The thorn bush answered, 'If you really want to make me your king, then come and take shelter in my shade. If you don't, fire will blaze out of my thorny branches and burn up the cedars of Lebanon.'

Then God made Abimelech and the men of Shechem hostile to each other, and they rebelled against Abimelech.

And so it was that God paid Abimelech back for the crime that he committed against his father in killing his seventy brothers.

God also made the men of Shechem suffer for their wickedness, just as Jotham, Gideon's son, said they would when he cursed them.

While Gideon's men were blowing their trumpets, the LORD made the enemy troops attack each other with their swords. They ran toward Zarethan as far as Beth Shittah, as far as the town of Abel Meholah near Tabbath.

When they began to sing, the LORD threw the invading armies into a panic.

The Ammonites and the Moabites attacked the Edomite army and completely destroyed it, and then they turned on each other in savage fighting.

He will destroy them like a blazing fire when he appears. The LORD will devour them in his anger, and fire will consume them.

None of their descendants will survive; the king will kill them all.

Punish them for what they have done, for the evil they have committed. Punish them for all their deeds; give them what they deserve!

Why do you boast, great one, of your evil? God's faithfulness is eternal.

You love evil more than good and falsehood more than truth.

So God will ruin you forever; he will take hold of you and snatch you from your home; he will remove you from the world of the living.

You liars, what will God do to you? How will he punish you?

With a soldier's sharp arrows, with red-hot coals!

May red-hot coals fall on them; may they be thrown into a pit and never get out.