They went out into the field, and gathered their vineyards, and trod [the grapes], and held festival, and went into the house of their god, and did eat and drink, and cursed Abimelech.
The "evil spirit" that God sent between Abimelech and the men of Shechem (Judges 9:24) was a spirit of discontent that proved to be disastrous. Judges 9:25 probably means that the men of Shechem conspired to rob Abimelech of the tolls he received from the travelers and traders who passed through Shechem. They did this by ambushing them from Mt. Gerizim and Mt. Ebal, the two mountains between which the road passed near Shechem. [Note: Cundall and Morris, pp. 130-31.] 