The World English Bible (WEB): Judges
Date: 2005-06-02T00:00:00+00:00
Keywords: Bible. Judges

The Project Gutenberg eBook of The World English Bible (WEB): Judges

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Title: The World English Bible (WEB): Judges

Author: Anonymous

Release date: June 1, 2005 [eBook #8234]
Most recently updated: December 26, 2020

Language: English

Credits: From www.ebible.org with slight reformatting by Martin Ward

*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE WORLD ENGLISH BIBLE (WEB): JUDGES ***

From www.ebible.org with slight reformatting by Martin Ward.

Book 07 Judges 001:001 It happened after the death of Joshua, the children of Israel asked of Yahweh, saying, Who shall go up for us first against the Canaanites, to fight against them? 001:002 Yahweh said, Judah shall go up: behold, I have delivered the land into his hand. 001:003 Judah said to Simeon his brother, Come up with me into my lot, that we may fight against the Canaanites; and I likewise will go with you into your lot. So Simeon went with him. 001:004 Judah went up; and Yahweh delivered the Canaanites and the Perizzites into their hand: and they struck of them in Bezek ten thousand men. 001:005 They found Adoni-Bezek in Bezek; and they fought against him, and they struck the Canaanites and the Perizzites. 001:006 But Adoni-Bezek fled; and they pursued after him, and caught him, and cut off his thumbs and his great toes. 001:007 Adoni-Bezek said, "Seventy kings, having their thumbs and their great toes cut off, gathered [their food] under my table: as I have done, so God has requited me." They brought him to Jerusalem, and he died there. 001:008 The children of Judah fought against Jerusalem, and took it, and struck it with the edge of the sword, and set the city on fire. 001:009 Afterward the children of Judah went down to fight against the Canaanites who lived in the hill country, and in the South, and in the lowland. 001:010 Judah went against the Canaanites who lived in Hebron (now the name of Hebron before was Kiriath Arba); and they struck Sheshai, and Ahiman, and Talmai. 001:011 From there he went against the inhabitants of Debir. (Now the name of Debir before was Kiriath Sepher.) 001:012 Caleb said, He who strikes Kiriath Sepher, and takes it, to him will I give Achsah my daughter as wife. 001:013 Othniel the son of Kenaz, Caleb's younger brother, took it: and he gave him Achsah his daughter as wife. 001:014 It happened, when she came [to him], that she moved him to ask of her father a field: and she alighted from off her donkey; and Caleb said to her, What would you? 001:015 She said to him, Give me a blessing; for that you have set me in the land of the South, give me also springs of water. Caleb gave her the upper springs and the lower springs. 001:016 The children of the Kenite, Moses' brother-in-law, went up out of the city of palm trees with the children of Judah into the wilderness of Judah, which is in the south of Arad; and they went and lived with the people. 001:017 Judah went with Simeon his brother, and they struck the Canaanites who inhabited Zephath, and utterly destroyed it. The name of the city was called Hormah. 001:018 Also Judah took Gaza with the border of it, and Ashkelon with the border of it, and Ekron with the border of it. 001:019 Yahweh was with Judah; and drove out [the inhabitants of] the hill country; for he could not drive out the inhabitants of the valley, because they had chariots of iron. 001:020 They gave Hebron to Caleb, as Moses had spoken: and he drove out there the three sons of Anak. 001:021 The children of Benjamin did not drive out the Jebusites who inhabited Jerusalem; but the Jebusites dwell with the children of Benjamin in Jerusalem to this day. 001:022 The house of Joseph, they also went up against Bethel; and Yahweh was with them. 001:023 The house of Joseph sent to spy out Bethel. (Now the name of the city before was Luz.) 001:024 The watchers saw a man come forth out of the city, and they said to him, Show us, we pray you, the entrance into the city, and we will deal kindly with you. 001:025 He shown them the entrance into the city; and they struck the city with the edge of the sword; but they let the man go and all his family. 001:026 The man went into the land of the Hittites, and built a city, and called the name of it Luz, which is the name of it to this day. 001:027 Manasseh did not drive out [the inhabitants of] Beth Shean and its towns, nor [of] Taanach and its towns, nor the inhabitants of Dor and its towns, nor the inhabitants of Ibleam and its towns, nor the inhabitants of Megiddo and its towns; but the Canaanites would dwell in that land. 001:028 It happened, when Israel had grown strong, that they put the Canaanites to forced labor, and did not utterly drive them out. 001:029 Ephraim didn't drive out the Canaanites who lived in Gezer; but the Canaanites lived in Gezer among them. 001:030 Zebulun didn't drive out the inhabitants of Kitron, nor the inhabitants of Nahalol; but the Canaanites lived among them, and became subject to forced labor. 001:031 Asher didn't drive out the inhabitants of Acco, nor the inhabitants of Sidon, nor of Ahlab, nor of Achzib, nor of Helbah, nor of Aphik, nor of Rehob; 001:032 but the Asherites lived among the Canaanites, the inhabitants of the land; for they did not drive them out. 001:033 Naphtali didn't drive out the inhabitants of Beth Shemesh, nor the inhabitants of Beth Anath; but he lived among the Canaanites, the inhabitants of the land: nevertheless the inhabitants of Beth Shemesh and of Beth Anath became subject to forced labor. 001:034 The Amorites forced the children of Dan into the hill country; for they would not allow them to come down to the valley; 001:035 but the Amorites would dwell in Mount Heres, in Aijalon, and in Shaalbim: yet the hand of the house of Joseph prevailed, so that they became subject to forced labor. 001:036 The border of the Amorites was from the ascent of Akrabbim, from the rock, and upward. 002:001 The angel of Yahweh came up from Gilgal to Bochim. He said, I made you to go up out of Egypt, and have brought you to the land which I swore to your fathers; and I said, I will never break my covenant with you: 002:002 and you shall make no covenant with the inhabitants of this land; you shall break down their altars. But you have not listened to my voice: why have you done this? 002:003 Therefore I also said, I will not drive them out from before you; but they shall be [as thorns] in your sides, and their gods shall be a snare to you. 002:004 It happened, when the angel of Yahweh spoke these words to all the children of Israel, that the people lifted up their voice, and wept. 002:005 They called the name of that place Bochim: and they sacrificed there to Yahweh. 002:006 Now when Joshua had sent the people away, the children of Israel went every man to his inheritance to possess the land. 002:007 The people served Yahweh all the days of Joshua, and all the days of the elders who outlived Joshua, who had seen all the great work of Yahweh that he had worked for Israel. 002:008 Joshua the son of Nun, the servant of Yahweh, died, being one hundred ten years old. 002:009 They buried him in the border of his inheritance in Timnath Heres, in the hill country of Ephraim, on the north of the mountain of Gaash. 002:010 Also all that generation were gathered to their fathers: and there arose another generation after them, who didn't know Yahweh, nor yet the work which he had worked for Israel. 002:011 The children of Israel did that which was evil in the sight of Yahweh, and served the Baals; 002:012 and they forsook Yahweh, the God of their fathers, who brought them out of the land of Egypt, and followed other gods, of the gods of the peoples who were round about them, and bowed themselves down to them: and they provoked Yahweh to anger. 002:013 They forsook Yahweh, and served Baal and the Ashtaroth. 002:014 The anger of Yahweh was kindled against Israel, and he delivered them into the hands of spoilers who despoiled them; and he sold them into the hands of their enemies round about, so that they could not any longer stand before their enemies. 002:015 Wherever they went out, the hand of Yahweh was against them for evil, as Yahweh had spoken, and as Yahweh had sworn to them: and they were sore distressed. 002:016 Yahweh raised up judges, who saved them out of the hand of those who despoiled them. 002:017 Yet they didn't listen to their judges; for they played the prostitute after other gods, and bowed themselves down to them: they turned aside quickly out of the way in which their fathers walked, obeying the commandments of Yahweh; [but] they didn't do so. 002:018 When Yahweh raised them up judges, then Yahweh was with the judge, and saved them out of the hand of their enemies all the days of the judge: for it grieved Yahweh because of their groaning by reason of those who oppressed them and vexed them. 002:019 But it happened, when the judge was dead, that they turned back, and dealt more corruptly than their fathers, in following other gods to serve them, and to bow down to them; they didn't cease from their doings, nor from their stubborn way. 002:020 The anger of Yahweh was kindled against Israel; and he said, Because this nation have transgressed my covenant which I commanded their fathers, and have not listened to my voice; 002:021 I also will not henceforth drive out any from before them of the nations that Joshua left when he died; 002:022 that by them I may prove Israel, whether they will keep the way of Yahweh to walk therein, as their fathers did keep it, or not. 002:023 So Yahweh left those nations, without driving them out hastily; neither delivered he them into the hand of Joshua. 003:001 Now these are the nations which Yahweh left, to prove Israel by them, even as many [of Israel] as had not known all the wars of Canaan; 003:002 only that the generations of the children of Israel might know, to teach them war, at the least such as before knew nothing of it: 003:003 [namely], the five lords of the Philistines, and all the Canaanites, and the Sidonians, and the Hivites who lived on Mount Lebanon, from Mount Baal Hermon to the entrance of Hamath. 003:004 They were [left], to prove Israel by them, to know whether they would listen to the commandments of Yahweh, which he commanded their fathers by Moses. 003:005 The children of Israel lived among the Canaanites, the Hittites, and the Amorites, and the Perizzites, and the Hivites, and the Jebusites: 003:006 and they took their daughters to be their wives, and gave their own daughters to their sons and served their gods. 003:007 The children of Israel did that which was evil in the sight of Yahweh, and forgot Yahweh their God, and served the Baals and the Asheroth. 003:008 Therefore the anger of Yahweh was kindled against Israel, and he sold them into the hand of Cushan Rishathaim king of Mesopotamia: and the children of Israel served Cushan Rishathaim eight years. 003:009 When the children of Israel cried to Yahweh, Yahweh raised up a savior to the children of Israel, who saved them, even Othniel the son of Kenaz, Caleb's younger brother. 003:010 The Spirit of Yahweh came on him, and he judged Israel; and he went out to war, and Yahweh delivered Cushan Rishathaim king of Mesopotamia into his hand: and his hand prevailed against Cushan Rishathaim. 003:011 The land had rest forty years. Othniel the son of Kenaz died. 003:012 The children of Israel again did that which was evil in the sight of Yahweh: and Yahweh strengthened Eglon the king of Moab against Israel, because they had done that which was evil in the sight of Yahweh. 003:013 He gathered to him the children of Ammon and Amalek; and he went and struck Israel, and they possessed the city of palm trees. 003:014 The children of Israel served Eglon the king of Moab eighteen years. 003:015 But when the children of Israel cried to Yahweh, Yahweh raised them up a savior, Ehud the son of Gera, the Benjamite, a man left-handed. The children of Israel sent tribute by him to Eglon the king of Moab. 003:016 Ehud made him a sword which had two edges, a cubit in length; and he girded it under his clothing on his right thigh. 003:017 He offered the tribute to Eglon king of Moab: now Eglon was a very fat man. 003:018 When he had made an end of offering the tribute, he sent away the people who bore the tribute. 003:019 But he himself turned back from the quarries that were by Gilgal, and said, I have a secret errand to you, king. He said, Keep silence. All who stood by him went out from him. 003:020 Ehud came to him; and he was sitting by himself alone in the cool upper room. Ehud said, I have a message from God to you. He arose out of his seat. 003:021 Ehud put forth his left hand, and took the sword from his right thigh, and thrust it into his body: 003:022 and the haft also went in after the blade; and the fat closed on the blade, for he didn't draw the sword out of his body; and it came out behind. 003:023 Then Ehud went forth into the porch, and shut the doors of the upper room on him, and locked them. 003:024 Now when he was gone out, his servants came; and they saw, and behold, the doors of the upper room were locked; and they said, Surely he is covering his feet in the upper chamber. 003:025 They waited until they were ashamed; and behold, he didn't open the doors of the upper room: therefore they took the key, and opened [them], and behold, their lord was fallen down dead on the earth. 003:026 Ehud escaped while they waited, and passed beyond the quarries, and escaped to Seirah. 003:027 It happened, when he had come, that he blew a trumpet in the hill country of Ephraim; and the children of Israel went down with him from the hill country, and he before them. 003:028 He said to them, Follow after me; for Yahweh has delivered your enemies the Moabites into your hand. They went down after him, and took the fords of the Jordan against the Moabites, and didn't allow a man to pass over. 003:029 They struck of Moab at that time about ten thousand men, every lusty man, and every man of valor; and there escaped not a man. 003:030 So Moab was subdued that day under the hand of Israel. The land had rest eighty years. 003:031 After him was Shamgar the son of Anath, who struck of the Philistines six hundred men with an oxgoad: and he also saved Israel. 004:001 The children of Israel again did that which was evil in the sight of Yahweh, when Ehud was dead. 004:002 Yahweh sold them into the hand of Jabin king of Canaan, who reigned in Hazor; the captain of whose army was Sisera, who lived in Harosheth of the Gentiles. 004:003 The children of Israel cried to Yahweh: for he had nine hundred chariots of iron; and twenty years he mightily oppressed the children of Israel. 004:004 Now Deborah, a prophetess, the wife of Lappidoth, she judged Israel at that time. 004:005 She lived under the palm tree of Deborah between Ramah and Bethel in the hill country of Ephraim: and the children of Israel came up to her for judgment. 004:006 She sent and called Barak the son of Abinoam out of Kedesh Naphtali, and said to him, Hasn't Yahweh, the God of Israel, commanded, [saying], Go and draw to Mount Tabor, and take with you ten thousand men of the children of Naphtali and of the children of Zebulun? 004:007 I will draw to you, to the river Kishon, Sisera, the captain of Jabin's army, with his chariots and his multitude; and I will deliver him into your hand. 004:008 Barak said to her, If you will go with me, then I will go; but if you will not go with me, I will not go. 004:009 She said, I will surely go with you: notwithstanding, the journey that you take shall not be for your honor; for Yahweh will sell Sisera into the hand of a woman. Deborah arose, and went with Barak to Kedesh. 004:010 Barak called Zebulun and Naphtali together to Kedesh; and there went up ten thousand men at his feet: and Deborah went up with him. 004:011 Now Heber the Kenite had separated himself from the Kenites, even from the children of Hobab the brother-in-law of Moses, and had pitched his tent as far as the oak in Zaanannim, which is by Kedesh. 004:012 They told Sisera that Barak the son of Abinoam was gone up to Mount Tabor. 004:013 Sisera gathered together all his chariots, even nine hundred chariots of iron, and all the people who were with him, from Harosheth of the Gentiles, to the river Kishon. 004:014 Deborah said to Barak, Up; for this is the day in which Yahweh has delivered Sisera into your hand; hasn't Yahweh gone out before you? So Barak went down from Mount Tabor, and ten thousand men after him. 004:015 Yahweh confused Sisera, and all his chariots, and all his army, with the edge of the sword before Barak; and Sisera alighted from his chariot, and fled away on his feet. 004:016 But Barak pursued after the chariots, and after the army, to Harosheth of the Gentiles: and all the army of Sisera fell by the edge of the sword; there was not a man left. 004:017 However Sisera fled away on his feet to the tent of Jael the wife of Heber the Kenite; for there was peace between Jabin the king of Hazor and the house of Heber the Kenite. 004:018 Jael went out to meet Sisera, and said to him, Turn in, my lord, turn in to me; don't be afraid. He came in to her into the tent, and she covered him with a rug. 004:019 He said to her, Please give me a little water to drink; for I am thirsty. She opened a bottle of milk, and gave him drink, and covered him. 004:020 He said to her, Stand in the door of the tent, and it shall be, when any man does come and inquire of you, and say, Is there any man here? that you shall say, No. 004:021 Then Jael Heber's wife took a tent peg, and took a hammer in her hand, and went softly to him, and struck the pin into his temples, and it pierced through into the ground; for he was in a deep sleep; so he swooned and died. 004:022 Behold, as Barak pursued Sisera, Jael came out to meet him, and said to him, Come, and I will show you the man whom you seek. He came to her; and behold, Sisera lay dead, and the tent peg was in his temples. 004:023 So God subdued on that day Jabin the king of Canaan before the children of Israel. 004:024 The hand of the children of Israel prevailed more and more against Jabin the king of Canaan, until they had destroyed Jabin king of Canaan. 005:001 Then Deborah and Barak the son of Abinoam sang on that day, saying, 005:002 Because the leaders took the lead in Israel, because the people offered themselves willingly, be blessed, Yahweh! 005:003 Hear, you kings! Give ear, you princes! I, [even] I, will sing to Yahweh. I will sing praise to Yahweh, the God of Israel. 005:004 Yahweh, when you went forth out of Seir, when you marched out of the field of Edom, the earth trembled, the sky also dropped. Yes, the clouds dropped water. 005:005 The mountains quaked at the presence of Yahweh, even Sinai, at the presence of Yahweh, the God of Israel. 005:006 In the days of Shamgar the son of Anath, in the days of Jael, the highways were unoccupied. The travelers walked through byways. 005:007 The rulers ceased in Israel. They ceased until I, Deborah, arose; Until I arose a mother in Israel. 005:008 They chose new gods. Then war was in the gates. Was there a shield or spear seen among forty thousand in Israel? 005:009 My heart is toward the governors of Israel, who offered themselves willingly among the people. Bless Yahweh! 005:010 Tell [of it], you who ride on white donkeys, you who sit on rich carpets, and you who walk by the way. 005:011 Far from the noise of archers, in the places of drawing water, there they will rehearse the righteous acts of Yahweh, [Even] the righteous acts of his rule in Israel. Then the people of Yahweh went down to the gates. 005:012 Awake, awake, Deborah! Awake, awake, utter a song! Arise, Barak, and lead away your captives, you son of Abinoam. 005:013 Then a remnant of the nobles [and] the people came down. Yahweh came down for me against the mighty. 005:014 Those whose root is in Amalek came out of Ephraim, after you, Benjamin, among your peoples. Governors come down out of Machir. Those who handle the marshal's staff came out of Zebulun. 005:015 The princes of Issachar were with Deborah. As was Issachar, so was Barak. They rushed into the valley at his feet. By the watercourses of Reuben, there were great resolves of heart. 005:016 Why did you sit among the sheepfolds, To hear the whistling for the flocks? At the watercourses of Reuben There were great searchings of heart. 005:017 Gilead lived beyond the Jordan. Why did Dan remain in ships? Asher sat still at the haven of the sea, and lived by his creeks. 005:018 Zebulun was a people that jeopardized their lives to the deaths; Naphtali also, on the high places of the field. 005:019 The kings came and fought, then the kings of Canaan fought at Taanach by the waters of Megiddo. They took no plunder of silver. 005:020 From the sky the stars fought. From their courses, they fought against Sisera. 005:021 The river Kishon swept them away, that ancient river, the river Kishon. My soul, march on with strength. 005:022 Then the horse hoofs stamped because of the prancings, the prancings of their strong ones. 005:023 Curse Meroz, said the angel of Yahweh. Curse bitterly its inhabitants, because they didn't come to help Yahweh, to help Yahweh against the mighty. 005:024 Jael shall be blessed above women, the wife of Heber the Kenite; blessed shall she be above women in the tent. 005:025 He asked for water. She gave him milk. She brought him butter in a lordly dish. 005:026 She put her hand to the tent peg, and her right hand to the workmen's hammer. With the hammer she struck Sisera. She struck through his head. Yes, she pierced and struck through his temples. 005:027 At her feet he bowed, he fell, he lay. At her feet he bowed, he fell. Where he bowed, there he fell down dead. 005:028 Through the window she looked out, and cried: Sisera's mother looked through the lattice. Why is his chariot so long in coming? Why do the wheels of his chariots wait? 005:029 Her wise ladies answered her, Yes, she returned answer to herself, 005:030 Have they not found, have they not divided the spoil? A lady, two ladies to every man; to Sisera a spoil of dyed garments, A spoil of dyed garments embroidered, Of dyed garments embroidered on both sides, on the necks of the spoil? 005:031 So let all your enemies perish, Yahweh, but let those who love him be as the sun when it rises forth in its strength. The land had rest forty years. 006:001 The children of Israel did that which was evil in the sight of Yahweh: and Yahweh delivered them into the hand of Midian seven years. 006:002 The hand of Midian prevailed against Israel; and because of Midian the children of Israel made them the dens which are in the mountains, and the caves, and the strongholds. 006:003 So it was, when Israel had sown, that the Midianites came up, and the Amalekites, and the children of the east; they came up against them; 006:004 and they encamped against them, and destroyed the increase of the earth, until you come to Gaza, and left no sustenance in Israel, neither sheep, nor ox, nor donkey. 006:005 For they came up with their livestock and their tents; they came in as locusts for multitude; both they and their camels were without number: and they came into the land to destroy it. 006:006 Israel was brought very low because of Midian; and the children of Israel cried to Yahweh. 006:007 It happened, when the children of Israel cried to Yahweh because of Midian, 006:008 that Yahweh sent a prophet to the children of Israel: and he said to them, Thus says Yahweh, the God of Israel, I brought you up from Egypt, and brought you forth out of the house of bondage; 006:009 and I delivered you out of the hand of the Egyptians, and out of the hand of all who oppressed you, and drove them out from before you, and gave you their land; 006:010 and I said to you, I am Yahweh your God; you shall not fear the gods of the Amorites, in whose land you dwell. But you have not listened to my voice. 006:011 The angel of Yahweh came, and sat under the oak which was in Ophrah, that pertained to Joash the Abiezrite: and his son Gideon was beating out wheat in the winepress, to hide it from the Midianites. 006:012 The angel of Yahweh appeared to him, and said to him, Yahweh is with you, you mighty man of valor. 006:013 Gideon said to him, Oh, my lord, if Yahweh is with us, why then has all this happened to us? and where are all his wondrous works which our fathers told us of, saying, Did not Yahweh bring us up from Egypt? but now Yahweh has cast us off, and delivered us into the hand of Midian. 006:014 Yahweh looked at him, and said, Go in this your might, and save Israel from the hand of Midian: have not I sent you? 006:015 He said to him, Oh, Lord, with which shall I save Israel? behold, my family is the poorest in Manasseh, and I am the least in my father's house. 006:016 Yahweh said to him, Surely I will be with you, and you shall strike the Midianites as one man. 006:017 He said to him, If now I have found favor in your sight, then show me a sign that it is you who talk with me. 006:018 Please don't go away, until I come to you, and bring out my present, and lay it before you. He said, I will wait until you come again. 006:019 Gideon went in, and made ready a kid, and unleavened cakes of an ephah of meal: the flesh he put in a basket, and he put the broth in a pot, and brought it out to him under the oak, and presented it. 006:020 The angel of God said to him, Take the flesh and the unleavened cakes, and lay them on this rock, and pour out the broth. He did so. 006:021 Then the angel of Yahweh put forth the end of the staff that was in his hand, and touched the flesh and the unleavened cakes; and there went up fire out of the rock, and consumed the flesh and the unleavened cakes; and the angel of Yahweh departed out of his sight. 006:022 Gideon saw that he was the angel of Yahweh; and Gideon said, Alas, Lord Yahweh! because I have seen the angel of Yahweh face to face. 006:023 Yahweh said to him, Peace be to you; don't be afraid: you shall not die. 006:024 Then Gideon built an altar there to Yahweh, and called it Yahweh is Peace{or, Yahweh Shalom}: to this day it is still in Ophrah of the Abiezrites. 006:025 It happened the same night, that Yahweh said to him, Take your father's bull, even the second bull seven years old, and throw down the altar of Baal that your father has, and cut down the Asherah that is by it; 006:026 and build an altar to Yahweh your God on the top of this stronghold, in the orderly manner, and take the second bull, and offer a burnt offering with the wood of the Asherah which you shall cut down. 006:027 Then Gideon took ten men of his servants, and did as Yahweh had spoken to him: and it happened, because he feared his father's household and the men of the city, so that he could not do it by day, that he did it by night. 006:028 When the men of the city arose early in the morning, behold, the altar of Baal was broken down, and the Asherah was cut down that was by it, and the second bull was offered on the altar that was built. 006:029 They said one to another, Who has done this thing? When they inquired and asked, they said, Gideon the son of Joash has done this thing. 006:030 Then the men of the city said to Joash, Bring out your son, that he may die, because he has broken down the altar of Baal, and because he has cut down the Asherah that was by it. 006:031 Joash said to all who stood against him, Will you contend for Baal? Or will you save him? he who will contend for him, let him be put to death while [it is yet] morning: if he be a god, let him contend for himself, because one has broken down his altar. 006:032 Therefore on that day he named him Jerubbaal, saying, Let Baal contend against him, because he has broken down his altar. 006:033 Then all the Midianites and the Amalekites and the children of the east assembled themselves together; and they passed over, and encamped in the valley of Jezreel. 006:034 But the Spirit of Yahweh came on Gideon; and he blew a trumpet; and Abiezer was gathered together after him. 006:035 He sent messengers throughout all Manasseh; and they also were gathered together after him: and he sent messengers to Asher, and to Zebulun, and to Naphtali; and they came up to meet them. 006:036 Gideon said to God, If you will save Israel by my hand, as you have spoken, 006:037 behold, I will put a fleece of wool on the threshing floor; if there be dew on the fleece only, and it be dry on all the ground, then shall I know that you will save Israel by my hand, as you have spoken. 006:038 It was so; for he rose up early on the next day, and pressed the fleece together, and wrung the dew out of the fleece, a bowl full of water. 006:039 Gideon said to God, Don't let your anger be kindled against me, and I will speak but this once: Please let me make a trial just this once with the fleece; let it now be dry only on the fleece, and on all the ground let there be dew. 006:040 God did so that night: for it was dry on the fleece only, and there was dew on all the ground. 007:001 Then Jerubbaal, who is Gideon, and all the people who were with him, rose up early, and encamped beside the spring of Harod: and the camp of Midian was on the north side of them, by the hill of Moreh, in the valley. 007:002 Yahweh said to Gideon, The people who are with you are too many for me to give the Midianites into their hand, lest Israel vaunt themselves against me, saying, My own hand has saved me. 007:003 Now therefore proclaim in the ears of the people, saying, Whoever is fearful and trembling, let him return and depart from Mount Gilead. There returned of the people twenty-two thousand; and there remained ten thousand. 007:004 Yahweh said to Gideon, The people are yet too many; bring them down to the water, and I will try them for you there: and it shall be, that of whom I tell you, This shall go with you, the same shall go with you; and of whoever I tell you, This shall not go with you, the same shall not go. 007:005 So he brought down the people to the water: and Yahweh said to Gideon, Everyone who laps of the water with his tongue, as a dog laps, him shall you set by himself; likewise everyone who bows down on his knees to drink. 007:006 The number of those who lapped, putting their hand to their mouth, was three hundred men: but all the rest of the people bowed down on their knees to drink water. 007:007 Yahweh said to Gideon, By the three hundred men who lapped will I save you, and deliver the Midianites into your hand; and let all the people go every man to his place. 007:008 So the people took food in their hand, and their trumpets; and he sent all the men of Israel every man to his tent, but retained the three hundred men: and the camp of Midian was beneath him in the valley. 007:009 It happened the same night, that Yahweh said to him, Arise, get you down into the camp; for I have delivered it into your hand. 007:010 But if you fear to go down, go you with Purah your servant down to the camp: 007:011 and you shall hear what they say; and afterward shall your hands be strengthened to go down into the camp. Then went he down with Purah his servant to the outermost part of the armed men who were in the camp. 007:012 The Midianites and the Amalekites and all the children of the east lay along in the valley like locusts for multitude; and their camels were without number, as the sand which is on the seashore for multitude. 007:013 When Gideon had come, behold, there was a man telling a dream to his fellow; and he said, Behold, I dreamed a dream; and behold, a cake of barley bread tumbled into the camp of Midian, and came to the tent, and struck it so that it fell, and turned it upside down, so that the tent lay flat. 007:014 His fellow answered, This is nothing else save the sword of Gideon the son of Joash, a man of Israel: into his hand God has delivered Midian, and all the army. 007:015 It was so, when Gideon heard the telling of the dream, and the interpretation of it, that he worshiped; and he returned into the camp of Israel, and said, Arise; for Yahweh has delivered into your hand the army of Midian. 007:016 He divided the three hundred men into three companies, and he put into the hands of all of them trumpets, and empty pitchers, with torches within the pitchers. 007:017 He said to them, Look on me, and do likewise: and behold, when I come to the outermost part of the camp, it shall be that, as I do, so shall you do. 007:018 When I blow the trumpet, I and all who are with me, then blow you the trumpets also on every side of all the camp, and say, For Yahweh and for Gideon. 007:019 So Gideon, and the hundred men who were with him, came to the outermost part of the camp in the beginning of the middle watch, when they had but newly set the watch: and they blew the trumpets, and broke in pieces the pitchers that were in their hands. 007:020 The three companies blew the trumpets, and broke the pitchers, and held the torches in their left hands, and the trumpets in their right hands with which to blow; and they cried, The sword of Yahweh and of Gideon. 007:021 They stood every man in his place round about the camp; and all the army ran; and they shouted, and put [them] to flight. 007:022 They blew the three hundred trumpets, and Yahweh set every man's sword against his fellow, and against all the army; and the army fled as far as Beth Shittah toward Zererah, as far as the border of Abel Meholah, by Tabbath. 007:023 The men of Israel were gathered together out of Naphtali, and out of Asher, and out of all Manasseh, and pursued after Midian. 007:024 Gideon sent messengers throughout all the hill country of Ephraim, saying, Come down against Midian, and take before them the waters, as far as Beth Barah, even the Jordan. So all the men of Ephraim were gathered together, and took the waters as far as Beth Barah, even the Jordan. 007:025 They took the two princes of Midian, Oreb and Zeeb; and they killed Oreb at the rock of Oreb, and Zeeb they killed at the winepress of Zeeb, and pursued Midian: and they brought the heads of Oreb and Zeeb to Gideon beyond the Jordan. 008:001 The men of Ephraim said to him, Why have you served us thus, that you didn't call us, when you went to fight with Midian? They did chide with him sharply. 008:002 He said to them, What have I now done in comparison with you? Isn't the gleaning of the grapes of Ephraim better than the vintage of Abiezer? 008:003 God has delivered into your hand the princes of Midian, Oreb and Zeeb: and what was I able to do in comparison with you? Then their anger was abated toward him, when he had said that. 008:004 Gideon came to the Jordan, [and] passed over, he, and the three hundred men who were with him, faint, yet pursuing. 008:005 He said to the men of Succoth, Please give loaves of bread to the people who follow me; for they are faint, and I am pursuing after Zebah and Zalmunna, the kings of Midian. 008:006 The princes of Succoth said, Are the hands of Zebah and Zalmunna now in your hand, that we should give bread to your army? 008:007 Gideon said, Therefore when Yahweh has delivered Zebah and Zalmunna into my hand, then I will tear your flesh with the thorns of the wilderness and with briers. 008:008 He went up there to Penuel, and spoke to them in like manner; and the men of Penuel answered him as the men of Succoth had answered. 008:009 He spoke also to the men of Penuel, saying, When I come again in peace, I will break down this tower. 008:010 Now Zebah and Zalmunna were in Karkor, and their armies with them, about fifteen thousand men, all who were left of all the army of the children of the east; for there fell one hundred twenty thousand men who drew sword. 008:011 Gideon went up by the way of those who lived in tents on the east of Nobah and Jogbehah, and struck the army; for the army was secure. 008:012 Zebah and Zalmunna fled; and he pursued after them; and he took the two kings of Midian, Zebah and Zalmunna, and confused all the army. 008:013 Gideon the son of Joash returned from the battle from the ascent of Heres. 008:014 He caught a young man of the men of Succoth, and inquired of him: and he described for him the princes of Succoth, and the elders of it, seventy-seven men. 008:015 He came to the men of Succoth, and said, See Zebah and Zalmunna, concerning whom you did taunt me, saying, Are the hands of Zebah and Zalmunna now in your hand, that we should give bread to your men who are weary? 008:016 He took the elders of the city, and thorns of the wilderness and briers, and with them he taught the men of Succoth. 008:017 He broke down the tower of Penuel, and killed the men of the city. 008:018 Then said he to Zebah and Zalmunna, What manner of men were they whom you killed at Tabor? They answered, As you are, so were they; each one resembled the children of a king. 008:019 He said, They were my brothers, the sons of my mother: as Yahweh lives, if you had saved them alive, I would not kill you. 008:020 He said to Jether his firstborn, Up, and kill them. But the youth didn't draw his sword; for he feared, because he was yet a youth. 008:021 Then Zebah and Zalmunna said, Rise you, and fall on us; for as the man is, so is his strength. Gideon arose, and killed Zebah and Zalmunna, and took the crescents that were on their camels' necks. 008:022 Then the men of Israel said to Gideon, Rule you over us, both you, and your son, and your son's son also; for you have saved us out of the hand of Midian. 008:023 Gideon said to them, I will not rule over you, neither shall my son rule over you: Yahweh shall rule over you. 008:024 Gideon said to them, I would make a request of you, that you would give me every man the earrings of his spoil. (For they had golden earrings, because they were Ishmaelites.) 008:025 They answered, We will willingly give them. They spread a garment, and did cast therein every man the earrings of his spoil. 008:026 The weight of the golden earrings that he requested was one thousand and seven hundred [shekels] of gold, besides the crescents, and the pendants, and the purple clothing that was on the kings of Midian, and besides the chains that were about their camels' necks. 008:027 Gideon made an ephod of it, and put it in his city, even in Ophrah: and all Israel played the prostitute after it there; and it became a snare to Gideon, and to his house. 008:028 So Midian was subdued before the children of Israel, and they lifted up their heads no more. The land had rest forty years in the days of Gideon. 008:029 Jerubbaal the son of Joash went and lived in his own house. 008:030 Gideon had seventy sons conceived from his body; for he had many wives. 008:031 His concubine who was in Shechem, she also bore him a son, and he named him Abimelech. 008:032 Gideon the son of Joash died in a good old age, and was buried in the tomb of Joash his father, in Ophrah of the Abiezrites. 008:033 It happened, as soon as Gideon was dead, that the children of Israel turned again, and played the prostitute after the Baals, and made Baal Berith their god. 008:034 The children of Israel didn't remember Yahweh their God, who had delivered them out of the hand of all their enemies on every side; 008:035 neither shown they kindness to the house of Jerubbaal, [who is] Gideon, according to all the goodness which he had shown to Israel. 009:001 Abimelech the son of Jerubbaal went to Shechem to his mother's brothers, and spoke with them, and with all the family of the house of his mother's father, saying, 009:002 Please speak in the ears of all the men of Shechem, Whether is better for you, that all the sons of Jerubbaal, who are seventy persons, rule over you, or that one rule over you? Remember also that I am your bone and your flesh. 009:003 His mother's brothers spoke of him in the ears of all the men of Shechem all these words: and their hearts inclined to follow Abimelech; for they said, He is our brother. 009:004 They gave him seventy [pieces] of silver out of the house of Baal Berith, with which Abimelech hired vain and light fellows, who followed him. 009:005 He went to his father's house at Ophrah, and killed his brothers the sons of Jerubbaal, being seventy persons, on one stone: but Jotham the youngest son of Jerubbaal was left; for he hid himself. 009:006 All the men of Shechem assembled themselves together, and all the house of Millo, and went and made Abimelech king, by the oak of the pillar that was in Shechem. 009:007 When they told it to Jotham, he went and stood on the top of Mount Gerizim, and lifted up his voice, and cried, and said to them, Listen to me, you men of Shechem, that God may listen to you. 009:008 The trees went forth on a time to anoint a king over them; and they said to the olive tree, Reign you over us. 009:009 But the olive tree said to them, Should I leave my fatness, with which by me they honor God and man, and go to wave back and forth over the trees? 009:010 The trees said to the fig tree, Come you, and reign over us. 009:011 But the fig tree said to them, Should I leave my sweetness, and my good fruit, and go to wave back and forth over the trees? 009:012 The trees said to the vine, Come you, and reign over us. 009:013 The vine said to them, Should I leave my new wine, which cheers God and man, and go to wave back and forth over the trees? 009:014 Then said all the trees to the bramble, Come you, and reign over us. 009:015 The bramble said to the trees, If in truth you anoint me king over you, then come and take refuge in my shade; and if not, let fire come out of the bramble, and devour the cedars of Lebanon. 009:016 Now therefore, if you have dealt truly and righteously, in that you have made Abimelech king, and if you have dealt well with Jerubbaal and his house, and have done to him according to the deserving of his hands 009:017 (for my father fought for you, and adventured his life, and delivered you out of the hand of Midian: 009:018 and you are risen up against my father's house this day, and have slain his sons, seventy persons, on one stone, and have made Abimelech, the son of his female servant, king over the men of Shechem, because he is your brother); 009:019 if you then have dealt truly and righteously with Jerubbaal and with his house this day, then rejoice you in Abimelech, and let him also rejoice in you: 009:020 but if not, let fire come out from Abimelech, and devour the men of Shechem, and the house of Millo; and let fire come out from the men of Shechem, and from the house of Millo, and devour Abimelech. 009:021 Jotham ran away, and fled, and went to Beer, and lived there, for fear of Abimelech his brother. 009:022 Abimelech was prince over Israel three years. 009:023 God sent an evil spirit between Abimelech and the men of Shechem; and the men of Shechem dealt treacherously with Abimelech: 009:024 that the violence done to the seventy sons of Jerubbaal might come, and that their blood might be laid on Abimelech their brother, who killed them, and on the men of Shechem, who strengthened his hands to kill his brothers. 009:025 The men of Shechem set an ambush for him on the tops of the mountains, and they robbed all who came along that way by them: and it was told Abimelech. 009:026 Gaal the son of Ebed came with his brothers, and went over to Shechem; and the men of Shechem put their trust in him. 009:027 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. 009:028 Gaal the son of Ebed said, Who is Abimelech, and who is Shechem, that we should serve him? Isn't he the son of Jerubbaal? and Zebul his officer? serve you the men of Hamor the father of Shechem: but why should we serve him? 009:029 Would that this people were under my hand! then would I remove Abimelech. He said to Abimelech, Increase your army, and come out. 009:030 When Zebul the ruler of the city heard the words of Gaal the son of Ebed, his anger was kindled. 009:031 He sent messengers to Abimelech craftily, saying, Behold, Gaal the son of Ebed and his brothers are come to Shechem; and behold, they constrain the city [to take part] against you. 009:032 Now therefore, up by night, you and the people who are with you, and lie in wait in the field: 009:033 and it shall be, that in the morning, as soon as the sun is up, you shall rise early, and rush on the city; and behold, when he and the people who are with him come out against you, then may you do to them as you shall find occasion. 009:034 Abimelech rose up, and all the people who were with him, by night, and they laid wait against Shechem in four companies. 009:035 Gaal the son of Ebed went out, and stood in the entrance of the gate of the city: and Abimelech rose up, and the people who were with him, from the ambush. 009:036 When Gaal saw the people, he said to Zebul, Behold, there come people down from the tops of the mountains. Zebul said to him, You see the shadow of the mountains as if they were men. 009:037 Gaal spoke again and said, Behold, there come people down by the middle of the land, and one company comes by the way of the oak of Meonenim. 009:038 Then said Zebul to him, Where is now your mouth, that you said, Who is Abimelech, that we should serve him? is not this the people that you have despised? go out now, I pray, and fight with them. 009:039 Gaal went out before the men of Shechem, and fought with Abimelech. 009:040 Abimelech chased him, and he fled before him, and there fell many wounded, even to the entrance of the gate. 009:041 Abimelech lived at Arumah: and Zebul drove out Gaal and his brothers, that they should not dwell in Shechem. 009:042 It happened on the next day, that the people went out into the field; and they told Abimelech. 009:043 He took the people, and divided them into three companies, and laid wait in the field; and he looked, and behold, the people came forth out of the city; He rose up against them, and struck them. 009:044 Abimelech, and the companies that were with him, rushed forward, and stood in the entrance of the gate of the city: and the two companies rushed on all who were in the field, and struck them. 009:045 Abimelech fought against the city all that day; and he took the city, and killed the people who were therein: and he beat down the city, and sowed it with salt. 009:046 When all the men of the tower of Shechem heard of it, they entered into the stronghold of the house of Elberith. 009:047 It was told Abimelech that all the men of the tower of Shechem were gathered together. 009:048 Abimelech got him up to Mount Zalmon, he and all the people who were with him; and Abimelech took an axe in his hand, and cut down a bough from the trees, and took it up, and laid it on his shoulder: and he said to the people who were with him, What you have seen me do, make haste, and do as I have done. 009:049 All the people likewise cut down every man his bough, and followed Abimelech, and put them to the stronghold, and set the stronghold on fire on them; so that all the men of the tower of Shechem died also, about a thousand men and women. 009:050 Then went Abimelech to Thebez, and encamped against Thebez, and took it. 009:051 But there was a strong tower within the city, and there fled all the men and women, and all they of the city, and shut themselves in, and got them up to the roof of the tower. 009:052 Abimelech came to the tower, and fought against it, and drew near to the door of the tower to burn it with fire. 009:053 A certain woman cast an upper millstone on Abimelech's head, and broke his skull. 009:054 Then he called hastily to the young man his armor bearer, and said to him, Draw your sword, and kill me, that men not say of me, A woman killed him. His young man thrust him through, and he died. 009:055 When the men of Israel saw that Abimelech was dead, they departed every man to his place. 009:056 Thus God requited the wickedness of Abimelech, which he did to his father, in killing his seventy brothers; 009:057 and all the wickedness of the men of Shechem did God requite on their heads: and on them came the curse of Jotham the son of Jerubbaal. 010:001 After Abimelech there arose to save Israel Tola the son of Puah, the son of Dodo, a man of Issachar; and he lived in Shamir in the hill country of Ephraim. 010:002 He judged Israel twenty-three years, and died, and was buried in Shamir. 010:003 After him arose Jair, the Gileadite; and he judged Israel twenty-two years. 010:004 He had thirty sons who rode on thirty donkey colts, and they had thirty cities, which are called Havvoth Jair to this day, which are in the land of Gilead. 010:005 Jair died, and was buried in Kamon. 010:006 The children of Israel again did that which was evil in the sight of Yahweh, and served the Baals, and the Ashtaroth, and the gods of Syria, and the gods of Sidon, and the gods of Moab, and the gods of the children of Ammon, and the gods of the Philistines; and they forsook Yahweh, and didn't serve him. 010:007 The anger of Yahweh was kindled against Israel, and he sold them into the hand of the Philistines, and into the hand of the children of Ammon. 010:008 They vexed and oppressed the children of Israel that year: eighteen years [oppressed they] all the children of Israel that were beyond the Jordan in the land of the Amorites, which is in Gilead. 010:009 The children of Ammon passed over the Jordan to fight also against Judah, and against Benjamin, and against the house of Ephraim; so that Israel was sore distressed. 010:010 The children of Israel cried to Yahweh, saying, We have sinned against you, even because we have forsaken our God, and have served the Baals. 010:011 Yahweh said to the children of Israel, Didn't I save you from the Egyptians, and from the Amorites, from the children of Ammon, and from the Philistines? 010:012 The Sidonians also, and the Amalekites, and the Maonites, did oppress you; and you cried to me, and I saved you out of their hand. 010:013 Yet you have forsaken me, and served other gods: therefore I will save you no more. 010:014 Go and cry to the gods which you have chosen; let them save you in the time of your distress. 010:015 The children of Israel said to Yahweh, We have sinned: do you to us whatever seems good to you; only deliver us, we pray you, this day. 010:016 They put away the foreign gods from among them, and served Yahweh; and his soul was grieved for the misery of Israel. 010:017 Then the children of Ammon were gathered together, and encamped in Gilead. The children of Israel assembled themselves together, and encamped in Mizpah. 010:018 The people, the princes of Gilead, said one to another, What man is he who will begin to fight against the children of Ammon? he shall be head over all the inhabitants of Gilead. 011:001 Now Jephthah the Gileadite was a mighty man of valor, and he was the son of a prostitute: and Gilead became the father of Jephthah. 011:002 Gilead's wife bore him sons; and when his wife's sons grew up, they drove out Jephthah, and said to him, You shall not inherit in our father's house; for you are the son of another woman. 011:003 Then Jephthah fled from his brothers, and lived in the land of Tob: and there were gathered vain fellows to Jephthah, and they went out with him. 011:004 It happened after a while, that the children of Ammon made war against Israel. 011:005 It was so, that when the children of Ammon made war against Israel, the elders of Gilead went to get Jephthah out of the land of Tob; 011:006 and they said to Jephthah, Come and be our chief, that we may fight with the children of Ammon. 011:007 Jephthah said to the elders of Gilead, Didn't you hate me, and drive me out of my father's house? and why are you come to me now when you are in distress? 011:008 The elders of Gilead said to Jephthah, Therefore are we turned again to you now, that you may go with us, and fight with the children of Ammon; and you shall be our head over all the inhabitants of Gilead. 011:009 Jephthah said to the elders of Gilead, If you bring me home again to fight with the children of Ammon, and Yahweh deliver them before me, shall I be your head? 011:010 The elders of Gilead said to Jephthah, Yahweh shall be witness between us; surely according to your word so will we do. 011:011 Then Jephthah went with the elders of Gilead, and the people made him head and chief over them: and Jephthah spoke all his words before Yahweh in Mizpah. 011:012 Jephthah sent messengers to the king of the children of Ammon, saying, What have you to do with me, that you are come to me to fight against my land? 011:013 The king of the children of Ammon answered to the messengers of Jephthah, Because Israel took away my land, when he came up out of Egypt, from the Arnon even to the Jabbok, and to the Jordan: now therefore restore those [lands] again peaceably. 011:014 Jephthah sent messengers again to the king of the children of Ammon; 011:015 and he said to him, Thus says Jephthah: Israel didn't take away the land of Moab, nor the land of the children of Ammon, 011:016 but when they came up from Egypt, and Israel went through the wilderness to the Red Sea{or, Sea of Reeds}, and came to Kadesh; 011:017 then Israel sent messengers to the king of Edom, saying, Please let me pass through your land; but the king of Edom didn't listen. In the same way, he sent to the king of Moab; but he would not: and Israel abode in Kadesh. 011:018 Then they went through the wilderness, and went around the land of Edom, and the land of Moab, and came by the east side of the land of Moab, and they encamped on the other side of the Arnon; but they didn't come within the border of Moab, for the Arnon was the border of Moab. 011:019 Israel sent messengers to Sihon king of the Amorites, the king of Heshbon; and Israel said to him, Let us pass, we pray you, through your land to my place. 011:020 But Sihon didn't trust Israel to pass through his border; but Sihon gathered all his people together, and encamped in Jahaz, and fought against Israel. 011:021 Yahweh, the God of Israel, delivered Sihon and all his people into the hand of Israel, and they struck them: so Israel possessed all the land of the Amorites, the inhabitants of that country. 011:022 They possessed all the border of the Amorites, from the Arnon even to the Jabbok, and from the wilderness even to the Jordan. 011:023 So now Yahweh, the God of Israel, has dispossessed the Amorites from before his people Israel, and should you possess them? 011:024 Won't you possess that which Chemosh your god gives you to possess? So whoever Yahweh our God has dispossessed from before us, them will we possess. 011:025 Now are you anything better than Balak the son of Zippor, king of Moab? did he ever strive against Israel, or did he ever fight against them? 011:026 While Israel lived in Heshbon and its towns, and in Aroer and its towns, and in all the cities that are along by the side of the Arnon, three hundred years; why didn't you recover them within that time? 011:027 I therefore have not sinned against you, but you do me wrong to war against me: Yahweh, the Judge, be judge this day between the children of Israel and the children of Ammon. 011:028 However the king of the children of Ammon didn't listen to the words of Jephthah which he sent him. 011:029 Then the Spirit of Yahweh came on Jephthah, and he passed over Gilead and Manasseh, and passed over Mizpeh of Gilead, and from Mizpeh of Gilead he passed over to the children of Ammon. 011:030 Jephthah vowed a vow to Yahweh, and said, If you will indeed deliver the children of Ammon into my hand, 011:031 then it shall be, that whatever comes forth from the doors of my house to meet me, when I return in peace from the children of Ammon, it shall be Yahweh's, and I will offer it up for a burnt offering. 011:032 So Jephthah passed over to the children of Ammon to fight against them; and Yahweh delivered them into his hand. 011:033 He struck them from Aroer until you come to Minnith, even twenty cities, and to Abelcheramim, with a very great slaughter. So the children of Ammon were subdued before the children of Israel. 011:034 Jephthah came to Mizpah to his house; and behold, his daughter came out to meet him with tambourines and with dances: and she was his only child; besides her he had neither son nor daughter. 011:035 It happened, when he saw her, that he tore his clothes, and said, Alas, my daughter! you have brought me very low, and you are one of those who trouble me; for I have opened my mouth to Yahweh, and I can't go back. 011:036 She said to him, My father, you have opened your mouth to Yahweh; do to me according to that which has proceeded out of your mouth, because Yahweh has taken vengeance for you on your enemies, even on the children of Ammon. 011:037 She said to her father, Let this thing be done for me: let me alone two months, that I may depart and go down on the mountains, and bewail my virginity, I and my companions. 011:038 He said, Go. He sent her away for two months: and she departed, she and her companions, and mourned her virginity on the mountains. 011:039 It happened at the end of two months, that she returned to her father, who did with her according to his vow which he had vowed: and she was a virgin. It was a custom in Israel, 011:040 that the daughters of Israel went yearly to celebrate the daughter of Jephthah the Gileadite four days in a year. 012:001 The men of Ephraim were gathered together, and passed northward; and they said to Jephthah, Why did you pass over to fight against the children of Ammon, and didn't call us to go with you? we will burn your house on you with fire. 012:002 Jephthah said to them, I and my people were at great strife with the children of Ammon; and when I called you, you didn't save me out of their hand. 012:003 When I saw that you didn't save me, I put my life in my hand, and passed over against the children of Ammon, and Yahweh delivered them into my hand: why then are you come up to me this day, to fight against me? 012:004 Then Jephthah gathered together all the men of Gilead, and fought with Ephraim; and the men of Gilead struck Ephraim, because they said, You are fugitives of Ephraim, you Gileadites, in the midst of Ephraim, [and] in the midst of Manasseh. 012:005 The Gileadites took the fords of the Jordan against the Ephraimites. It was so, that when [any of] the fugitives of Ephraim said, Let me go over, the men of Gilead said to him, Are you an Ephraimite? If he said, No; 012:006 then said they to him, Say now Shibboleth; and he said Sibboleth; for he couldn't manage to pronounce it right: then they laid hold on him, and killed him at the fords of the Jordan. There fell at that time of Ephraim forty-two thousand. 012:007 Jephthah judged Israel six years. Then died Jephthah the Gileadite, and was buried in [one of] the cities of Gilead. 012:008 After him Ibzan of Bethlehem judged Israel. 012:009 He had thirty sons; and thirty daughters he sent abroad, and thirty daughters he brought in from abroad for his sons. He judged Israel seven years. 012:010 Ibzan died, and was buried at Bethlehem. 012:011 After him Elon the Zebulunite judged Israel; and he judged Israel ten years. 012:012 Elon the Zebulunite died, and was buried in Aijalon in the land of Zebulun. 012:013 After him Abdon the son of Hillel the Pirathonite judged Israel. 012:014 He had forty sons and thirty sons' sons, who rode on seventy donkey colts: and he judged Israel eight years. 012:015 Abdon the son of Hillel the Pirathonite died, and was buried in Pirathon in the land of Ephraim, in the hill country of the Amalekites. 013:001 The children of Israel again did that which was evil in the sight of Yahweh; and Yahweh delivered them into the hand of the Philistines forty years. 013:002 There was a certain man of Zorah, of the family of the Danites, whose name was Manoah; and his wife was barren, and didn't bear. 013:003 The angel of Yahweh appeared to the woman, and said to her, See now, you are barren, and don't bear; but you shall conceive, and bear a son. 013:004 Now therefore please beware and drink no wine nor strong drink, and don't eat any unclean thing: 013:005 for, behold, you shall conceive, and bear a son; and no razor shall come on his head; for the child shall be a Nazirite to God from the womb: and he shall begin to save Israel out of the hand of the Philistines. 013:006 Then the woman came and told her husband, saying, A man of God came to me, and his face was like the face of the angel of God, very awesome; and I didn't ask him whence he was, neither did he tell me his name: 013:007 but he said to me, Behold, you shall conceive, and bear a son; and now drink no wine nor strong drink, and eat not any unclean thing; for the child shall be a Nazirite to God from the womb to the day of his death. 013:008 Then Manoah entreated Yahweh, and said, Oh, Lord, please let the man of God whom you did send come again to us, and teach us what we shall do to the child who shall be born. 013:009 God listened to the voice of Manoah; and the angel of God came again to the woman as she sat in the field: but Manoah, her husband, wasn't with her. 013:010 The woman made haste, and ran, and told her husband, and said to him, Behold, the man has appeared to me, who came to me the [other] day. 013:011 Manoah arose, and went after his wife, and came to the man, and said to him, Are you the man who spoke to the woman? He said, I am. 013:012 Manoah said, Now let your words happen: what shall be the ordering of the child, and [how] shall we do to him? 013:013 The angel of Yahweh said to Manoah, Of all that I said to the woman let her beware. 013:014 She may not eat of anything that comes of the vine, neither let her drink wine or strong drink, nor eat any unclean thing; all that I commanded her let her observe. 013:015 Manoah said to the angel of Yahweh, I pray you, let us detain you, that we may make ready a kid for you. 013:016 The angel of Yahweh said to Manoah, Though you detain me, I won't eat of your bread; and if you will make ready a burnt offering, you must offer it to Yahweh. For Manoah didn't know that he was the angel of Yahweh. 013:017 Manoah said to the angel of Yahweh, What is your name, that when your words happen, we may honor you? 013:018 The angel of Yahweh said to him, Why do you ask after my name, seeing it is wonderful? 013:019 So Manoah took the kid with the meal offering, and offered it on the rock to Yahweh: and [the angel] did wondrously, and Manoah and his wife looked on. 013:020 For it happened, when the flame went up toward the sky from off the altar, that the angel of Yahweh ascended in the flame of the altar: and Manoah and his wife looked on; and they fell on their faces to the ground. 013:021 But the angel of Yahweh did no more appear to Manoah or to his wife. Then Manoah knew that he was the angel of Yahweh. 013:022 Manoah said to his wife, We shall surely die, because we have seen God. 013:023 But his wife said to him, If Yahweh were pleased to kill us, he wouldn't have received a burnt offering and a meal offering at our hand, neither would he have shown us all these things, nor would at this time have told such things as these. 013:024 The woman bore a son, and named him Samson: and the child grew, and Yahweh blessed him. 013:025 The Spirit of Yahweh began to move him in Mahaneh Dan, between Zorah and Eshtaol. 014:001 Samson went down to Timnah, and saw a woman in Timnah of the daughters of the Philistines. 014:002 He came up, and told his father and his mother, and said, I have seen a woman in Timnah of the daughters of the Philistines: now therefore get her for me as wife. 014:003 Then his father and his mother said to him, Is there never a woman among the daughters of your brothers, or among all my people, that you go to take a wife of the uncircumcised Philistines? Samson said to his father, Get her for me; for she pleases me well. 014:004 But his father and his mother didn't know that it was of Yahweh; for he sought an occasion against the Philistines. Now at that time the Philistines had rule over Israel. 014:005 Then went Samson down, and his father and his mother, to Timnah, and came to the vineyards of Timnah: and behold, a young lion roared against him. 014:006 The Spirit of Yahweh came mightily on him, and he tore him as he would have torn a kid; and he had nothing in his hand: but he didn't tell his father or his mother what he had done. 014:007 He went down, and talked with the woman, and she pleased Samson well. 014:008 After a while he returned to take her; and he turned aside to see the carcass of the lion: and behold, there was a swarm of bees in the body of the lion, and honey. 014:009 He took it into his hands, and went on, eating as he went; and he came to his father and mother, and gave to them, and they ate: but he didn't tell them that he had taken the honey out of the body of the lion. 014:010 His father went down to the woman: and Samson made there a feast; for so used the young men to do. 014:011 It happened, when they saw him, that they brought thirty companions to be with him. 014:012 Samson said to them, Let me now put forth a riddle to you: if you can declare it to me within the seven days of the feast, and find it out, then I will give you thirty linen garments and thirty changes of clothing; 014:013 but if you can't declare it to me, then shall you give me thirty linen garments and thirty changes of clothing. They said to him, Put forth your riddle, that we may hear it. 014:014 He said to them, Out of the eater came forth food. Out of the strong came forth sweetness. They couldn't in three days declare the riddle. 014:015 It happened on the seventh day, that they said to Samson's wife, Entice your husband, that he may declare to us the riddle, lest we burn you and your father's house with fire: have you called us to impoverish us? is it not [so]? 014:016 Samson's wife wept before him, and said, You do but hate me, and don't love me: you have put forth a riddle to the children of my people, and haven't told it me. He said to her, Behold, I haven't told it my father nor my mother, and shall I tell you? 014:017 She wept before him the seven days, while their feast lasted: and it happened on the seventh day, that he told her, because she pressed him sore; and she told the riddle to the children of her people. 014:018 The men of the city said to him on the seventh day before the sun went down, What is sweeter than honey? and what is stronger than a lion? He said to them, If you hadn't plowed with my heifer, you wouldn't have found out my riddle. 014:019 The Spirit of Yahweh came mightily on him, and he went down to Ashkelon, and struck thirty men of them, and took their spoil, and gave the changes [of clothing] to those who declared the riddle. His anger was kindled, and he went up to his father's house. 014:020 But Samson's wife was [given] to his companion, whom he had used as his friend. 015:001 But it happened after a while, in the time of wheat harvest, that Samson visited his wife with a kid; and he said, I will go in to my wife into the chamber. But her father wouldn't allow him to go in. 015:002 Her father said, I most certainly thought that you had utterly hated her; therefore I gave her to your companion: isn't her younger sister more beautiful than she? Please take her, instead. 015:003 Samson said to them, This time shall I be blameless in regard of the Philistines, when I do them a mischief. 015:004 Samson went and caught three hundred foxes, and took firebrands, and turned tail to tail, and put a firebrand in the midst between every two tails. 015:005 When he had set the brands on fire, he let them go into the standing grain of the Philistines, and burnt up both the shocks and the standing grain, and also the olive groves. 015:006 Then the Philistines said, Who has done this? They said, Samson, the son-in-law of the Timnite, because he has taken his wife, and given her to his companion. The Philistines came up, and burnt her and her father with fire. 015:007 Samson said to them, If you do after this manner, surely I will be avenged of you, and after that I will cease. 015:008 He struck them hip and thigh with a great slaughter: and he went down and lived in the cleft of the rock of Etam. 015:009 Then the Philistines went up, and encamped in Judah, and spread themselves in Lehi. 015:010 The men of Judah said, Why are you come up against us? They said, To bind Samson are we come up, to do to him as he has done to us. 015:011 Then three thousand men of Judah went down to the cleft of the rock of Etam, and said to Samson, "Don't you know that the Philistines are rulers over us? What then is this that you have done to us?" He said to them, As they did to me, so have I done to them. 015:012 They said to him, We have come down to bind you, that we may deliver you into the hand of the Philistines. Samson said to them, Swear to me that you will not fall on me yourselves. 015:013 They spoke to him, saying, No; but we will bind you fast, and deliver you into their hand: but surely we will not kill you. They bound him with two new ropes, and brought him up from the rock. 015:014 When he came to Lehi, the Philistines shouted as they met him: and the Spirit of Yahweh came mightily on him, and the ropes that were on his arms became as flax that was burnt with fire, and his bands dropped from off his hands. 015:015 He found a fresh jawbone of a donkey, and put forth his hand, and took it, and struck a thousand men therewith. 015:016 Samson said, With the jawbone of a donkey, heaps on heaps, With the jawbone of a donkey I have struck a thousand men. 015:017 It happened, when he had made an end of speaking, that he cast away the jawbone out of his hand; and that place was called Ramath Lehi. 015:018 He was very thirsty, and called on Yahweh, and said, You have given this great deliverance by the hand of your servant; and now shall I die for thirst, and fall into the hand of the uncircumcised. 015:019 But God split the hollow place that is in Lehi, and water came out of it. When he had drunk, his spirit came again, and he revived: therefore the name of it was called En Hakkore, which is in Lehi, to this day. 015:020 He judged Israel in the days of the Philistines twenty years. 016:001 Samson went to Gaza, and saw there a prostitute, and went in to her. 016:002 [It was told] the Gazites, saying, Samson is come here. They compassed him in, and laid wait for him all night in the gate of the city, and were quiet all the night, saying, [Let be] until morning light, then we will kill him. 016:003 Samson lay until midnight, and arose at midnight, and laid hold of the doors of the gate of the city, and the two posts, and plucked them up, bar and all, and put them on his shoulders, and carried them up to the top of the mountain that is before Hebron. 016:004 It came to pass afterward, that he loved a woman in the valley of Sorek, whose name was Delilah. 016:005 The lords of the Philistines came up to her, and said to her, Entice him, and see in which his great strength lies, and by what means we may prevail against him, that we may bind him to afflict him: and we will each give you of us eleven hundred [pieces] of silver. 016:006 Delilah said to Samson, Tell me, Please, in which your great strength lies, and with which you might be bound to afflict you. 016:007 Samson said to her, If they bind me with seven green cords that were never dried, then shall I become weak, and be as another man. 016:008 Then the lords of the Philistines brought up to her seven green cords which had not been dried, and she bound him with them. 016:009 Now she had an ambush waiting in the inner chamber. She said to him, "The Philistines are on you, Samson!" He broke the cords, as a string of tow is broken when it touches the fire. So his strength was not known. 016:010 Delilah said to Samson, Behold, you have mocked me, and told me lies: now tell me, Please, with which you might be bound. 016:011 He said to her, If they only bind me with new ropes with which no work has been done, then shall I become weak, and be as another man. 016:012 So Delilah took new ropes, and bound him therewith, and said to him, The Philistines are on you, Samson. The ambush was waiting in the inner chamber. He broke them off his arms like a thread. 016:013 Delilah said to Samson, Hitherto you have mocked me, and told me lies: tell me with which you might be bound. He said to her, If you weave the seven locks of my head with the web. 016:014 She fastened it with the pin, and said to him, The Philistines are on you, Samson. He awakened out of his sleep, and plucked away the pin of the beam, and the web. 016:015 She said to him, How can you say, I love you, when your heart is not with me? you have mocked me these three times, and have not told me in which your great strength lies. 016:016 It happened, when she pressed him daily with her words, and urged him, that his soul was vexed to death. 016:017 He told her all his heart, and said to her, "No razor has ever come on my head; for I have been a Nazirite to God from my mother's womb. If I am shaved, then my strength will go from me, and I will become weak, and be like any other man." 016:018 When Delilah saw that he had told her all his heart, she sent and called for the lords of the Philistines, saying, Come up this once, for he has told me all his heart. Then the lords of the Philistines came up to her, and brought the money in their hand. 016:019 She made him sleep on her knees; and she called for a man, and shaved off the seven locks of his head; and she began to afflict him, and his strength went from him. 016:020 She said, The Philistines are on you, Samson. He awoke out of his sleep, and said, I will go out as at other times, and shake myself free. But he didn't know that Yahweh had departed from him. 016:021 The Philistines laid hold on him, and put out his eyes; and they brought him down to Gaza, and bound him with fetters of brass; and he ground at the mill in the prison. 016:022 However the hair of his head began to grow again after he was shaved. 016:023 The lords of the Philistines gathered them together to offer a great sacrifice to Dagon their god, and to rejoice; for they said, Our god has delivered Samson our enemy into our hand. 016:024 When the people saw him, they praised their god; for they said, Our god has delivered into our hand our enemy, and the destroyer of our country, who has slain many of us. 016:025 It happened, when their hearts were merry, that they said, Call for Samson, that he may make us sport. They called for Samson out of the prison; and he made sport before them. They set him between the pillars: 016:026 and Samson said to the boy who held him by the hand, Allow me that I may feel the pillars whereupon the house rests, that I may lean on them. 016:027 Now the house was full of men and women; and all the lords of the Philistines were there; and there were on the roof about three thousand men and women, who saw while Samson made sport. 016:028 Samson called to Yahweh, and said, Lord Yahweh, remember me, Please, and strengthen me, Please, only this once, God, that I may be at once avenged of the Philistines for my two eyes. 016:029 Samson took hold of the two middle pillars on which the house rested, and leaned on them, the one with his right hand, and the other with his left. 016:030 Samson said, Let me die with the Philistines. He bowed himself with all his might; and the house fell on the lords, and on all the people who were therein. So the dead that he killed at his death were more than those who he killed in his life. 016:031 Then his brothers and all the house of his father came down, and took him, and brought him up, and buried him between Zorah and Eshtaol in the burial site of Manoah his father. He judged Israel twenty years. 017:001 There was a man of the hill country of Ephraim, whose name was Micah. 017:002 He said to his mother, The eleven hundred [pieces] of silver that were taken from you, about which you did utter a curse, and did also speak it in my ears, behold, the silver is with me; I took it. His mother said, Blessed be my son of Yahweh. 017:003 He restored the eleven hundred [pieces] of silver to his mother; and his mother said, I most certainly dedicate the silver to Yahweh from my hand for my son, to make an engraved image and a molten image: now therefore I will restore it to you. 017:004 When he restored the money to his mother, his mother took two hundred [pieces] of silver, and gave them to the founder, who made of it an engraved image and a molten image: and it was in the house of Micah. 017:005 The man Micah had a house of gods, and he made an ephod, and teraphim, and consecrated one of his sons, who became his priest. 017:006 In those days there was no king in Israel: every man did that which was right in his own eyes. 017:007 There was a young man out of Bethlehem Judah, of the family of Judah, who was a Levite; and he sojourned there. 017:008 The man departed out of the city, out of Bethlehem Judah, to sojourn where he could find [a place], and he came to the hill country of Ephraim to the house of Micah, as he traveled. 017:009 Micah said to him, Whence come you? He said to him, I am a Levite of Bethlehem Judah, and I go to sojourn where I may find [a place]. 017:010 Micah said to him, Dwell with me, and be to me a father and a priest, and I will give you ten [pieces] of silver by the year, and a suit of clothing, and your food. So the Levite went in. 017:011 The Levite was content to dwell with the man; and the young man was to him as one of his sons. 017:012 Micah consecrated the Levite, and the young man became his priest, and was in the house of Micah. 017:013 Then said Micah, Now know I that Yahweh will do me good, seeing I have a Levite to my priest. 018:001 In those days there was no king in Israel: and in those days the tribe of the Danites sought them an inheritance to dwell in; for to that day [their] inheritance had not fallen to them among the tribes of Israel. 018:002 The children of Dan sent of their family five men from their whole number, men of valor, from Zorah, and from Eshtaol, to spy out the land, and to search it; and they said to them, Go, search the land. They came to the hill country of Ephraim, to the house of Micah, and lodged there. 018:003 When they were by the house of Micah, they knew the voice of the young man the Levite; and they turned aside there, and said to him, Who brought you here? and what do you in this place? and what have you here? 018:004 He said to them, Thus and thus has Micah dealt with me, and he has hired me, and I am become his priest. 018:005 They said to him, Ask counsel, we pray you, of God, that we may know whether our way which we go shall be prosperous. 018:006 The priest said to them, Go in peace: before Yahweh is your way wherein you go. 018:007 Then the five men departed, and came to Laish, and saw the people who were therein, how they lived in security, after the manner of the Sidonians, quiet and secure; for there was none in the land, possessing authority, that might put [them] to shame in anything, and they were far from the Sidonians, and had no dealings with any man. 018:008 They came to their brothers to Zorah and Eshtaol: and their brothers said to them, What [say] you? 018:009 They said, Arise, and let us go up against them; for we have seen the land, and behold, it is very good: and are you still? don't be slothful to go and to enter in to possess the land. 018:010 When you go, you shall come to a people secure, and the land is large; for God has given it into your hand, a place where there is no want of anything that is in the earth. 018:011 There set forth from there of the family of the Danites, out of Zorah and out of Eshtaol, six hundred men girt with weapons of war. 018:012 They went up, and encamped in Kiriath Jearim, in Judah: therefore they called that place Mahaneh Dan, to this day; behold, it is behind Kiriath Jearim. 018:013 They passed there to the hill country of Ephraim, and came to the house of Micah. 018:014 Then the five men who went to spy out the country of Laish answered, and said to their brothers, Do you know that there is in these houses an ephod, and teraphim, and an engraved image, and a molten image? now therefore consider what you have to do. 018:015 They turned aside there, and came to the house of the young man the Levite, even to the house of Micah, and asked him of his welfare. 018:016 The six hundred men girt with their weapons of war, who were of the children of Dan, stood by the entrance of the gate. 018:017 The five men who went to spy out the land went up, and came in there, and took the engraved image, and the ephod, and the teraphim, and the molten image: and the priest stood by the entrance of the gate with the six hundred men girt with weapons of war. 018:018 When these went into Micah's house, and fetched the engraved image, the ephod, and the teraphim, and the molten image, the priest said to them, What do you? 018:019 They said to him, Hold your peace, lay your hand on your mouth, and go with us, and be to us a father and a priest: is it better for you to be priest to the house of one man, or to be priest to a tribe and a family in Israel? 018:020 The priest's heart was glad, and he took the ephod, and the teraphim, and the engraved image, and went in the midst of the people. 018:021 So they turned and departed, and put the little ones and the livestock and the goods before them. 018:022 When they were a good way from the house of Micah, the men who were in the houses near to Micah's house were gathered together, and overtook the children of Dan. 018:023 They cried to the children of Dan. They turned their faces, and said to Micah, What ails you, that you come with such a company? 018:024 He said, you have taken away my gods which I made, and the priest, and are gone away, and what have I more? and how then say you to me, What ails you? 018:025 The children of Dan said to him, "Don't let your voice be heard among us, lest angry fellows fall on you, and you lose your life, with the lives of your household." 018:026 The children of Dan went their way: and when Micah saw that they were too strong for him, he turned and went back to his house. 018:027 They took that which Micah had made, and the priest whom he had, and came to Laish, to a people quiet and secure, and struck them with the edge of the sword; and they burnt the city with fire. 018:028 There was no deliverer, because it was far from Sidon, and they had no dealings with any man; and it was in the valley that lies by Beth Rehob. They built the city, and lived therein. 018:029 They called the name of the city Dan, after the name of Dan their father, who was born to Israel: however the name of the city was Laish at the first. 018:030 The children of Dan set up for themselves the engraved image: and Jonathan, the son of Gershom, the son of Moses, he and his sons were priests to the tribe of the Danites until the day of the captivity of the land. 018:031 So they set them up Micah's engraved image which he made, all the time that the house of God was in Shiloh. 019:001 It happened in those days, when there was no king in Israel, that there was a certain Levite sojourning on the farther side of the hill country of Ephraim, who took to him a concubine out of Bethlehem Judah. 019:002 His concubine played the prostitute against him, and went away from him to her father's house to Bethlehem Judah, and was there the space of four months. 019:003 Her husband arose, and went after her, to speak kindly to her, to bring her again, having his servant with him, and a couple of donkeys: and she brought him into her father's house; and when the father of the young lady saw him, he rejoiced to meet him. 019:004 His father-in-law, the young lady's father, retained him; and he abode with him three days: so they ate and drink, and lodged there. 019:005 It happened on the fourth day, that they arose early in the morning, and he rose up to depart: and the young lady's father said to his son-in-law, Strengthen your heart with a morsel of bread, and afterward you shall go your way. 019:006 So they sat down, ate, and drank, both of them together: and the young lady's father said to the man, Please be pleased to stay all night, and let your heart be merry. 019:007 The man rose up to depart; but his father-in-law urged him, and he lodged there again. 019:008 He arose early in the morning on the fifth day to depart; and the young lady's father said, Please strengthen your heart and stay until the day declines; and they ate, both of them. 019:009 When the man rose up to depart, he, and his concubine, and his servant, his father-in-law, the young lady's father, said to him, Behold, now the day draws toward evening, please stay all night: behold, the day grows to an end, lodge here, that your heart may be merry; and tomorrow get you early on your way, that you may go home. 019:010 But the man wouldn't stay that night, but he rose up and departed, and came over against Jebus (the same is Jerusalem): and there were with him a couple of donkeys saddled; his concubine also was with him. 019:011 When they were by Jebus, the day was far spent; and the servant said to his master, Please come and let us turn aside into this city of the Jebusites, and lodge in it. 019:012 His master said to him, We won't turn aside into the city of a foreigner, that is not of the children of Israel; but we will pass over to Gibeah. 019:013 He said to his servant, Come and let us draw near to one of these places; and we will lodge in Gibeah, or in Ramah. 019:014 So they passed on and went their way; and the sun went down on them near to Gibeah, which belongs to Benjamin. 019:015 They turned aside there, to go in to lodge in Gibeah: and he went in, and sat him down in the street of the city; for there was no man who took them into his house to lodge. 019:016 Behold, there came an old man from his work out of the field at even: now the man was of the hill country of Ephraim, and he sojourned in Gibeah; but the men of the place were Benjamites. 019:017 He lifted up his eyes, and saw the wayfaring man in the street of the city; and the old man said, Where go you? and whence come you? 019:018 He said to him, We are passing from Bethlehem Judah to the farther side of the hill country of Ephraim; from there am I, and I went to Bethlehem Judah: and I am [now] going to the house of Yahweh; and there is no man who takes me into his house. 019:019 Yet there is both straw and provender for our donkeys; and there is bread and wine also for me, and for your handmaid, and for the young man who is with your servants: there is no want of anything. 019:020 The old man said, Peace be to you; howsoever let all your wants lie on me; only don't lodge in the street. 019:021 So he brought him into his house, and gave the donkeys fodder; and they washed their feet, and ate and drink. 019:022 As they were making their hearts merry, behold, the men of the city, certain base fellows, beset the house round about, beating at the door; and they spoke to the master of the house, the old man, saying, Bring forth the man who came into your house, that we may know him. 019:023 The man, the master of the house, went out to them, and said to them, No, my brothers, please don't act so wickedly; seeing that this man is come into my house, don't do this folly. 019:024 Behold, here is my daughter a virgin, and his concubine; them I will bring out now, and humble you them, and do with them what seems good to you: but to this man don't do any such folly. 019:025 But the men wouldn't listen to him: so the man laid hold on his concubine, and brought her forth to them; and they knew her, and abused her all the night until the morning: and when the day began to spring, they let her go. 019:026 Then came the woman in the dawning of the day, and fell down at the door of the man's house where her lord was, until it was light. 019:027 Her lord rose up in the morning, and opened the doors of the house, and went out to go his way; and behold, the woman his concubine was fallen down at the door of the house, with her hands on the threshold. 019:028 He said to her, Up, and let us be going; but none answered: then he took her up on the donkey; and the man rose up, and got him to his place. 019:029 When he was come into his house, he took a knife, and laid hold on his concubine, and divided her, limb by limb, into twelve pieces, and sent her throughout all the borders of Israel. 019:030 It was so, that all who saw it said, There was no such deed done nor seen from the day that the children of Israel came up out of the land of Egypt to this day: consider it, take counsel, and speak. 020:001 Then all the children of Israel went out, and the congregation was assembled as one man, from Dan even to Beersheba, with the land of Gilead, to Yahweh at Mizpah. 020:002 The chiefs of all the people, even of all the tribes of Israel, presented themselves in the assembly of the people of God, four hundred thousand footmen who drew sword. 020:003 (Now the children of Benjamin heard that the children of Israel had gone up to Mizpah.) The children of Israel said, Tell us, how was this wickedness brought to pass? 020:004 The Levite, the husband of the woman who was murdered, answered, I came into Gibeah that belongs to Benjamin, I and my concubine, to lodge. 020:005 The men of Gibeah rose against me, and beset the house round about me by night; me they thought to have slain, and my concubine they forced, and she is dead. 020:006 I took my concubine, and cut her in pieces, and sent her throughout all the country of the inheritance of Israel; for they have committed lewdness and folly in Israel. 020:007 Behold, you children of Israel, all of you, give here your advice and counsel. 020:008 All the people arose as one man, saying, We will not any of us go to his tent, neither will we any of us turn to his house. 020:009 But now this is the thing which we will do to Gibeah: [we will go up] against it by lot; 020:010 and we will take ten men of one hundred throughout all the tribes of Israel, and one hundred of one thousand, and a thousand out of ten thousand, to get food for the people, that they may do, when they come to Gibeah of Benjamin, according to all the folly that they have worked in Israel. 020:011 So all the men of Israel were gathered against the city, knit together as one man. 020:012 The tribes of Israel sent men through all the tribe of Benjamin, saying, What wickedness is this that is happen among you? 020:013 Now therefore deliver up the men, the base fellows, who are in Gibeah, that we may put them to death, and put away evil from Israel. But Benjamin would not listen to the voice of their brothers the children of Israel. 020:014 The children of Benjamin gathered themselves together out of the cities to Gibeah, to go out to battle against the children of Israel. 020:015 The children of Benjamin were numbered on that day out of the cities twenty-six thousand men who drew the sword, besides the inhabitants of Gibeah, who were numbered seven hundred chosen men. 020:016 Among all this people there were seven hundred chosen men left-handed; everyone could sling stones at a hair-breadth, and not miss. 020:017 The men of Israel, besides Benjamin, were numbered four hundred thousand men who drew sword: all these were men of war. 020:018 The children of Israel arose, and went up to Bethel, and asked counsel of God; and they said, Who shall go up for us first to battle against the children of Benjamin? Yahweh said, Judah [shall go up] first. 020:019 The children of Israel rose up in the morning, and encamped against Gibeah. 020:020 The men of Israel went out to battle against Benjamin; and the men of Israel set the battle in array against them at Gibeah. 020:021 The children of Benjamin came forth out of Gibeah, and destroyed down to the ground of the Israelites on that day Twenty-two thousand men. 020:022 The people, the men of Israel, encouraged themselves, and set the battle again in array in the place where they set themselves in array the first day. 020:023 The children of Israel went up and wept before Yahweh until even; and they asked of Yahweh, saying, Shall I again draw near to battle against the children of Benjamin my brother? Yahweh said, Go up against him. 020:024 The children of Israel came near against the children of Benjamin the second day. 020:025 Benjamin went forth against them out of Gibeah the second day, and destroyed down to the ground of the children of Israel again eighteen thousand men; all these drew the sword. 020:026 Then all the children of Israel, and all the people, went up, and came to Bethel, and wept, and sat there before Yahweh, and fasted that day until even; and they offered burnt offerings and peace offerings before Yahweh. 020:027 The children of Israel asked of Yahweh (for the ark of the covenant of God was there in those days, 020:028 and Phinehas, the son of Eleazar, the son of Aaron, stood before it in those days), saying, Shall I yet again go out to battle against the children of Benjamin my brother, or shall I cease? Yahweh said, Go up; for tomorrow I will deliver him into your hand. 020:029 Israel set ambushes all around Gibeah. 020:030 The children of Israel went up against the children of Benjamin on the third day, and set themselves in array against Gibeah, as at other times. 020:031 The children of Benjamin went out against the people, and were drawn away from the city; and they began to strike and kill of the people, as at other times, in the highways, of which one goes up to Bethel, and the other to Gibeah, in the field, about thirty men of Israel. 020:032 The children of Benjamin said, They are struck down before us, as at the first. But the children of Israel said, Let us flee, and draw them away from the city to the highways. 020:033 All the men of Israel rose up out of their place, and set themselves in array at Baal Tamar: and the ambushers of Israel broke forth out of their place, even out of Maareh Geba. 020:034 There came over against Gibeah ten thousand chosen men out of all Israel, and the battle was sore; but they didn't know that evil was close on them. 020:035 Yahweh struck Benjamin before Israel; and the children of Israel destroyed of Benjamin that day twenty-five thousand one hundred men: all these drew the sword. 020:036 So the children of Benjamin saw that they were struck; for the men of Israel gave place to Benjamin, because they trusted the ambushers whom they had set against Gibeah. 020:037 The ambushers hurried, and rushed on Gibeah; and the ambushers drew themselves along, and struck all the city with the edge of the sword. 020:038 Now the appointed sign between the men of Israel and the ambushers was that they should make a great cloud of smoke rise up out of the city. 020:039 The men of Israel turned in the battle, and Benjamin began to strike and kill of the men of Israel about thirty persons; for they said, Surely they are struck down before us, as in the first battle. 020:040 But when the cloud began to arise up out of the city in a pillar of smoke, the Benjamites looked behind them; and behold, the whole of the city went up in smoke to the sky. 020:041 The men of Israel turned, and the men of Benjamin were dismayed; for they saw that evil had come on them. 020:042 Therefore they turned their backs before the men of Israel to the way of the wilderness; but the battle followed hard after them; and those who came out of the cities destroyed them in the midst of it. 020:043 They enclosed the Benjamites round about, [and] chased them, [and] trod them down at [their] resting place, as far as over against Gibeah toward the sunrise. 020:044 There fell of Benjamin eighteen thousand men; all these [were] men of valor. 020:045 They turned and fled toward the wilderness to the rock of Rimmon: and they gleaned of them in the highways five thousand men, and followed hard after them to Gidom, and struck of them two thousand men. 020:046 So that all who fell that day of Benjamin were twenty-five thousand men who drew the sword; all these [were] men of valor. 020:047 But six hundred men turned and fled toward the wilderness to the rock of Rimmon, and abode in the rock of Rimmon four months. 020:048 The men of Israel turned again on the children of Benjamin, and struck them with the edge of the sword, both the entire city, and the livestock, and all that they found: moreover all the cities which they found they set on fire. 021:001 Now the men of Israel had sworn in Mizpah, saying, There shall not any of us give his daughter to Benjamin as wife. 021:002 The people came to Bethel, and sat there until evening before God, and lifted up their voices, and wept sore. 021:003 They said, Yahweh, the God of Israel, why has this happened in Israel, that there should be today one tribe lacking in Israel? 021:004 It happened on the next day that the people rose early, and built there an altar, and offered burnt offerings and peace offerings. 021:005 The children of Israel said, Who is there among all the tribes of Israel who didn't come up in the assembly to Yahweh? For they had made a great oath concerning him who didn't come up to Yahweh to Mizpah, saying, He shall surely be put to death. 021:006 The children of Israel grieved for Benjamin their brother, and said, There is one tribe cut off from Israel this day. 021:007 How shall we do for wives for those who remain, seeing we have sworn by Yahweh that we will not give them of our daughters to wives? 021:008 They said, What one is there of the tribes of Israel who didn't come up to Yahweh to Mizpah? Behold, there came none to the camp from Jabesh Gilead to the assembly. 021:009 For when the people were numbered, behold, there were none of the inhabitants of Jabesh Gilead there. 021:010 The congregation sent there twelve thousand men of the most valiant, and commanded them, saying, Go and strike the inhabitants of Jabesh Gilead with the edge of the sword, with the women and the little ones. 021:011 This is the thing that you shall do: you shall utterly destroy every male, and every woman who has lain by man. 021:012 They found among the inhabitants of Jabesh Gilead four hundred young virgins, who had not known man by lying with him; and they brought them to the camp to Shiloh, which is in the land of Canaan. 021:013 The whole congregation sent and spoke to the children of Benjamin who were in the rock of Rimmon, and proclaimed peace to them. 021:014 Benjamin returned at that time; and they gave them the women whom they had saved alive of the women of Jabesh Gilead: and yet so they weren't enough for them. 021:015 The people grieved for Benjamin, because that Yahweh had made a breach in the tribes of Israel. 021:016 Then the elders of the congregation said, How shall we do for wives for those who remain, seeing the women are destroyed out of Benjamin? 021:017 They said, There must be an inheritance for those who are escaped of Benjamin, that a tribe not be blotted out from Israel. 021:018 However we may not give them wives of our daughters, for the children of Israel had sworn, saying, Cursed be he who gives a wife to Benjamin. 021:019 They said, Behold, there is a feast of Yahweh from year to year in Shiloh, which is on the north of Bethel, on the east side of the highway that goes up from Bethel to Shechem, and on the south of Lebonah. 021:020 They commanded the children of Benjamin, saying, Go and lie in wait in the vineyards, 021:021 and see, and behold, if the daughters of Shiloh come out to dance in the dances, then come you out of the vineyards, and catch you every man his wife of the daughters of Shiloh, and go to the land of Benjamin. 021:022 It shall be, when their fathers or their brothers come to complain to us, that we will say to them, Grant them graciously to us, because we didn't take for each man his wife in battle, neither did you give them to them, else would you now be guilty. 021:023 The children of Benjamin did so, and took them wives, according to their number, of those who danced, whom they carried off: and they went and returned to their inheritance, and built the cities, and lived in them. 021:024 The children of Israel departed there at that time, every man to his tribe and to his family, and they went out from there every man to his inheritance. 021:025 In those days there was no king in Israel: every man did that which was right in his own eyes.

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Table of Contents

Book 07 Judges 001:001 It happened after the death of Joshua, the children of Israel asked of Yahweh, saying, Who shall go up for us first against the Canaanites, to fight against them? 001:002 Yahweh said, Judah shall go up: behold, I have delivered the land into his hand. 001:003 Judah said to Simeon his brother, Come up with me into my lot, that we may fight against the Canaanites; and I likewise will go with you into your lot. So Simeon went with him. 001:004 Judah went up; and Yahweh delivered the Canaanites and the Perizzites into their hand: and they struck of them in Bezek ten thousand men. 001:005 They found Adoni-Bezek in Bezek; and they fought against him, and they struck the Canaanites and the Perizzites. 001:006 But Adoni-Bezek fled; and they pursued after him, and caught him, and cut off his thumbs and his great toes. 001:007 Adoni-Bezek said, "Seventy kings, having their thumbs and their great toes cut off, gathered [their food] under my table: as I have done, so God has requited me." They brought him to Jerusalem, and he died there. 001:008 The children of Judah fought against Jerusalem, and took it, and struck it with the edge of the sword, and set the city on fire. 001:009 Afterward the children of Judah went down to fight against the Canaanites who lived in the hill country, and in the South, and in the lowland. 001:010 Judah went against the Canaanites who lived in Hebron (now the name of Hebron before was Kiriath Arba); and they struck Sheshai, and Ahiman, and Talmai. 001:011 From there he went against the inhabitants of Debir. (Now the name of Debir before was Kiriath Sepher.) 001:012 Caleb said, He who strikes Kiriath Sepher, and takes it, to him will I give Achsah my daughter as wife. 001:013 Othniel the son of Kenaz, Caleb's younger brother, took it: and he gave him Achsah his daughter as wife. 001:014 It happened, when she came [to him], that she moved him to ask of her father a field: and she alighted from off her donkey; and Caleb said to her, What would you? 001:015 She said to him, Give me a blessing; for that you have set me in the land of the South, give me also springs of water. Caleb gave her the upper springs and the lower springs. 001:016 The children of the Kenite, Moses' brother-in-law, went up out of the city of palm trees with the children of Judah into the wilderness of Judah, which is in the south of Arad; and they went and lived with the people. 001:017 Judah went with Simeon his brother, and they struck the Canaanites who inhabited Zephath, and utterly destroyed it. The name of the city was called Hormah. 001:018 Also Judah took Gaza with the border of it, and Ashkelon with the border of it, and Ekron with the border of it. 001:019 Yahweh was with Judah; and drove out [the inhabitants of] the hill country; for he could not drive out the inhabitants of the valley, because they had chariots of iron. 001:020 They gave Hebron to Caleb, as Moses had spoken: and he drove out there the three sons of Anak. 001:021 The children of Benjamin did not drive out the Jebusites who inhabited Jerusalem; but the Jebusites dwell with the children of Benjamin in Jerusalem to this day. 001:022 The house of Joseph, they also went up against Bethel; and Yahweh was with them. 001:023 The house of Joseph sent to spy out Bethel. (Now the name of the city before was Luz.) 001:024 The watchers saw a man come forth out of the city, and they said to him, Show us, we pray you, the entrance into the city, and we will deal kindly with you. 001:025 He shown them the entrance into the city; and they struck the city with the edge of the sword; but they let the man go and all his family. 001:026 The man went into the land of the Hittites, and built a city, and called the name of it Luz, which is the name of it to this day. 001:027 Manasseh did not drive out [the inhabitants of] Beth Shean and its towns, nor [of] Taanach and its towns, nor the inhabitants of Dor and its towns, nor the inhabitants of Ibleam and its towns, nor the inhabitants of Megiddo and its towns; but the Canaanites would dwell in that land. 001:028 It happened, when Israel had grown strong, that they put the Canaanites to forced labor, and did not utterly drive them out. 001:029 Ephraim didn't drive out the Canaanites who lived in Gezer; but the Canaanites lived in Gezer among them. 001:030 Zebulun didn't drive out the inhabitants of Kitron, nor the inhabitants of Nahalol; but the Canaanites lived among them, and became subject to forced labor. 001:031 Asher didn't drive out the inhabitants of Acco, nor the inhabitants of Sidon, nor of Ahlab, nor of Achzib, nor of Helbah, nor of Aphik, nor of Rehob; 001:032 but the Asherites lived among the Canaanites, the inhabitants of the land; for they did not drive them out. 001:033 Naphtali didn't drive out the inhabitants of Beth Shemesh, nor the inhabitants of Beth Anath; but he lived among the Canaanites, the inhabitants of the land: nevertheless the inhabitants of Beth Shemesh and of Beth Anath became subject to forced labor. 001:034 The Amorites forced the children of Dan into the hill country; for they would not allow them to come down to the valley; 001:035 but the Amorites would dwell in Mount Heres, in Aijalon, and in Shaalbim: yet the hand of the house of Joseph prevailed, so that they became subject to forced labor. 001:036 The border of the Amorites was from the ascent of Akrabbim, from the rock, and upward. 002:001 The angel of Yahweh came up from Gilgal to Bochim. He said, I made you to go up out of Egypt, and have brought you to the land which I swore to your fathers; and I said, I will never break my covenant with you: 002:002 and you shall make no covenant with the inhabitants of this land; you shall break down their altars. But you have not listened to my voice: why have you done this? 002:003 Therefore I also said, I will not drive them out from before you; but they shall be [as thorns] in your sides, and their gods shall be a snare to you. 002:004 It happened, when the angel of Yahweh spoke these words to all the children of Israel, that the people lifted up their voice, and wept. 002:005 They called the name of that place Bochim: and they sacrificed there to Yahweh. 002:006 Now when Joshua had sent the people away, the children of Israel went every man to his inheritance to possess the land. 002:007 The people served Yahweh all the days of Joshua, and all the days of the elders who outlived Joshua, who had seen all the great work of Yahweh that he had worked for Israel. 002:008 Joshua the son of Nun, the servant of Yahweh, died, being one hundred ten years old. 002:009 They buried him in the border of his inheritance in Timnath Heres, in the hill country of Ephraim, on the north of the mountain of Gaash. 002:010 Also all that generation were gathered to their fathers: and there arose another generation after them, who didn't know Yahweh, nor yet the work which he had worked for Israel. 002:011 The children of Israel did that which was evil in the sight of Yahweh, and served the Baals; 002:012 and they forsook Yahweh, the God of their fathers, who brought them out of the land of Egypt, and followed other gods, of the gods of the peoples who were round about them, and bowed themselves down to them: and they provoked Yahweh to anger. 002:013 They forsook Yahweh, and served Baal and the Ashtaroth. 002:014 The anger of Yahweh was kindled against Israel, and he delivered them into the hands of spoilers who despoiled them; and he sold them into the hands of their enemies round about, so that they could not any longer stand before their enemies. 002:015 Wherever they went out, the hand of Yahweh was against them for evil, as Yahweh had spoken, and as Yahweh had sworn to them: and they were sore distressed. 002:016 Yahweh raised up judges, who saved them out of the hand of those who despoiled them. 002:017 Yet they didn't listen to their judges; for they played the prostitute after other gods, and bowed themselves down to them: they turned aside quickly out of the way in which their fathers walked, obeying the commandments of Yahweh; [but] they didn't do so. 002:018 When Yahweh raised them up judges, then Yahweh was with the judge, and saved them out of the hand of their enemies all the days of the judge: for it grieved Yahweh because of their groaning by reason of those who oppressed them and vexed them. 002:019 But it happened, when the judge was dead, that they turned back, and dealt more corruptly than their fathers, in following other gods to serve them, and to bow down to them; they didn't cease from their doings, nor from their stubborn way. 002:020 The anger of Yahweh was kindled against Israel; and he said, Because this nation have transgressed my covenant which I commanded their fathers, and have not listened to my voice; 002:021 I also will not henceforth drive out any from before them of the nations that Joshua left when he died; 002:022 that by them I may prove Israel, whether they will keep the way of Yahweh to walk therein, as their fathers did keep it, or not. 002:023 So Yahweh left those nations, without driving them out hastily; neither delivered he them into the hand of Joshua. 003:001 Now these are the nations which Yahweh left, to prove Israel by them, even as many [of Israel] as had not known all the wars of Canaan; 003:002 only that the generations of the children of Israel might know, to teach them war, at the least such as before knew nothing of it: 003:003 [namely], the five lords of the Philistines, and all the Canaanites, and the Sidonians, and the Hivites who lived on Mount Lebanon, from Mount Baal Hermon to the entrance of Hamath. 003:004 They were [left], to prove Israel by them, to know whether they would listen to the commandments of Yahweh, which he commanded their fathers by Moses. 003:005 The children of Israel lived among the Canaanites, the Hittites, and the Amorites, and the Perizzites, and the Hivites, and the Jebusites: 003:006 and they took their daughters to be their wives, and gave their own daughters to their sons and served their gods. 003:007 The children of Israel did that which was evil in the sight of Yahweh, and forgot Yahweh their God, and served the Baals and the Asheroth. 003:008 Therefore the anger of Yahweh was kindled against Israel, and he sold them into the hand of Cushan Rishathaim king of Mesopotamia: and the children of Israel served Cushan Rishathaim eight years. 003:009 When the children of Israel cried to Yahweh, Yahweh raised up a savior to the children of Israel, who saved them, even Othniel the son of Kenaz, Caleb's younger brother. 003:010 The Spirit of Yahweh came on him, and he judged Israel; and he went out to war, and Yahweh delivered Cushan Rishathaim king of Mesopotamia into his hand: and his hand prevailed against Cushan Rishathaim. 003:011 The land had rest forty years. Othniel the son of Kenaz died. 003:012 The children of Israel again did that which was evil in the sight of Yahweh: and Yahweh strengthened Eglon the king of Moab against Israel, because they had done that which was evil in the sight of Yahweh. 003:013 He gathered to him the children of Ammon and Amalek; and he went and struck Israel, and they possessed the city of palm trees. 003:014 The children of Israel served Eglon the king of Moab eighteen years. 003:015 But when the children of Israel cried to Yahweh, Yahweh raised them up a savior, Ehud the son of Gera, the Benjamite, a man left-handed. The children of Israel sent tribute by him to Eglon the king of Moab. 003:016 Ehud made him a sword which had two edges, a cubit in length; and he girded it under his clothing on his right thigh. 003:017 He offered the tribute to Eglon king of Moab: now Eglon was a very fat man. 003:018 When he had made an end of offering the tribute, he sent away the people who bore the tribute. 003:019 But he himself turned back from the quarries that were by Gilgal, and said, I have a secret errand to you, king. He said, Keep silence. All who stood by him went out from him. 003:020 Ehud came to him; and he was sitting by himself alone in the cool upper room. Ehud said, I have a message from God to you. He arose out of his seat. 003:021 Ehud put forth his left hand, and took the sword from his right thigh, and thrust it into his body: 003:022 and the haft also went in after the blade; and the fat closed on the blade, for he didn't draw the sword out of his body; and it came out behind. 003:023 Then Ehud went forth into the porch, and shut the doors of the upper room on him, and locked them. 003:024 Now when he was gone out, his servants came; and they saw, and behold, the doors of the upper room were locked; and they said, Surely he is covering his feet in the upper chamber. 003:025 They waited until they were ashamed; and behold, he didn't open the doors of the upper room: therefore they took the key, and opened [them], and behold, their lord was fallen down dead on the earth. 003:026 Ehud escaped while they waited, and passed beyond the quarries, and escaped to Seirah. 003:027 It happened, when he had come, that he blew a trumpet in the hill country of Ephraim; and the children of Israel went down with him from the hill country, and he before them. 003:028 He said to them, Follow after me; for Yahweh has delivered your enemies the Moabites into your hand. They went down after him, and took the fords of the Jordan against the Moabites, and didn't allow a man to pass over. 003:029 They struck of Moab at that time about ten thousand men, every lusty man, and every man of valor; and there escaped not a man. 003:030 So Moab was subdued that day under the hand of Israel. The land had rest eighty years. 003:031 After him was Shamgar the son of Anath, who struck of the Philistines six hundred men with an oxgoad: and he also saved Israel. 004:001 The children of Israel again did that which was evil in the sight of Yahweh, when Ehud was dead. 004:002 Yahweh sold them into the hand of Jabin king of Canaan, who reigned in Hazor; the captain of whose army was Sisera, who lived in Harosheth of the Gentiles. 004:003 The children of Israel cried to Yahweh: for he had nine hundred chariots of iron; and twenty years he mightily oppressed the children of Israel. 004:004 Now Deborah, a prophetess, the wife of Lappidoth, she judged Israel at that time. 004:005 She lived under the palm tree of Deborah between Ramah and Bethel in the hill country of Ephraim: and the children of Israel came up to her for judgment. 004:006 She sent and called Barak the son of Abinoam out of Kedesh Naphtali, and said to him, Hasn't Yahweh, the God of Israel, commanded, [saying], Go and draw to Mount Tabor, and take with you ten thousand men of the children of Naphtali and of the children of Zebulun? 004:007 I will draw to you, to the river Kishon, Sisera, the captain of Jabin's army, with his chariots and his multitude; and I will deliver him into your hand. 004:008 Barak said to her, If you will go with me, then I will go; but if you will not go with me, I will not go. 004:009 She said, I will surely go with you: notwithstanding, the journey that you take shall not be for your honor; for Yahweh will sell Sisera into the hand of a woman. Deborah arose, and went with Barak to Kedesh. 004:010 Barak called Zebulun and Naphtali together to Kedesh; and there went up ten thousand men at his feet: and Deborah went up with him. 004:011 Now Heber the Kenite had separated himself from the Kenites, even from the children of Hobab the brother-in-law of Moses, and had pitched his tent as far as the oak in Zaanannim, which is by Kedesh. 004:012 They told Sisera that Barak the son of Abinoam was gone up to Mount Tabor. 004:013 Sisera gathered together all his chariots, even nine hundred chariots of iron, and all the people who were with him, from Harosheth of the Gentiles, to the river Kishon. 004:014 Deborah said to Barak, Up; for this is the day in which Yahweh has delivered Sisera into your hand; hasn't Yahweh gone out before you? So Barak went down from Mount Tabor, and ten thousand men after him. 004:015 Yahweh confused Sisera, and all his chariots, and all his army, with the edge of the sword before Barak; and Sisera alighted from his chariot, and fled away on his feet. 004:016 But Barak pursued after the chariots, and after the army, to Harosheth of the Gentiles: and all the army of Sisera fell by the edge of the sword; there was not a man left. 004:017 However Sisera fled away on his feet to the tent of Jael the wife of Heber the Kenite; for there was peace between Jabin the king of Hazor and the house of Heber the Kenite. 004:018 Jael went out to meet Sisera, and said to him, Turn in, my lord, turn in to me; don't be afraid. He came in to her into the tent, and she covered him with a rug. 004:019 He said to her, Please give me a little water to drink; for I am thirsty. She opened a bottle of milk, and gave him drink, and covered him. 004:020 He said to her, Stand in the door of the tent, and it shall be, when any man does come and inquire of you, and say, Is there any man here? that you shall say, No. 004:021 Then Jael Heber's wife took a tent peg, and took a hammer in her hand, and went softly to him, and struck the pin into his temples, and it pierced through into the ground; for he was in a deep sleep; so he swooned and died. 004:022 Behold, as Barak pursued Sisera, Jael came out to meet him, and said to him, Come, and I will show you the man whom you seek. He came to her; and behold, Sisera lay dead, and the tent peg was in his temples. 004:023 So God subdued on that day Jabin the king of Canaan before the children of Israel. 004:024 The hand of the children of Israel prevailed more and more against Jabin the king of Canaan, until they had destroyed Jabin king of Canaan. 005:001 Then Deborah and Barak the son of Abinoam sang on that day, saying, 005:002 Because the leaders took the lead in Israel, because the people offered themselves willingly, be blessed, Yahweh! 005:003 Hear, you kings! Give ear, you princes! I, [even] I, will sing to Yahweh. I will sing praise to Yahweh, the God of Israel. 005:004 Yahweh, when you went forth out of Seir, when you marched out of the field of Edom, the earth trembled, the sky also dropped. Yes, the clouds dropped water. 005:005 The mountains quaked at the presence of Yahweh, even Sinai, at the presence of Yahweh, the God of Israel. 005:006 In the days of Shamgar the son of Anath, in the days of Jael, the highways were unoccupied. The travelers walked through byways. 005:007 The rulers ceased in Israel. They ceased until I, Deborah, arose; Until I arose a mother in Israel. 005:008 They chose new gods. Then war was in the gates. Was there a shield or spear seen among forty thousand in Israel? 005:009 My heart is toward the governors of Israel, who offered themselves willingly among the people. Bless Yahweh! 005:010 Tell [of it], you who ride on white donkeys, you who sit on rich carpets, and you who walk by the way. 005:011 Far from the noise of archers, in the places of drawing water, there they will rehearse the righteous acts of Yahweh, [Even] the righteous acts of his rule in Israel. Then the people of Yahweh went down to the gates. 005:012 Awake, awake, Deborah! Awake, awake, utter a song! Arise, Barak, and lead away your captives, you son of Abinoam. 005:013 Then a remnant of the nobles [and] the people came down. Yahweh came down for me against the mighty. 005:014 Those whose root is in Amalek came out of Ephraim, after you, Benjamin, among your peoples. Governors come down out of Machir. Those who handle the marshal's staff came out of Zebulun. 005:015 The princes of Issachar were with Deborah. As was Issachar, so was Barak. They rushed into the valley at his feet. By the watercourses of Reuben, there were great resolves of heart. 005:016 Why did you sit among the sheepfolds, To hear the whistling for the flocks? At the watercourses of Reuben There were great searchings of heart. 005:017 Gilead lived beyond the Jordan. Why did Dan remain in ships? Asher sat still at the haven of the sea, and lived by his creeks. 005:018 Zebulun was a people that jeopardized their lives to the deaths; Naphtali also, on the high places of the field. 005:019 The kings came and fought, then the kings of Canaan fought at Taanach by the waters of Megiddo. They took no plunder of silver. 005:020 From the sky the stars fought. From their courses, they fought against Sisera. 005:021 The river Kishon swept them away, that ancient river, the river Kishon. My soul, march on with strength. 005:022 Then the horse hoofs stamped because of the prancings, the prancings of their strong ones. 005:023 Curse Meroz, said the angel of Yahweh. Curse bitterly its inhabitants, because they didn't come to help Yahweh, to help Yahweh against the mighty. 005:024 Jael shall be blessed above women, the wife of Heber the Kenite; blessed shall she be above women in the tent. 005:025 He asked for water. She gave him milk. She brought him butter in a lordly dish. 005:026 She put her hand to the tent peg, and her right hand to the workmen's hammer. With the hammer she struck Sisera. She struck through his head. Yes, she pierced and struck through his temples. 005:027 At her feet he bowed, he fell, he lay. At her feet he bowed, he fell. Where he bowed, there he fell down dead. 005:028 Through the window she looked out, and cried: Sisera's mother looked through the lattice. Why is his chariot so long in coming? Why do the wheels of his chariots wait? 005:029 Her wise ladies answered her, Yes, she returned answer to herself, 005:030 Have they not found, have they not divided the spoil? A lady, two ladies to every man; to Sisera a spoil of dyed garments, A spoil of dyed garments embroidered, Of dyed garments embroidered on both sides, on the necks of the spoil? 005:031 So let all your enemies perish, Yahweh, but let those who love him be as the sun when it rises forth in its strength. The land had rest forty years. 006:001 The children of Israel did that which was evil in the sight of Yahweh: and Yahweh delivered them into the hand of Midian seven years. 006:002 The hand of Midian prevailed against Israel; and because of Midian the children of Israel made them the dens which are in the mountains, and the caves, and the strongholds. 006:003 So it was, when Israel had sown, that the Midianites came up, and the Amalekites, and the children of the east; they came up against them; 006:004 and they encamped against them, and destroyed the increase of the earth, until you come to Gaza, and left no sustenance in Israel, neither sheep, nor ox, nor donkey. 006:005 For they came up with their livestock and their tents; they came in as locusts for multitude; both they and their camels were without number: and they came into the land to destroy it. 006:006 Israel was brought very low because of Midian; and the children of Israel cried to Yahweh. 006:007 It happened, when the children of Israel cried to Yahweh because of Midian, 006:008 that Yahweh sent a prophet to the children of Israel: and he said to them, Thus says Yahweh, the God of Israel, I brought you up from Egypt, and brought you forth out of the house of bondage; 006:009 and I delivered you out of the hand of the Egyptians, and out of the hand of all who oppressed you, and drove them out from before you, and gave you their land; 006:010 and I said to you, I am Yahweh your God; you shall not fear the gods of the Amorites, in whose land you dwell. But you have not listened to my voice. 006:011 The angel of Yahweh came, and sat under the oak which was in Ophrah, that pertained to Joash the Abiezrite: and his son Gideon was beating out wheat in the winepress, to hide it from the Midianites. 006:012 The angel of Yahweh appeared to him, and said to him, Yahweh is with you, you mighty man of valor. 006:013 Gideon said to him, Oh, my lord, if Yahweh is with us, why then has all this happened to us? and where are all his wondrous works which our fathers told us of, saying, Did not Yahweh bring us up from Egypt? but now Yahweh has cast us off, and delivered us into the hand of Midian. 006:014 Yahweh looked at him, and said, Go in this your might, and save Israel from the hand of Midian: have not I sent you? 006:015 He said to him, Oh, Lord, with which shall I save Israel? behold, my family is the poorest in Manasseh, and I am the least in my father's house. 006:016 Yahweh said to him, Surely I will be with you, and you shall strike the Midianites as one man. 006:017 He said to him, If now I have found favor in your sight, then show me a sign that it is you who talk with me. 006:018 Please don't go away, until I come to you, and bring out my present, and lay it before you. He said, I will wait until you come again. 006:019 Gideon went in, and made ready a kid, and unleavened cakes of an ephah of meal: the flesh he put in a basket, and he put the broth in a pot, and brought it out to him under the oak, and presented it. 006:020 The angel of God said to him, Take the flesh and the unleavened cakes, and lay them on this rock, and pour out the broth. He did so. 006:021 Then the angel of Yahweh put forth the end of the staff that was in his hand, and touched the flesh and the unleavened cakes; and there went up fire out of the rock, and consumed the flesh and the unleavened cakes; and the angel of Yahweh departed out of his sight. 006:022 Gideon saw that he was the angel of Yahweh; and Gideon said, Alas, Lord Yahweh! because I have seen the angel of Yahweh face to face. 006:023 Yahweh said to him, Peace be to you; don't be afraid: you shall not die. 006:024 Then Gideon built an altar there to Yahweh, and called it Yahweh is Peace{or, Yahweh Shalom}: to this day it is still in Ophrah of the Abiezrites. 006:025 It happened the same night, that Yahweh said to him, Take your father's bull, even the second bull seven years old, and throw down the altar of Baal that your father has, and cut down the Asherah that is by it; 006:026 and build an altar to Yahweh your God on the top of this stronghold, in the orderly manner, and take the second bull, and offer a burnt offering with the wood of the Asherah which you shall cut down. 006:027 Then Gideon took ten men of his servants, and did as Yahweh had spoken to him: and it happened, because he feared his father's household and the men of the city, so that he could not do it by day, that he did it by night. 006:028 When the men of the city arose early in the morning, behold, the altar of Baal was broken down, and the Asherah was cut down that was by it, and the second bull was offered on the altar that was built. 006:029 They said one to another, Who has done this thing? When they inquired and asked, they said, Gideon the son of Joash has done this thing. 006:030 Then the men of the city said to Joash, Bring out your son, that he may die, because he has broken down the altar of Baal, and because he has cut down the Asherah that was by it. 006:031 Joash said to all who stood against him, Will you contend for Baal? Or will you save him? he who will contend for him, let him be put to death while [it is yet] morning: if he be a god, let him contend for himself, because one has broken down his altar. 006:032 Therefore on that day he named him Jerubbaal, saying, Let Baal contend against him, because he has broken down his altar. 006:033 Then all the Midianites and the Amalekites and the children of the east assembled themselves together; and they passed over, and encamped in the valley of Jezreel. 006:034 But the Spirit of Yahweh came on Gideon; and he blew a trumpet; and Abiezer was gathered together after him. 006:035 He sent messengers throughout all Manasseh; and they also were gathered together after him: and he sent messengers to Asher, and to Zebulun, and to Naphtali; and they came up to meet them. 006:036 Gideon said to God, If you will save Israel by my hand, as you have spoken, 006:037 behold, I will put a fleece of wool on the threshing floor; if there be dew on the fleece only, and it be dry on all the ground, then shall I know that you will save Israel by my hand, as you have spoken. 006:038 It was so; for he rose up early on the next day, and pressed the fleece together, and wrung the dew out of the fleece, a bowl full of water. 006:039 Gideon said to God, Don't let your anger be kindled against me, and I will speak but this once: Please let me make a trial just this once with the fleece; let it now be dry only on the fleece, and on all the ground let there be dew. 006:040 God did so that night: for it was dry on the fleece only, and there was dew on all the ground. 007:001 Then Jerubbaal, who is Gideon, and all the people who were with him, rose up early, and encamped beside the spring of Harod: and the camp of Midian was on the north side of them, by the hill of Moreh, in the valley. 007:002 Yahweh said to Gideon, The people who are with you are too many for me to give the Midianites into their hand, lest Israel vaunt themselves against me, saying, My own hand has saved me. 007:003 Now therefore proclaim in the ears of the people, saying, Whoever is fearful and trembling, let him return and depart from Mount Gilead. There returned of the people twenty-two thousand; and there remained ten thousand. 007:004 Yahweh said to Gideon, The people are yet too many; bring them down to the water, and I will try them for you there: and it shall be, that of whom I tell you, This shall go with you, the same shall go with you; and of whoever I tell you, This shall not go with you, the same shall not go. 007:005 So he brought down the people to the water: and Yahweh said to Gideon, Everyone who laps of the water with his tongue, as a dog laps, him shall you set by himself; likewise everyone who bows down on his knees to drink. 007:006 The number of those who lapped, putting their hand to their mouth, was three hundred men: but all the rest of the people bowed down on their knees to drink water. 007:007 Yahweh said to Gideon, By the three hundred men who lapped will I save you, and deliver the Midianites into your hand; and let all the people go every man to his place. 007:008 So the people took food in their hand, and their trumpets; and he sent all the men of Israel every man to his tent, but retained the three hundred men: and the camp of Midian was beneath him in the valley. 007:009 It happened the same night, that Yahweh said to him, Arise, get you down into the camp; for I have delivered it into your hand. 007:010 But if you fear to go down, go you with Purah your servant down to the camp: 007:011 and you shall hear what they say; and afterward shall your hands be strengthened to go down into the camp. Then went he down with Purah his servant to the outermost part of the armed men who were in the camp. 007:012 The Midianites and the Amalekites and all the children of the east lay along in the valley like locusts for multitude; and their camels were without number, as the sand which is on the seashore for multitude. 007:013 When Gideon had come, behold, there was a man telling a dream to his fellow; and he said, Behold, I dreamed a dream; and behold, a cake of barley bread tumbled into the camp of Midian, and came to the tent, and struck it so that it fell, and turned it upside down, so that the tent lay flat. 007:014 His fellow answered, This is nothing else save the sword of Gideon the son of Joash, a man of Israel: into his hand God has delivered Midian, and all the army. 007:015 It was so, when Gideon heard the telling of the dream, and the interpretation of it, that he worshiped; and he returned into the camp of Israel, and said, Arise; for Yahweh has delivered into your hand the army of Midian. 007:016 He divided the three hundred men into three companies, and he put into the hands of all of them trumpets, and empty pitchers, with torches within the pitchers. 007:017 He said to them, Look on me, and do likewise: and behold, when I come to the outermost part of the camp, it shall be that, as I do, so shall you do. 007:018 When I blow the trumpet, I and all who are with me, then blow you the trumpets also on every side of all the camp, and say, For Yahweh and for Gideon. 007:019 So Gideon, and the hundred men who were with him, came to the outermost part of the camp in the beginning of the middle watch, when they had but newly set the watch: and they blew the trumpets, and broke in pieces the pitchers that were in their hands. 007:020 The three companies blew the trumpets, and broke the pitchers, and held the torches in their left hands, and the trumpets in their right hands with which to blow; and they cried, The sword of Yahweh and of Gideon. 007:021 They stood every man in his place round about the camp; and all the army ran; and they shouted, and put [them] to flight. 007:022 They blew the three hundred trumpets, and Yahweh set every man's sword against his fellow, and against all the army; and the army fled as far as Beth Shittah toward Zererah, as far as the border of Abel Meholah, by Tabbath. 007:023 The men of Israel were gathered together out of Naphtali, and out of Asher, and out of all Manasseh, and pursued after Midian. 007:024 Gideon sent messengers throughout all the hill country of Ephraim, saying, Come down against Midian, and take before them the waters, as far as Beth Barah, even the Jordan. So all the men of Ephraim were gathered together, and took the waters as far as Beth Barah, even the Jordan. 007:025 They took the two princes of Midian, Oreb and Zeeb; and they killed Oreb at the rock of Oreb, and Zeeb they killed at the winepress of Zeeb, and pursued Midian: and they brought the heads of Oreb and Zeeb to Gideon beyond the Jordan. 008:001 The men of Ephraim said to him, Why have you served us thus, that you didn't call us, when you went to fight with Midian? They did chide with him sharply. 008:002 He said to them, What have I now done in comparison with you? Isn't the gleaning of the grapes of Ephraim better than the vintage of Abiezer? 008:003 God has delivered into your hand the princes of Midian, Oreb and Zeeb: and what was I able to do in comparison with you? Then their anger was abated toward him, when he had said that. 008:004 Gideon came to the Jordan, [and] passed over, he, and the three hundred men who were with him, faint, yet pursuing. 008:005 He said to the men of Succoth, Please give loaves of bread to the people who follow me; for they are faint, and I am pursuing after Zebah and Zalmunna, the kings of Midian. 008:006 The princes of Succoth said, Are the hands of Zebah and Zalmunna now in your hand, that we should give bread to your army? 008:007 Gideon said, Therefore when Yahweh has delivered Zebah and Zalmunna into my hand, then I will tear your flesh with the thorns of the wilderness and with briers. 008:008 He went up there to Penuel, and spoke to them in like manner; and the men of Penuel answered him as the men of Succoth had answered. 008:009 He spoke also to the men of Penuel, saying, When I come again in peace, I will break down this tower. 008:010 Now Zebah and Zalmunna were in Karkor, and their armies with them, about fifteen thousand men, all who were left of all the army of the children of the east; for there fell one hundred twenty thousand men who drew sword. 008:011 Gideon went up by the way of those who lived in tents on the east of Nobah and Jogbehah, and struck the army; for the army was secure. 008:012 Zebah and Zalmunna fled; and he pursued after them; and he took the two kings of Midian, Zebah and Zalmunna, and confused all the army. 008:013 Gideon the son of Joash returned from the battle from the ascent of Heres. 008:014 He caught a young man of the men of Succoth, and inquired of him: and he described for him the princes of Succoth, and the elders of it, seventy-seven men. 008:015 He came to the men of Succoth, and said, See Zebah and Zalmunna, concerning whom you did taunt me, saying, Are the hands of Zebah and Zalmunna now in your hand, that we should give bread to your men who are weary? 008:016 He took the elders of the city, and thorns of the wilderness and briers, and with them he taught the men of Succoth. 008:017 He broke down the tower of Penuel, and killed the men of the city. 008:018 Then said he to Zebah and Zalmunna, What manner of men were they whom you killed at Tabor? They answered, As you are, so were they; each one resembled the children of a king. 008:019 He said, They were my brothers, the sons of my mother: as Yahweh lives, if you had saved them alive, I would not kill you. 008:020 He said to Jether his firstborn, Up, and kill them. But the youth didn't draw his sword; for he feared, because he was yet a youth. 008:021 Then Zebah and Zalmunna said, Rise you, and fall on us; for as the man is, so is his strength. Gideon arose, and killed Zebah and Zalmunna, and took the crescents that were on their camels' necks. 008:022 Then the men of Israel said to Gideon, Rule you over us, both you, and your son, and your son's son also; for you have saved us out of the hand of Midian. 008:023 Gideon said to them, I will not rule over you, neither shall my son rule over you: Yahweh shall rule over you. 008:024 Gideon said to them, I would make a request of you, that you would give me every man the earrings of his spoil. (For they had golden earrings, because they were Ishmaelites.) 008:025 They answered, We will willingly give them. They spread a garment, and did cast therein every man the earrings of his spoil. 008:026 The weight of the golden earrings that he requested was one thousand and seven hundred [shekels] of gold, besides the crescents, and the pendants, and the purple clothing that was on the kings of Midian, and besides the chains that were about their camels' necks. 008:027 Gideon made an ephod of it, and put it in his city, even in Ophrah: and all Israel played the prostitute after it there; and it became a snare to Gideon, and to his house. 008:028 So Midian was subdued before the children of Israel, and they lifted up their heads no more. The land had rest forty years in the days of Gideon. 008:029 Jerubbaal the son of Joash went and lived in his own house. 008:030 Gideon had seventy sons conceived from his body; for he had many wives. 008:031 His concubine who was in Shechem, she also bore him a son, and he named him Abimelech. 008:032 Gideon the son of Joash died in a good old age, and was buried in the tomb of Joash his father, in Ophrah of the Abiezrites. 008:033 It happened, as soon as Gideon was dead, that the children of Israel turned again, and played the prostitute after the Baals, and made Baal Berith their god. 008:034 The children of Israel didn't remember Yahweh their God, who had delivered them out of the hand of all their enemies on every side; 008:035 neither shown they kindness to the house of Jerubbaal, [who is] Gideon, according to all the goodness which he had shown to Israel. 009:001 Abimelech the son of Jerubbaal went to Shechem to his mother's brothers, and spoke with them, and with all the family of the house of his mother's father, saying, 009:002 Please speak in the ears of all the men of Shechem, Whether is better for you, that all the sons of Jerubbaal, who are seventy persons, rule over you, or that one rule over you? Remember also that I am your bone and your flesh. 009:003 His mother's brothers spoke of him in the ears of all the men of Shechem all these words: and their hearts inclined to follow Abimelech; for they said, He is our brother. 009:004 They gave him seventy [pieces] of silver out of the house of Baal Berith, with which Abimelech hired vain and light fellows, who followed him. 009:005 He went to his father's house at Ophrah, and killed his brothers the sons of Jerubbaal, being seventy persons, on one stone: but Jotham the youngest son of Jerubbaal was left; for he hid himself. 009:006 All the men of Shechem assembled themselves together, and all the house of Millo, and went and made Abimelech king, by the oak of the pillar that was in Shechem. 009:007 When they told it to Jotham, he went and stood on the top of Mount Gerizim, and lifted up his voice, and cried, and said to them, Listen to me, you men of Shechem, that God may listen to you. 009:008 The trees went forth on a time to anoint a king over them; and they said to the olive tree, Reign you over us. 009:009 But the olive tree said to them, Should I leave my fatness, with which by me they honor God and man, and go to wave back and forth over the trees? 009:010 The trees said to the fig tree, Come you, and reign over us. 009:011 But the fig tree said to them, Should I leave my sweetness, and my good fruit, and go to wave back and forth over the trees? 009:012 The trees said to the vine, Come you, and reign over us. 009:013 The vine said to them, Should I leave my new wine, which cheers God and man, and go to wave back and forth over the trees? 009:014 Then said all the trees to the bramble, Come you, and reign over us. 009:015 The bramble said to the trees, If in truth you anoint me king over you, then come and take refuge in my shade; and if not, let fire come out of the bramble, and devour the cedars of Lebanon. 009:016 Now therefore, if you have dealt truly and righteously, in that you have made Abimelech king, and if you have dealt well with Jerubbaal and his house, and have done to him according to the deserving of his hands 009:017 (for my father fought for you, and adventured his life, and delivered you out of the hand of Midian: 009:018 and you are risen up against my father's house this day, and have slain his sons, seventy persons, on one stone, and have made Abimelech, the son of his female servant, king over the men of Shechem, because he is your brother); 009:019 if you then have dealt truly and righteously with Jerubbaal and with his house this day, then rejoice you in Abimelech, and let him also rejoice in you: 009:020 but if not, let fire come out from Abimelech, and devour the men of Shechem, and the house of Millo; and let fire come out from the men of Shechem, and from the house of Millo, and devour Abimelech. 009:021 Jotham ran away, and fled, and went to Beer, and lived there, for fear of Abimelech his brother. 009:022 Abimelech was prince over Israel three years. 009:023 God sent an evil spirit between Abimelech and the men of Shechem; and the men of Shechem dealt treacherously with Abimelech: 009:024 that the violence done to the seventy sons of Jerubbaal might come, and that their blood might be laid on Abimelech their brother, who killed them, and on the men of Shechem, who strengthened his hands to kill his brothers. 009:025 The men of Shechem set an ambush for him on the tops of the mountains, and they robbed all who came along that way by them: and it was told Abimelech. 009:026 Gaal the son of Ebed came with his brothers, and went over to Shechem; and the men of Shechem put their trust in him. 009:027 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. 009:028 Gaal the son of Ebed said, Who is Abimelech, and who is Shechem, that we should serve him? Isn't he the son of Jerubbaal? and Zebul his officer? serve you the men of Hamor the father of Shechem: but why should we serve him? 009:029 Would that this people were under my hand! then would I remove Abimelech. He said to Abimelech, Increase your army, and come out. 009:030 When Zebul the ruler of the city heard the words of Gaal the son of Ebed, his anger was kindled. 009:031 He sent messengers to Abimelech craftily, saying, Behold, Gaal the son of Ebed and his brothers are come to Shechem; and behold, they constrain the city [to take part] against you. 009:032 Now therefore, up by night, you and the people who are with you, and lie in wait in the field: 009:033 and it shall be, that in the morning, as soon as the sun is up, you shall rise early, and rush on the city; and behold, when he and the people who are with him come out against you, then may you do to them as you shall find occasion. 009:034 Abimelech rose up, and all the people who were with him, by night, and they laid wait against Shechem in four companies. 009:035 Gaal the son of Ebed went out, and stood in the entrance of the gate of the city: and Abimelech rose up, and the people who were with him, from the ambush. 009:036 When Gaal saw the people, he said to Zebul, Behold, there come people down from the tops of the mountains. Zebul said to him, You see the shadow of the mountains as if they were men. 009:037 Gaal spoke again and said, Behold, there come people down by the middle of the land, and one company comes by the way of the oak of Meonenim. 009:038 Then said Zebul to him, Where is now your mouth, that you said, Who is Abimelech, that we should serve him? is not this the people that you have despised? go out now, I pray, and fight with them. 009:039 Gaal went out before the men of Shechem, and fought with Abimelech. 009:040 Abimelech chased him, and he fled before him, and there fell many wounded, even to the entrance of the gate. 009:041 Abimelech lived at Arumah: and Zebul drove out Gaal and his brothers, that they should not dwell in Shechem. 009:042 It happened on the next day, that the people went out into the field; and they told Abimelech. 009:043 He took the people, and divided them into three companies, and laid wait in the field; and he looked, and behold, the people came forth out of the city; He rose up against them, and struck them. 009:044 Abimelech, and the companies that were with him, rushed forward, and stood in the entrance of the gate of the city: and the two companies rushed on all who were in the field, and struck them. 009:045 Abimelech fought against the city all that day; and he took the city, and killed the people who were therein: and he beat down the city, and sowed it with salt. 009:046 When all the men of the tower of Shechem heard of it, they entered into the stronghold of the house of Elberith. 009:047 It was told Abimelech that all the men of the tower of Shechem were gathered together. 009:048 Abimelech got him up to Mount Zalmon, he and all the people who were with him; and Abimelech took an axe in his hand, and cut down a bough from the trees, and took it up, and laid it on his shoulder: and he said to the people who were with him, What you have seen me do, make haste, and do as I have done. 009:049 All the people likewise cut down every man his bough, and followed Abimelech, and put them to the stronghold, and set the stronghold on fire on them; so that all the men of the tower of Shechem died also, about a thousand men and women. 009:050 Then went Abimelech to Thebez, and encamped against Thebez, and took it. 009:051 But there was a strong tower within the city, and there fled all the men and women, and all they of the city, and shut themselves in, and got them up to the roof of the tower. 009:052 Abimelech came to the tower, and fought against it, and drew near to the door of the tower to burn it with fire. 009:053 A certain woman cast an upper millstone on Abimelech's head, and broke his skull. 009:054 Then he called hastily to the young man his armor bearer, and said to him, Draw your sword, and kill me, that men not say of me, A woman killed him. His young man thrust him through, and he died. 009:055 When the men of Israel saw that Abimelech was dead, they departed every man to his place. 009:056 Thus God requited the wickedness of Abimelech, which he did to his father, in killing his seventy brothers; 009:057 and all the wickedness of the men of Shechem did God requite on their heads: and on them came the curse of Jotham the son of Jerubbaal. 010:001 After Abimelech there arose to save Israel Tola the son of Puah, the son of Dodo, a man of Issachar; and he lived in Shamir in the hill country of Ephraim. 010:002 He judged Israel twenty-three years, and died, and was buried in Shamir. 010:003 After him arose Jair, the Gileadite; and he judged Israel twenty-two years. 010:004 He had thirty sons who rode on thirty donkey colts, and they had thirty cities, which are called Havvoth Jair to this day, which are in the land of Gilead. 010:005 Jair died, and was buried in Kamon. 010:006 The children of Israel again did that which was evil in the sight of Yahweh, and served the Baals, and the Ashtaroth, and the gods of Syria, and the gods of Sidon, and the gods of Moab, and the gods of the children of Ammon, and the gods of the Philistines; and they forsook Yahweh, and didn't serve him. 010:007 The anger of Yahweh was kindled against Israel, and he sold them into the hand of the Philistines, and into the hand of the children of Ammon. 010:008 They vexed and oppressed the children of Israel that year: eighteen years [oppressed they] all the children of Israel that were beyond the Jordan in the land of the Amorites, which is in Gilead. 010:009 The children of Ammon passed over the Jordan to fight also against Judah, and against Benjamin, and against the house of Ephraim; so that Israel was sore distressed. 010:010 The children of Israel cried to Yahweh, saying, We have sinned against you, even because we have forsaken our God, and have served the Baals. 010:011 Yahweh said to the children of Israel, Didn't I save you from the Egyptians, and from the Amorites, from the children of Ammon, and from the Philistines? 010:012 The Sidonians also, and the Amalekites, and the Maonites, did oppress you; and you cried to me, and I saved you out of their hand. 010:013 Yet you have forsaken me, and served other gods: therefore I will save you no more. 010:014 Go and cry to the gods which you have chosen; let them save you in the time of your distress. 010:015 The children of Israel said to Yahweh, We have sinned: do you to us whatever seems good to you; only deliver us, we pray you, this day. 010:016 They put away the foreign gods from among them, and served Yahweh; and his soul was grieved for the misery of Israel. 010:017 Then the children of Ammon were gathered together, and encamped in Gilead. The children of Israel assembled themselves together, and encamped in Mizpah. 010:018 The people, the princes of Gilead, said one to another, What man is he who will begin to fight against the children of Ammon? he shall be head over all the inhabitants of Gilead. 011:001 Now Jephthah the Gileadite was a mighty man of valor, and he was the son of a prostitute: and Gilead became the father of Jephthah. 011:002 Gilead's wife bore him sons; and when his wife's sons grew up, they drove out Jephthah, and said to him, You shall not inherit in our father's house; for you are the son of another woman. 011:003 Then Jephthah fled from his brothers, and lived in the land of Tob: and there were gathered vain fellows to Jephthah, and they went out with him. 011:004 It happened after a while, that the children of Ammon made war against Israel. 011:005 It was so, that when the children of Ammon made war against Israel, the elders of Gilead went to get Jephthah out of the land of Tob; 011:006 and they said to Jephthah, Come and be our chief, that we may fight with the children of Ammon. 011:007 Jephthah said to the elders of Gilead, Didn't you hate me, and drive me out of my father's house? and why are you come to me now when you are in distress? 011:008 The elders of Gilead said to Jephthah, Therefore are we turned again to you now, that you may go with us, and fight with the children of Ammon; and you shall be our head over all the inhabitants of Gilead. 011:009 Jephthah said to the elders of Gilead, If you bring me home again to fight with the children of Ammon, and Yahweh deliver them before me, shall I be your head? 011:010 The elders of Gilead said to Jephthah, Yahweh shall be witness between us; surely according to your word so will we do. 011:011 Then Jephthah went with the elders of Gilead, and the people made him head and chief over them: and Jephthah spoke all his words before Yahweh in Mizpah. 011:012 Jephthah sent messengers to the king of the children of Ammon, saying, What have you to do with me, that you are come to me to fight against my land? 011:013 The king of the children of Ammon answered to the messengers of Jephthah, Because Israel took away my land, when he came up out of Egypt, from the Arnon even to the Jabbok, and to the Jordan: now therefore restore those [lands] again peaceably. 011:014 Jephthah sent messengers again to the king of the children of Ammon; 011:015 and he said to him, Thus says Jephthah: Israel didn't take away the land of Moab, nor the land of the children of Ammon, 011:016 but when they came up from Egypt, and Israel went through the wilderness to the Red Sea{or, Sea of Reeds}, and came to Kadesh; 011:017 then Israel sent messengers to the king of Edom, saying, Please let me pass through your land; but the king of Edom didn't listen. In the same way, he sent to the king of Moab; but he would not: and Israel abode in Kadesh. 011:018 Then they went through the wilderness, and went around the land of Edom, and the land of Moab, and came by the east side of the land of Moab, and they encamped on the other side of the Arnon; but they didn't come within the border of Moab, for the Arnon was the border of Moab. 011:019 Israel sent messengers to Sihon king of the Amorites, the king of Heshbon; and Israel said to him, Let us pass, we pray you, through your land to my place. 011:020 But Sihon didn't trust Israel to pass through his border; but Sihon gathered all his people together, and encamped in Jahaz, and fought against Israel. 011:021 Yahweh, the God of Israel, delivered Sihon and all his people into the hand of Israel, and they struck them: so Israel possessed all the land of the Amorites, the inhabitants of that country. 011:022 They possessed all the border of the Amorites, from the Arnon even to the Jabbok, and from the wilderness even to the Jordan. 011:023 So now Yahweh, the God of Israel, has dispossessed the Amorites from before his people Israel, and should you possess them? 011:024 Won't you possess that which Chemosh your god gives you to possess? So whoever Yahweh our God has dispossessed from before us, them will we possess. 011:025 Now are you anything better than Balak the son of Zippor, king of Moab? did he ever strive against Israel, or did he ever fight against them? 011:026 While Israel lived in Heshbon and its towns, and in Aroer and its towns, and in all the cities that are along by the side of the Arnon, three hundred years; why didn't you recover them within that time? 011:027 I therefore have not sinned against you, but you do me wrong to war against me: Yahweh, the Judge, be judge this day between the children of Israel and the children of Ammon. 011:028 However the king of the children of Ammon didn't listen to the words of Jephthah which he sent him. 011:029 Then the Spirit of Yahweh came on Jephthah, and he passed over Gilead and Manasseh, and passed over Mizpeh of Gilead, and from Mizpeh of Gilead he passed over to the children of Ammon. 011:030 Jephthah vowed a vow to Yahweh, and said, If you will indeed deliver the children of Ammon into my hand, 011:031 then it shall be, that whatever comes forth from the doors of my house to meet me, when I return in peace from the children of Ammon, it shall be Yahweh's, and I will offer it up for a burnt offering. 011:032 So Jephthah passed over to the children of Ammon to fight against them; and Yahweh delivered them into his hand. 011:033 He struck them from Aroer until you come to Minnith, even twenty cities, and to Abelcheramim, with a very great slaughter. So the children of Ammon were subdued before the children of Israel. 011:034 Jephthah came to Mizpah to his house; and behold, his daughter came out to meet him with tambourines and with dances: and she was his only child; besides her he had neither son nor daughter. 011:035 It happened, when he saw her, that he tore his clothes, and said, Alas, my daughter! you have brought me very low, and you are one of those who trouble me; for I have opened my mouth to Yahweh, and I can't go back. 011:036 She said to him, My father, you have opened your mouth to Yahweh; do to me according to that which has proceeded out of your mouth, because Yahweh has taken vengeance for you on your enemies, even on the children of Ammon. 011:037 She said to her father, Let this thing be done for me: let me alone two months, that I may depart and go down on the mountains, and bewail my virginity, I and my companions. 011:038 He said, Go. He sent her away for two months: and she departed, she and her companions, and mourned her virginity on the mountains. 011:039 It happened at the end of two months, that she returned to her father, who did with her according to his vow which he had vowed: and she was a virgin. It was a custom in Israel, 011:040 that the daughters of Israel went yearly to celebrate the daughter of Jephthah the Gileadite four days in a year. 012:001 The men of Ephraim were gathered together, and passed northward; and they said to Jephthah, Why did you pass over to fight against the children of Ammon, and didn't call us to go with you? we will burn your house on you with fire. 012:002 Jephthah said to them, I and my people were at great strife with the children of Ammon; and when I called you, you didn't save me out of their hand. 012:003 When I saw that you didn't save me, I put my life in my hand, and passed over against the children of Ammon, and Yahweh delivered them into my hand: why then are you come up to me this day, to fight against me? 012:004 Then Jephthah gathered together all the men of Gilead, and fought with Ephraim; and the men of Gilead struck Ephraim, because they said, You are fugitives of Ephraim, you Gileadites, in the midst of Ephraim, [and] in the midst of Manasseh. 012:005 The Gileadites took the fords of the Jordan against the Ephraimites. It was so, that when [any of] the fugitives of Ephraim said, Let me go over, the men of Gilead said to him, Are you an Ephraimite? If he said, No; 012:006 then said they to him, Say now Shibboleth; and he said Sibboleth; for he couldn't manage to pronounce it right: then they laid hold on him, and killed him at the fords of the Jordan. There fell at that time of Ephraim forty-two thousand. 012:007 Jephthah judged Israel six years. Then died Jephthah the Gileadite, and was buried in [one of] the cities of Gilead. 012:008 After him Ibzan of Bethlehem judged Israel. 012:009 He had thirty sons; and thirty daughters he sent abroad, and thirty daughters he brought in from abroad for his sons. He judged Israel seven years. 012:010 Ibzan died, and was buried at Bethlehem. 012:011 After him Elon the Zebulunite judged Israel; and he judged Israel ten years. 012:012 Elon the Zebulunite died, and was buried in Aijalon in the land of Zebulun. 012:013 After him Abdon the son of Hillel the Pirathonite judged Israel. 012:014 He had forty sons and thirty sons' sons, who rode on seventy donkey colts: and he judged Israel eight years. 012:015 Abdon the son of Hillel the Pirathonite died, and was buried in Pirathon in the land of Ephraim, in the hill country of the Amalekites. 013:001 The children of Israel again did that which was evil in the sight of Yahweh; and Yahweh delivered them into the hand of the Philistines forty years. 013:002 There was a certain man of Zorah, of the family of the Danites, whose name was Manoah; and his wife was barren, and didn't bear. 013:003 The angel of Yahweh appeared to the woman, and said to her, See now, you are barren, and don't bear; but you shall conceive, and bear a son. 013:004 Now therefore please beware and drink no wine nor strong drink, and don't eat any unclean thing: 013:005 for, behold, you shall conceive, and bear a son; and no razor shall come on his head; for the child shall be a Nazirite to God from the womb: and he shall begin to save Israel out of the hand of the Philistines. 013:006 Then the woman came and told her husband, saying, A man of God came to me, and his face was like the face of the angel of God, very awesome; and I didn't ask him whence he was, neither did he tell me his name: 013:007 but he said to me, Behold, you shall conceive, and bear a son; and now drink no wine nor strong drink, and eat not any unclean thing; for the child shall be a Nazirite to God from the womb to the day of his death. 013:008 Then Manoah entreated Yahweh, and said, Oh, Lord, please let the man of God whom you did send come again to us, and teach us what we shall do to the child who shall be born. 013:009 God listened to the voice of Manoah; and the angel of God came again to the woman as she sat in the field: but Manoah, her husband, wasn't with her. 013:010 The woman made haste, and ran, and told her husband, and said to him, Behold, the man has appeared to me, who came to me the [other] day. 013:011 Manoah arose, and went after his wife, and came to the man, and said to him, Are you the man who spoke to the woman? He said, I am. 013:012 Manoah said, Now let your words happen: what shall be the ordering of the child, and [how] shall we do to him? 013:013 The angel of Yahweh said to Manoah, Of all that I said to the woman let her beware. 013:014 She may not eat of anything that comes of the vine, neither let her drink wine or strong drink, nor eat any unclean thing; all that I commanded her let her observe. 013:015 Manoah said to the angel of Yahweh, I pray you, let us detain you, that we may make ready a kid for you. 013:016 The angel of Yahweh said to Manoah, Though you detain me, I won't eat of your bread; and if you will make ready a burnt offering, you must offer it to Yahweh. For Manoah didn't know that he was the angel of Yahweh. 013:017 Manoah said to the angel of Yahweh, What is your name, that when your words happen, we may honor you? 013:018 The angel of Yahweh said to him, Why do you ask after my name, seeing it is wonderful? 013:019 So Manoah took the kid with the meal offering, and offered it on the rock to Yahweh: and [the angel] did wondrously, and Manoah and his wife looked on. 013:020 For it happened, when the flame went up toward the sky from off the altar, that the angel of Yahweh ascended in the flame of the altar: and Manoah and his wife looked on; and they fell on their faces to the ground. 013:021 But the angel of Yahweh did no more appear to Manoah or to his wife. Then Manoah knew that he was the angel of Yahweh. 013:022 Manoah said to his wife, We shall surely die, because we have seen God. 013:023 But his wife said to him, If Yahweh were pleased to kill us, he wouldn't have received a burnt offering and a meal offering at our hand, neither would he have shown us all these things, nor would at this time have told such things as these. 013:024 The woman bore a son, and named him Samson: and the child grew, and Yahweh blessed him. 013:025 The Spirit of Yahweh began to move him in Mahaneh Dan, between Zorah and Eshtaol. 014:001 Samson went down to Timnah, and saw a woman in Timnah of the daughters of the Philistines. 014:002 He came up, and told his father and his mother, and said, I have seen a woman in Timnah of the daughters of the Philistines: now therefore get her for me as wife. 014:003 Then his father and his mother said to him, Is there never a woman among the daughters of your brothers, or among all my people, that you go to take a wife of the uncircumcised Philistines? Samson said to his father, Get her for me; for she pleases me well. 014:004 But his father and his mother didn't know that it was of Yahweh; for he sought an occasion against the Philistines. Now at that time the Philistines had rule over Israel. 014:005 Then went Samson down, and his father and his mother, to Timnah, and came to the vineyards of Timnah: and behold, a young lion roared against him. 014:006 The Spirit of Yahweh came mightily on him, and he tore him as he would have torn a kid; and he had nothing in his hand: but he didn't tell his father or his mother what he had done. 014:007 He went down, and talked with the woman, and she pleased Samson well. 014:008 After a while he returned to take her; and he turned aside to see the carcass of the lion: and behold, there was a swarm of bees in the body of the lion, and honey. 014:009 He took it into his hands, and went on, eating as he went; and he came to his father and mother, and gave to them, and they ate: but he didn't tell them that he had taken the honey out of the body of the lion. 014:010 His father went down to the woman: and Samson made there a feast; for so used the young men to do. 014:011 It happened, when they saw him, that they brought thirty companions to be with him. 014:012 Samson said to them, Let me now put forth a riddle to you: if you can declare it to me within the seven days of the feast, and find it out, then I will give you thirty linen garments and thirty changes of clothing; 014:013 but if you can't declare it to me, then shall you give me thirty linen garments and thirty changes of clothing. They said to him, Put forth your riddle, that we may hear it. 014:014 He said to them, Out of the eater came forth food. Out of the strong came forth sweetness. They couldn't in three days declare the riddle. 014:015 It happened on the seventh day, that they said to Samson's wife, Entice your husband, that he may declare to us the riddle, lest we burn you and your father's house with fire: have you called us to impoverish us? is it not [so]? 014:016 Samson's wife wept before him, and said, You do but hate me, and don't love me: you have put forth a riddle to the children of my people, and haven't told it me. He said to her, Behold, I haven't told it my father nor my mother, and shall I tell you? 014:017 She wept before him the seven days, while their feast lasted: and it happened on the seventh day, that he told her, because she pressed him sore; and she told the riddle to the children of her people. 014:018 The men of the city said to him on the seventh day before the sun went down, What is sweeter than honey? and what is stronger than a lion? He said to them, If you hadn't plowed with my heifer, you wouldn't have found out my riddle. 014:019 The Spirit of Yahweh came mightily on him, and he went down to Ashkelon, and struck thirty men of them, and took their spoil, and gave the changes [of clothing] to those who declared the riddle. His anger was kindled, and he went up to his father's house. 014:020 But Samson's wife was [given] to his companion, whom he had used as his friend. 015:001 But it happened after a while, in the time of wheat harvest, that Samson visited his wife with a kid; and he said, I will go in to my wife into the chamber. But her father wouldn't allow him to go in. 015:002 Her father said, I most certainly thought that you had utterly hated her; therefore I gave her to your companion: isn't her younger sister more beautiful than she? Please take her, instead. 015:003 Samson said to them, This time shall I be blameless in regard of the Philistines, when I do them a mischief. 015:004 Samson went and caught three hundred foxes, and took firebrands, and turned tail to tail, and put a firebrand in the midst between every two tails. 015:005 When he had set the brands on fire, he let them go into the standing grain of the Philistines, and burnt up both the shocks and the standing grain, and also the olive groves. 015:006 Then the Philistines said, Who has done this? They said, Samson, the son-in-law of the Timnite, because he has taken his wife, and given her to his companion. The Philistines came up, and burnt her and her father with fire. 015:007 Samson said to them, If you do after this manner, surely I will be avenged of you, and after that I will cease. 015:008 He struck them hip and thigh with a great slaughter: and he went down and lived in the cleft of the rock of Etam. 015:009 Then the Philistines went up, and encamped in Judah, and spread themselves in Lehi. 015:010 The men of Judah said, Why are you come up against us? They said, To bind Samson are we come up, to do to him as he has done to us. 015:011 Then three thousand men of Judah went down to the cleft of the rock of Etam, and said to Samson, "Don't you know that the Philistines are rulers over us? What then is this that you have done to us?" He said to them, As they did to me, so have I done to them. 015:012 They said to him, We have come down to bind you, that we may deliver you into the hand of the Philistines. Samson said to them, Swear to me that you will not fall on me yourselves. 015:013 They spoke to him, saying, No; but we will bind you fast, and deliver you into their hand: but surely we will not kill you. They bound him with two new ropes, and brought him up from the rock. 015:014 When he came to Lehi, the Philistines shouted as they met him: and the Spirit of Yahweh came mightily on him, and the ropes that were on his arms became as flax that was burnt with fire, and his bands dropped from off his hands. 015:015 He found a fresh jawbone of a donkey, and put forth his hand, and took it, and struck a thousand men therewith. 015:016 Samson said, With the jawbone of a donkey, heaps on heaps, With the jawbone of a donkey I have struck a thousand men. 015:017 It happened, when he had made an end of speaking, that he cast away the jawbone out of his hand; and that place was called Ramath Lehi. 015:018 He was very thirsty, and called on Yahweh, and said, You have given this great deliverance by the hand of your servant; and now shall I die for thirst, and fall into the hand of the uncircumcised. 015:019 But God split the hollow place that is in Lehi, and water came out of it. When he had drunk, his spirit came again, and he revived: therefore the name of it was called En Hakkore, which is in Lehi, to this day. 015:020 He judged Israel in the days of the Philistines twenty years. 016:001 Samson went to Gaza, and saw there a prostitute, and went in to her. 016:002 [It was told] the Gazites, saying, Samson is come here. They compassed him in, and laid wait for him all night in the gate of the city, and were quiet all the night, saying, [Let be] until morning light, then we will kill him. 016:003 Samson lay until midnight, and arose at midnight, and laid hold of the doors of the gate of the city, and the two posts, and plucked them up, bar and all, and put them on his shoulders, and carried them up to the top of the mountain that is before Hebron. 016:004 It came to pass afterward, that he loved a woman in the valley of Sorek, whose name was Delilah. 016:005 The lords of the Philistines came up to her, and said to her, Entice him, and see in which his great strength lies, and by what means we may prevail against him, that we may bind him to afflict him: and we will each give you of us eleven hundred [pieces] of silver. 016:006 Delilah said to Samson, Tell me, Please, in which your great strength lies, and with which you might be bound to afflict you. 016:007 Samson said to her, If they bind me with seven green cords that were never dried, then shall I become weak, and be as another man. 016:008 Then the lords of the Philistines brought up to her seven green cords which had not been dried, and she bound him with them. 016:009 Now she had an ambush waiting in the inner chamber. She said to him, "The Philistines are on you, Samson!" He broke the cords, as a string of tow is broken when it touches the fire. So his strength was not known. 016:010 Delilah said to Samson, Behold, you have mocked me, and told me lies: now tell me, Please, with which you might be bound. 016:011 He said to her, If they only bind me with new ropes with which no work has been done, then shall I become weak, and be as another man. 016:012 So Delilah took new ropes, and bound him therewith, and said to him, The Philistines are on you, Samson. The ambush was waiting in the inner chamber. He broke them off his arms like a thread. 016:013 Delilah said to Samson, Hitherto you have mocked me, and told me lies: tell me with which you might be bound. He said to her, If you weave the seven locks of my head with the web. 016:014 She fastened it with the pin, and said to him, The Philistines are on you, Samson. He awakened out of his sleep, and plucked away the pin of the beam, and the web. 016:015 She said to him, How can you say, I love you, when your heart is not with me? you have mocked me these three times, and have not told me in which your great strength lies. 016:016 It happened, when she pressed him daily with her words, and urged him, that his soul was vexed to death. 016:017 He told her all his heart, and said to her, "No razor has ever come on my head; for I have been a Nazirite to God from my mother's womb. If I am shaved, then my strength will go from me, and I will become weak, and be like any other man." 016:018 When Delilah saw that he had told her all his heart, she sent and called for the lords of the Philistines, saying, Come up this once, for he has told me all his heart. Then the lords of the Philistines came up to her, and brought the money in their hand. 016:019 She made him sleep on her knees; and she called for a man, and shaved off the seven locks of his head; and she began to afflict him, and his strength went from him. 016:020 She said, The Philistines are on you, Samson. He awoke out of his sleep, and said, I will go out as at other times, and shake myself free. But he didn't know that Yahweh had departed from him. 016:021 The Philistines laid hold on him, and put out his eyes; and they brought him down to Gaza, and bound him with fetters of brass; and he ground at the mill in the prison. 016:022 However the hair of his head began to grow again after he was shaved. 016:023 The lords of the Philistines gathered them together to offer a great sacrifice to Dagon their god, and to rejoice; for they said, Our god has delivered Samson our enemy into our hand. 016:024 When the people saw him, they praised their god; for they said, Our god has delivered into our hand our enemy, and the destroyer of our country, who has slain many of us. 016:025 It happened, when their hearts were merry, that they said, Call for Samson, that he may make us sport. They called for Samson out of the prison; and he made sport before them. They set him between the pillars: 016:026 and Samson said to the boy who held him by the hand, Allow me that I may feel the pillars whereupon the house rests, that I may lean on them. 016:027 Now the house was full of men and women; and all the lords of the Philistines were there; and there were on the roof about three thousand men and women, who saw while Samson made sport. 016:028 Samson called to Yahweh, and said, Lord Yahweh, remember me, Please, and strengthen me, Please, only this once, God, that I may be at once avenged of the Philistines for my two eyes. 016:029 Samson took hold of the two middle pillars on which the house rested, and leaned on them, the one with his right hand, and the other with his left. 016:030 Samson said, Let me die with the Philistines. He bowed himself with all his might; and the house fell on the lords, and on all the people who were therein. So the dead that he killed at his death were more than those who he killed in his life. 016:031 Then his brothers and all the house of his father came down, and took him, and brought him up, and buried him between Zorah and Eshtaol in the burial site of Manoah his father. He judged Israel twenty years. 017:001 There was a man of the hill country of Ephraim, whose name was Micah. 017:002 He said to his mother, The eleven hundred [pieces] of silver that were taken from you, about which you did utter a curse, and did also speak it in my ears, behold, the silver is with me; I took it. His mother said, Blessed be my son of Yahweh. 017:003 He restored the eleven hundred [pieces] of silver to his mother; and his mother said, I most certainly dedicate the silver to Yahweh from my hand for my son, to make an engraved image and a molten image: now therefore I will restore it to you. 017:004 When he restored the money to his mother, his mother took two hundred [pieces] of silver, and gave them to the founder, who made of it an engraved image and a molten image: and it was in the house of Micah. 017:005 The man Micah had a house of gods, and he made an ephod, and teraphim, and consecrated one of his sons, who became his priest. 017:006 In those days there was no king in Israel: every man did that which was right in his own eyes. 017:007 There was a young man out of Bethlehem Judah, of the family of Judah, who was a Levite; and he sojourned there. 017:008 The man departed out of the city, out of Bethlehem Judah, to sojourn where he could find [a place], and he came to the hill country of Ephraim to the house of Micah, as he traveled. 017:009 Micah said to him, Whence come you? He said to him, I am a Levite of Bethlehem Judah, and I go to sojourn where I may find [a place]. 017:010 Micah said to him, Dwell with me, and be to me a father and a priest, and I will give you ten [pieces] of silver by the year, and a suit of clothing, and your food. So the Levite went in. 017:011 The Levite was content to dwell with the man; and the young man was to him as one of his sons. 017:012 Micah consecrated the Levite, and the young man became his priest, and was in the house of Micah. 017:013 Then said Micah, Now know I that Yahweh will do me good, seeing I have a Levite to my priest. 018:001 In those days there was no king in Israel: and in those days the tribe of the Danites sought them an inheritance to dwell in; for to that day [their] inheritance had not fallen to them among the tribes of Israel. 018:002 The children of Dan sent of their family five men from their whole number, men of valor, from Zorah, and from Eshtaol, to spy out the land, and to search it; and they said to them, Go, search the land. They came to the hill country of Ephraim, to the house of Micah, and lodged there. 018:003 When they were by the house of Micah, they knew the voice of the young man the Levite; and they turned aside there, and said to him, Who brought you here? and what do you in this place? and what have you here? 018:004 He said to them, Thus and thus has Micah dealt with me, and he has hired me, and I am become his priest. 018:005 They said to him, Ask counsel, we pray you, of God, that we may know whether our way which we go shall be prosperous. 018:006 The priest said to them, Go in peace: before Yahweh is your way wherein you go. 018:007 Then the five men departed, and came to Laish, and saw the people who were therein, how they lived in security, after the manner of the Sidonians, quiet and secure; for there was none in the land, possessing authority, that might put [them] to shame in anything, and they were far from the Sidonians, and had no dealings with any man. 018:008 They came to their brothers to Zorah and Eshtaol: and their brothers said to them, What [say] you? 018:009 They said, Arise, and let us go up against them; for we have seen the land, and behold, it is very good: and are you still? don't be slothful to go and to enter in to possess the land. 018:010 When you go, you shall come to a people secure, and the land is large; for God has given it into your hand, a place where there is no want of anything that is in the earth. 018:011 There set forth from there of the family of the Danites, out of Zorah and out of Eshtaol, six hundred men girt with weapons of war. 018:012 They went up, and encamped in Kiriath Jearim, in Judah: therefore they called that place Mahaneh Dan, to this day; behold, it is behind Kiriath Jearim. 018:013 They passed there to the hill country of Ephraim, and came to the house of Micah. 018:014 Then the five men who went to spy out the country of Laish answered, and said to their brothers, Do you know that there is in these houses an ephod, and teraphim, and an engraved image, and a molten image? now therefore consider what you have to do. 018:015 They turned aside there, and came to the house of the young man the Levite, even to the house of Micah, and asked him of his welfare. 018:016 The six hundred men girt with their weapons of war, who were of the children of Dan, stood by the entrance of the gate. 018:017 The five men who went to spy out the land went up, and came in there, and took the engraved image, and the ephod, and the teraphim, and the molten image: and the priest stood by the entrance of the gate with the six hundred men girt with weapons of war. 018:018 When these went into Micah's house, and fetched the engraved image, the ephod, and the teraphim, and the molten image, the priest said to them, What do you? 018:019 They said to him, Hold your peace, lay your hand on your mouth, and go with us, and be to us a father and a priest: is it better for you to be priest to the house of one man, or to be priest to a tribe and a family in Israel? 018:020 The priest's heart was glad, and he took the ephod, and the teraphim, and the engraved image, and went in the midst of the people. 018:021 So they turned and departed, and put the little ones and the livestock and the goods before them. 018:022 When they were a good way from the house of Micah, the men who were in the houses near to Micah's house were gathered together, and overtook the children of Dan. 018:023 They cried to the children of Dan. They turned their faces, and said to Micah, What ails you, that you come with such a company? 018:024 He said, you have taken away my gods which I made, and the priest, and are gone away, and what have I more? and how then say you to me, What ails you? 018:025 The children of Dan said to him, "Don't let your voice be heard among us, lest angry fellows fall on you, and you lose your life, with the lives of your household." 018:026 The children of Dan went their way: and when Micah saw that they were too strong for him, he turned and went back to his house. 018:027 They took that which Micah had made, and the priest whom he had, and came to Laish, to a people quiet and secure, and struck them with the edge of the sword; and they burnt the city with fire. 018:028 There was no deliverer, because it was far from Sidon, and they had no dealings with any man; and it was in the valley that lies by Beth Rehob. They built the city, and lived therein. 018:029 They called the name of the city Dan, after the name of Dan their father, who was born to Israel: however the name of the city was Laish at the first. 018:030 The children of Dan set up for themselves the engraved image: and Jonathan, the son of Gershom, the son of Moses, he and his sons were priests to the tribe of the Danites until the day of the captivity of the land. 018:031 So they set them up Micah's engraved image which he made, all the time that the house of God was in Shiloh. 019:001 It happened in those days, when there was no king in Israel, that there was a certain Levite sojourning on the farther side of the hill country of Ephraim, who took to him a concubine out of Bethlehem Judah. 019:002 His concubine played the prostitute against him, and went away from him to her father's house to Bethlehem Judah, and was there the space of four months. 019:003 Her husband arose, and went after her, to speak kindly to her, to bring her again, having his servant with him, and a couple of donkeys: and she brought him into her father's house; and when the father of the young lady saw him, he rejoiced to meet him. 019:004 His father-in-law, the young lady's father, retained him; and he abode with him three days: so they ate and drink, and lodged there. 019:005 It happened on the fourth day, that they arose early in the morning, and he rose up to depart: and the young lady's father said to his son-in-law, Strengthen your heart with a morsel of bread, and afterward you shall go your way. 019:006 So they sat down, ate, and drank, both of them together: and the young lady's father said to the man, Please be pleased to stay all night, and let your heart be merry. 019:007 The man rose up to depart; but his father-in-law urged him, and he lodged there again. 019:008 He arose early in the morning on the fifth day to depart; and the young lady's father said, Please strengthen your heart and stay until the day declines; and they ate, both of them. 019:009 When the man rose up to depart, he, and his concubine, and his servant, his father-in-law, the young lady's father, said to him, Behold, now the day draws toward evening, please stay all night: behold, the day grows to an end, lodge here, that your heart may be merry; and tomorrow get you early on your way, that you may go home. 019:010 But the man wouldn't stay that night, but he rose up and departed, and came over against Jebus (the same is Jerusalem): and there were with him a couple of donkeys saddled; his concubine also was with him. 019:011 When they were by Jebus, the day was far spent; and the servant said to his master, Please come and let us turn aside into this city of the Jebusites, and lodge in it. 019:012 His master said to him, We won't turn aside into the city of a foreigner, that is not of the children of Israel; but we will pass over to Gibeah. 019:013 He said to his servant, Come and let us draw near to one of these places; and we will lodge in Gibeah, or in Ramah. 019:014 So they passed on and went their way; and the sun went down on them near to Gibeah, which belongs to Benjamin. 019:015 They turned aside there, to go in to lodge in Gibeah: and he went in, and sat him down in the street of the city; for there was no man who took them into his house to lodge. 019:016 Behold, there came an old man from his work out of the field at even: now the man was of the hill country of Ephraim, and he sojourned in Gibeah; but the men of the place were Benjamites. 019:017 He lifted up his eyes, and saw the wayfaring man in the street of the city; and the old man said, Where go you? and whence come you? 019:018 He said to him, We are passing from Bethlehem Judah to the farther side of the hill country of Ephraim; from there am I, and I went to Bethlehem Judah: and I am [now] going to the house of Yahweh; and there is no man who takes me into his house. 019:019 Yet there is both straw and provender for our donkeys; and there is bread and wine also for me, and for your handmaid, and for the young man who is with your servants: there is no want of anything. 019:020 The old man said, Peace be to you; howsoever let all your wants lie on me; only don't lodge in the street. 019:021 So he brought him into his house, and gave the donkeys fodder; and they washed their feet, and ate and drink. 019:022 As they were making their hearts merry, behold, the men of the city, certain base fellows, beset the house round about, beating at the door; and they spoke to the master of the house, the old man, saying, Bring forth the man who came into your house, that we may know him. 019:023 The man, the master of the house, went out to them, and said to them, No, my brothers, please don't act so wickedly; seeing that this man is come into my house, don't do this folly. 019:024 Behold, here is my daughter a virgin, and his concubine; them I will bring out now, and humble you them, and do with them what seems good to you: but to this man don't do any such folly. 019:025 But the men wouldn't listen to him: so the man laid hold on his concubine, and brought her forth to them; and they knew her, and abused her all the night until the morning: and when the day began to spring, they let her go. 019:026 Then came the woman in the dawning of the day, and fell down at the door of the man's house where her lord was, until it was light. 019:027 Her lord rose up in the morning, and opened the doors of the house, and went out to go his way; and behold, the woman his concubine was fallen down at the door of the house, with her hands on the threshold. 019:028 He said to her, Up, and let us be going; but none answered: then he took her up on the donkey; and the man rose up, and got him to his place. 019:029 When he was come into his house, he took a knife, and laid hold on his concubine, and divided her, limb by limb, into twelve pieces, and sent her throughout all the borders of Israel. 019:030 It was so, that all who saw it said, There was no such deed done nor seen from the day that the children of Israel came up out of the land of Egypt to this day: consider it, take counsel, and speak. 020:001 Then all the children of Israel went out, and the congregation was assembled as one man, from Dan even to Beersheba, with the land of Gilead, to Yahweh at Mizpah. 020:002 The chiefs of all the people, even of all the tribes of Israel, presented themselves in the assembly of the people of God, four hundred thousand footmen who drew sword. 020:003 (Now the children of Benjamin heard that the children of Israel had gone up to Mizpah.) The children of Israel said, Tell us, how was this wickedness brought to pass? 020:004 The Levite, the husband of the woman who was murdered, answered, I came into Gibeah that belongs to Benjamin, I and my concubine, to lodge. 020:005 The men of Gibeah rose against me, and beset the house round about me by night; me they thought to have slain, and my concubine they forced, and she is dead. 020:006 I took my concubine, and cut her in pieces, and sent her throughout all the country of the inheritance of Israel; for they have committed lewdness and folly in Israel. 020:007 Behold, you children of Israel, all of you, give here your advice and counsel. 020:008 All the people arose as one man, saying, We will not any of us go to his tent, neither will we any of us turn to his house. 020:009 But now this is the thing which we will do to Gibeah: [we will go up] against it by lot; 020:010 and we will take ten men of one hundred throughout all the tribes of Israel, and one hundred of one thousand, and a thousand out of ten thousand, to get food for the people, that they may do, when they come to Gibeah of Benjamin, according to all the folly that they have worked in Israel. 020:011 So all the men of Israel were gathered against the city, knit together as one man. 020:012 The tribes of Israel sent men through all the tribe of Benjamin, saying, What wickedness is this that is happen among you? 020:013 Now therefore deliver up the men, the base fellows, who are in Gibeah, that we may put them to death, and put away evil from Israel. But Benjamin would not listen to the voice of their brothers the children of Israel. 020:014 The children of Benjamin gathered themselves together out of the cities to Gibeah, to go out to battle against the children of Israel. 020:015 The children of Benjamin were numbered on that day out of the cities twenty-six thousand men who drew the sword, besides the inhabitants of Gibeah, who were numbered seven hundred chosen men. 020:016 Among all this people there were seven hundred chosen men left-handed; everyone could sling stones at a hair-breadth, and not miss. 020:017 The men of Israel, besides Benjamin, were numbered four hundred thousand men who drew sword: all these were men of war. 020:018 The children of Israel arose, and went up to Bethel, and asked counsel of God; and they said, Who shall go up for us first to battle against the children of Benjamin? Yahweh said, Judah [shall go up] first. 020:019 The children of Israel rose up in the morning, and encamped against Gibeah. 020:020 The men of Israel went out to battle against Benjamin; and the men of Israel set the battle in array against them at Gibeah. 020:021 The children of Benjamin came forth out of Gibeah, and destroyed down to the ground of the Israelites on that day Twenty-two thousand men. 020:022 The people, the men of Israel, encouraged themselves, and set the battle again in array in the place where they set themselves in array the first day. 020:023 The children of Israel went up and wept before Yahweh until even; and they asked of Yahweh, saying, Shall I again draw near to battle against the children of Benjamin my brother? Yahweh said, Go up against him. 020:024 The children of Israel came near against the children of Benjamin the second day. 020:025 Benjamin went forth against them out of Gibeah the second day, and destroyed down to the ground of the children of Israel again eighteen thousand men; all these drew the sword. 020:026 Then all the children of Israel, and all the people, went up, and came to Bethel, and wept, and sat there before Yahweh, and fasted that day until even; and they offered burnt offerings and peace offerings before Yahweh. 020:027 The children of Israel asked of Yahweh (for the ark of the covenant of God was there in those days, 020:028 and Phinehas, the son of Eleazar, the son of Aaron, stood before it in those days), saying, Shall I yet again go out to battle against the children of Benjamin my brother, or shall I cease? Yahweh said, Go up; for tomorrow I will deliver him into your hand. 020:029 Israel set ambushes all around Gibeah. 020:030 The children of Israel went up against the children of Benjamin on the third day, and set themselves in array against Gibeah, as at other times. 020:031 The children of Benjamin went out against the people, and were drawn away from the city; and they began to strike and kill of the people, as at other times, in the highways, of which one goes up to Bethel, and the other to Gibeah, in the field, about thirty men of Israel. 020:032 The children of Benjamin said, They are struck down before us, as at the first. But the children of Israel said, Let us flee, and draw them away from the city to the highways. 020:033 All the men of Israel rose up out of their place, and set themselves in array at Baal Tamar: and the ambushers of Israel broke forth out of their place, even out of Maareh Geba. 020:034 There came over against Gibeah ten thousand chosen men out of all Israel, and the battle was sore; but they didn't know that evil was close on them. 020:035 Yahweh struck Benjamin before Israel; and the children of Israel destroyed of Benjamin that day twenty-five thousand one hundred men: all these drew the sword. 020:036 So the children of Benjamin saw that they were struck; for the men of Israel gave place to Benjamin, because they trusted the ambushers whom they had set against Gibeah. 020:037 The ambushers hurried, and rushed on Gibeah; and the ambushers drew themselves along, and struck all the city with the edge of the sword. 020:038 Now the appointed sign between the men of Israel and the ambushers was that they should make a great cloud of smoke rise up out of the city. 020:039 The men of Israel turned in the battle, and Benjamin began to strike and kill of the men of Israel about thirty persons; for they said, Surely they are struck down before us, as in the first battle. 020:040 But when the cloud began to arise up out of the city in a pillar of smoke, the Benjamites looked behind them; and behold, the whole of the city went up in smoke to the sky. 020:041 The men of Israel turned, and the men of Benjamin were dismayed; for they saw that evil had come on them. 020:042 Therefore they turned their backs before the men of Israel to the way of the wilderness; but the battle followed hard after them; and those who came out of the cities destroyed them in the midst of it. 020:043 They enclosed the Benjamites round about, [and] chased them, [and] trod them down at [their] resting place, as far as over against Gibeah toward the sunrise. 020:044 There fell of Benjamin eighteen thousand men; all these [were] men of valor. 020:045 They turned and fled toward the wilderness to the rock of Rimmon: and they gleaned of them in the highways five thousand men, and followed hard after them to Gidom, and struck of them two thousand men. 020:046 So that all who fell that day of Benjamin were twenty-five thousand men who drew the sword; all these [were] men of valor. 020:047 But six hundred men turned and fled toward the wilderness to the rock of Rimmon, and abode in the rock of Rimmon four months. 020:048 The men of Israel turned again on the children of Benjamin, and struck them with the edge of the sword, both the entire city, and the livestock, and all that they found: moreover all the cities which they found they set on fire. 021:001 Now the men of Israel had sworn in Mizpah, saying, There shall not any of us give his daughter to Benjamin as wife. 021:002 The people came to Bethel, and sat there until evening before God, and lifted up their voices, and wept sore. 021:003 They said, Yahweh, the God of Israel, why has this happened in Israel, that there should be today one tribe lacking in Israel? 021:004 It happened on the next day that the people rose early, and built there an altar, and offered burnt offerings and peace offerings. 021:005 The children of Israel said, Who is there among all the tribes of Israel who didn't come up in the assembly to Yahweh? For they had made a great oath concerning him who didn't come up to Yahweh to Mizpah, saying, He shall surely be put to death. 021:006 The children of Israel grieved for Benjamin their brother, and said, There is one tribe cut off from Israel this day. 021:007 How shall we do for wives for those who remain, seeing we have sworn by Yahweh that we will not give them of our daughters to wives? 021:008 They said, What one is there of the tribes of Israel who didn't come up to Yahweh to Mizpah? Behold, there came none to the camp from Jabesh Gilead to the assembly. 021:009 For when the people were numbered, behold, there were none of the inhabitants of Jabesh Gilead there. 021:010 The congregation sent there twelve thousand men of the most valiant, and commanded them, saying, Go and strike the inhabitants of Jabesh Gilead with the edge of the sword, with the women and the little ones. 021:011 This is the thing that you shall do: you shall utterly destroy every male, and every woman who has lain by man. 021:012 They found among the inhabitants of Jabesh Gilead four hundred young virgins, who had not known man by lying with him; and they brought them to the camp to Shiloh, which is in the land of Canaan. 021:013 The whole congregation sent and spoke to the children of Benjamin who were in the rock of Rimmon, and proclaimed peace to them. 021:014 Benjamin returned at that time; and they gave them the women whom they had saved alive of the women of Jabesh Gilead: and yet so they weren't enough for them. 021:015 The people grieved for Benjamin, because that Yahweh had made a breach in the tribes of Israel. 021:016 Then the elders of the congregation said, How shall we do for wives for those who remain, seeing the women are destroyed out of Benjamin? 021:017 They said, There must be an inheritance for those who are escaped of Benjamin, that a tribe not be blotted out from Israel. 021:018 However we may not give them wives of our daughters, for the children of Israel had sworn, saying, Cursed be he who gives a wife to Benjamin. 021:019 They said, Behold, there is a feast of Yahweh from year to year in Shiloh, which is on the north of Bethel, on the east side of the highway that goes up from Bethel to Shechem, and on the south of Lebonah. 021:020 They commanded the children of Benjamin, saying, Go and lie in wait in the vineyards, 021:021 and see, and behold, if the daughters of Shiloh come out to dance in the dances, then come you out of the vineyards, and catch you every man his wife of the daughters of Shiloh, and go to the land of Benjamin. 021:022 It shall be, when their fathers or their brothers come to complain to us, that we will say to them, Grant them graciously to us, because we didn't take for each man his wife in battle, neither did you give them to them, else would you now be guilty. 021:023 The children of Benjamin did so, and took them wives, according to their number, of those who danced, whom they carried off: and they went and returned to their inheritance, and built the cities, and lived in them. 021:024 The children of Israel departed there at that time, every man to his tribe and to his family, and they went out from there every man to his inheritance. 021:025 In those days there was no king in Israel: every man did that which was right in his own eyes.

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