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In the Tanakh or Old Testament, Abimelech was a son of the great judge Gideon (Judges 9:1). He was, however, merely the son of Gideon's concubine; and to make good his claim to rule over Ephraim, he resorted to force. Aided by his mother's relatives, he put to death all of his half-brothers, seventy in number, "on one stone," at Ophrah, only the youngest, Jotham, escaping, and ruled three years in Shechem after the death of his father (Judges 8:33-9:6).
He was an unprincipled, ambitious ruler, often engaged in war with his own subjects. When engaged in reducing the town of Thebez, which had revolted, he was struck mortally on his head by a mill-stone, thrown by the hand of a woman from the wall above. Perceiving that the wound was mortal, he desired his armor-bearer to thrust him through with his sword, that it might not be said he had perished by the hand of a woman (Judges 9:50-57).
Another Abimelech appears in Genesis.
Abimelech was the title of the king at Gath, mentioned in the superscription to Psalm XXXIV.
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