37. Then Gaal spoke up again and said, “Look, people are coming down from the middle of the land, and one column is coming by the road of the Diviner’s Oak.”
38. Then Zebul said to him, “Where is your mouth now? With it you said, ‘Who is Abimelech that we should serve him?’ Isn’t this the people that you have trashed? Now go out and fight him!”
39. So Gaal went out ahead of the lords of Shechem and fought with Abimelech.
40. But Abimelech chased him, and he fled before him, and many fell wounded up to the entrance of the gate.
41. While Abimelech stayed in Arumah, Zebul drove Gaal and his relatives out so that they could not stay in Shechem.
42. Now it came to pass the next day that the people went out into the field, and it was reported to Abimelech.
43. So he took his people, divided them into three columns, and lay in ambush in the field. When he looked and saw the people were coming out of the city, he pounced on them and struck them down.
44. Then Abimelech and the column that was with him rushed forward and stood at the entrance of the city gate, and the other two columns rushed on all who were in the open field and struck them down.
45. So Abimelech fought against the city all that day, captured the city and killed the people that were in it. Then he razed the city and sowed it with salt.
46. Now when all the lords of Shechem’s Tower heard about it, they went into the vault of the temple of El-berith.
47. When Abimelech was told that all the lords of Shechem’s Tower had gathered there,
48. he and all the people with him went up to Mount Zalmon. Then Abimelech took an axe in his hand and cut down a branch from the trees and lifted it up and laid it on his shoulder. Then he said to the people who were with him, “What you’ve seen me do, hurry and do likewise.”
49. So all the people likewise each cut down his branch and followed Abimelech. He laid them against the vault and set the vault on fire over them. So all the people of Shechem’s Tower also died—about a thousand men and women.