Jotham son of Gideon יותם בן גדעון
Gideon's youngest son, who survived his brother; spoke the parable of the trees
After Gideon's death his son Abimelech came to Shechem, to his mother's kin, took seventy pieces of silver from the house of Baal-berith, hired men and killed his seventy brothers on one stone. "And Jotham the youngest son of Jerubbaal was left, for he hid himself."
When Abimelech was being made king in Shechem, Jotham stood on the top of Mount Gerizim and called out a parable. The trees went to anoint a king over themselves. They called the olive—it will not leave its fatness; the fig—it will not leave its sweetness; the vine—it will not leave its wine. Then they spoke to the bramble, and it answered: "if in truth you anoint me king over you, come and take refuge in my shade; and if not, let fire come out of the bramble and devour the cedars of Lebanon."
Having said it, he fled to Beer and lived there—"for fear of Abimelech his brother." Nothing more is said of him. Three years later the book returns to his words: fire came out from both sides, and at the end it says that upon Shechem "came the curse of Jotham son of Jerubbaal."
The window is Abimelech's three years (Judges 9:22): Jotham's own years are not given.
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Tanakh
- Shoftim 9:5–21 — he alone hid himself; the parable of the trees from the top of Gerizim
- Shoftim 9:56–57 — "and upon them came the curse of Jotham son of Jerubbaal"
Basis: stated in the Tanakh.