Abimelech was a king’s son. His father was the brave Gideon who fought the battle of the Lamps and Pitchers. But he had seventy brothers. So when Gideon died the question at once arose, “Which of all the princes shall be the king?” This question was promptly answered by Abimelech. He went to the men of a town called Shechem, and said, “No nation can have seventy kings. The right number is one. Now make me king, and I will be your friend.” And that pleased the men of Shechem. They gave Abimelech seventy pieces of silver, and he hired seventy bad men, and one black night they set out from Shechem, every man with a piece of silver in one pocket and a sharp knife in the other, and when they came back in the early morning all of Abimelech’s seventy brothers had been killed but one. One brother, Jotham, the youngest of them all, escaped. Now the town of Shechem lay amidst the mountains. On one side was a mountain called Ebal, and on the other side was a mountain called Gerizim. And that day, the men of Shechem heard the voice of some one calling, and here they looked and there they looked to find where the voice came from, and at last on Mount Gerizim they saw a boy. And there was Abimelech’s youngest brother, Jotham. And Jotham lifted up his voice and cried to the men of Shechem, and they came out of their houses and stood in the street to hear him. “Hearken unto me,” he said, “ye men of Shechem, that God may hearken unto you. One time the trees resolved to choose a king, and they said to the olive tree, ‘Come thou and reign over us.’ But the olive tree said unto them, ‘Shall I leave my oil which honors God and man, and go to be king over the trees?’ Then they said to the fig tree, ‘Come thou and reign over us,’ But the fig tree said, ‘Shall I leave my sweetness and my good fruit and go to be king over the trees?’ Then they said to the vine, ‘Come thou and reign over us,’ But the vine said, ‘Shall I leave my wine which gladdens God and man and go to be king over the trees?’ Thus the olive and the fig and the vine refused. Then said all the trees unto the bramble, ‘Come thou and reign over us,’ And the bramble consented. ‘Come,’ said the bramble, ‘and get under my shadow. But if you play me false, out of me shall fire come till even the cedars of Lebanon are burned.’” Thus did Jotham speak, and lest anybody should fail to understand his fable, he told the men of Shechem what it meant. “My brother Abimelech,” he said, “is good for nothing. He is like a bramble in the field. And you have made him your king. Now look out for fire.” So saying, he climbed down from the rock on which he stood, and disappeared in the woods and ran away.