Person Old Testament
Jotham
Jotham, the youngest son of Gideon, was the only one to escape when Abimelech killed his seventy brothers. Mentioned in 4 verses across 1 book, first at Judges 9:5.
Why it matters. Youngest son of Gideon who escaped Abimelech's massacre
- Primary passages
- Last reviewed
- 2026-08-30 by the FaithGraph team
About Jotham
Jotham was the youngest of Gideon's seventy sons (Jdg.9.5). After Gideon's death, Abimelech, another of Gideon's sons, conspired to become king and killed his seventy brothers on one stone (Jdg.9.5). However, Jotham escaped by hiding (Jdg.9.5).
Jotham went to Mount Gerizim and delivered a parable to the men of Shechem, warning them of the consequences of their actions in supporting Abimelech (Jdg.9.7-21). In the parable, the trees sought to anoint a king over them, but the worthy trees (olive, fig, and vine) refused, while the bramble accepted and threatened to devour the cedars of Lebanon (Jdg.9.8-15). Jotham then fled to Beer and remained there, fearing Abimelech (Jdg.9.21).
Later, God sent an evil spirit between Abimelech and the men of Shechem, causing them to turn against each other (Jdg.9.22-25). This ultimately led to Abimelech's downfall and death, which was seen as a fulfillment of Jotham's curse (Jdg.9.57).
Description from STEPBible TIPNR (Tyndale House, Cambridge), CC BY 4.0, lightly reformatted. This is background reference material, not Scripture and not a FaithGraph editorial claim.
Connections
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Family
Family links from STEPBible TIPNR (CC BY 4.0). Where the dataset marks an identification as uncertain, the mark is kept. Matthew and Luke give different genealogies for Jesus; see the Lineage page, which never merges them.
- Parents
- Gideon
Appears in Scripture
Named in 4 verses across 1 book. Occurrence data from STEPBible TIPNR (CC BY 4.0); references only, no translation text.