But the leaders of Succoth said, “Are Zebah and Zalmunna already in your hands, that we should give bread to your army?”

He came to the men of Succoth and said, “Look here, Zebah and Zalmunna, about whom you taunted me, saying, ‘Are Zebah and Zalmunna now in your hand, that we should give bread to your men who are exhausted?’”

But the olive tree said to them, ‘Should I give up my fatness by which God and men are honored, and go to wave over the trees?’

But the fig tree said to them, ‘Should I give up my sweetness and my good fruit, and go to wave over the trees?’

And the vine replied, ‘Should I give up my new wine, which makes God and men happy, and go to wave over the trees?’

Gaal the son of Ebed said, “Who is Abimelech, and who is Shechem, that we should serve him? Is he not [merely] the son of Jerubbaal and is Zebul not his lieutenant? Serve the men of Hamor the father (founder) of Shechem. Why then should we serve Abimelech?

Then Zebul said to Gaal, “Where is your [boasting] mouth now, you who said, ‘Who is Abimelech that we should serve him?’ Is this not the people whom you despised? Go out now and fight with them!”

And now the Lord God of Israel has dispossessed and driven out the Amorites from before His people Israel, so [why] should you possess it?

So the men of Israel turned in the battle, and Benjamin began to strike and kill about thirty men of Israel, for they said, “Certainly they are defeated before us as in the first battle!”

They said, “O Lord, God of Israel, why has this come about in Israel, that there should be today one tribe missing from Israel?”