The Bible: Commentary and Controversy

Now comes something a bit different. Gideon’s son, Abimelek, tells his mother’s brothers to ask the citizens of Shechem (Israelites), whether they would want him as the ruler, or Gideon’s seventy other sons. The citizens were inclined to follow Abimelek, and gave him seventy silver shekels, which Abimelek swiftly uses to hire a bunch of thugs. He goes with them to his father’s house and there murders his seventy brothers, the sons of Gideon, except for Jotham, who escapes and runs aways. After Abimelek rules over Israel for the ensuing three years, the Lord, wanting revenge for the murder of Gideon’s sons, stirs up animosity in the citizens of Shechem, who then post themselves on the hilltops to ambush and rob anyone who passes by.

So Gael, son of Ebad, moves into town with his clan, and starts badmouthing Abimelek, saying he would like to take his army and destroy him. So he calls his troops together and plans an attack, but Abimelek defeats him, slays his army, then kills everyone in the town of Shechem and salts the ground so nothing will grow there. However, there are still some citizens in the city’s towers. So Abimelek builds a fire around one of the towers, killing about a thousand citizens. He approaches the other tower to do the same, but a woman drops a millstone from high in the tower, which hits Abimelek and cracks his skull. Whereupon he commands his armor bearer to kill him, so it can’t be said that a woman killed him.

“Thus God repaid the wickedness that Abimelek had done to his father by murdering his seventy brothers. God also made the people of Shechem pay for all their wickedness. The curse of Jotham son of Jerub-Baal came on them.” (New International Version)

Again, after about 45 years of peace, “the Israelites do evil in the eyes of the Lord,” come under the thumb of a tyrant, beg the Lord to save them, and the Lord chooses Jephthah to set things straight. Jephthah, a mighty warrior and son of Gilead’s union with a prostitute, had been driven away by Gilead’s other sons, to save their inheritance. But later, when the Ammonites were attacking them, the elders of the province of Gilead came to Jephthah and asked him to be their leader, saying they would make him head over all those who live in Gilead.

He eventually agreed, and made a promise to the Lord: “If you give the Ammonites into my hands, whatever comes out of the door of my house to meet me when I return in triumph from the Ammonites will be the Lord’s, and I will sacrifice it as a burnt offering.” An unfortunate vow, and a pretty nearsighted one, as he should have known that whatever came out of the door first was likely to be someone he dearly loved. But that goes back to our discussion of sacrifice, I guess. The more it hurts to give it up, the more the sacrifice means.

So Jephthah destroys the Ammonites, and returns home, and wouldn’t you know it, out of the front door comes his only child, dancing to meet him. I have another small problem with this. Everyone of any note so far has had flocks and flocks of children – from wives, concubines, slaves, whatever. But Jephthah has only one? Pity. He gives her two months to prepare herself, then sets her on fire, fulfilling his vow. Other battles ensue, primarily one against the Ephraimite forces, which Jephthah and his army win, killing 42,000 Ephraimites.