themselves esteemed this as a punishment for the same.

5. Now Abimelech, when he had aftrighted the Israelites with the
miseries he had brought upon the Shechemites, seemed openly to
affect greater authority than he now had, and appeared to set no
bounds to his violence, unless it were with the destruction of
all. Accordingly he marched to Thebes, and took the city on the
sudden; and there being a great tower therein, whereunto the
whole multitude fled, he made preparation to besiege it. Now as
he was rushing with violence near the gates, a woman threw a
piece of a millstone upon his head, upon which Abimelech fell
down, and desired his armor-bearer to kill him lest his death
should be thought to be the work of a woman: - who did what he
was bid to do. So he underwent this death as a punishment for the
wickedness he had perpetrated against his brethren, and his
insolent barbarity to the Shechemites. Now the calamity that
happened to those Shechemites was according to the prediction of
Jotham, However, the army that was with Abimelech, upon his fall,
was scattered abroad, and went to their own homes.

6. Now it was that Jair the Gileadite, (16) of the tribe of
Manasseh, took the government. He was a man happy in other
respects also, but particularly in his children, who were of a
good character. They were thirty in number, and very skillful in
riding on horses, and were intrusted with the government of the
cities of Gilead. He kept the government twenty-two years, and
died an old man; and he was buried in Camon, a city of Gilead.

7. And now all the affairs of the Hebrews were managed
uncertainly, and tended to disorder, and to the contempt of God