All you Israelites, ¹  make a decision here!” ² 

Eighteen thousand Benjaminites, all of them capable warriors, fell dead.

So all the men of Israel gathered together at the city as allies. ¹ 

The Lord routed ¹  Sisera, all his chariotry, and all his army with the edge of the sword. ²  Sisera jumped out of ³  his chariot and ran away on foot.

Abimelech heard ¹  that all the leaders of the Tower of Shechem were in one place. ² 

When I and all who are with me blow our trumpets, you also blow your trumpets all around the camp. Then say, ‘For the Lord and for Gideon!’”

“So all the trees said to the thornbush, ‘You come and be our king!’ ¹ 

he ¹  ordered ²  all his chariotry – nine hundred chariots with iron-rimmed wheels – and all the troops he had with him to go from Harosheth-Haggoyim to the River Kishon.

That day twenty-five thousand ¹  sword-wielding Benjaminites fell in battle, all of them capable warriors. ² 

That day they killed about ten thousand Moabites ¹  – all strong, capable warriors; not one escaped.

They stood in order ¹  all around the camp. The whole army ran away; they shouted as they scrambled away. ² 

The leaders ¹  of all the people from all the tribes of Israel took their places in the assembly of God’s people, which numbered ²  four hundred thousand sword-wielding foot soldiers.

Abimelech fought against the city all that day. He captured the city and killed all the people in it. Then he leveled ¹  the city and spread salt over it. ² 

When the Lord’s messenger finished speaking these words to all the Israelites, the people wept loudly. ¹ 

“Tell ¹  all the leaders of Shechem this: ‘Why would you want ²  to have seventy men, all Jerub-Baal’s sons, ruling over you, when you can have just one ruler? Recall that I am your own flesh and blood.’” ³ 

Now Gideon sent messengers throughout the Ephraimite hill country who announced, “Go down and head off the Midianites. ¹  Take control of the fords of the streams ²  all the way to Beth Barah and the Jordan River.” ³  When all the Ephraimites had assembled, ⁴  they took control of the fords ⁵  all the way to Beth Barah and the Jordan River.

All the leaders of Shechem and Beth Millo assembled and then went and made Abimelech king by the oak near the pillar ¹  in Shechem.

Gideon used all this to make ¹  an ephod, ²  which he put in his hometown of Ophrah. All the Israelites ³  prostituted themselves to it by worshiping it ⁴  there. It became a snare to Gideon and his family.

The Israelites did not remain true ¹  to the Lord their God, who had delivered them from all the enemies who lived around them.

So Abimelech and all his men came up ¹  at night and set an ambush outside Shechem – they divided into ²  four units.