Amen. We now turn back to the Book of Judges, chapter eight, beginning at verse 29.
Jerubbaal, the son of Joash, went and lived in his own house. Now Gideon had 70 sons, his own offspring, for he had many wives. And his concubine who was in Shechem also bore him a son, and he called his name Abimelech.
And Gideon, the son of Joash, died in a good old age and was buried in the tomb of Joash his father at Ophrah of the Abiezrites. As soon as Gideon died, the people of Israel turned again and whored after the Baals and made Baal-Berith their god.
And the people of Israel did not remember the Lord their God, who had delivered them from the hand of all their enemies on every side, and they did not show steadfast love to the family of Jerubbaal, that is Gideon, in return for all the good that he had done to Israel.
Now Abimelech, the son of Jerubbaal, went to Shechem to his mother’s relatives and said to them and to the whole clan of his mother’s family, ‘Say in the ears of all the leaders of Shechem, which is better for you, that all seventy of the sons of Jerubbaal rule over you, or that one rule over you? Remember also that I am your bone and your flesh.’
And his mother’s relatives spoke all these words on his behalf in the ears of all the leaders of Shechem, and their hearts inclined to follow Abimelech, for they said, ‘He is our brother.’
And they gave him 70 pieces of silver out of the house of Baal-Berith, with which Abimelech hired worthless and reckless fellows who followed him. And he went to his father’s house