43. he separated his men into three groups and hid them in the fields. When he saw the people coming out of the city, he jumped up and attacked them.
44. Abimelech and his group ran to the entrance gate to the city. The other two groups ran out to the people in the fields and struck them down.
45. Abimelech and his men fought the city of Shechem all day until they captured it and killed its people. Then he tore it down and threw salt over the ruins.
46. When the leaders who were in the Tower of Shechem heard what had happened to Shechem, they gathered in the safest room of the temple of El Berith.
47. Abimelech heard that all the leaders of the Tower of Shechem had gathered there.
48. So he and all his men went up Mount Zalmon, near Shechem. Abimelech took an ax and cut some branches and put them on his shoulders. He said to all those with him, “Hurry! Do what I have done!”
49. So all those men cut branches and followed Abimelech and piled them against the safest room of the temple. Then they set them on fire and burned the people inside. So all the people who were at the Tower of Shechem also died—about a thousand 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, so all the men, women, and leaders 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 to attack it. He approached the door of the tower to set it on fire,
53. but as he came near, a woman dropped a grinding stone on his head, crushing his skull.
54. He quickly called to the officer who carried his armor and 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 to his father by killing his seventy brothers.
57. God also punished the men of Shechem for the evil they had done. So the curse spoken by Jotham, the youngest son of Gideon, came true.