Quotes About Leadership

From there he went up to Penuel and asked the same from them, but the men of Penuel gave the same response as the men of Succoth.

So Gideon told the men of Penuel, “When I return in triumph, I will tear down this tower!”

Now Zebah and Zalmunna were in Karkor with their army of about fifteen thousand men—all that were left of the armies of the people of the east. A hundred and twenty thousand swordsmen had already fallen.

And Gideon went up by way of the caravan route east of Nobah and Jogbehah, and he attacked their army, taking them by surprise.

When Zebah and Zalmunna fled, Gideon pursued and captured these two kings of Midian, routing their entire army.

After this, Gideon son of Joash returned from the battle along the Ascent of Heres.

There he captured a young man of Succoth and interrogated him. The young man wrote down for him the names of the seventy-seven leaders and elders of Succoth.

Then he took the elders of the city, and using the thorns and briers of the wilderness, he disciplined the men of Succoth.

He also pulled down the tower of Penuel and killed the men of the city.

Next, Gideon asked Zebah and Zalmunna, “What kind of men did you kill at Tabor?” “Men like you,” they answered, “each one resembling the son of a king.”

So he said to Jether, his firstborn, “Get up and kill them.” But the young man did not draw his sword; he was fearful because he was still a youth.

Then Zebah and Zalmunna said, “Get up and kill us yourself, for as the man is, so is his strength.” So Gideon got up and killed Zebah and Zalmunna, and he took the crescent ornaments from the necks of their camels.

Then the Israelites said to Gideon, “Rule over us—you and your son and grandson—for you have saved us from the hand of Midian.”

But Gideon replied, “I will not rule over you, nor will my son. The LORD shall rule over you.”

and he—Jerubbaal son of Joash—returned home and settled down.

Gideon had seventy sons of his own, since he had many wives.

His concubine, who dwelt in Shechem, also bore him a son, and he named him Abimelech.

And as soon as Gideon was dead, the Israelites turned and prostituted themselves with the Baals, and they set up Baal-berith as their god.

They did not show kindness to the house of Jerubbaal (that is, Gideon) for all the good things he had done for Israel.

Now Abimelech son of Jerubbaal went to his motherís brothers at Shechem and said to them and to all the clan of his mother,

“Please ask all the leaders of Shechem, ëIs it better for you that seventy men, all the sons of Jerubbaal, rule over you, or just one man?í Remember that I am your own flesh and blood.”

And when his motherís brothers spoke all these words about him in the presence of all the leaders of Shechem, their hearts were inclined to follow Abimelech, for they said, “He is our brother.”

So they gave him seventy shekels of silver from the temple of Baal-berith, with which Abimelech hired some worthless and reckless men to follow him.

Then all the leaders of Shechem and Beth-millo gathered beside the oak at the pillar in Shechem and proceeded to make Abimelech their king.