d
up their heads no more. And the land had rest forty years in the days
of Gideon.

And Gideon the son of Joash died in a good old age, and was buried in
the sepulcher of Joash his father, in Ophrah of the Abiezrites.

{332}

ABIMELECH

_The Story of the Sons of Gideon, and the Evil Which Befell Them_.

ABIMELECH SEIZES THE LEADERSHIP.

(This is the first of the bloody conflicts for leadership in Hebrew
history, so common after the kingdom was established. Abimelech, the
son of Gideon, whose mother was a woman of Shechem and a servant,
killed all the other children but Jotham, and died himself in battle
after a brief period of supremacy.)

And Abimelech the son of Jerubbaal went to Shechem to his mother's
brethren, and spoke with them, and with all the family of the house of
his mother's father, saying, "Speak, I pray you, in the ears of all
the men of Shechem, 'Which is better for you, that all the sons of
Jerubbaal, who are threescore and ten persons, rule over you, or that
one rule over you? remember also that I am your bone and your flesh.'"

And his mother's brethren spoke of him in the ears of all the men of
Shechem all these words: and their hearts inclined to follow Abimelech;
for they said, "He is our brother." And they gave him threescore and ten
pieces of silver, wherewith Abimelech hired vain and light fellows, who
followed him. And he went unto his father's house at Ophrah, and slew
his brethren the sons of {333} Jerubbaal, being threescore and ten
persons, upon one stone: but Jotham the youngest son of Jerubbaal was
left; for he hid himself.

AN OLD FABLE.

(This is one of the earliest of those stories called fables in which
animals or trees or other things not living are represented as
speaking and acting like living persons. Such stories were
usually told to teach some lesson.)

And all the men of Shechem assembled themselves together, and all the
house of Millo, and went and made Abimelech king, by the oak of the
pillar that was in Shechem. And when they told it to Jotham, he went
and stood in the top of mount Gerizim, and lifted up his voice, and
cried, and said unto them, "Hearken unto me, ye men of Shechem, that
God may hearken unto you. The trees went forth on a time to anoint a
king over them; and they said unto the olive tree, 'Reign thou over
us.' But the olive tree said unto them, 'Should I leave my fatness,
wherewith by me they honor God and man, and go to wave to and