9:46-49
From the previous few verses one might conclude that the whole city and its inhabitants had been destroyed. The next few verses make it clear that this was not the case. This is a further warning that we need to be careful how we take verses apparently saying there has been complete destruction. So citizens in the tower of Shechem went into the stronghold of the temple of El-Berith. In response, Abimelek and his men collected lots of branches and then set fire to the stronghold. So the people in the tower also died.
9:50-57
Abimelek was now on a roll, so he went on to attack Thebez, besieged and captured it. This city also had a stronghold to which the people had fled. Abimelek went to attack the tower, but a woman dropped a millstone on Abimelek which cracked his skull. The last thing he wanted was the humiliation of being killed by a woman, so he got his armour-bearer to kill him with his sword. On his death the people of Israel all went home.
The sorry chapter comes to an end with an interpretation of what had happened. God had repaid the wickedness of Abimelek and of the people of Shechem.
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