. As Abimelech came near, a woman dropped a large stone for grinding grain on his head. The stone crushed Abimelech’s skull.
54. He quickly called to the officer who carried his armor. He said, “Take out your sword and kill me. I don’t want people to say, ‘A woman killed Abimelech.’” So the officer stabbed Abimelech, and he died.
55. When the people of Israel saw Abimelech was dead, they all returned home.
56. In that way God punished Abimelech for all the evil he had done. Abimelech had sinned against his own father by killing his 70 brothers.
57. God also punished the men of Shechem for the evil they had done. So the curse Jotham had spoken came true. (Jotham was the youngest son of Gideon.)