After God had favored Israel with great help through him, Gideon
had an ephod made. In the high priest's breastplate, Joseph was
represented among the twelve tribes by Ephraim alone, not by
Manasseh, too. To wipe out this slight upon his own tribe, Gideon
made an ephod bearing the name of Manasseh. He consecrated it
to God, but after his death homage was paid to it as an idol. (101)
In those days the Israelites were so addicted to the worship of
Beelzebub that they constantly carried small images of this god
with them in their pockets, and every now and then they were in
the habit of bringing the image forth and kissing it fervently. (102)
Of such idolaters were the vain and light fellows who helped
Abimelech, the son of Gideon by his concubine from Shechem, to
assassinate the other sons of his father. But God is just. As
Abimelech murdered his brothers upon a stone, so Abimelech
himself met his death through a millstone. It was proper, then, that
Jotham, in his parable, should compare Abimelech to a thorn-bush,
while he characterized his predecessors, Othniel, Deborah, and
Gideon, as an olive-tree, or a fig-tree, or a vine. This Jotham, the
youngest of the sons of Gideon, was more than a teller of parables.
He knew then that long afterward the Samaritans would claim
sanctity for Mount Gerizim, on account of the blessing pronounced
from it upon the tribe. For this reason he chose Gerizim from
which to hurl his curse upon Shechem and it inhabitants. (103)

The successor to Abimelech equalled, if he did not surpass, him in
wickedness. Jair erected an altar unto Baal, and on penalty of
death he forced the people to prostrate themselves before it. Only
seven men remained firm in the true faith, and refused to the last
to commit idolatry. Their names were Deuel, Abit Yisreel,
Jekuthiel, Shalom, Ashur, Jehonadab, and Shemiel. (104) They