Feb 11, 2018
Judges 8:29-35; 9:1-6
29 Jerubbaal the son of Joash went and lived in his own
house. 30 Now Gideon had seventy sons, his own
offspring, for
he had many wives. 31 And his concubine who was in
Shechem also bore him a son, and he called his name
Abimelech.32 And Gideon the son of Joash died in a good
old age and was buried in the tomb of Joash his father, at
Ophrah of the Abiezrites. 33 As soon as Gideon died, the
people of Israel turned again and whored after the Baals and
made Baal-berith their god. 34 And the people of Israel
did not remember the Lord their God, who had delivered them
from the hand of all their enemies on every side, 35 and
they did not show steadfast love to the family of Jerubbaal
(that
is, Gideon) in return for all the good that he had done to
Israel.
9:1 Now Abimelech the son of Jerubbaal went to Shechem
to his mother's relatives and said to them and to the
whole clan of his mother's family, 2 “Say in the ears of
all the leaders of Shechem, ‘Which is better for you, that
all seventy of the sons of Jerubbaal rule over you, or that one
rule over you?’ Remember also that I am your bone and
your flesh.” 3 And his mother's relatives spoke all
these words on his behalf in the ears of all the leaders of
Shechem,
and their hearts inclined to follow Abimelech, for they said, “He
is our brother.” 4 And they gave him seventy pieces
of silver out of the house of Baal-berith with which Abimelech
hired worthless and reckless fellows, who followed
him. 5 And he went to his father's house at Ophrah and
killed his brothers the sons of Jerubbaal, seventy men, on one
stone. But Jotham the youngest son of Jerubbaal was left, for he
hid himself. 6 And all the leaders of Shechem came
together, and all Beth-millo, and they went and made Abimelech
king, by the oak of the pillar at Shechem.