Thebez

Thebez, whose name may mean brightness, was a town approximately eleven miles northeast of Shechem on the road toward Scythopolis, identified with the modern site of Tubas. It is known in Scripture solely from the account of Abimelech's death: having subdued most of Israel, he besieged Thebez, and as he approached the tower gate to set it afire, a woman dropped an upper millstone on his head, fatally crushing his skull (Judg. 9:50-54).

Abimelech, unwilling to die at the hand of a woman, commanded his armor-bearer to run him through with a sword. The episode became a proverbial example of the danger of advancing too near city walls in siege warfare — Joab references it explicitly when reporting Uriah's death to David (2 Sam. 11:21).