
Judges

   {1:1} It happened after the death of Joshua, the children of Israel
asked of [1>]Yahweh,[<1] saying, "Who should go up for us first against
the Canaanites, to fight against them?"

   {1:2} Yahweh said, "Judah shall go up. Behold, I have delivered the
land into his hand."

   {1:3} 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. {1:4} Judah went up;
and Yahweh delivered the Canaanites and the Perizzites into their hand:
and they struck of them in Bezek ten thousand men. {1:5} They found
Adoni-Bezek in Bezek; and they fought against him, and they struck the
Canaanites and the Perizzites. {1:6} But Adoni-Bezek fled; and they
pursued after him, and caught him, and cut off his thumbs and his great
toes. {1:7} Adoni-Bezek said, "Seventy kings, having their thumbs and
their great toes cut off, scavenged under my table: as I have done, so
[2>]God[<2] has requited me." They brought him to Jerusalem, and he
died there. {1:8} 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. {1:9} 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. {1:10} 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.

   {1:11} From there he went against the inhabitants of Debir. (Now the
name of Debir before was Kiriath Sepher.) {1:12} Caleb said, "He who
strikes Kiriath Sepher, and takes it, to him will I give Achsah my
daughter as wife." {1:13} Othniel the son of Kenaz, Caleb's younger
brother, took it: and he gave him Achsah his daughter as wife.

   {1:14} It happened, when she came, that she got him to ask her
father for a field: and she alighted from off her donkey; and Caleb
said to her, "What would you like?"

   {1:15} 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." Then Caleb
gave her the upper springs and the lower springs. {1:16} 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. {1:17}
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. {1:18} Also Judah took Gaza with its border, and
Ashkelon with its border, and Ekron with its border. {1:19} 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. {1:20} They gave Hebron to Caleb, as Moses had
spoken: and he drove out there the three sons of Anak. {1:21} 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.

   {1:22} The house of Joseph, they also went up against Bethel; and
Yahweh was with them. {1:23} The house of Joseph sent to spy out
Bethel. (Now the name of the city before was Luz.) {1:24} The watchers
saw a man come forth out of the city, and they said to him, "Please
show us the entrance into the city, and we will deal kindly with you."
{1:25} He showed 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. {1:26} The man went into the land of the Hittites, and built a
city, and called its name Luz, which is its name to this day.

   {1:27} Manasseh did not drive out the inhabitants of Beth Shean and
its towns, nor 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. {1:28} It happened, when Israel had grown strong, that they
put the Canaanites to forced labor, and did not utterly drive them out.
{1:29} Ephraim didn't drive out the Canaanites who lived in Gezer; but
the Canaanites lived in Gezer among them. {1:30} 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. {1:31}
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; {1:32} but the Asherites lived among the Canaanites, the
inhabitants of the land; for they did not drive them out. {1:33}
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. {1:34} The Amorites
forced the children of Dan into the hill country; for they would not
allow them to come down to the valley; {1:35} 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.
{1:36} The border of the Amorites was from the ascent of Akrabbim, from
the rock, and upward.

   {2:1} 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: {2:2} 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? {2:3} Therefore I also
said, I will not drive them out from before you; but they shall be in
your sides, and their gods shall be a snare to you."

   {2:4} 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. {2:5} They called the name of that place Bochim: and they
sacrificed there to Yahweh. {2:6} Now when Joshua had sent the people
away, the children of Israel went every man to his inheritance to
possess the land. {2:7} 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. {2:8}
Joshua the son of Nun, the servant of Yahweh, died, being one hundred
ten years old. {2:9} 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. {2:10} 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.
{2:11} The children of Israel did that which was evil in the sight of
Yahweh, and served the Baals; {2:12} 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 around them,
and bowed themselves down to them: and they provoked Yahweh to anger.
{2:13} They forsook Yahweh, and served Baal and the Ashtaroth. {2:14}
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 all around, so that they could not any
longer stand before their enemies. {2:15} 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 very distressed. {2:16} Yahweh
raised up judges, who saved them out of the hand of those who despoiled
them. {2:17} 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. They didn't do so. {2:18} 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 troubled them. {2:19} 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. {2:20} 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; {2:21} I
also will not henceforth drive out any from before them of the nations
that Joshua left when he died; {2:22} that by them I may prove Israel,
whether they will keep the way of Yahweh to walk therein, as their
fathers kept it, or not." {2:23} So Yahweh left those nations, without
driving them out hastily; neither delivered he them into the hand of
Joshua.

   {3:1} Now these are the nations which Yahweh left, to prove Israel
by them, even as many as had not known all the wars of Canaan; {3:2}
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: {3:3}
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. {3:4} They were left to test Israel
by them, to know whether they would listen to the commandments of
Yahweh, which he commanded their fathers by Moses. {3:5} The children
of Israel lived among the Canaanites, the Hittites, and the Amorites,
and the Perizzites, and the Hivites, and the Jebusites: {3:6} and they
took their daughters to be their wives, and gave their own daughters to
their sons and served their gods. {3:7} 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. {3:8} 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. {3:9} 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.
{3:10} 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. {3:11} The land had rest forty years. Othniel the son of
Kenaz died. {3:12} 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. {3:13} He gathered to him the children of Ammon and Amalek;
and he went and struck Israel, and they possessed the city of palm
trees. {3:14} The children of Israel served Eglon the king of Moab
eighteen years. {3:15} 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. {3:16} Ehud made him a sword which had two edges, a
cubit in length; and he wore it under his clothing on his right thigh.
{3:17} He offered the tribute to Eglon king of Moab: now Eglon was a
very fat man. {3:18} When he had made an end of offering the tribute,
he sent away the people who bore the tribute. {3:19} But he himself
turned back from the quarries that were by Gilgal, and said, "I have a
secret errand to you, king."

   The king said, "Keep silence!" All who stood by him went out from
him.

   {3:20} 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. {3:21} Ehud put forth his left hand, and took
the sword from his right thigh, and thrust it into his body: {3:22} and
the handle 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. {3:23} Then Ehud went forth into the porch, and shut the doors
of the upper room on him, and locked them.

   {3:24} 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 room." {3:25} 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.

   {3:26} Ehud escaped while they waited, and passed beyond the
quarries, and escaped to Seirah. {3:27} 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.

   {3:28} He said to them, "Follow me; for Yahweh has delivered your
enemies the Moabites into your hand." They followed him, and took the
fords of the Jordan against the Moabites, and didn't allow any man to
pass over. {3:29} 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. {3:30} So Moab was subdued that day under the hand of Israel. The
land had rest eighty years.

   {3:31} After him was Shamgar the son of Anath, who struck of the
Philistines six hundred men with an oxgoad: and he also saved Israel.

   {4:1} The children of Israel again did that which was evil in the
sight of Yahweh, when Ehud was dead. {4:2} 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. {4:3}
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. {4:4} Now Deborah, a prophetess, the wife of Lappidoth, she
judged Israel at that time. {4:5} 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. {4:6} 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, 'Go and draw to
Mount Tabor, and take with you ten thousand men of the children of
Naphtali and of the children of Zebulun? {4:7} 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.'"

   {4:8} 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."

   {4:9} She said, "I will surely go with you: nevertheless, 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.

   {4:10} Barak called Zebulun and Naphtali together to Kedesh; and
there went up ten thousand men at his feet: and Deborah went up with
him. {4:11} 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. {4:12} They told Sisera that Barak the son of Abinoam was gone
up to Mount Tabor. {4:13} 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.

   {4:14} Deborah said to Barak, "Go; 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. {4:15} 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. {4:16} 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.

   {4:17} 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. {4:18} 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.

   {4:19} 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.

   {4:20} He said to her, "Stand in the door of the tent, and it shall
be, when any man comes and inquires of you, and says, 'Is there any man
here?' that you shall say, 'No.'"

   {4:21} 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. {4:22} 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. {4:23} So God subdued on that day Jabin
the king of Canaan before the children of Israel. {4:24} 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.

    {5:1} Then Deborah and Barak the son of Abinoam sang on that day,
saying,
{5:2} "Because the leaders took the lead in Israel,
   because the people offered themselves willingly,
be blessed, Yahweh!

{5:3} "Hear, you kings!
   Give ear, you princes!
I, even I, will sing to Yahweh.
   I will sing praise to Yahweh, the God of Israel.

{5:4} "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.
{5:5} The mountains quaked at the presence of Yahweh,
   even Sinai, at the presence of Yahweh, the God of Israel.

{5:6} "In the days of Shamgar the son of Anath,
   in the days of Jael, the highways were unoccupied.
   The travelers walked through byways.
{5:7} The rulers ceased in Israel.
   They ceased until I, Deborah, arose;
   Until I arose a mother in Israel.
{5:8} They chose new gods.
   Then war was in the gates.
   Was there a shield or spear seen among forty thousand in Israel?
{5:9} My heart is toward the governors of Israel,
   who offered themselves willingly among the people.
   Bless Yahweh!

{5:10} "Speak, you who ride on white donkeys,
   you who sit on rich carpets,
   and you who walk by the way.
{5:11} Far from the noise of archers, in the places of drawing water,
   there they will rehearse the righteous acts of Yahweh,
   the righteous acts of his rule in Israel.

"Then the people of Yahweh went down to the gates.
   {5:12} 'Awake, awake, Deborah!
   Awake, awake, utter a song!
   Arise, Barak, and lead away your captives, you son of Abinoam.'

{5:13} "Then a remnant of the nobles and the people came down.
   Yahweh came down for me against the mighty.
{5:14} 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.
{5:15} 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.
{5:16} 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.
{5:17} 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.
{5:18} Zebulun was a people that jeopardized their lives to the deaths;
   Naphtali also, on the high places of the field.

{5:19} "The kings came and fought,
   then the kings of Canaan fought at Taanach by the waters of Megiddo.
   They took no plunder of silver.
{5:20} From the sky the stars fought.
   From their courses, they fought against Sisera.
{5:21} The river Kishon swept them away,
   that ancient river, the river Kishon.
   My soul, march on with strength.
{5:22} Then the horse hoofs stamped because of the prancings,
   the prancings of their strong ones.
{5:23} '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.'

{5:24} "Jael shall be blessed above women,
   the wife of Heber the Kenite;
   blessed shall she be above women in the tent.
{5:25} He asked for water.
   She gave him milk.
   She brought him butter in a lordly dish.
{5:26} 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.
{5:27} At her feet he bowed, he fell, he lay.
   At her feet he bowed, he fell.
   Where he bowed, there he fell down dead.

{5:28} "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?'
{5:29} Her wise ladies answered her,
   Yes, she returned answer to herself,
{5:30} '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?'

{5:31} "So let all your enemies perish, Yahweh,
   but let those who love him be as the sun when it rises forth in its
      strength."

   Then the land had rest forty years.

   {6:1} 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.
{6:2} 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. {6:3} 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; {6:4} 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. {6:5} 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.
{6:6} Israel was brought very low because of Midian; and the children
of Israel cried to Yahweh.

   {6:7} It happened, when the children of Israel cried to Yahweh
because of Midian, {6:8} 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; {6:9} 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; {6:10} 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.'"

   {6:11} 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.
{6:12} The angel of Yahweh appeared to him, and said to him, "Yahweh is
with you, you mighty man of valor!"

   {6:13} Gideon said to him, "Oh, my lord, if Yahweh is with us, why
then has all this happened to us? Where are all his wondrous works
which our fathers told us of, saying, 'Didn't Yahweh bring us up from
Egypt?' But now Yahweh has cast us off, and delivered us into the hand
of Midian."

   {6:14} Yahweh looked at him, and said, "Go in this your might, and
save Israel from the hand of Midian. Haven't I sent you?"

   {6:15} He said to him, "O [3>]Lord[<3], how shall I save Israel?
Behold, my family is the poorest in Manasseh, and I am the least in my
father's house."

   {6:16} Yahweh said to him, "Surely I will be with you, and you shall
strike the Midianites as one man."

   {6:17} 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. {6:18} 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 back."

   {6:19} Gideon went in, and prepared a young goat, and unleavened
cakes of an [4>]ephah[<4] of meal. He put the meat in a basket and he
put the broth in a pot, and brought it out to him under the oak, and
presented it.

   {6:20} The angel of God said to him, "Take the meat and the
unleavened cakes, and lay them on this rock, and pour out the broth."

   He did so. {6:21} Then the angel of Yahweh stretched out the end of
the staff that was in his hand, and touched the meat and the unleavened
cakes; and fire went up out of the rock, and consumed the meat and the
unleavened cakes; and the angel of Yahweh departed out of his sight.

   {6:22} 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!"

   {6:23} Yahweh said to him, "Peace be to you! Don't be afraid. You
shall not die."

   {6:24} Then Gideon built an altar there to Yahweh, and called it
"[5>]Yahweh is Peace[<5]." To this day it is still in Ophrah of the
Abiezrites.

   {6:25} 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; {6:26} and build an altar to Yahweh your God on the top
of this stronghold, in an orderly way, and take the second bull, and
offer a burnt offering with the wood of the Asherah which you shall cut
down."

   {6:27} 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.

   {6:28} 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.
{6:29} 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."

   {6:30} 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." {6:31} 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 by
morning. If he is a god, let him contend for himself, because someone
has broken down his altar." {6:32} Therefore on that day he named him
[6>]Jerub-Baal,[<6] saying, "Let Baal contend against him, because he
has broken down his altar."

   {6:33} 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. {6:34} But the Spirit of Yahweh came
on Gideon; and he blew a trumpet; and Abiezer was gathered together
after him. {6:35} 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.

   {6:36} Gideon said to God, "If you will save Israel by my hand, as
you have spoken, {6:37} behold, I will put a fleece of wool on the
threshing floor; if there is dew on the fleece only, and it is dry on
all the ground, then shall I know that you will save Israel by my hand,
as you have spoken."

   {6:38} 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.

   {6:39} 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."

   {6:40} God did so that night: for it was dry on the fleece only, and
there was dew on all the ground.

   {7:1} 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. {7:2} 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.'
{7:3} Now therefore proclaim in the ears of the people, saying,
'Whoever is fearful and trembling, let him return and depart from Mount
Gilead.'" Twenty-two thousand of the people returned, and ten thousand
remained.

   {7:4} Yahweh said to Gideon, "The people are still too many. Bring
them down to the water, and I will test them for you there. 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." {7:5} So he brought down the people to the
water; and Yahweh said to Gideon, "Everyone who laps of the water with
his tongue, like a dog laps, you shall set him by himself; likewise
everyone who bows down on his knees to drink." {7:6} 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. {7:7} Yahweh said to Gideon, "By the three hundred men who
lapped will I save you, and deliver the Midianites into your hand. Let
all the other people go, each to his own place."

   {7:8} 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. {7:9} It happened the same night, that Yahweh said to him,
"Arise, go down into the camp; for I have delivered it into your hand.
{7:10} But if you are afraid to go down, go with Purah your servant
down to the camp: {7:11} and you shall hear what they say; and
afterward your hands will 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.

   {7:12} 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.

   {7:13} 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."

   {7:14} His fellow answered, "This is nothing other than the sword of
Gideon the son of Joash, a man of Israel. God has delivered Midian into
his hand, with all the army."

   {7:15} It was so, when Gideon heard the telling of the dream, and
its interpretation, that he worshiped; and he returned into the camp of
Israel, and said, "Arise; for Yahweh has delivered the army of Midian
into your hand!"

   {7:16} 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.

   {7:17} He said to them, "Watch me, and do likewise. Behold, when I
come to the outermost part of the camp, it shall be that, as I do, so
you shall do. {7:18} When I blow the trumpet, I and all who are with
me, then blow the trumpets also on every side of all the camp, and
shout, 'For Yahweh and for Gideon!'"

   {7:19} 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. {7:20} 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 shouted, "The sword of Yahweh and of Gideon!"
{7:21} They each stood in his place around the camp; and all the army
ran; and they shouted, and put them to flight. {7:22} 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. {7:23} The men of Israel were gathered together out of
Naphtali, and out of Asher, and out of all Manasseh, and pursued after
Midian. {7:24} 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. {7:25} 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.

    {8:1} The men of Ephraim said to him, "Why have you treated us this
way, that you didn't call us, when you went to fight with Midian?" They
rebuked him sharply. {8:2} 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? {8:3} God has delivered into your hand the
princes of Midian, Oreb and Zeeb! What was I able to do in comparison
with you?" Then their anger was abated toward him, when he had said
that.

   {8:4} Gideon came to the Jordan, and passed over, he, and the three
hundred men who were with him, faint, yet pursuing. {8:5} 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."

   {8:6} The princes of Succoth said, "Are the hands of Zebah and
Zalmunna now in your hand, that we should give bread to your army?"

   {8:7} 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."

   {8:8} He went up there to Penuel, and spoke to them in the same way;
and the men of Penuel answered him as the men of Succoth had answered.
{8:9} He spoke also to the men of Penuel, saying, "When I come again in
peace, I will break down this tower."

   {8:10} 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. {8:11} 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. {8:12} 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. {8:13} Gideon the son of Joash returned from
the battle from the ascent of Heres. {8:14} He caught a young man of
the men of Succoth, and inquired of him: and he described for him the
princes of Succoth, and its elders, seventy-seven men. {8:15} He came
to the men of Succoth, and said, "See Zebah and Zalmunna, concerning
whom you taunted me, saying, 'Are the hands of Zebah and Zalmunna now
in your hand, that we should give bread to your men who are weary?'"
{8:16} He took the elders of the city, and thorns of the wilderness and
briers, and with them he taught the men of Succoth. {8:17} He broke
down the tower of Penuel, and killed the men of the city.

   {8:18} Then he said to Zebah and Zalmunna, "What kind of men were
they whom you killed at Tabor?"

   They answered, "They were like you. Each one resembled the children
of a king."

   {8:19} 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."

   {8:20} He said to Jether his firstborn, "Get up, and kill them!" But
the youth didn't draw his sword; for he was afraid, because he was yet
a youth.

   {8:21} Then Zebah and Zalmunna said, "Rise 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.

   {8:22} Then the men of Israel said to Gideon, "Rule over us, both
you, and your son, and your son's son also; for you have saved us out
of the hand of Midian."

   {8:23} Gideon said to them, "I will not rule over you, neither shall
my son rule over you. Yahweh shall rule over you." {8:24} 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.)

   {8:25} They answered, "We will willingly give them." They spread a
garment, and every man threw the earrings of his spoil into it. {8:26}
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. {8:27} 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. {8:28} 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. {8:29} Jerubbaal the son of
Joash went and lived in his own house. {8:30} Gideon had seventy sons
conceived from his body; for he had many wives. {8:31} His concubine
who was in Shechem, she also bore him a son, and he named him
Abimelech. {8:32} 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. {8:33} 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. {8:34} 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; {8:35} neither did they show
kindness to the house of Jerubbaal, Gideon, according to all the
goodness which he had shown to Israel.

   {9:1} 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, {9:2} "Please speak in the ears of all the
men of Shechem, 'Is it 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."

   {9:3} 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." {9:4} 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. {9:5} 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. {9:6} 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. {9:7} 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.
{9:8} The trees went forth on a time to anoint a king over them; and
they said to the olive tree, 'Reign over us.'

   {9:9} "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?'

   {9:10} "The trees said to the fig tree, 'Come and reign over us.'

   {9:11} "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?'

   {9:12} "The trees said to the vine, 'Come and reign over us.'

   {9:13} "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?'

   {9:14} "Then all the trees said to the bramble, 'Come and reign over
us.'

   {9:15} "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.'

   {9:16} "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 {9:17} (for my father fought for you, and risked
his life, and delivered you out of the hand of Midian: {9:18} and you
have 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); {9:19} if you then have dealt truly and righteously with
Jerubbaal and with his house this day, then rejoice in Abimelech, and
let him also rejoice in you: {9:20} 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."

   {9:21} Jotham ran away, and fled, and went to Beer, and lived there,
for fear of Abimelech his brother.

   {9:22} Abimelech was prince over Israel three years. {9:23} God sent
an evil spirit between Abimelech and the men of Shechem; and the men of
Shechem dealt treacherously with Abimelech: {9:24} 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. {9:25}
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. {9:26} Gaal the son of Ebed came with his brothers, and went
over to Shechem; and the men of Shechem put their trust in him. {9:27}
They went out into the field, and harvested their vineyards, and trod
the grapes, and held festival, and went into the house of their god,
and ate and drank, and cursed Abimelech. {9:28} 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 the men of
Hamor the father of Shechem: but why should we serve him? {9:29} Would
that this people were under my hand! Then I would remove Abimelech." He
said to Abimelech, "Increase your army, and come out!"

   {9:30} When Zebul the ruler of the city heard the words of Gaal the
son of Ebed, his anger was kindled. {9:31} He sent messengers to
Abimelech craftily, saying, "Behold, Gaal the son of Ebed and his
brothers have come to Shechem; and behold, they incite the city against
you. {9:32} Now therefore, go up by night, you and the people who are
with you, and lie in wait in the field: {9:33} 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."

   {9:34} Abimelech rose up, and all the people who were with him, by
night, and they laid wait against Shechem in four companies. {9:35}
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.

   {9:36} When Gaal saw the people, he said to Zebul, "Behold, people
are coming down from the tops of the mountains."

   Zebul said to him, "You see the shadow of the mountains as if they
were men."

   {9:37} Gaal spoke again and said, "Behold, people are coming down by
the middle of the land, and one company comes by the way of the oak of
Meonenim."

   {9:38} Then Zebul said to him, "Now where is your mouth, that you
said, 'Who is Abimelech, that we should serve him?' Isn't this the
people that you have despised? Please go out now and fight with them."

   {9:39} Gaal went out before the men of Shechem, and fought with
Abimelech. {9:40} Abimelech chased him, and he fled before him, and
many fell wounded, even to the entrance of the gate. {9:41} Abimelech
lived at Arumah: and Zebul drove out Gaal and his brothers, that they
should not dwell in Shechem. {9:42} It happened on the next day, that
the people went out into the field; and they told Abimelech. {9:43} 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. {9:44} 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. {9:45} 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.

   {9:46} When all the men of the tower of Shechem heard of it, they
entered into the stronghold of the house of Elberith. {9:47} It was
told Abimelech that all the men of the tower of Shechem were gathered
together. {9:48} Abimelech went 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!" {9:49} All the people
likewise each cut down his bough, and followed Abimelech, and put them
at the base of the stronghold, and set the stronghold on fire on them;
so that all the people of the tower of Shechem died also, about a
thousand men and women. {9:50} Then went Abimelech to Thebez, and
encamped against Thebez, and took it. {9:51} 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 went up to the roof of
the tower. {9:52} Abimelech came to the tower, and fought against it,
and drew near to the door of the tower to burn it with fire. {9:53} A
certain woman cast an upper millstone on Abimelech's head, and broke
his skull.

   {9:54} 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."

   {9:55} When the men of Israel saw that Abimelech was dead, they
departed every man to his place. {9:56} Thus God requited the
wickedness of Abimelech, which he did to his father, in killing his
seventy brothers; {9:57} 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.

   {10:1} 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. {10:2} He judged Israel twenty-three years,
and died, and was buried in Shamir. {10:3} After him arose Jair, the
Gileadite; and he judged Israel twenty-two years. {10:4} 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.
{10:5} Jair died, and was buried in Kamon. {10:6} 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. {10:7} 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. {10:8} They troubled and oppressed the children of
Israel that year. For eighteen years, they oppressed all the children
of Israel that were beyond the Jordan in the land of the Amorites,
which is in Gilead. {10:9} 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 very distressed. {10:10} 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."

   {10:11} 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? {10:12} The Sidonians also, and the
Amalekites, and the Maonites, oppressed you; and you cried to me, and I
saved you out of their hand. {10:13} Yet you have forsaken me, and
served other gods: therefore I will save you no more. {10:14} Go and
cry to the gods which you have chosen. Let them save you in the time of
your distress!"

   {10:15} The children of Israel said to Yahweh, "We have sinned: do
you to us whatever seems good to you; only deliver us, please, this
day."

   {10:16} They put away the foreign gods from among them, and served
Yahweh; and his soul was grieved for the misery of Israel.

   {10:17} Then the children of Ammon were gathered together, and
encamped in Gilead. The children of Israel assembled themselves
together, and encamped in Mizpah. {10:18} 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."

   {11:1} 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.
{11:2} 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." {11:3} 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. {11:4} It happened after a while, that the children of Ammon made
war against Israel. {11:5} 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; {11:6} and they said to Jephthah, "Come and be our
chief, that we may fight with the children of Ammon."

   {11:7} Jephthah said to the elders of Gilead, "Didn't you hate me,
and drive me out of my father's house? Why have you come to me now when
you are in distress?"

   {11:8} The elders of Gilead said to Jephthah, "Therefore we have
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."

   {11:9} 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?"

   {11:10} The elders of Gilead said to Jephthah, "Yahweh shall be
witness between us; surely according to your word so will we do."

   {11:11} 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.

   {11:12} Jephthah sent messengers to the king of the children of
Ammon, saying, "What have you to do with me, that you have come to me
to fight against my land?"

   {11:13} 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 that territory again peaceably."

   {11:14} Jephthah sent messengers again to the king of the children
of Ammon; {11:15} 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, {11:16} but when they came up from Egypt, and Israel went
through the wilderness to the [7>]Red Sea[<7], and came to Kadesh;
{11:17} 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 stayed in Kadesh. {11:18} 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. {11:19} Israel sent
messengers to Sihon king of the Amorites, the king of Heshbon; and
Israel said to him, 'Please let us pass through your land to my place.'
{11:20} 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. {11:21} 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. {11:22} They possessed all the border of the Amorites,
from the Arnon even to the Jabbok, and from the wilderness even to the
Jordan. {11:23} So now Yahweh, the God of Israel, has dispossessed the
Amorites from before his people Israel, and should you possess them?
{11:24} 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. {11:25} 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? {11:26} 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? {11:27} 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."

   {11:28} However the king of the children of Ammon didn't listen to
the words of Jephthah which he sent him. {11:29} 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.

   {11:30} Jephthah vowed a vow to Yahweh, and said, "If you will
indeed deliver the children of Ammon into my hand, {11:31} 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."

   {11:32} So Jephthah passed over to the children of Ammon to fight
against them; and Yahweh delivered them into his hand. {11:33} 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.

   {11:34} 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.
{11:35} 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."

   {11:36} 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." {11:37} 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."

   {11:38} He said, "Go." He sent her away for two months: and she
departed, she and her companions, and mourned her virginity on the
mountains. {11:39} 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, {11:40}
that the daughters of Israel went yearly to celebrate the daughter of
Jephthah the Gileadite four days in a year.

   {12:1} 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 around you with fire!"

   {12:2} 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. {12:3} 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 have you come up to me
this day, to fight against me?"

   {12:4} 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." {12:5} The Gileadites took the
fords of the Jordan against the Ephraimites. It was so, that when the
fugitives of Ephraim said, "Let me go over," the men of Gilead said to
him, "Are you an Ephraimite?" If he said, "No"; {12:6} then they said
to him, "Now say 'Shibboleth;'" and he said "Sibboleth"; for he
couldn't manage to pronounce it right: then they siezed him, and killed
him at the fords of the Jordan. At that time, forty-two thousand of
Ephraim fell. {12:7} Jephthah judged Israel six years. Then Jephthah
the Gileadite died, and was buried in the cities of Gilead. {12:8}
After him Ibzan of Bethlehem judged Israel. {12:9} 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. {12:10} Ibzan
died, and was buried at Bethlehem. {12:11} After him Elon the
Zebulunite judged Israel; and he judged Israel ten years. {12:12} Elon
the Zebulunite died, and was buried in Aijalon in the land of Zebulun.
{12:13} After him Abdon the son of Hillel the Pirathonite judged
Israel. {12:14} He had forty sons and thirty sons' sons, who rode on
seventy donkey colts: and he judged Israel eight years. {12:15} 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.

   {13:1} 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. {13:2} 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. {13:3} 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. {13:4} Now therefore please beware
and drink no wine nor strong drink, and don't eat any unclean thing:
{13:5} 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."

   {13:6} 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 where he was from, neither did he
tell me his name: {13:7} 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.'"

   {13:8} 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."

   {13:9} 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. {13:10} 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 that day."

   {13:11} 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."

   {13:12} Manoah said, "Now let your words happen. What shall the
child's way of life and mission be?"

   {13:13} The angel of Yahweh said to Manoah, "Of all that I said to
the woman let her beware. {13:14} 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."

   {13:15} Manoah said to the angel of Yahweh, "Please, let us detain
you, that we may make a young goat ready for you."

   {13:16} The angel of Yahweh said to Manoah, "Though you detain me, I
won't eat of your bread; and if you will prepare a burnt offering, you
must offer it to Yahweh." For Manoah didn't know that he was the angel
of Yahweh.

   {13:17} Manoah said to the angel of Yahweh, "What is your name, that
when your words happen, we may honor you?"

   {13:18} The angel of Yahweh said to him, "Why do you ask about my
name, since it is wonderful?"

   {13:19} So Manoah took the young goat with the meal offering, and
offered it on the rock to Yahweh. Then the angel did a wonderful thing
as Manoah and his wife looked on. {13:20} 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. {13:21} But the
angel of Yahweh didn't appear to Manoah or to his wife any more. Then
Manoah knew that he was the angel of Yahweh. {13:22} Manoah said to his
wife, "We shall surely die, because we have seen God."

   {13:23} 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." {13:24} The woman bore a
son, and named him Samson: and the child grew, and Yahweh blessed him.
{13:25} The Spirit of Yahweh began to move him in Mahaneh Dan, between
Zorah and Eshtaol.

   {14:1} Samson went down to Timnah, and saw a woman in Timnah of the
daughters of the Philistines. {14:2} 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."

   {14:3} 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."

   {14:4} 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. {14:5} 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.
{14:6} The Spirit of Yahweh came mightily on him, and he tore him as he
would have torn a young goat; and he had nothing in his hand: but he
didn't tell his father or his mother what he had done. {14:7} He went
down, and talked with the woman, and she pleased Samson well. {14:8}
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. {14:9} 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. {14:10} His father went down to the woman:
and Samson made there a feast; for so used the young men to do. {14:11}
It happened, when they saw him, that they brought thirty companions to
be with him.

   {14:12} Samson said to them, "Let me tell you a riddle now. 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; {14:13} but if you can't declare it to me, then you shall
give me thirty linen garments and thirty changes of clothing."

   They said to him, "Put forth your riddle, that we may hear it."
{14:14} 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. {14:15} 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?"

   {14:16} Samson's wife wept before him, and said, "You just 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?"

   {14:17} 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 severely; and she told the riddle to the children of
her people. {14:18} The men of the city said to him on the seventh day
before the sun went down, "What is sweeter than honey? 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."

   {14:19} 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. {14:20} But
Samson's wife was given to his companion, whom he had used as his
friend.

   {15:1} But it happened after a while, in the time of wheat harvest,
that Samson visited his wife with a young goat; and he said, "I will go
in to my wife into the room."

   But her father wouldn't allow him to go in. {15:2} 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."

   {15:3} Samson said to them, "This time I will be blameless in regard
of the Philistines, when I harm them." {15:4} Samson went and caught
three hundred foxes, and took torches, and turned tail to tail, and put
a torch in the midst between every two tails. {15:5} 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.

   {15:6} 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.

   {15:7} Samson said to them, "If you behave like this, surely I will
be avenged of you, and after that I will cease." {15:8} He struck them
hip and thigh with a great slaughter: and he went down and lived in the
cleft of the rock of Etam. {15:9} Then the Philistines went up, and
encamped in Judah, and spread themselves in Lehi.

   {15:10} The men of Judah said, "Why have you come up against us?"

   They said, "We have come up to bind Samson, to do to him as he has
done to us."

   {15:11} 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."

   {15:12} 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."

   {15:13} 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.

   {15:14} 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. {15:15} He found a fresh jawbone of a
donkey, and put forth his hand, and took it, and struck a thousand men
therewith. {15:16} Samson said, "With the jawbone of a donkey, heaps on
heaps; with the jawbone of a donkey I have struck a thousand men."
{15:17} 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. {15:18} 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?"

   {15:19} 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 its name was called En Hakkore, which is in Lehi, to
this day. {15:20} He judged Israel in the days of the Philistines
twenty years.

   {16:1} Samson went to Gaza, and saw there a prostitute, and went in
to her. {16:2} The Gazites were told, "Samson is here!" They surrounded
him, and laid wait for him all night in the gate of the city, and were
quiet all the night, saying, "Wait until morning light, then we will
kill him." {16:3} 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.

   {16:4} It came to pass afterward, that he loved a woman in the
valley of Sorek, whose name was Delilah. {16:5} 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
eleven hundred pieces of silver."

   {16:6} Delilah said to Samson, "Please tell me where your great
strength lies, and what you might be bound to afflict you."

   {16:7} 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."

   {16:8} Then the lords of the Philistines brought up to her seven
green cords which had not been dried, and she bound him with them.
{16:9} Now she had an ambush waiting in the inner room. 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.

   {16:10} Delilah said to Samson, "Behold, you have mocked me, and
told me lies: now please tell me with which you might be bound."

   {16:11} 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."

   {16:12} 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 room. He broke them off his arms like a thread.

   {16:13} Delilah said to Samson, "Until now, you have mocked me and
told me lies. Tell me with what you might be bound."

   He said to her, "If you weave the seven locks of my head with the
web."

   {16:14} 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.

   {16:15} 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 where your great strength lies."

   {16:16} It happened, when she pressed him daily with her words, and
urged him, that his soul was troubled to death. {16:17} 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."

   {16:18} 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.
{16:19} 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. {16:20} She said, "The Philistines are
upon 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. {16:21} 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. {16:22}
However the hair of his head began to grow again after he was shaved.

   {16:23} 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." {16:24} When
the people saw him, they praised their god; for they said, "Our god has
delivered our enemy and the destroyer of our country, who has slain
many of us, into our hand."

   {16:25} It happened, when their hearts were merry, that they said,
"Call for Samson, that he may entertain us." They called for Samson out
of the prison; and he performed before them. They set him between the
pillars; {16:26} and Samson said to the boy who held him by the hand,
"Allow me to feel the pillars whereupon the house rests, that I may
lean on them."

   {16:27} 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 performed. {16:28} 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." {16:29} 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. {16:30}
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. {16:31} 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.

   {17:1} There was a man of the hill country of Ephraim, whose name
was Micah. {17:2} He said to his mother, "The eleven hundred pieces of
silver that were taken from you, about which you uttered a curse, and
also spoke it in my ears, behold, the silver is with me; I took it."

   His mother said, "Blessed be my son of Yahweh."

   {17:3} 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."

   {17:4} 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.

   {17:5} 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.
{17:6} In those days there was no king in Israel: every man did that
which was right in his own eyes. {17:7} There was a young man out of
Bethlehem Judah, of the family of Judah, who was a Levite; and he lived
there. {17:8} The man departed out of the city, out of Bethlehem Judah,
to live where he could find a place, and he came to the hill country of
Ephraim to the house of Micah, as he traveled. {17:9} Micah said to
him, "Where did you come from?"

   He said to him, "I am a Levite of Bethlehem Judah, and I am looking
for a place to live." {17:10} 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
per year, a suit of clothing, and your food." So the Levite went in.
{17:11} The Levite was content to dwell with the man; and the young man
was to him as one of his sons. {17:12} Micah consecrated the Levite,
and the young man became his priest, and was in the house of Micah.
{17:13} Then Micah said, "Now know I that Yahweh will do good to me,
since I have a Levite to my priest."

   {18:1} In those days there was no king in Israel: and in those days
the tribe of the Danites sought an inheritance to dwell in; for to that
day, their inheritance had not fallen to them among the tribes of
Israel. {18:2} 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, explore the
land!"

   They came to the hill country of Ephraim, to the house of Micah, and
lodged there. {18:3} 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? What do you do in this place? What
do you have here?"

   {18:4} He said to them, "Thus and thus has Micah dealt with me, and
he has hired me, and I am become his priest."

   {18:5} They said to him, "Please ask counsel of God, that we may
know whether our way which we go shall be prosperous."

   {18:6} The priest said to them, "Go in peace. Your way in which you
go is before Yahweh."

   {18:7} Then the five men departed, and came to Laish, and saw the
people who were therein, how they lived in security, in the way 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. {18:8} They came
to their brothers to Zorah and Eshtaol: and their brothers said to
them, "What do you say?"

   {18:9} They said, "Arise, and let us go up against them; for we have
seen the land, and behold, it is very good. Do you stand still? Don't
be slothful to go and to enter in to possess the land. {18:10} When you
go, you shall come to a secure people, 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."

   {18:11} 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.
{18:12} 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. {18:13} They passed there to the hill country
of Ephraim, and came to the house of Micah.

   {18:14} 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." {18:15} 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. {18:16} The
six hundred men girt with their weapons of war, who were of the
children of Dan, stood by the entrance of the gate. {18:17} 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.

   {18:18} 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 are you doing?"

   {18:19} They said to him, "Hold your peace, put 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?"

   {18:20} 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.
{18:21} So they turned and departed, and put the little ones and the
livestock and the goods before them. {18:22} 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. {18:23}
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?"

   {18:24} He said, "You have taken away my gods which I made, and the
priest, and have gone away, and what more do I have? How then do you
say to me, 'What ails you?'"

   {18:25} 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."

   {18:26} 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.
{18:27} 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. {18:28}
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. {18:29} 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. {18:30}
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. {18:31} So they set them up Micah's engraved image which he
made, all the time that God's house was in Shiloh.

   {19:1} It happened in those days, when there was no king in Israel,
that there was a certain Levite living on the farther side of the hill
country of Ephraim, who took to him a concubine out of Bethlehem Judah.
{19:2} 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. {19:3} 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.
{19:4} His father-in-law, the young lady's father, retained him; and he
stayed with him three days: so they ate and drink, and lodged there.

   {19:5} 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." {19:6} 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." {19:7} The man rose up to depart; but his father-in-law urged
him, and he lodged there again. {19:8} 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 both
ate.

   {19:9} 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 go on your way early, that you may go home."
{19:10} 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.

   {19:11} 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."

   {19:12} 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." {19:13} 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."
{19:14} So they passed on and went their way; and the sun went down on
them near to Gibeah, which belongs to Benjamin. {19:15} 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.

   {19:16} Behold, there came an old man from his work out of the field
at evening: now the man was of the hill country of Ephraim, and he
lived in Gibeah; but the men of the place were Benjamites. {19:17} He
lifted up his eyes, and saw the wayfaring man in the street of the
city; and the old man said, "Where are you going? Where did you come
from?"

   {19:18} He said to him, "We are passing from Bethlehem Judah to the
farther side of the hill country of Ephraim. I am from there, and I
went to Bethlehem Judah. I am going to the house of Yahweh; and there
is no man who takes me into his house. {19:19} 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."

   {19:20} The old man said, "Peace be to you; howsoever let all your
wants lie on me; only don't lodge in the street." {19:21} So he brought
him into his house, and gave the donkeys fodder; and they washed their
feet, and ate and drink. {19:22} As they were making their hearts
merry, behold, the men of the city, certain base fellows, surrounded
the house, beating at the door; and they spoke to the master of the
house, the old man, saying, "Bring out the man who came into your
house, that we may have sex with him!"

   {19:23} The man, the master of the house, went out to them, and said
to them, "No, my brothers, please don't act so wickedly; since this man
has come into my house, don't do this folly. {19:24} Behold, here is my
virgin daughter and his concubine. I will bring them out now. Humble
them, and do with them what seems good to you; but to this man don't do
any such folly."

   {19:25} But the men wouldn't listen to him: so the man laid hold of
his concubine, and brought her out to them; and they had sex with her,
and abused her all night until the morning: and when the day began to
dawn, they let her go. {19:26} 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. {19:27} 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.

   {19:28} He said to her, "Get up, and let us be going!" but no one
answered. Then he took her up on the donkey; and the man rose up, and
went to his place.

   {19:29} When he had 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. {19:30} 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."

   {20:1} 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. {20:2} 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. {20:3} (Now the children of Benjamin heard that the children of
Israel had gone up to Mizpah.) The children of Israel said, "Tell us,
how did this wickedness happen?"

   {20:4} 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. {20:5} The men of Gibeah rose against me, and
surrounded the house by night. They thought to have slain me, and they
forced my concubine, and she is dead. {20:6} 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. {20:7} Behold, you children of Israel, all of you, give here
your advice and counsel."

   {20:8} All the people arose as one man, saying, "None of us will go
to his tent, neither will any of us turn to his house. {20:9} But now
this is the thing which we will do to Gibeah: we will go up against it
by lot; {20:10} 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." {20:11} So all the men of Israel were gathered
against the city, knit together as one man.

   {20:12} The tribes of Israel sent men through all the tribe of
Benjamin, saying, "What wickedness is this that is happen among you?
{20:13} 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. {20:14} The children of Benjamin gathered
themselves together out of the cities to Gibeah, to go out to battle
against the children of Israel. {20:15} 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. {20:16} Among all this people there were seven
hundred chosen men left-handed; everyone could sling stones at a
hair-breadth, and not miss. {20:17} The men of Israel, besides
Benjamin, were numbered four hundred thousand men who drew sword: all
these were men of war.

   {20:18} 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 first."

   {20:19} The children of Israel rose up in the morning, and encamped
against Gibeah. {20:20} The men of Israel went out to battle against
Benjamin; and the men of Israel set the battle in array against them at
Gibeah. {20:21} 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. {20:22} 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. {20:23} The children of Israel
went up and wept before Yahweh until evening; 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."

   {20:24} The children of Israel came near against the children of
Benjamin the second day. {20:25} 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.

   {20:26} 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 evening; and they offered burnt offerings and
peace offerings before Yahweh. {20:27} The children of Israel asked of
Yahweh (for the ark of the covenant of God was there in those days,
{20:28} 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."

   {20:29} Israel set ambushes all around Gibeah. {20:30} 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. {20:31}
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.

   {20:32} 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."

   {20:33} 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. {20:34} There came
over against Gibeah ten thousand chosen men out of all Israel, and the
battle was severe; but they didn't know that evil was close on them.
{20:35} 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. {20:36} 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.
{20:37} The ambushers hurried, and rushed on Gibeah; and the ambushers
drew themselves along, and struck all the city with the edge of the
sword. {20:38} 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. {20:39} 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." {20:40} 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. {20:41} The
men of Israel turned, and the men of Benjamin were dismayed; for they
saw that evil had come on them. {20:42} 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 its midst. {20:43} They surrounded the Benjamites,
chased them, and trod them down at their resting place, as far as over
against Gibeah toward the sunrise. {20:44} There fell of Benjamin
eighteen thousand men; all these were men of valor. {20:45} 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. {20:46} So that all who
fell that day of Benjamin were twenty-five thousand men who drew the
sword; all these were men of valor. {20:47} But six hundred men turned
and fled toward the wilderness to the rock of Rimmon, and stayed in the
rock of Rimmon four months. {20:48} 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.

   {21:1} Now the men of Israel had sworn in Mizpah, saying, "There
shall not any of us give his daughter to Benjamin as wife." {21:2} The
people came to Bethel, and sat there until evening before God, and
lifted up their voices, and wept severely. {21:3} They said, "Yahweh,
the God of Israel, why has this happened in Israel, that there should
be today one tribe lacking in Israel?"

   {21:4} It happened on the next day that the people rose early, and
built there an altar, and offered burnt offerings and peace offerings.
{21:5} 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." {21:6} The children
of Israel grieved for Benjamin their brother, and said, "There is one
tribe cut off from Israel this day. {21:7} How shall we provide wives
for those who remain, since we have sworn by Yahweh that we will not
give them of our daughters to wives?" {21:8} 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.
{21:9} For when the people were numbered, behold, there were none of
the inhabitants of Jabesh Gilead there. {21:10} 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. {21:11} This is the
thing that you shall do: you shall utterly destroy every male, and
every woman who has lain with a man." {21:12} 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. {21:13} The whole congregation
sent and spoke to the children of Benjamin who were in the rock of
Rimmon, and proclaimed peace to them. {21:14} 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.
{21:15} The people grieved for Benjamin, because that Yahweh had made a
breach in the tribes of Israel. {21:16} Then the elders of the
congregation said, "How shall we provide wives for those who remain,
since the women are destroyed out of Benjamin?" {21:17} They said,
"There must be an inheritance for those who are escaped of Benjamin,
that a tribe not be blotted out from Israel. {21:18} However we may not
give them wives of our daughters, for the children of Israel had sworn,
saying, 'Cursed is he who gives a wife to Benjamin.'" {21:19} 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." {21:20}
They commanded the children of Benjamin, saying, "Go and lie in wait in
the vineyards, {21:21} and see, and behold, if the daughters of Shiloh
come out to dance in the dances, then come out of the vineyards, and
each man catch his wife of the daughters of Shiloh, and go to the land
of Benjamin. {21:22} 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, otherwise you would now be
guilty.'"

   {21:23} The children of Benjamin did so, and took them wives,
according to their number, of those who danced, whom they carried off.
They went and returned to their inheritance, built the cities, and
lived in them. {21:24} 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. {21:25} In those days there was no
king in Israel: every man did that which was right in his own eyes.





________________________________________________________________________

Footnotes:
[1] {1:1} "Yahweh" is God's proper Name, sometimes rendered "LORD" (all
caps) in other translations.

[2] {1:7} The Hebrew word rendered "God" is "Elohim."

[3] {6:15} The word translated "Lord" is "Adonai."

[4] {6:19} 1 ephah is about 22 litres or about 2/3 of a bushel

[5] {6:24} or, Yahweh Shalom

[6] {6:32} "Jerub-Baal" means "Let Baal contend."

[7] {11:16} or, Sea of Reeds

