48 At that A·bimʹe·lech went up Mount Zalʹmon,+ he and all the people that were with him. A·bimʹe·lech now took an ax in his hand and cut down a branch of the trees and lifted it up and put it on his shoulder and said to the people that were with him: “What YOU have seen me do—hurry up, do like me!”+

49 So all the people cut down also each one a branch for himself and went following A·bimʹe·lech. Then they put them against the vault, and over them they set the vault on fire, so that all the men of the tower of Sheʹchem died too, about a thousand men and women.+