¹ And Abimelech the son of Jerubbaal went to Shechem to his mother's brethren, and communed with them, and with all the family of the house of his mother's father, saying,

² Speak, I pray you, in the ears of all the men of Shechem, Which is better for you, either that all the sons of Jerubbaal, which are seventy persons, should reign over you, or that one should reign over you? remember also that I am your bone and your flesh.

³ 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.

⁴ And they gave him seventy pieces of silver out of the house of Baal-berith, with which Abimelech hired vain and light persons, who followed him.

⁵ And he went to his father's house at Ophrah, and slew his brethren the sons of Jerubbaal, being seventy persons, upon one stone; notwithstanding, yet Jotham the youngest son of Jerubbaal was left; for he hid himself.

⁶ And all the men of Shechem assembled, and all the house of Millo, and went and made Abimelech king, by the plain of the pillar that was in Shechem.

⁷ 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 to them, Hearken to me, ye men of Shechem, that God may Hearken to you.

⁸ The trees went forth on a time to anoint a king over them; and they said to the olive-tree, Reign thou over us.

⁹ But the olive-tree said to them, Should I leave my fatness, with which by me they honor God and man, and go to be promoted over the trees?

¹⁰ And the trees said to the fig-tree, Come thou, and reign over us.

¹¹ But the fig-tree said to them, Should I forsake my sweetness, and my good fruit, and go to be promoted over the trees?

¹² Then said the trees to the vine, Come thou, and reign over us.

¹³ And the vine said to them, Should I leave my wine, which cheereth God and man, and go to be promoted over the trees?

¹⁴ Then said all the trees to the bramble, Come thou, and reign over us.

¹⁵ And the bramble said to the trees, If in truth ye anoint me king over you, then come and put your trust in my shadow: and if not, let fire come out of the bramble, and devour the cedars of Lebanon.

¹⁶ Now therefore, if ye have done truly and sincerely, in that ye have made Abimelech king, and if ye have dealt well with Jerubbaal and his house, and have done to him according to the deserving of his hands:

¹⁷ (For my father fought for you, and adventured his life far, and delivered you from the hand of Midian:

¹⁸ And ye have risen up against my father's house this day, and have slain his sons, seventy persons, upon one stone, and have made Abimelech, the son of his maid-servant, king over the men of Shechem, because he is your brother:)

¹⁹ If ye then have dealt truly and sincerely with Jerubbaal and with his house this day, then rejoice ye in Abimelech, and let him also rejoice in you:

²⁰ But if not, let fire come out from Abimelech, and devour the men of Shechem, and the house of Millo; and let fire come out from the men of Shechem, and from the house of Millo, and devour Abimelech.

²¹ And Jotham ran away, and fled, and went to Beer, and dwelt there, for fear of Abimelech his brother.

²² When Abimelech had reigned three years over Israel,

²³ Then God sent an evil spirit between Abimelech and the men of Shechem; and the men of Shechem dealt treacherously with Abimelech:

²⁴ That the cruelty done to the seventy sons of Jerubbaal might come, and their blood be laid upon Abimelech their brother who slew them, and upon the men of Shechem who aided him in the killing of his brethren.

²⁵ And the men of Shechem set liers in wait for him on the top of the mountains, and they robbed all that came along that way by them: and it was told Abimelech.

²⁶ And Gaal the son of Ebed came with his brethren, and went over to Shechem: and the men of Shechem put their confidence in him.

²⁷ And they went out into the fields, and gathered their vineyards, and trod the grapes, and made merry, and went into the house of their god, and ate and drank, and cursed Abimelech.

²⁸ And Gaal the son of Ebed said, Who is Abimelech, and who is Shechem, that we should serve him; is not he the son of Jerubbaal? and Zebul his officer? serve the men of Hamor the father of Shechem: for why should we serve him?

²⁹ And would that this people were under my hand! then would I remove Abimelech. And he said to Abimelech, Increase thy army, and come out.

³⁰ And when Zebul the ruler of the city heard the words of Gaal the son of Ebed, his anger was kindled.

³¹ And he sent messengers to Abimelech privately, saying, Behold, Gaal the son of Ebed, and his brethren, are come to Shechem; and behold, they fortify the city against thee.

³² Now therefore rise by night, thou, and the people that are with thee, and lie in wait in the field:

³³ And it shall be, that in the morning, as soon as the sun hath risen, thou shalt rise early, and attack the city: and behold, when he and the people that are with him come out against thee, then mayest thou do to them as thou shalt find occasion.

³⁴ And Abimelech rose, and all the people that were with him, by night, and they laid wait against Shechem in four companies.

³⁵ And Gaal the son of Ebed went out, and stood in the entrance of the gate of the city: and Abimelech rose, and the people that were with him, from lying in wait.

³⁶ And when Gaal saw the people, he said to Zebul, Behold, there come people down from the top of the mountains. And Zebul said to him, Thou seest the shadow of the mountains as if they were men.

³⁷ And Gaal spoke again, and said, See, there come people down by the middle of the land, and another company come along by the plain of Meonenim.

³⁸ Then said Zebul to him, Where is now thy mouth, with which thou saidst, Who is Abimelech, that we should serve him? are not these the people that thou hast despised? go out, I pray now, and fight with them.

³⁹ And Gaal went out before the men of Shechem, and fought with Abimelech.

⁴⁰ And Abimelech chased him, and he fled before him, and many were overthrown and wounded, even to the entrance of the gate.

⁴¹ And Abimelech dwelt at Arumah: and Zebul thrust out Gaal and his brethren, that they should not dwell in Shechem.

⁴² And it came to pass on the morrow, that the people went out into the field; and they told Abimelech.

⁴³ And he took the people, and divided them into three companies, and laid wait in the field, and looked, and behold, the people had come out of the city; and he rose up against them, and smote them.

⁴⁴ And Abimelech, and the company that was with him, rushed forward, and stood in the entrance of the gate of the city: and the two other companies ran upon all the people that were in the fields, and slew them.

⁴⁵ And Abimelech fought against the city all that day; and he took the city, and slew the people that were in it, and beat down the city, and sowed it with salt.

⁴⁶ And when all the men of the tower of Shechem heard that, they entered into a hold of the house of the god Berith.

⁴⁷ And it was told to Abimelech, that all the men of the tower of Shechem were assembled.

⁴⁸ And Abimelech ascended mount Zalmon, he and all the people that were with him; and Abimelech took an ax in his hand, and cut down a bough from the trees, and took it, and laid it on his shoulder, and said to the people that were with him, What ye have seen me do, make haste, and do as I have done.

⁴⁹ And all the people likewise cut down every man his bough, and followed Abimelech, and put them to the hold, and set the hold on fire upon them: so that all the men of the tower of Shechem died also, about a thousand men and women.

⁵⁰ Then went Abimelech to Thebez, and encamped against Thebez, and took it.

⁵¹ But there was a strong tower within the city, and thither fled all the men and women, and all they of the city, and shut it after them, and ascended to the top of the tower.

⁵² And Abimelech came to the tower, and fought against it, and came near to the door of the tower to burn it with fire.

⁵³ And a certain woman cast a piece of of a millstone upon Abimelech's head, and broke his skull.

⁵⁴ Then he called hastily to the young man his armor-bearer, and said to him, Draw thy sword, and slay me, that men say not of me, A woman slew him. And his young man thrust him through, and he died.

⁵⁵ And when the men of Israel saw that Abimelech was dead, they departed every man to his place.

⁵⁶ Thus God rendered the wickedness of Abimelech, which he did to his father, in slaying his seventy brethren:

⁵⁷ And all the evil of the men of Shechem did God render upon their heads: and upon them came the curse of Jotham the son of Jerubbaal.

¹ But on the first day of the week, at early dawn, they and some others came to the tomb, bringing the spices which they had prepared.

² They found the stone rolled away from the tomb.

³ They entered in, and didn't find the Lord Jesus' body.

⁴ It happened, while they were greatly perplexed about this, behold, two men stood by them in dazzling clothing.

⁵ Becoming terrified, they bowed their faces down to the earth. They said to them, "Why do you seek the living among the dead?

⁶ He isn't here, but is risen. Remember what he told you when he was still in Galilee,

⁷ saying that the Son of Man must be delivered up into the hands of sinful men, and be crucified, and the third day rise again?"

⁸ They remembered his words,

⁹ returned from the tomb, and told all these things to the eleven, and to all the rest.

¹⁰ Now they were Mary Magdalene, Joanna, and Mary the mother of James. The other women with them told these things to the apostles.

¹¹ These words seemed to them to be nonsense, and they didn't believe them.

¹² But Peter got up and ran to the tomb. Stooping and looking in, he saw the strips of linen lying by themselves, and he departed to his home, wondering what had happened.

¹³ Behold, two of them were going that very day to a village named Emmaus, which was sixty stadia from Jerusalem.

¹⁴ They talked with each other about all of these things which had happened.

¹⁵ It happened, while they talked and questioned together, that Jesus himself came near, and went with them.

¹⁶ But their eyes were kept from recognizing him.

¹⁷ He said to them, "What are you talking about as you walk, and are sad?"

¹⁸ One of them, named Cleopas, answered him, "Are you the only stranger in Jerusalem who doesn't know the things which have happened there in these days?"

¹⁹ He said to them, "What things?" They said to him, "The things concerning Jesus, the Nazarene, who was a prophet mighty in deed and word before God and all the people;

²⁰ and how the chief priests and our rulers delivered him up to be condemned to death, and crucified him.

²¹ But we were hoping that it was he who would redeem Israel. Yes, and besides all this, it is now the third day since these things happened.

²² Also, certain women of our company amazed us, having arrived early at the tomb;

²³ and when they didn't find his body, they came saying that they had also seen a vision of angels, who said that he was alive.

²⁴ Some of us went to the tomb, and found it just like the women had said, but they didn't see him."

²⁵ He said to them, "Foolish men, and slow of heart to believe in all that the prophets have spoken!

²⁶ Didn't the Christ have to suffer these things and to enter into his glory?"

²⁷ Beginning from Moses and from all the prophets, he explained to them in all the Scriptures the things concerning himself.

²⁸ They drew near to the village, where they were going, and he acted like he would go further.

²⁹ They urged him, saying, "Stay with us, for it is almost evening, and the day is almost over." He went in to stay with them.

³⁰ It happened, that when he had sat down at the table with them, he took the bread and gave thanks. Breaking it, he gave to them.

³¹ Their eyes were opened, and they recognized him, and he vanished out of their sight.

³² They said one to another, "Weren't our hearts burning within us, while he spoke to us along the way, and while he opened the Scriptures to us?"

³³ They rose up that very hour, returned to Jerusalem, and found the eleven gathered together, and those who were with them,

³⁴ saying, "The Lord is risen indeed, and has appeared to Simon!"

³⁵ They related the things that happened along the way, and how he was recognized by them in the breaking of the bread.

³⁶ As they said these things, Jesus himself stood among them, and said to them, "Peace be to you."

³⁷ But they were terrified and filled with fear, and supposed that they had seen a spirit.

³⁸ He said to them, "Why are you troubled? Why do doubts arise in your hearts?

³⁹ See my hands and my feet, that it is truly me. Touch me and see, for a spirit doesn't have flesh and bones, as you see that I have."

⁴⁰ When he had said this, he showed them his hands and his feet.

⁴¹ While they still didn't believe for joy, and wondered, he said to them, "Do you have anything here to eat?"

⁴² They gave him a piece of a broiled fish and some honeycomb.

⁴³ He took them, and ate in front of them.

⁴⁴ He said to them, "This is what I told you, while I was still with you, that all things which are written in the law of Moses, the prophets, and the psalms, concerning me must be fulfilled."

⁴⁵ Then he opened their minds, that they might understand the Scriptures.

⁴⁶ He said to them, "Thus it is written, and thus it was necessary for the Christ to suffer and to rise from the dead the third day,

⁴⁷ and that repentance and remission of sins should be preached in his name to all the nations, beginning at Jerusalem.

⁴⁸ You are witnesses of these things.

⁴⁹ Behold, I send forth the promise of my Father on you. But wait in the city of Jerusalem until you are clothed with power from on high."

⁵⁰ He led them out as far as Bethany, and he lifted up his hands, and blessed them.

⁵¹ It happened, while he blessed them, that he withdrew from them, and was carried up into heaven.

⁵² They worshiped him, and returned to Jerusalem with great joy,

⁵³ and were continually in the temple, praising and blessing God. Amen.