April 3: Judges 9:22 – Judges 11:28

The Downfall of Abimelech – Judges 9

• Abimelech rules over Israel for three years. God sends an evil spirit between him and the people of Shechem, and the people treat him treacherously. Gaal, the son of Ebed, and his family move into Shechem, and the leaders put confidence in him. He asks them who Abimelech is that they should serve him. The recommend serving Hamor, son of Shechem
• Zebul, the ruler of the city learns what Gaal is doing and sends word to Abimelech. Abimelech and his men ambush them by night. He and Zebul are able to quell the revolt and raze Shechem, destroying its tower.
• Abimelech then goes to Thebez and captures it. All the men and women flee to a strong tower within the city and shutter themselves, going to its roof. As Abimelech is fighting the tower, a woman throws a millstone from the roof onto his head, crushing it. He calls over a soldier and tells him to kill him with his sword so it won't be said that he was killed by a woman. The man does as instructed, and the men of Israel return home. God has returned the evil committed by Abimelech and the Shechemites.

Tola and Jair – Chapter 10

• Tola, a man from the land of Ephraim, judges Israel for twenty-three years. After him rises Jair the Gileadite, who judged for twenty-two years. Jair had thirty sons who rode thirty donkeys and had thirty cities. He died and was buried in Kamon.

Further Disobedience and Oppression

• The people of Israel continue to do what is evil in the sight of the Lord, serving the gods of the peoples around them, so God sells them into the hands of the Philistine and Ammonites, who oppress them for eighteen years.
• The Israelites cry out to the Lord, begging for deliverance.
• The Ammonites are called to arms, and they encamp at Gilead. Israel encamps at Mizpah. The leaders ask who will fight against the Ammonites.

Jephthah Delivers Israel – Judges 11

• Jephthah the Gileadite is a mighty warrior but also the son of Gilead and a prostitute. His half-brothers drive him out because he was not born of their mother, and he flees to the land of Tob, where he meets worthless fellows.
• The Ammonites make war with Israel, and the elders of Gilead summon Jephthah back to Gilead to be their leader. Jephthah eventually agrees. (He is the first leader raised up by the people and not by God.)
• Jephthah sends messengers to the Ammonites, asking them why they are coming to fight against his land. The Ammonites claim it is because of how Israel came from Egypt and claimed their land. He reminds them that it was God who gave them the land, then tells them that he has not sinned against them and that God will decide between the people of Israel and the people of Ammon. The Ammonites do not listen to the words he sends.