And when he had said thus he fled, and went into Bera: and dwelt there for fear of Abimelech his brother.

And Jotham hasteth, and fleeth, and goeth to Beer, and dwelleth there, from the face of Abimelech his brother.

And Jotham ran away, and fled, and went to Beer, and dwelled there, for fear of Abimelech his brother.

Then Jotham straight away went in flight to Beer, and was living there for fear of his brother Abimelech.

And Jotham escaped and fled and went to Beer and lived there, for fear of Abimelech his brother.

And when he had said these things, he fled and went away to Beer. And he lived in that place, out of fear of Abimelech, his brother.

Went to Beer - Mr. Maundrell, in his journey from Aleppo to Jerusalem, p. 64, 5th edit., mentions a place of this name, which he thinks to be that to which Jotham fled, and supposed to be the same as Mishmash, 1-Samuel 14:5, 1-Samuel 14:31. It is situated, he says, towards the south, on an easy declivity; and has a fountain of excellent water at the bottom of the hill from which it has taken its name.

And Jotham ran away, and fled,.... Having delivered his fable, and the application of it, he made his escape, having the advantage of being on the top of a mountain, at some distance from the people, and perhaps they might not be inclined to do him any harm:
and went to Beer; which some take to be the same with Baalathbeer in the tribe of Simeon, Joshua 19:8 Jerom (f) says, the village Bera, whither Jotham fled, is eight miles from Eleutheropolis to the north; but Mr. Maundrell (g), who was in those parts in 1697, gives us a better account of it; and, according to him, it is about two hours and a half's travel from Bethel to it, and three hours and one third from it to Jerusalem; Beer, he says, enjoys a very pleasant situation, on an easy declivity, fronting southward; at the bottom of the hill it has a plentiful fountain of excellent water, from which it had its name:
and dwelt there for fear of Abimelech his brother; how long he dwelt there is not certain, and we hear no more of him after this, Josephus says (h) he lay hid in the mountains three years for fear of Abimelech, which perhaps he concluded from Abimelech's reigning three years, as follows.
(f) De loc. Hebrews. fol. 89. I (g) Journey from Aleppo, &c. p. 64, 66. (h) Antiqu. l. 5. c. 7. sect. 2.

Joatham . . . went to Beer--the modern village El-Bireh, on the ridge which bounds the northern prospect of Jerusalem.

But Jotham fled to Beer, after charging the Shechemites with their iniquity, and dwelt there before his brother Abimelech ("before," i.e., "for fear of." - Jerome). Beer in all probability is not the same place as Beeroth in the tribe of Benjamin (Joshua 9:17), but, according to the Onom. (s. v. Βηρά), a place eight Roman miles to the north of Eleutheropolis, situated in the plain; at present a desolate village called el Breh, near the mouth of Wady es Surr, not far from the former Beth-shemesh (Rob. Pal. ii. p. 132).

And fled - Which he might easily do, having the advantage of the hill, and because the people were not forward to pursue a man whom they knew to have such just cause to speak, and so little power to do them hurt. To Beer - A place remote from Shechem, and out of Abimelech's reach.