Once again it is a woman—this time an unnamed one—who wins victory and serves as God’s agent for punishing an evildoer. Ironically, however, Abimelech is not a foreign enemy of God’s people, but an Israelite, and even more astonishing, Gideon’s own son! The book of Judges has taken a sad turn: the heroes of Israel no longer save them. Rather, they themselves are killed by unnamed persons. As in the Sisera story, part of the greatness of victory is that death by a woman was considered particularly humiliating. In the story of Jael, Barak was robbed of his victory and Sisera is remembered as having died at the hands of a woman. In the same way this “anti-hero” of the Israelites, Abimelech, suffered a dishonorable death.

And a certain woman threw an upper millstone upon Abimelech’s head: A certain woman introduces a heroine who will bring an end to the “anti-hero” Abimelech. A certain woman is literally “one woman,” which ties this episode back ironically to the beginning of this story, where Abimelech tries to be the “one” who will rule over Shechem (verse 9.2). As in the story of Jael and Sisera, a woman single-handedly kills a man with a reputation for strength and courage. The Hebrew verb rendered threw (shalak) is very significant, since it sounds like the verb shalach, the verb used to describe Ehud reaching for his dagger to kill King Eglon (verse 3.21), as well as the verb shalaf in the next verse, which describes Abimelech’s young servant drawing his sword to kill him. The millstone was certainly very heavy so a better verb might be “dropped” (Contemporary English Version, New International Version, New Jewish Publication Society’s Tanakh).

An upper millstone is the top stone of a hand mill that was used to grind grain into flour. The top stone was rotated to grind the grain against the stationary bottom stone. Such stones were very heavy, and could easily have killed a person in the manner described here. If millstones are not known in the target culture, an upper millstone may be rendered “a heavy stone for grinding [grain].” It is important that the use of the stone be expressed. This is yet another example of an everyday tool being used to obtain a victory in Israel. And it is certainly “poetic justice” that Abimelech, who killed seventy of his brothers on “one stone” is he himself killed by one stone.

The Hebrew word for head is part of the concentration of keywords in these final verses of the story, rendered mountain “top/tops” in verse 9.7, 25, 36 and “company/companies” in verse 9.34, 37, 43-44, Revised English Bible), or “split.” The skull is the bone that covers the brain. Crushing the skull normally leads to death. In this case, however, Abimelech did not die immediately, as the next verse reveals.

Quoted with permission from Zogbo, Lynell and Ogden, Graham S. A Handbook on Judges. (UBS Helps for Translators). Miami: UBS, 2019. For this and other handbooks for translators see here .