37. Gaal spoke again and said, “Look, people are coming down the middle of the land, and a company is coming by way of the Diviner’s Oak.”
38. Then Zebul said to him, “Where is your mouth now, which said, ‘Who is Abimelek, that we should serve him?’ Are not these the people you dismissed out of hand? Go now, I pray, and fight against them.”
39. So Gaal went out before the leaders of Shechem and fought Abimelek.
40. Abimelek chased him, and Gaal fled from him. Many fell wounded at the entrance of the gate.
41. Abimelek stayed in Arumah, and Zebul drove out Gaal and his brothers from living in Shechem.
42. The next day the people went out into the field, and this was told to Abimelek.
43. So he took the people and divided them into three companies, and they laid in wait in the field. When the people came out from the city, he rose up against them and struck them down.
44. Abimelek and the company that was with him rushed forward and stood at the entrance of the city gate. The two other combat units attacked everyone in the field and struck them down.
45. Abimelek fought against the city all that day. He captured the city and killed the people inside it; he tore down the city and spread salt over it.
46. When the leaders of the Tower of Shechem heard this, they entered the fortified temple of El-Berith.
47. Abimelek was told that all the leaders of the Tower of Shechem had gathered together.
48. So Abimelek and all the people who were with him went up Mount Zalmon. He took an axe in his hand and cut off a tree branch, lifted it, and carried it on his shoulder. Then he said to the men who were with him, “What you have seen me do, hurry and do the same.”
49. So everyone likewise cut off a branch and followed Abimelek. They placed them on the fortification and set the fortification on fire over them. So all the people of the Tower of Shechem died, about a thousand men and women.