⁴ So the leaders of Shechem gave Abimelech about ·one and three-quarter pounds [^Lseventy pieces/coins] of silver from the temple of the god Baal-Berith [8:33]. Abimelech used the silver to hire some worthless, reckless men, who ·followed him wherever he went [^Lwent after him]. ⁵ He went to Ophrah, the hometown of his father, and murdered his seventy brothers, the sons of Jerub-Baal [^CGideon; 6:32]. He killed them all on one stone. But Jerub-Baal’s youngest son, Jotham, hid from Abimelech and ·escaped [survived; was left]. ⁶ Then all of the leaders of Shechem and Beth Millo [^C“house of the fill”; probably the earthen structure on which the Tower of Shechem (v. 46) was built] gathered beside the ·great tree [oak] by the pillar [^Clikely an object of pagan worship] in Shechem. There they made Abimelech their king.