Usurpation by Abimelech

“The bramble said to the trees, ‘If in truth you anoint me king over you, then come and take refuge in my shade; and if not, let fire come out of the bramble, and devour the cedars of Lebanon.’

They went out into the field, and harvested their vineyards, and trod the grapes, and held festival, and went into the house of their god, and ate and drank, and cursed Abimelech.

They gave him seventy pieces of silver out of the house of Baal Berith, with which Abimelech hired vain and light fellows, who followed him.

As soon as Gideon was dead, the children of Israel turned again, and played the prostitute after the Baals, and made Baal Berith their god.

Gideon had seventy sons conceived from his body; for he had many wives.

When they told it to Jotham, he went and stood on the top of Mount Gerizim, and lifted up his voice, and cried, and said to them, “Listen to me, you men of Shechem, that God may listen to you.