The Craft of Tyranny—Six Sentence Story

To Gideon’s credit after the Lord’s victory over the Midianite raiders he had no desire to lord it over the Israelites as king. To his discredit he did take some of the gold plundered from the Midianites which helped him attract enough women to sire seventy sons. 

Although no Baal could get its hands on him, Gideon’s own greed set his family up for a fall after his death when one of his many sons, Abimelech, a bloodthirsty Nimrod wannabe, decided to craft for himself a kingdom. Abimelech made sure there was no resistance from Gideon’s other sons by slaying all of them at Ophrah except for Jotham, the youngest, who escaped to curse him from Mount Gerizim.

Abimelech’s adventures evolved shamefully until a woman fleeing into the tower at Thebez dropped a piece of millstone upon his head as he tried to burn to death those in the tower. His armorbearer, at his own command, killed him so no one could say that a woman brought about his death, but we all know what happened.

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Denise offers the prompt word “craft” to be used in this week’s Six Sentence Stories.

Judges 9:53-54
53 And a certain woman cast a piece of a millstone upon Abimelech’s head, and all to brake his skull.
54 Then he called hastily unto the young man his armourbearer, and said unto him, Draw thy sword, and slay me, that men say not of me, A women slew him. And his young man thrust him through, and he died.

The map below centered on Abimelech’s mother’s home, Shechem, comes from the BibleMapper Blog. Ophrah where Abimelech slayed his brothers is northwest of Beth-shan just off this map. Abimelech died at Thebez after making a mess at Shechem.

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Author: Frank Hubeny

I enjoy walking, poetry and short prose as well as taking pictures with my phone.

25 thoughts on “The Craft of Tyranny—Six Sentence Story”

    1. Even without a name, she has become famous. I imagine her laughing at and cursing Abimelech when she saw the stone she dropped hit him. Otherwise he wouldn’t have known who dropped the stone. His is a gruesome tale. Blessings, Mary!

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    1. She’s famous although I don’t know what her name was. For all those people who sought refuge in that tower she was the heroine who saved their lives. Thank you, Anita!

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  5. “…at his own command, killed him so no one could say that a woman brought about his death,”

    hah! we, modern people now know what a faulty character you are/were*
    *so, if one indulges in the concept of personalized hell, I suspect Abimelech, like, gets to read this Six Sentence Story!… loser!**
    ** lol compliments on your story-telling craft making the old new(ish) cool

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    1. Abimelech did get a personalized hell in the retelling of his misadventures as a loser. I don’t think he’d be able to live it down, but then his armorbearer made sure he didn’t have to. Thank you, Clark!

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    1. According to Douglas Petrovich the Nimrod mentioned in Genesis 10 can be linked to Sargon of Akkad, the first Akkadian king who mercilessly conquered neighboring cities.
      Abimelech didn’t get as far as Sargon did thanks to that woman in the tower. Thank you, Denise!

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