A visual Journey into the Bible - Theartofpainting.be

The Deuteronomy Page: 22 / 334The Judges Abimelech, Tola, Jair and JephtahAfter Gideon’s death the Israelites again served the Baals, taking Baal-Berith as theirGod. Abimelech, one of the sons of Gideon-Jerubbaal, asked the elders of Shechemwhat they preferred, to be ruled by one man or by all the seventy sons of Jerubbaal.The leading men of Shechem swayed towards Abimelech. Abimelech put to death allhis brothers then and the men of Shechem proclaimed Abimelech king.Jerubbaal’s youngest son, Jotham, had escaped from the massacre and from out ofMount Gerizim he addressed the leaders of Shechem. He said that of the men ofShechem had not acted in good faith then f ire should come out of Abimelech and fireout of the leaders of Shechem to destroy each other. Then Jotham fled to Beer, to beout of Abimelech’s reach.Abimelech ruled as king of Shechem for three years. Then a group of men ofShechem rose against Abimelech. He attacked the town and killed all the inhabitants.He set fire to branches of wood piled up against a crypt in which the leaders ofShechem had fled. Abimelech then marched on Thebez. He besieged the town and hecaptured it. But all the leaders of Thebez had escaped into a tower in the middle of thetown. Abimelech approached the door of the tower to set fire on it. At that precisemoment a woman threw down a millstone on his head and cracked his skull.Abimelech died in this way and the prophecy and curse of Jotham had thus come true,both for Shechem and for Abimelech. This was the end of the first man who had beenking in Israel for a short while.After Abimelech was dead, Tola was a Judge of Israel for twenty-three years and afterhim ruled Jair of Gilead, who was a Judge for twenty-two years.After these two judges the Israelites again began doing wrong and served many of theold gods of Canaan. They deserted Yahweh. Yahweh then let the Philistines and theAmmonites prevail over Israel. The Israelites were in distress. They prayed toYahweh, gathered in Gilead and were looking for a volunteer to attack theAmmonites.The elders of Gilead then fetched Jephtah, a valiant warrior. This was the son of aprostitute and his father’s wife as well as his father had driven Jephtah out from theirhouse when other, legitimate sons were born. Jephtah fled and settled in the territoryof Tob, where he assembled a group of adventurers that raided with him.Copyright: René Dewil Date: October 2001