Judges

1

¹ And after the death of Joshua, the children of Israel inquired of Jehovah, saying, Who will go up for us first against the Canaanites, in order to fight against them?
² And Jehovah said, Judah shall go up. I have now given the land into his hand.
³ And Judah said to Simeon his brother, Come up with me into my lot, and we will fight against the Canaanites; and I will go also with you into your lot. And Simeon went with him.
⁴ So Judah went up, and Jehovah gave the Canaanites and the Perizzites into their hand; and they struck ten thousand of their men in Bezek.
⁵ And they found Adoni-bezek in Bezek and fought with him; and they struck the Canaanites and the Perizzites.
⁶ And Adoni-bezek fled; and they pursued after him and caught him, and they cut off his thumbs and his big toes.
⁷ And Adoni-bezek said, Seventy kings with their thumbs and their big toes cut off gleaned scraps under my table. As I have done, so God has repaid me. And they brought him to Jerusalem, and he died there.
⁸ And the children of Judah fought against Jerusalem, and they took it and struck it with the edge of the sword; and they set the city on fire.
⁹ And afterward the children of Judah went down to fight against the Canaanites who inhabited the hill country and the Negev and the lowland.
¹⁰ Then Judah went against the Canaanites who dwelt in Hebron. (Now the name of Hebron was formerly Kiriath-arba.) And they struck Sheshai and Ahiman and Talmai.
¹¹ And he went up from there to the inhabitants of Debir. (Now the name of Debir was formerly Kiriath-sepher.)
¹² And Caleb said, Whoever strikes Kiriath-sepher and takes it, I will give to him Achsah my daughter as wife.
¹³ Then Othniel the son of Kenaz, Caleb’s younger brother, took it; and he gave him Achsah his daughter as wife.
¹⁴ And when she came to him, she urged him to ask her father for the field. And she alighted from her donkey, and Caleb said to her, What do you want?
¹⁵ And she said to him, Give me a blessing, for you have given me land in the Negev; give me also springs of water. So Caleb gave her the upper springs and the lower springs.
¹⁶ And the children of the Kenite, Moses’ father-in-law, went up from the city of palms with the children of Judah into the wilderness of Judah, which is to the south of Arad. And they went and dwelt with the people.
¹⁷ Then Judah went with Simeon his brother and struck the Canaanites who inhabited Zephath; and they utterly destroyed it. And they called the name of the city Hormah.
¹⁸ And Judah took Gaza and its territory and Ashkelon and its territory and Ekron and its territory.
¹⁹ And Jehovah was with Judah. And they took possession of the hill country, but they could not dispossess the inhabitants of the valley, for they had chariots of iron.
²⁰ And they gave Hebron to Caleb, as Moses had spoken; and he dispossessed the three sons of Anak from there.
²¹ But the Jebusites, who dwelt in Jerusalem, the children of Benjamin did not dispossess; thus the Jebusites dwell with the children of Benjamin in Jerusalem to this day.
²² And the house of Joseph, they also, went up against Bethel; and Jehovah was with them.
²³ And the house of Joseph spied out Bethel. (Now the name of the city was formerly Luz.)
²⁴ And those who watched saw a man coming out of the city; and they said to him, Show us now the entrance of the city, and we will show mercy to you.
²⁵ And he showed them the entrance of the city, and they struck the city with the edge of the sword; but they let the man and all his family go.
²⁶ And the man went into the land of the Hittites; and he built a city and called its name Luz, which is its name unto this day.
²⁷ And Manasseh did not dispossess Beth-shean with its towns or Taanach with its towns or the inhabitants of Dor with its towns or the inhabitants of Ibleam with its towns or the inhabitants of Megiddo with its towns, but the Canaanites persisted in dwelling in that land.
²⁸ And when Israel became strong, they made the Canaanites forced labor; but they did not utterly dispossess them.
²⁹ And Ephraim did not dispossess the Canaanites who dwelt in Gezer, but the Canaanites dwelt among them in Gezer.
³⁰ Zebulun did not dispossess the inhabitants of Kitron or the inhabitants of Nahalol, but the Canaanites dwelt among them and became forced labor.
³¹ Asher did not dispossess the inhabitants of Acco or the inhabitants of Sidon and Ahlab and Achzib and Helbah and Aphik and Rehob;
³² But the Asherites dwelt among the Canaanites who inhabited the land, for they did not dispossess them.
³³ Naphtali did not dispossess the inhabitants of Beth-shemesh or the inhabitants of Beth-anath; but they dwelt among the Canaanites who inhabited the land. Yet the inhabitants of Beth-shemesh and Beth-anath became forced labor for them.
³⁴ And the Amorites pushed the children of Dan into the hill country, for they would not allow them to come down into the valley.
³⁵ And the Amorites persisted in dwelling in Har-heres, in Aijalon, and in Shaalbim; but the hand of the house of Joseph prevailed so that they became forced labor.
³⁶ And the border of the Amorites was from the ascent of Akrabbim, from Sela and upward.

2

¹ Then the Angel of Jehovah went up from Gilgal to Bochim. And He said, I caused you to go up out from Egypt, and I brought you into the land that I swore to your fathers. And I said, I will never break My covenant with you,
² And you shall not make a covenant with the inhabitants of this land; you shall tear down their altars. But you did not listen to My voice. What is this that you have done?
³ Therefore I also said, I will not drive them out from before you; but they will be like thorns in your sides, and their gods will be a snare to you.
⁴ And when the Angel of Jehovah had spoken these words to all the children of Israel, the people lifted up their voice and wept.
⁵ And they called the name of that place Bochim. And they offered to Jehovah there.
⁶ Now when Joshua sent the people away, each of the children of Israel went to his own inheritance to possess the land.
⁷ And the people served Jehovah throughout all the days of Joshua and throughout all the days of the elders whose days extended after Joshua’s and who saw all the great work of Jehovah that He had done for Israel.
⁸ And Joshua the son of Nun, the servant of Jehovah, died at the age of one hundred and ten years.
⁹ And they buried him in the territory of his inheritance, in Timnath-heres, in the hill country of Ephraim, north of Mount Gaash.
¹⁰ And all that generation as well were gathered to their fathers; and another generation, who did not know Jehovah or the work that He had done for Israel, rose up after them.
¹¹ And the children of Israel did what was evil in the sight of Jehovah and served the Baals.
¹² And they forsook Jehovah, the God of their fathers, who brought them out from the land of Egypt; and they followed after other gods from among the gods of the peoples who surrounded them; and they worshipped them and provoked Jehovah to anger.
¹³ And they forsook Jehovah and served Baal and the Ashtaroth.
¹⁴ Then the anger of Jehovah burned against Israel, and He delivered them into the hands of plunderers; and they plundered them. And He sold them into the hand of their enemies around them, and they were no longer able to stand before their enemies.
¹⁵ Whenever they went out, the hand of Jehovah was against them for evil, as Jehovah had spoken and as Jehovah had sworn to them; and they were greatly distressed.
¹⁶ And Jehovah raised up judges, and they saved them out of the hands of those who plundered them.
¹⁷ Yet they did not listen to their judges either, but they went about as harlots after other gods and worshipped them. They turned aside quickly from the way in which their fathers walked, the way of obeying the commandments of Jehovah; this they did not do.
¹⁸ And when Jehovah raised up judges for them, Jehovah was with the judge, and He saved them from the hand of their enemies throughout all the days of the judge; for Jehovah would be moved to pity by their groaning because of those who oppressed them and crushed them.
¹⁹ But when the judge died, they turned and acted more corruptly than their fathers by following after other gods in order to serve them and worship them; they did not cease from any of their practices or from their stubborn way.
²⁰ And the anger of Jehovah burned against Israel; and He said, Because this nation has transgressed My covenant which I commanded their fathers and they do not listen to My voice,
²¹ I for My part will no longer dispossess from before them any of the nations that Joshua left when he died,
²² In order to test Israel through them as to whether or not they will keep the way of Jehovah by walking in it, as their fathers kept it.
²³ So Jehovah left these nations, not dispossessing them quickly, and did not deliver them into the hand of Joshua.

3

¹ And these are the nations that Jehovah left in order that through them He might test Israel (that is, all who had not known all the battles of Canaan),
² But only so that the generations of the children of Israel might learn to know war, at least those who had not previously known the battles:
³ The five lords of the Philistines and all the Canaanites and the Sidonians and the Hivites who dwelt on Mount Lebanon, from Mount Baal-hermon to the entrance of Hamath.
⁴ And they were for the testing of Israel, to know whether they would listen to the commandments of Jehovah, which He commanded their fathers through Moses.
⁵ And the children of Israel dwelt among the Canaanites, the Hittites and the Amorites and the Perizzites and the Hivites and the Jebusites.
⁶ And they took their daughters as their wives and gave their own daughters to their sons, and they served their gods.
⁷ And the children of Israel did that which was evil in the sight of Jehovah, and they forgot Jehovah their God and served the Baals and the Asherahs.
⁸ Therefore the anger of Jehovah burned against Israel, and He sold them into the hand of Cushan-rishathaim the king of Mesopotamia. And the children of Israel served Cushan-rishathaim eight years.
⁹ Then the children of Israel cried out to Jehovah, and Jehovah raised up a savior for the children of Israel, who saved them, that is, Othniel the son of Kenaz, Caleb’s younger brother.
¹⁰ And the Spirit of Jehovah came upon him, and he judged Israel. And he went out to battle, and Jehovah delivered Cushan-rishathaim the king of Aram into his hand; and his hand prevailed over Cushan-rishathaim.
¹¹ And the land had rest forty years. And Othniel the son of Kenaz died.
¹² Then the children of Israel again did that which was evil in the sight of Jehovah. And Jehovah strengthened Eglon the king of Moab against Israel because they did that which was evil in the sight of Jehovah.
¹³ And he gathered the children of Ammon and Amalek to himself and went and struck Israel, and they took possession of the city of palms.
¹⁴ And the children of Israel served Eglon the king of Moab eighteen years.
¹⁵ Then the children of Israel cried out to Jehovah, and Jehovah raised up a savior for them, that is, Ehud the son of Gera, the Benjaminite, a left-handed man. Now the children of Israel sent tribute to Eglon the king of Moab by him.
¹⁶ And Ehud made himself a dagger that had two edges, a cubit long. And he strapped it to his right thigh under his clothes.
¹⁷ And he presented the tribute to Eglon the king of Moab. (Now Eglon was a very fat man.)
¹⁸ And when he finished presenting the tribute, he sent away the people who carried the tribute.
¹⁹ But he himself returned from the sculptured idols at Gilgal and said, I have a secret message for you, O king. And he said, Hush. And all those who attended to him went out from him.
²⁰ And when Ehud came to him, he was sitting alone in his cool upper room. And Ehud said, I have a message from God for you. And he rose up from his seat.
²¹ And Ehud reached with his left hand and took the dagger from his right thigh, and he drove it into his belly.
²² And the hilt also went in, after the blade; and the fat closed over the blade, for he did not draw the dagger from his belly. And he went out into the courtyard.
²³ Then Ehud went out onto the porch, and he closed the doors of the upper room on Eglon and locked them.
²⁴ And when he had gone out, Eglon’s servants came and saw that the doors of the upper room were locked; and they said, He must be relieving himself in the cool chamber.
²⁵ And they waited until they were ashamed, but still he was not opening the doors of the upper room. Then they took the key and opened them. And there was their lord, fallen to the ground dead.
²⁶ And Ehud escaped while they delayed, and he passed by the sculptured idols and escaped to Seirah.
²⁷ And when he arrived, he blew the horn in the hill country of Ephraim; and the children of Israel came down with him from the hill country, and he was before them.
²⁸ And he said to them, Follow closely after me, for Jehovah has delivered your enemies the Moabites into your hand. And they went down after him and took the fords of the Jordan against the Moabites; and they let no man cross over.
²⁹ And they struck about ten thousand Moabites at that time, all stout and all valiant men; and no man escaped.
³⁰ So Moab was subdued that day under the hand of Israel. And the land had rest eighty years.
³¹ And after him there was Shamgar the son of Anath, who struck six hundred Philistines with an ox goad; and he also saved Israel.

4

¹ Then the children of Israel again did that which was evil in the sight of Jehovah after Ehud died.
² And Jehovah sold them into the hand of Jabin the king of Canaan, who reigned in Hazor. And the captain of his army was Sisera, who dwelt at Harosheth-hagoyim.
³ And the children of Israel cried out to Jehovah, for he had nine hundred iron chariots, and he oppressed the children of Israel severely twenty years.
⁴ Now Deborah was a prophetess, the wife of Lappidoth. She judged Israel at that time.
⁵ And she would sit under the palm of Deborah, between Ramah and Bethel in the hill country of Ephraim. And the children of Israel went up to her for judgment.
⁶ And she sent word and called to Barak the son of Abinoam from Kedesh-naphtali and said to him, Jehovah the God of Israel has indeed commanded: Go and deploy your forces on Mount Tabor; and take with you ten thousand men from the children of Naphtali and from the children of Zebulun.
⁷ And I will draw out Sisera, the captain of Jabin’s army, with his chariots and his throng, toward you at the river Kishon; and I will deliver him into your hand.
⁸ And Barak said to her, If you will go with me, I will go; but if you do not go with me, I will not go.
⁹ And she said, I will surely go with you. However there will be no glory for you on the journey you are taking, for Jehovah will sell Sisera into the hand of a woman. And Deborah rose up and went with Barak to Kedesh.
¹⁰ And Barak called Zebulun and Naphtali to Kedesh, and ten thousand men went up behind him; and Deborah went up with him.
¹¹ Now Heber the Kenite had separated himself from the Kenites, from the children of Hobab the father-in-law of Moses. And he pitched his tent at the terebinth in Zaanannim, which is near Kedesh.
¹² And they told Sisera that Barak the son of Abinoam went up to Mount Tabor.
¹³ And Sisera called all his chariots — nine hundred iron chariots — and all the people who were with him from Harosheth-hagoyim to the river Kishon.
¹⁴ And Deborah said to Barak, Rise up, for this is the day when Jehovah will deliver Sisera into your hand. Jehovah has indeed gone out before you. So Barak went down from Mount Tabor with ten thousand men after him.
¹⁵ And Jehovah threw Sisera and all his chariots and all his army into confusion with the edge of the sword before Barak, and Sisera got down from his chariot and fled on foot.
¹⁶ But Barak pursued after the chariots and the army as far as Harosheth-hagoyim. And all the army of Sisera fell by the edge of the sword; not even one was left.
¹⁷ Meanwhile, Sisera had fled on foot to the tent of Jael the wife of Heber the Kenite; for there had been peace between Jabin the king of Hazor and the house of Heber the Kenite.
¹⁸ And Jael went out to meet Sisera; and she said to him, Turn here, my lord; turn here to me; do not be afraid. So he turned to her into her tent, and she covered him with a rug.
¹⁹ And he said to her, Give me please a little water to drink, for I am thirsty. And she opened a skin of milk and gave him a drink; then she covered him.
²⁰ And he said to her, Stand at the entrance of the tent; and if anyone comes and asks you, saying, Is there a man here? you shall say, No.
²¹ Then Jael the wife of Heber took a tent peg and put a hammer in her hand and went quietly to him. And she drove the peg into his temple, and it pierced through to the ground; for he was sound asleep and exhausted. And he died.
²² And Barak was at that moment pursuing Sisera when Jael came out to meet him. And she said to him, Come, and I will show you the man you are seeking. And he went with her; and there was Sisera, fallen dead with the peg in his temple.
²³ So on that day God subdued Jabin the king of Canaan before the children of Israel.
²⁴ And the hand of the children of Israel became heavier and heavier upon Jabin the king of Canaan until they destroyed Jabin the king of Canaan.

5

¹ Then Deborah and Barak the son of Abinoam sang on that day, saying:
² That the leaders took the lead in Israel, / That the people have willingly offered themselves, / Bless Jehovah.
³ Hear, O kings; give ear, O princes! / I will sing; I, to Jehovah. / I will sing praise to Jehovah / The God of Israel.
⁴ O Jehovah, when You went forth from Seir, / When You marched from the field of Edom, / The earth trembled, the heavens also dripped, / Indeed the clouds dripped water.
⁵ The mountains quaked at the presence of Jehovah, / Sinai there, at the presence of Jehovah the God of Israel.
⁶ In the days of Shamgar the son of Anath, / In the days of Jael, the highways were not used; / And travelers went / On the roundabout paths.
⁷ The villages ceased to act; / They ceased in Israel; / Until I, Deborah, rose up; / Until I rose up as a mother in Israel.
⁸ They chose new gods; / Then there was war in their gates. / Was a shield or a spear seen / Among forty thousand in Israel?
⁹ My heart is with the commanders of Israel, / Those who offered themselves willingly among the people. / Bless Jehovah!
¹⁰ Tell of it, you who ride on white donkeys, / You who sit on rich carpets, / And you who go upon the way.
¹¹ Louder than the voice of those who distribute water among the watering places, / There they recount the righteous deeds of Jehovah, / His righteous acts toward His villages in Israel. / Then the people of Jehovah went down to the gates.
¹² Awake! Awake, Deborah! / Awake! Awake, speak forth a song! / Arise, Barak; / And lead captive your captives, son of Abinoam.
¹³ Then a remnant of the nobles went down; / The people of Jehovah went down with me against the mighty:
¹⁴ From Ephraim, those who took root in Amalek; / Following you, Benjamin, with your peoples; / From Machir commanders came down, / And from Zebulun those who wielded the staff of him who marshals.
¹⁵ And the princes in Issachar were with Deborah; / And Issachar was true to Barak; / Into the valley they were sent behind him. / Among the divisions of Reuben / There were great resolutions in heart.
¹⁶ Why did you sit among the sheepfolds / Listening to the pipings for the flocks? / In the divisions of Reuben / There were great searchings of heart.
¹⁷ Gilead stayed across the Jordan. / And as for Dan, why did he remain with the ships? / Asher sat at the shore of the sea / And stayed at his landings.
¹⁸ Zebulun was a people that despised their own lives even unto death; / And Naphtali, on the heights of the field.
¹⁹ The kings came; they fought. / At that time the kings of Canaan fought / In Taanach by the waters of Megiddo; / They took no gain of silver.
²⁰ From heaven the stars fought; / From their courses they fought with Sisera.
²¹ The river Kishon swept them away, / The ancient river, the river Kishon. / March on, O my soul, with strength!
²² At that time the horse hooves stamped / With the prancing, the prancing of their mighty steeds.
²³ Curse Meroz, says the Angel of Jehovah; / Bitterly curse its inhabitants. / For they did not come to the aid of Jehovah, / To the aid of Jehovah against the mighty.
²⁴ Blessed among women shall Jael be, / The wife of Heber the Kenite; / Blessed among the women in the tent shall she be.
²⁵ He asked for water; she gave him milk. / In a bowl for nobles she presented him with cream.
²⁶ She put her hand to the tent peg, / And her right hand to the workman’s hammer; / Then she struck Sisera; she smashed his head; / Indeed she shattered and pierced his temples.
²⁷ At her feet he bowed; he fell; he lay down. / At her feet he bowed; he fell. / Where he bowed, there he fell, destroyed.
²⁸ Through the window one looks forth and cries shrilly; / The mother of Sisera, through the lattice: / Why is his chariot so long in coming? / Why do the tracks of his chariots delay?
²⁹ The wisest of her ladies answer her, / And she herself returns an answer to herself:
³⁰ Have they not found and divided the spoil? / A girl, two girls, to each mighty man. / The spoil of dyed garments to Sisera, / The spoil of embroidered, dyed garments; / A dyed embroidery, two embroideries, / For the neck of the spoiler.
³¹ May all Your enemies so perish, O Jehovah. / But may those who love Him be like the sun / When it rises in its might. And the land had rest forty years.

6

¹ Then the children of Israel did that which was evil in the sight of Jehovah, and Jehovah delivered them into the hand of Midian for seven years.
² And the hand of Midian prevailed against Israel. Because of Midian the children of Israel made for themselves the dens which are in the mountains as well as the caves and the strongholds.
³ And whenever Israel sowed its seed, Midian rose up with Amalek and the children of the east, and went up against them.
⁴ And they encamped against them and destroyed the produce of the land until you come to Gaza, and they left no sustenance in Israel, or sheep or ox or donkey.
⁵ For they went up with their cattle and their tents and came in like a locust swarm in number; both they and their camels were without number. And they came into the land to destroy it.
⁶ And Israel was greatly impoverished because of Midian. And the children of Israel cried out to Jehovah.
⁷ And when the children of Israel cried out to Jehovah because of Midian,
⁸ Jehovah sent a man who was a prophet to the children of Israel. And he said to them, Thus says Jehovah the God of Israel, It was I who brought you up out of Egypt and brought you out from the slave house;
⁹ And I delivered you from the hand of the Egyptians and out of the hand of all who oppressed you. And I drove them out before you and gave you their land.
¹⁰ And I said to you, I am Jehovah your God; you shall not fear the gods of the Amorites, in whose land you dwell. But you did not listen to My voice.
¹¹ And the Angel of Jehovah came and sat under the terebinth that was in Ophrah, which belonged to Joash the Abiezrite, while Gideon his son was beating out the wheat in the winepress in order to hide it from the Midianites.
¹² And the Angel of Jehovah appeared to him and said to him, Jehovah is with you, valiant warrior.
¹³ And Gideon said to Him, Please, my lord, if Jehovah is with us, then why has all this happened to us? And where are all His wondrous deeds that our fathers recount to us, saying, Did not Jehovah bring us up out of Egypt? But now Jehovah has abandoned us and delivered us into the hand of Midian.
¹⁴ Then Jehovah turned to him and said, Go in this strength of yours, and save Israel from the hand of Midian. Indeed I have sent you.
¹⁵ And he said to Him, Please, Lord, by what way can I save Israel? My clan here is the poorest in Manasseh, and I am the least in my father’s house.
¹⁶ And Jehovah said to him, Surely I will be with you, and you will strike the Midianites as one man.
¹⁷ And he said to Him, If now I have found favor in Your sight, perform a sign for me that it is You who are speaking with me.
¹⁸ Do not depart from here until I come to You and bring my present and set it before You. And He said, I will remain until you return.
¹⁹ So Gideon went and prepared a kid and an ephah of flour in unleavened cakes. He put the flesh in a basket and put the broth in a pot, and he brought it out to Him under the terebinth. And he presented it.
²⁰ And the Angel of God said to him, Take the flesh and the unleavened cakes, and put them on this rock; and pour out the broth. And he did so.
²¹ And the Angel of Jehovah put forth the end of the staff that was in His hand and touched the flesh and the unleavened cakes. And fire came up from the rock and consumed the flesh and the unleavened cakes. And the Angel of Jehovah went from his sight.
²² And Gideon saw that He was the Angel of Jehovah. And Gideon said, Alas, O Lord Jehovah! For I have seen the Angel of Jehovah face to face.
²³ And Jehovah said to him, Peace be with you. Do not be afraid; you shall not die.
²⁴ Then Gideon built an altar there to Jehovah, and he called it Jehovah-shalom. To this day it is still in Ophrah of the Abiezrites.
²⁵ And that night Jehovah said to him, Take your father’s bull, that is, the second bull, seven years old; and tear down the altar of Baal that belongs to your father, and cut down the Asherah that is beside it.
²⁶ And build an altar to Jehovah your God upon the top of this stronghold in the ordered manner. Then take that second bull, and offer a burnt offering with the wood of the Asherah that you will cut down.
²⁷ So Gideon took ten men from among his servants and did as Jehovah had told him. But because he was too afraid of his father’s house and the men of the city to do it by day, he did it at night.
²⁸ And when the men of the city rose up early in the morning, there was the altar of Baal, broken down; and the Asherah beside it was cut down. And the second bull had been offered upon the altar that had been built.
²⁹ And they said to one another, Who has done this thing? And after they inquired and sought about, they said, Gideon the son of Joash has done this thing.
³⁰ Then the men of the city said to Joash, Bring out your son that he may die, for he has broken down the altar of Baal and cut down the Asherah beside it.
³¹ And Joash said to all who stood against him, Will you contend for Baal? Or will you save him? Whoever contends for him will be put to death while it is still morning. If he is a god, let him contend for himself; for his altar has been broken down.
³² Therefore on that day he named Gideon Jerubbaal, saying, Let Baal contend against him, for he has broken down his altar.
³³ Then all the Midianites and the Amalekites and the children of the east gathered together, and they crossed over and encamped in the valley of Jezreel.
³⁴ And the Spirit of Jehovah clothed Gideon; and he blew the trumpet, and the Abiezrites were called up behind him.
³⁵ And he sent messengers throughout all Manasseh, and they were also called up behind him. And he sent messengers throughout Asher and Zebulun and Naphtali, and they went up to meet them.
³⁶ And Gideon said to God, If indeed You will save Israel through my hand, as You have said,
³⁷ I am laying here a fleece of wool on the threshing floor: If there is dew on the fleece alone and it is dry on all the ground, I will know that You will save Israel through my hand, as You have said.
³⁸ And so it happened. When he rose up early the next morning and squeezed the fleece, he wrung dew from the fleece, a bowlful of water.
³⁹ Then Gideon said to God, May Your anger not burn against me, but allow me to speak only this one time. Allow me to make this test with the fleece only this one time. Let it be dry on the fleece only, and let there be dew on all the ground.
⁴⁰ And God did so that night, so that it was dry on the fleece only and there was dew on all the ground.

7

¹ Then Jerubbaal (that is, Gideon) and all the people who were with him rose early and encamped beside the spring of Harod. And the camp of Midian was to their north, by the hill of Moreh, in the valley.
² And Jehovah said to Gideon, The people with you are too many for Me to deliver Midian into their hand; Israel might vaunt himself against Me, saying, My own hand has saved me.
³ Now then proclaim in the hearing of the people, saying, Whoever is afraid and trembling should return and depart from here. And twenty-two thousand of the people returned, and ten thousand remained.
⁴ Then Jehovah said to Gideon, The people are still too many. Bring them down to the water, and I will test them for you there. And he of whom I say to you, This one shall go with you, he shall go with you. And every one of whom I say to you, This one shall not go with you, he shall not go.
⁵ So he brought the people down to the water. And Jehovah said to Gideon, Everyone who laps from the water with his tongue, as a dog laps, you shall set apart; likewise everyone who bows down on his knees to drink.
⁶ And the number of those who lapped the water into their mouth with their hand was three hundred men, but the rest of the people bowed down on their knees to drink water.
⁷ And Jehovah said to Gideon, Through the three hundred men who lapped I will save you, and I will deliver Midian into your hand. But let all the other people go, each to his own place.
⁸ Then the people took provisions in their hand and their trumpets; and he sent all the men of Israel away, each to his own tent, but retained the three hundred men. And the camp of Midian was below him in the valley.
⁹ And that night Jehovah said to him, Arise; go down against the camp, for I have delivered it into your hand.
¹⁰ But if you are afraid to go down, go down with Purah your young man into the camp;
¹¹ And you will hear what they are saying. Then afterward your hands will be strengthened so that you can go down against the camp. So he went down with Purah his young man to the edge of the battle array that was in the camp.
¹² Now the Midianites and the Amalekites and all the children of the east lay in the valley like a locust swarm in multitude; and their camels were without number, as the sand on the seashore is in multitude.
¹³ And when Gideon came, at that moment a man was recounting a dream to his companion; and he said, I have just had a dream. There was this round loaf of barley bread tumbling through the camp of Midian. And it came to the tent and struck it, so that it fell and turned upside down. And the tent collapsed.
¹⁴ And his companion answered and said, This is nothing else but the sword of Gideon the son of Joash, a man of Israel. God has delivered Midian and all the camp into his hand.
¹⁵ And when Gideon heard the account of the dream and its interpretation, he worshipped. And he returned to the camp of Israel and said, Arise, for Jehovah has delivered the camp of Midian into your hand.
¹⁶ And he divided the three hundred men into three companies; and he put trumpets into the hands of them all, as well as empty pitchers, with torches inside the pitchers.
¹⁷ And he said to them, Look at me, and do as I do. Right when I come to the edge of the camp, you shall do just as I do.
¹⁸ When I and all who are with me blow the trumpet, you also blow the trumpets around all the camp and say, For Jehovah and for Gideon!
¹⁹ So Gideon and the hundred men who were with him came to the edge of the camp at the beginning of the middle watch. They had just then posted the watch. And they blew the trumpets and broke the pitchers that were in their hands.
²⁰ And the three companies blew the trumpets and shattered the pitchers; and they held the torches in their left hands, and the trumpets were in their right hands to blow. And they cried out, A sword for Jehovah and for Gideon!
²¹ And each man stood in his place around the camp. Then the whole camp ran off, and they shouted and fled.
²² And they blew the three hundred trumpets, and Jehovah set each man’s sword against his companion and against the whole camp. And the camp fled as far as Beth-shittah toward Zererah, as far as the edge of Abel-meholah, by Tabbath.
²³ And the men of Israel were called up from Naphtali and from Asher and from all of Manasseh, and they pursued after Midian.
²⁴ Then Gideon sent messengers throughout all the hill country of Ephraim, saying, Come down against Midian, and seize the waters against them as far as Beth-barah and the Jordan. And every man of Ephraim was called up, and they seized the waters as far as Beth-barah and the Jordan.
²⁵ And they captured two princes of Midian, Oreb and Zeeb. And they slew Oreb at the rock of Oreb, and Zeeb they slew at the wine press of Zeeb; and they pursued Midian. And they brought the heads of Oreb and Zeeb to Gideon across the Jordan.

8

¹ Then the men of Ephraim said to him, Why have you done this thing to us, that you did not call us when you went to battle against Midian? And they contended with him sharply.
² And he said to them, What have I done now to compare with you? Are not the gleanings of the grapes of Ephraim better than the vintage of Abiezer?
³ It was into your hand that God gave the princes of Midian, Oreb and Zeeb. And what was I able to do in comparison with you? Then their hostile spirit toward him subsided when he said this word.
⁴ Then Gideon came to the Jordan and crossed over, he and the three hundred men with him, weary yet pursuing.
⁵ And he said to the men of Succoth, Please give us loaves of bread for the people behind me, for they are weary and I am pursuing after Zebah and Zalmunna, the kings of Midian.
⁶ But the princes of Succoth said, Are the hands of Zebah and Zalmunna in your hand now, that we should give bread to your army?
⁷ And Gideon said, Because of this, when Jehovah does deliver Zebah and Zalmunna into my hand, I will trample your flesh on the thorns of the wilderness and the briers.
⁸ Then he went up from 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.
⁹ And he spoke also to the men of Penuel, saying, When I return in peace, I will break down this tower.
¹⁰ Now Zebah and Zalmunna were in Karkor, and their camps were with them, about fifteen thousand men, all who were left of the entire camp of the children of the east; for there had fallen one hundred and twenty thousand men who drew the sword.
¹¹ And Gideon went up by way of the tent dwellers, east of Nobah and Jogbehah; and he struck the camp when the camp was off guard.
¹² And Zebah and Zalmunna fled, and he pursued after them. And he captured the two kings of Midian, Zebah and Zalmunna, and threw all the camp into confusion.
¹³ And when Gideon the son of Joash returned from battle from the ascent of Heres,
¹⁴ He captured a young man from among the men of Succoth and questioned him. And he wrote down for him the princes of Succoth and its elders, seventy-seven men.
¹⁵ Then he came to the men of Succoth and said, Here are Zebah and Zalmunna, concerning whom you taunted me, saying, Are the hands of Zebah and Zalmunna in your hand now, that we should give bread to your men who are weary?
¹⁶ And he took the elders of the city and the thorns of the wilderness and the briers, and with them he trampled the men of Succoth.
¹⁷ And he broke down the tower of Penuel and slew the men of the city.
¹⁸ Then he said to Zebah and Zalmunna, What were the men whom you slew in Tabor like? And they said, As you are, so were they. Each one was like the children of a king in form.
¹⁹ And he said, They were my brothers, the sons of my mother. As Jehovah lives, if you had kept them alive, I would not slay you.
²⁰ And he said to Jether his firstborn, Rise up; slay them. But the youth would not draw his sword, because he was fearful; for he was still a youth.
²¹ Then Zebah and Zalmunna said, You rise up, and fall on us; for there is as much strength as there is man. And Gideon rose up and slew Zebah and Zalmunna. And he took the crescents that were on their camels’ necks.
²² And the men of Israel said to Gideon, Rule over us, you and your son and your grandson as well; for you have saved us from the hand of Midian.
²³ But Gideon said to them, I will not rule over you, nor will my son rule over you. Jehovah will rule over you.
²⁴ And Gideon said to them, Let me make a request of you, that each of you give me an earring from his spoil. (The Midianites had golden earrings, for they were Ishmaelites.)
²⁵ And they said, We will willingly give it. And they spread out a garment, and each of them threw an earring from his spoil there.
²⁶ And the weight of the golden earrings that he requested was one thousand seven hundred shekels of gold. This was besides the crescents and the pendants and the purple garments that were upon the kings of Midian and besides the chains that were on their camels’ necks.
²⁷ And Gideon made an ephod with it and placed it in his city, in Ophrah. And all Israel went as harlots to it there, and it became a snare to Gideon and his house.
²⁸ So Midian was subdued before the children of Israel, and they lifted up their heads no more. And the land had rest forty years in the days of Gideon.
²⁹ Then Jerubbaal the son of Joash went and dwelt in his house.
³⁰ And Gideon had seventy sons, the issue of his loins, for he had many wives.
³¹ And his concubine who was in Shechem also bore him a son, and he named him Abimelech.
³² And Gideon the son of Joash died at a good old age, and he was buried in the tomb of Joash his father in Ophrah of the Abiezrites.
³³ And as soon as Gideon died, the children of Israel turned again and went as harlots after the Baals. And they made Baal-berith their god.
³⁴ And the children of Israel did not remember Jehovah their God, who had delivered them from the hand of all their enemies all around;
³⁵ Nor did they show mercy to the house of Jerubbaal, that is, Gideon, for all the good he had done to Israel.

9

¹ Then Abimelech the son of Jerubbaal went to Shechem to his mother’s brothers; and he spoke to them and to all the family of the house of his mother’s father, saying,
² Speak now in the hearing of all the lords of Shechem, What is better for you, that all the sons of Jerubbaal, seventy men, rule over you, or that one man rule over you? Now remember that I am your bone and your flesh.
³ And his mother’s brothers spoke of him in the hearing of all the lords of Shechem with all these words; and their heart inclined toward Abimelech, for they said, He is our brother.
⁴ And they gave him seventy pieces of silver from the house of Baal-berith. And with it Abimelech hired worthless and wanton men, and they followed after him.
⁵ And he went to his father’s house in Ophrah and slew his brothers, the sons of Jerubbaal, seventy men, on one stone; but Jotham, the youngest son of Jerubbaal, was left, for he hid himself.
⁶ Then all the lords of Shechem and all the house of Millo gathered, and they went and made Abimelech king at the terebinth of the pillar that was in Shechem.
⁷ And when Jotham was told, he went and stood on the top of Mount Gerizim and lifted up his voice and called out and said to them, Listen to me, you lords of Shechem, that God may listen to you.
⁸ The trees once went forth to anoint a king over themselves. And they said to the olive tree, Reign over us.
⁹ But the olive tree said to them, Shall I leave my fatness, because of which God and men are honored by me, and go to wave over the trees?
¹⁰ Then the trees said to the fig tree, You come and reign over us.
¹¹ But the fig tree said to them, Shall I leave my sweetness and my good fruit, and go to wave over the trees?
¹² Then the trees said to the vine, You come and reign over us.
¹³ But the vine said to them, Shall I leave my new wine, which cheers God and men, and go to wave over the trees?
¹⁴ So all the trees said to the bramble, You come and reign over us.
¹⁵ And the bramble said to the trees, If you are truly anointing me as king over you, come and take refuge under my shade; but if not, may fire come forth from the bramble and devour the cedars of Lebanon!
¹⁶ Now therefore if you have dealt truly and with integrity in making Abimelech king, and if you have dealt in a good way toward Jerubbaal and toward his house, and if you have dealt with him as his hands have deserved —
¹⁷ (For my father fought for you and risked his life, and he delivered you from the hand of Midian.
¹⁸ But you have risen up today against the house of my father and have slain his sons, seventy men, on one stone; and you have made Abimelech the son of his female servant king over the lords of Shechem, for he is your brother.)
¹⁹ Now if you have dealt truly and with integrity toward Jerubbaal and toward his house today, then rejoice in Abimelech, and let him also rejoice in you.
²⁰ But if not, may fire come forth from Abimelech and devour the lords of Shechem and the house of Millo, and may fire come forth from the lords of Shechem and the house of Millo and devour Abimelech!
²¹ And Jotham ran off and fled, and he came to Beer and remained there because of Abimelech his brother.
²² And Abimelech was prince over Israel three years.
²³ And God sent an evil spirit between Abimelech and the lords of Shechem, and the lords of Shechem dealt treacherously with Abimelech,
²⁴ So that the violence done to the seventy sons of Jerubbaal might be avenged and so that their blood might be put upon Abimelech their brother, who slew them, and upon the lords of Shechem, who strengthened his hands to slay his brothers.
²⁵ And the lords of Shechem set men in ambush for him on the tops of the mountains, and they robbed everyone who passed by them on the way; and Abimelech was told.
²⁶ And Gaal the son of Ebed came with his brothers and went over to Shechem, and the lords of Shechem put their trust in him.
²⁷ And they went out into the field and gathered the grapes of their vineyards and trod them, and had a festival. And they went to the house of their god and ate and drank, and they cursed Abimelech.
²⁸ And Gaal the son of Ebed said, Who is Abimelech and who are we of Shechem, that we should serve him? Is he not the son of Jerubbaal, and is not Zebul his officer? Serve the men of Hamor, the father of Shechem; but why should we serve this man?
²⁹ But, oh, that this people were put in my hand; then I would remove Abimelech. And he said of Abimelech, Increase your army and come out!
³⁰ When Zebul the ruler of the city heard the words of Gaal the son of Ebed, his anger burned.
³¹ And he sent messengers to Abimelech in Tormah, saying, Gaal the son of Ebed and his brothers have now come to Shechem, and now they are stirring up the city against you.
³² And now rise up at night, you and the people with you, and wait in ambush in the field;
³³ And in the morning, as soon as the sun rises, you shall rise up early and rush on the city. And right when he and the people with him come out against you, you shall do with him as you find occasion.
³⁴ And Abimelech and all the people with him rose up at night and waited in ambush against Shechem in four companies.
³⁵ And Gaal the son of Ebed went out and stood in the entrance of the gate of the city. And Abimelech and the people with him rose up from the ambush.
³⁶ And when Gaal saw the people, he said to Zebul, Look, people are coming down from the tops of the mountains. But Zebul said to him, You are seeing the shadow of the mountains as though they were men.
³⁷ And Gaal spoke again and said, Look, people are coming down from the height of the land, and one company is coming by the way of the terebinth of Meonenim.
³⁸ Then Zebul said to him, Where is your boast now, that you said, Who is Abimelech that we should serve him? Is not this the people that you despised? Go out now, and fight them.
³⁹ So Gaal went out before the lords of Shechem and fought with Abimelech.
⁴⁰ And Abimelech pursued him, and Gaal fled from before him. And many wounded fell, up to the entrance of the gate.
⁴¹ And Abimelech dwelt in Arumah. And Zebul drove out Gaal and his brothers, so that they could not dwell in Shechem.
⁴² Then on the next day the people went out into the field, and Abimelech was told.
⁴³ And he took his people and divided them into three companies, and he waited in ambush in the field. And he looked, and there were the people coming out of the city. And he rose up against them and struck them.
⁴⁴ And Abimelech and the companies that were with him rushed forward and stood at the entrance of the gate of the city, and two companies rushed upon all those who were in the field and struck them.
⁴⁵ And Abimelech fought against the city all that day. And he took the city, and the people who were in it he slew; and he tore down the city and sowed it with salt.
⁴⁶ And when the lords of the tower of Shechem heard of it, they went to the stronghold of the house of El-berith.
⁴⁷ And Abimelech was told that all the lords of the tower of Shechem had gathered together.
⁴⁸ And Abimelech went up to Mount Zalmon, he and all the people who were with him. And Abimelech took an ax in his hand and cut down a tree limb. And he lifted it up and put it on his shoulder, and he said to the people who were with him, What you see me doing, hurry and do as I have done.
⁴⁹ So all the people also cut down each a limb. And they followed after Abimelech and set the limbs against the stronghold. And they set the stronghold on fire over them, so that all the men of the tower of Shechem also died, about a thousand men and women.
⁵⁰ Then Abimelech went to Thebez; and he encamped against Thebez and took it.
⁵¹ But there was a strong tower in the middle of the city; and all the men and women and all the lords of the city fled there and shut themselves in; and they went up to the roof of the tower.
⁵² And Abimelech came up to the tower and fought against it. And he came near the entrance of the tower to burn it with fire.
⁵³ And a certain woman threw an upper millstone upon Abimelech’s head, and it cracked his skull.
⁵⁴ Then he called immediately to the young man who bore his armor and said to him, Draw your sword and kill me; otherwise they will say concerning me, A woman slew him. And his young man pierced him through, and he died.
⁵⁵ And when the men of Israel saw that Abimelech was dead, they went away, each to his own place.
⁵⁶ And God repaid the evil of Abimelech, which he had done to his father by slaying his seventy brothers.
⁵⁷ And God brought all the evil of the men of Shechem back upon their own heads, and the curse of Jotham the son of Jerubbaal came upon them.

10

¹ And after Abimelech Tola the son of Puah, the son of Dodo, a man of Issachar, rose up to save Israel; and he dwelt in Shamir in the hill country of Ephraim.
² And he judged Israel twenty-three years, and he died and was buried in Shamir.
³ And after him Jair the Gileadite rose up and judged Israel twenty-two years.
⁴ And he had thirty sons, who rode on thirty donkeys; and they had thirty cities (they are called Havvoth-jair to this day), which were in the land of Gilead.
⁵ And Jair died and was buried in Kamon.
⁶ Then the children of Israel again did that which was evil in the sight of Jehovah. And they served the Baals and the Ashtaroth and the gods of Aram 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 Jehovah and did not serve Him.
⁷ And the anger of Jehovah burned against Israel, and He sold them into the hand of the Philistines and into the hand of the children of Ammon.
⁸ And they oppressed and crushed the children of Israel that year. For eighteen years they oppressed all the children of Israel who were across the Jordan in the land of the Amorites, which is in Gilead.
⁹ And the children of Ammon crossed over the Jordan to fight also against Judah and Benjamin and the house of Ephraim; and Israel was greatly distressed.
¹⁰ Then the children of Israel cried out to Jehovah, saying, We have sinned against You, for we have forsaken our God and have served the Baals.
¹¹ And Jehovah said to the children of Israel, Did I not save you from the Egyptians and from the Amorites and from the children of Ammon and from the Philistines?
¹² And the Sidonians and Amalek and Maon oppressed you; and you cried out to Me, and I saved you from their hand.
¹³ But you forsook Me and served other gods; therefore I will not save you again.
¹⁴ Go and cry out to the gods that you have chosen. Let them save you in the time of your distress.
¹⁵ But the children of Israel said to Jehovah, We have sinned. You do with us according to all that is good in Your sight. Only deliver us this day, we pray.
¹⁶ And they removed the foreign gods from their midst and served Jehovah. And His soul could no longer bear Israel’s misery.
¹⁷ Then the children of Ammon gathered together and encamped in Gilead, and the children of Israel assembled together and encamped in Mizpah.
¹⁸ And the people, that is, the princes of Gilead, said each to his companion, Who is the man 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 harlot, and Gilead had begotten Jephthah.
² And Gilead’s wife bore him sons. And when the woman’s sons grew up, they drove Jephthah out and said to him, You shall not have an inheritance in the house of our father, for you are the son of some other woman.
³ So Jephthah fled from his brothers and dwelt in the land of Tob. And worthless men collected around Jephthah, and they went out with him.
⁴ And after some time the children of Ammon fought with Israel.
⁵ And when the children of Ammon fought with Israel, the elders of Gilead went to get Jephthah from the land of Tob.
⁶ And they said to Jephthah, Come and be our chief, and we will fight against the children of Ammon.
⁷ And Jephthah said to the elders of Gilead, Are you not the ones who hated me and drove me out from the house of my father? Why then do you come to me now that you are in distress?
⁸ And the elders of Gilead said to Jephthah, This is the reason we have turned now to you, that you would come with us and fight against the children of Ammon and be for us the head of all the inhabitants of Gilead.
⁹ And Jephthah said to the elders of Gilead, If you are bringing me back to fight against the children of Ammon and Jehovah delivers them up before me, will I be your head?
¹⁰ And the elders of Gilead said to Jephthah, Let Jehovah be a Witness between us: As you have spoken, so shall we surely do.
¹¹ So Jephthah went with the elders of Gilead, and the people made him head and chief over them. And Jephthah spoke all his words before Jehovah in Mizpah.
¹² And Jephthah sent messengers to the king of the children of Ammon, saying, What is there between me and you, that you have come to me to fight against my land?
¹³ And the king of the children of Ammon said to Jephthah’s messengers, Because Israel took my land when they came up from Egypt, from the Arnon as far as Jabbok and the Jordan. Now therefore restore it peacefully.
¹⁴ And Jephthah yet again sent messengers to the king of the children of Ammon.
¹⁵ And he said to him, Thus says Jephthah, Israel did not take the land of Moab nor the land of the children of Ammon.
¹⁶ But when they came up from Egypt, and Israel went through the wilderness to the Red Sea and came to Kadesh,
¹⁷ Israel sent messengers to the king of Edom, saying, May we please pass through your land? But the king of Edom would not hear of it. And they also sent messengers to the king of Moab, but he would not allow it. So Israel remained in Kadesh.
¹⁸ And they went through the wilderness and went around the land of Edom and the land of Moab; and they went to the east of the land of Moab and encamped beyond the Arnon. Thus they did not go through the territory of Moab, for the Arnon is the border of Moab.
¹⁹ Then Israel sent messengers to Sihon the king of the Amorites, the king of Heshbon, and Israel said to him, May we please pass through your land to our place?
²⁰ But Sihon did not trust Israel to cross through his territory. So Sihon gathered all his people together and encamped in Jahaz; and he fought with Israel.
²¹ And Jehovah the God of Israel, delivered Sihon and all his people into the hand of Israel, and they struck them. And Israel took possession of all the land of the Amorites, the inhabitants of that land.
²² And they took possession of all the territory of the Amorites, from the Arnon as far as Jabbok and from the wilderness to the Jordan.
²³ So now Jehovah the God of Israel has dispossessed the Amorites for the sake of His people Israel. Should you then dispossess them?
²⁴ Will you not take possession of that which Chemosh your god has dispossessed for you? Thus we will take possession of all that Jehovah our God dispossesses for our sake.
²⁵ And now are you any better than Balak the son of Zippor, the king of Moab? Did he ever strive with Israel, or did he ever fight against them?
²⁶ While Israel dwelt in Heshbon and its towns, and in Aroer and its towns, and in all the cities that are along the Arnon, three hundred years, why did you not recover them within that time?
²⁷ So I have not sinned against you, but you do me wrong in fighting against me. Jehovah the Judge will judge today between the children of Israel and the children of Ammon.
²⁸ But the king of the children of Ammon would not listen to the words of Jephthah, which he sent him.
²⁹ And the Spirit of Jehovah came upon Jephthah. And he passed through Gilead and through Manasseh; and he passed on to Mizpeh of Gilead, and from Mizpeh of Gilead he passed on to the children of Ammon.
³⁰ And Jephthah made a vow to Jehovah, and he said, If You will really deliver the children of Ammon into my hand,
³¹ Whoever comes out through the doors of my house to meet me when I return in peace from the children of Ammon will be Jehovah’s, and I will offer him up as a burnt offering.
³² And Jephthah passed on to the children of Ammon to fight against them, and Jehovah delivered them into his hand.
³³ And he struck them from Aroer until you come to Minnith, twenty cities, and to Abel-keramim, with a very great stroke. So the children of Ammon were subdued before the children of Israel.
³⁴ Then Jephthah came to his house at Mizpah, and there came his daughter out to meet him, with timbrels and with dances. Now she was an only child; he had no son or daughter besides her.
³⁵ And when he saw her, he tore his clothes and said, Ah, my daughter! You have brought me very low, and you are among those who trouble me. For I have opened my mouth to Jehovah, and I cannot retract it.
³⁶ And she said to him, My father, you have opened your mouth to Jehovah; do with me according to what has gone forth from your mouth, seeing that Jehovah has executed vengeance for you on your enemies, on the children of Ammon.
³⁷ And she said to her father, Let this thing be done for me: Let me be alone for two months that I may depart and descend upon the mountains, and bewail my virginity, I and my companions.
³⁸ And he said, Go; and he sent her away for two months. And she departed, she and her companions, and bewailed her virginity upon the mountains.
³⁹ And at the end of two months she returned to her father, and he did with her according to the vow that he had vowed; and she had never known a man. And it became a custom in Israel
⁴⁰ That each year the daughters of Israel would go to lament the daughter of Jephthah the Gileadite, four days in the year.

12

¹ Then the men of Ephraim were gathered together, and they crossed over to Zaphon and said to Jephthah, Why did you cross over to fight against the children of Ammon and not call us to go with you? We will burn your house down over you.
² And Jephthah said to them, I and my people were in great strife with the children of Ammon; but when I called out to you, you did not save me from their hand.
³ So when I saw that there would be no help from you, I put my life in my own hand and crossed over to the children of Ammon; and Jehovah delivered them into my hand. So why have you come up against me this day to fight against me?
⁴ And Jephthah gathered all the men of Gilead together and fought with Ephraim. And the men of Gilead struck Ephraim because they said, You are fugitives from Ephraim, O Gilead, in the midst of Ephraim and Manasseh.
⁵ And the Gileadites took the fords of the Jordan against the Ephraimites. And when a fugitive of Ephraim said, Let me cross over, the men of Gilead would say to him, Are you an Ephraimite? And if he said, No,
⁶ They would say to him, Then say, Shibboleth. And he would say, Sibboleth; for he could not say it correctly. Then they would seize him and slay him at the fords of the Jordan. And at that time forty-two thousand of Ephraim fell.
⁷ And Jephthah judged Israel six years. And Jephthah the Gileadite died and was buried in one of the cities of Gilead.
⁸ Then after him Ibzan of Bethlehem judged Israel.
⁹ And he had thirty sons; and he sent out thirty daughters abroad and brought in thirty foreign daughters from abroad for his sons. And he judged Israel seven years.
¹⁰ And Ibzan died and was buried in Bethlehem.
¹¹ Then after him Elon the Zebulunite judged Israel. And he judged Israel ten years.
¹² And Elon the Zebulunite died and was buried in Aijalon in the land of Zebulun.
¹³ Then after him Abdon the son of Hillel the Pirathonite judged Israel.
¹⁴ And he had forty sons and thirty grandsons, who rode upon seventy donkeys. And he judged Israel eight years.
¹⁵ And 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 Then the children of Israel again did that which was evil in the sight of Jehovah, and Jehovah delivered them into the hand of the Philistines forty years.
² And there was a certain man from Zorah, of the family of the Danites, whose name was Manoah; and his wife was barren and had borne no children.
³ And the Angel of Jehovah appeared to the woman and said to her, Now you are barren and have borne no children; but you will conceive and bear a son.
⁴ And now be careful not to drink wine or strong drink nor to eat anything unclean;
⁵ For you shall conceive and bear a son. And no razor shall come upon his head, for the boy will be a Nazarite to God from the womb; and he will begin to save Israel from the hand of the Philistines.
⁶ Then the woman came and told her husband, saying, A man of God came to me; and His appearance was like the appearance of an angel of God, very awesome. And I did not ask Him where He was from, nor did He tell me His name;
⁷ But He said to me, You shall conceive and bear a son. And now do not drink wine or strong drink, nor eat anything unclean; for the boy will be a Nazarite to God from the womb until the day of his death.
⁸ Then Manoah entreated Jehovah and said, Oh, my Lord! Let the man of God, whom You sent, come again to us, I pray; and let Him teach us what we should do with the boy that is to be born.
⁹ And God hearkened to the voice of Manoah; and the Angel of God came again to the woman while she was sitting in the field, but Manoah her husband was not with her.
¹⁰ And the woman hurried and ran off; and she told her husband and said to him, The man who came to me that day has just appeared to me.
¹¹ And Manoah rose up and followed his wife and came to the man. And he said to Him, Are You the man who spoke to this woman? And He said, I am.
¹² And Manoah said, Now when Your words come to pass, what rule shall the boy follow, and what shall he do?
¹³ And the Angel of Jehovah said to Manoah, Observe all that I spoke to this woman.
¹⁴ She is not to eat of anything that comes forth from the grapevine, nor is she to drink wine or strong drink, nor is she to eat anything unclean; she shall observe all that I commanded her.
¹⁵ And Manoah said to the Angel of Jehovah, Let us detain You, we pray, that we may prepare a kid for You.
¹⁶ And the Angel of Jehovah said to Manoah, If you detain Me, I will not eat your food; but if you prepare a burnt offering, offer it up to Jehovah. For Manoah did not know that He was the Angel of Jehovah.
¹⁷ Then Manoah said to the Angel of Jehovah, What is Your name, so that when Your words come to pass, we may honor You?
¹⁸ And the Angel of Jehovah said to him, Why do you ask about My name, since it is wonderful?
¹⁹ And Manoah took the kid with the meal offering and offered it up upon the rock to Jehovah; and He acted wondrously, while Manoah and his wife looked on.
²⁰ And when the flame went up from the altar to heaven, the Angel of Jehovah went up in the flame of the altar, while Manoah and his wife looked on; and they fell on their faces to the ground.
²¹ And the Angel of Jehovah did not appear again to Manoah and his wife. Then Manoah knew that He was the Angel of Jehovah.
²² And Manoah said to his wife, We will surely die, for we have seen God.
²³ But his wife said to him, If Jehovah had been pleased to kill us, He would not have taken a burnt offering and a meal offering from our hand, nor would He have shown us all these things or let us hear a thing like this at this time.
²⁴ And the woman bore a son, and she called his name Samson. And the boy grew up, and Jehovah blessed him.
²⁵ And the Spirit of Jehovah began to move him at Mahaneh-dan, between Zorah and Eshtaol.

14

¹ And Samson went down to Timnah, and he saw a woman in Timnah from the daughters of the Philistines.
² And he went up and told his father and mother and said, I have seen a woman in Timnah from the daughters of the Philistines. Now therefore get her for me as a wife.
³ But his father and mother said to him, Is there no woman among the daughters of your brothers or among all my people, that you must go and get a woman of the uncircumcised Philistines? And Samson said to his father, Get her for me, for she pleases me.
⁴ But his father and mother did not know this was of Jehovah, for He was looking for an opportunity against the Philistines. Now at that time the Philistines ruled over Israel.
⁵ So Samson went down with his father and mother to Timnah. And as they came to the vineyards of Timnah, suddenly a young lion roared against him.
⁶ And the Spirit of Jehovah rushed upon him, and he tore it apart as one might tear a kid apart with his bare hands. And he did not tell his father and mother what he had done.
⁷ And he went down and spoke to the woman, and she pleased Samson.
⁸ Then after some time, while he was returning to get her, he turned aside to see the carcass of the lion. And there it was, with a swarm of bees in the lion’s body, and honey.
⁹ And he scraped it out into his hands and went away, eating it as he went. And he came to his father and mother and gave them some, and they ate it; but he did not tell them that he had scraped the honey from the body of the lion.
¹⁰ And his father went down to the woman; and Samson held a feast there, for so the young men used to do.
¹¹ And when they saw him, they brought thirty companions to be with him.
¹² And Samson said to them, Let me now put forth a riddle to you. If you fully explain it to me within the seven days of the feast and find it out, I will give you thirty fine linen garments and thirty changes of clothing;
¹³ But if you cannot explain it to me, you shall give me thirty fine linen garments and thirty changes of clothing. And they said to him, Put forth your riddle, let us hear it.
¹⁴ And he said to them, / Out of the eater came forth food, / And out of the strong came forth sweetness.And they could not explain the riddle after three days.
¹⁵ Then on the fourth day they said to Samson’s wife, Entice your husband to explain the riddle to us; otherwise we will burn you and your father’s house with fire. Have you invited us here in order to impoverish us? Is it not so?
¹⁶ So Samson’s wife wept before him and said, You only hate me, and you do not love me: You have put forth a riddle to the children of my people, but you have not explained it to me. And he said to her, Look, I have not explained it to my own father and mother. Should I then explain it to you?
¹⁷ And she wept before him the rest of the seven days that they had the feast. But on the seventh day he explained it to her, for she pressed him. Then she explained the riddle to the children of her people.
¹⁸ And the men of the city said to him on the seventh day before sunset,What is sweeter than honey, / And what is stronger than a lion?And he said to them,If you had not plowed with my heifer, / You would not have found out my riddle.
¹⁹ Then the Spirit of Jehovah rushed upon him; and he went down to Ashkelon and struck thirty men among them; and he took their clothing and gave the changes of clothing to those who had explained the riddle. And his anger burned, and he went up to his father’s house.
²⁰ And Samson’s wife was given to his best man, who had been his friend.

15

¹ Then after some time, during the days of the wheat harvest, Samson visited his wife with a kid. And he said, Let me go into the chamber to my wife; but her father would not allow him to go in.
² And her father said, I surely thought that you utterly hated her, so I gave her to your best man. Is not her younger sister better than she? Let her be yours instead of her.
³ Then Samson said to them, This time I will be blameless with regard to the Philistines when I do them harm.
⁴ And Samson went and caught three hundred foxes; and he took torches and turned the foxes tail to tail and put one torch in between every two tails.
⁵ Then he set the torches on fire and sent the foxes into the Philistines’ standing grain and burned up the shocks and the standing grain as well as the vineyards and the olive groves.
⁶ And the Philistines said, Who has done this? And they said, Samson, the son-in-law of the Timnite, because he took his wife and gave her to his best man. And the Philistines went up and burned her and her father with fire.
⁷ And Samson said to them, If this is how you act, I will surely take revenge on you, and then I will stop.
⁸ And he struck them hip and thigh, a great slaughter. And he went down and dwelt in the cleft of the rock of Etam.
⁹ And the Philistines rose up and encamped in Judah, and they spread out against Lehi.
¹⁰ And the men of Judah said, Why have you come up against us? And they said, We have come up to bind Samson, so that we can do to him as he has done to us.
¹¹ Then three thousand men of Judah went down to the cleft of the rock of Etam; and they said to Samson, Do you not know that the Philistines rule over us? Then what is this that you have done to us? And he said to them, As they have done to me, so I have done to them.
¹² And they said to him, We have come down to bind you up so that we can deliver you into the hand of the Philistines. And Samson said to them, Swear to me that you will not fall upon me yourselves.
¹³ And they spoke to him, saying, No, we will only bind you and deliver you into their hand, but we certainly will not put you to death. And they bound him with two new ropes and brought him up from the rock.
¹⁴ When he came into Lehi, the Philistines came shouting to meet him. And the Spirit of Jehovah rushed upon him, and the ropes that were on his arms became like flax when it burns in fire; and his bonds melted from off his hands.
¹⁵ And he found a fresh jawbone of an ass; and he stretched out his hand and took it, and struck a thousand men with it.
¹⁶ And Samson said, / With the jawbone of an ass, / A heap upon a double heap; / With the jawbone of an ass, / I have struck a thousand men dead.
¹⁷ And when he finished speaking, he cast the jawbone from his hand; and he called that place Ramath-lehi.
¹⁸ And he was very thirsty, and he called on Jehovah, saying, You have granted this great victory by the hand of Your servant. And will I now die of thirst and fall into the hand of the uncircumcised?
¹⁹ But God broke open the hollow place that is in Lehi, and water came forth from it. And when he drank, his spirit returned and he was revived; therefore he called the name of that place En-hakkore, which is in Lehi to this day.
²⁰ And he judged Israel in the days of the Philistines twenty years.

16

¹ And Samson went down to Gaza; and there he saw a harlot and went in unto her.
² And this was told to the Gazites, saying, Samson has come here. So they surrounded him and set an ambush for him all night long in the gate of the city. And they were quiet all night long, saying among themselves, We will stay here until the light of morning; then we will slay him.
³ But Samson lay only until midnight; then he rose at midnight and grasped the doors of the gate of the city and the two posts, and he plucked them up along with the bar; and he put them on his shoulders and brought them up to the top of the mountain that is in front of Hebron.
⁴ Then after this he fell in love with a woman in the valley of Sorek, whose name was Delilah.
⁵ And the lords of the Philistines came to her; and they said to her, Entice him, and find out how it is that his strength is so great, and how we can prevail against him and bind him so that we may afflict him; and we each will give you eleven hundred pieces of silver.
⁶ So Delilah said to Samson, Tell me please, How is it that your strength is so great, and how could you be bound so that you could be afflicted?
⁷ And Samson said to her, If they bind me with seven new cords that are not dried out, I will become weak and be like any other man.
⁸ So the lords of the Philistines brought up to her seven new cords that were not dried out, and she bound him with them.
⁹ And there was an ambush staying with her in the inner chamber; and she said to him, The Philistines are upon you, Samson! And he snapped the cords, as when a strand of tow is snapped when it touches fire. So his strength was not known.
¹⁰ Then Delilah said to Samson, You have just mocked me and told me lies; now tell me please, How can you be bound?
¹¹ And he said to her, If they bind me up with new ropes with which no work has been done, I will become weak and be like any other man.
¹² So Delilah took new ropes and bound him with them; and she said to him, The Philistines are upon you, Samson! And there was an ambush staying in the inner chamber. But he broke them off his arms like a thread.
¹³ Then Delilah said to Samson, Until now you have mocked me and told me lies; tell me how you can be bound. And he said to her, If you weave the seven locks of my head with the web and fasten them with the pin onto the wall, I will become weak and be like any other man.
¹⁴ So while he slept, Delilah took the seven locks of his head and wove them into the web; and she fastened them with the pin. Then she said to him, The Philistines are upon you, Samson! And he awoke from his sleep and plucked up the pin of the loom and the web.
¹⁵ Then she said to him, How can you say, I love you, when your heart is not with me? These three times you have mocked me and have not told me how it is that your strength is so great.
¹⁶ And after she pressed him with her words every day and urged him, his soul was tired to death.
¹⁷ And he told her all his heart and said to her, No razor has ever come upon my head, for I have been a Nazarite to God from my mother’s womb. If I were shaved, my strength would leave me, and I would become weak and be like all men.
¹⁸ And when Delilah saw that he had told her all his heart, she sent word and called for the lords of the Philistines, saying, Come up once more, for he has told me all his heart. And the lords of the Philistines came up to her, and they brought the silver in their hand.
¹⁹ And she put him to sleep in her lap and called for a man; and she had him shave off the seven locks of his head. And she began to afflict him, and his strength left him.
²⁰ Then she said, The Philistines are upon you, Samson! And he awoke from his sleep and said, I will go out as at other times and shake myself free. But he did not know that Jehovah had left him.
²¹ And the Philistines grabbed him and gouged out his eyes. And they took him down to Gaza and bound him with bronze fetters; and he ground at the mill in the prison house.
²² But the hair on his head began to grow back after it had been shaved off.
²³ And the lords of the Philistines gathered to offer a great sacrifice to Dagon their god and to rejoice. And they said, Our god has delivered Samson our enemy into our hand.
²⁴ And when the people saw him they praised their god, for they said, Our god has delivered our enemy into our hand, even him who desolated our land, who slew many of us.
²⁵ And when their hearts were merry, they said, Call for Samson, that he may entertain us. So they called for Samson from the prison house, and he performed before them. Then they made him stand between the pillars.
²⁶ And Samson said to the youth who held him by his hand, Let me feel the pillars upon which the house rests, that I may rest against them.
²⁷ Now the house was full of men and women, and all the lords of the Philistines were there; and on the roof there were about three thousand men and women, who were looking on while Samson performed.
²⁸ And Samson called on Jehovah and said, O Lord Jehovah, remember me, I pray; and strengthen me, I pray, this one time only, O God, that I may be avenged of the Philistines at once for my two eyes.
²⁹ And Samson grasped the two middle pillars upon which the house rested and leaned against them, one with his right hand and the other with his left.
³⁰ And Samson said, Let me die with the Philistines. And he bowed with all his strength, and the house fell upon the lords and all the people who were in it. So the dead that he killed in his death were more than those that he killed in his life.
³¹ Then his brothers and all his father’s house went down and bore him away, and they brought him up and buried him between Zorah and Eshtaol, in the tomb of Manoah his father. Now he had judged Israel twenty years.

17

¹ Now there was a man from the hill country of Ephraim whose name was Micah.
² And he said to his mother, The eleven hundred pieces of silver that were taken from you, about which you uttered a curse and spoke it in my hearing — look, the silver is with me; I took it. And his mother said, Blessed of Jehovah be my son!
³ And he returned the eleven hundred pieces of silver to his mother; and his mother said, I do consecrate the silver to Jehovah from my hand to my son to make a sculptured idol and a molten image. Now therefore I will return it to you.
⁴ And when he returned the silver to his mother, his mother took two hundred pieces of silver and gave them to the founder, who made them into a sculptured idol and a molten image. And it was in the house of Micah.
⁵ And the man Micah had a house of gods; and he made an ephod and teraphim, and consecrated one of his sons to become his priest.
⁶ In those days there was no king in Israel; everyone did that which was right in his own eyes.
⁷ And there was a young man from Bethlehem in Judah, of the family of Judah, who was a Levite; and he was a sojourner there.
⁸ And the man left the city Bethlehem in Judah to dwell wherever he could find a place. And he came to the hill country of Ephraim, to the house of Micah, as he made his way.
⁹ And Micah said to him, Where do you come from? And he said to him, I am a Levite from Bethlehem in Judah, and I am traveling in order to dwell wherever I can find a place.
¹⁰ And Micah said to him, Stay with me, and be a father and a priest to me; and I will give you ten pieces of silver a year and an array of clothing and your food. So the Levite went with him.
¹¹ And the Levite was content to stay with the man; and the young man was to him like one of his sons.
¹² And Micah consecrated the Levite; and the young man became his priest and was in the house of Micah.
¹³ Then Micah said, Now I know that Jehovah will prosper me, because the Levite has become my priest.

18

¹ In those days there was no king in Israel; and in those days the tribe of the Danites sought for themselves an inheritance to dwell in, for unto that day the lot had not fallen for them on an inheritance among the tribes of Israel.
² So the children of Dan sent from their family five men from among all of them, men of valor, from Zorah and Eshtaol, to spy out the land and search it out. And they said to them, Go and search out the land. And they came to the hill country of Ephraim, to the house of Micah; and they lodged there.
³ When they were near the house of Micah, they recognized the voice of the young Levite man, so they turned aside there and said to him, Who brought you here? And what are you doing in this place? And what do you have here?
⁴ And he said to them, Such and such has Micah done for me; and he has hired me to be his priest.
⁵ And they said to him, Inquire now of God that we may know if our way on which we are going will be prosperous.
⁶ And the priest said to them, Go in peace; your way on which you are going is before Jehovah.
⁷ Then the five men left and came to Laish. And they saw the people who were in it, dwelling securely after the manner of the Sidonians, quiet and secure; for there was no one in the land who possessed authority and might humble them in anything; and they were far from the Sidonians and had nothing to do with anyone.
⁸ And they came to their brothers at Zorah and Eshtaol; and their brothers said to them, What can you say?
⁹ And they said, Arise; and let us go up against them. For we have seen the land, and it is very good. So do you sit still? Do not be slow about going and entering the land to possess it.
¹⁰ When you go, you will come to a secure people; and the land is very spacious. God has indeed delivered it into your hand, a place where nothing on earth is lacking there.
¹¹ So six hundred men girded with weapons of war set out from there, from the family of Dan, from Zorah and Eshtaol.
¹² And they went up and encamped in Kiriath-jearim in Judah. Because of this, that place is called Mahaneh-dan to this day; it is there behind Kiriath-jearim.
¹³ And they passed from there into the hill country of Ephraim and came to the house of Micah.
¹⁴ Then the five men who had gone to spy the land of Laish answered and said to their brothers, Do you know that in these houses there are an ephod and teraphim and a sculptured idol and a molten image? Now therefore consider what you should do.
¹⁵ And they turned aside there and came to the house of the young Levite man, the house of Micah; and they asked him concerning his welfare.
¹⁶ And the six hundred men of the children of Dan, girded with their weapons of war, stood at the entrance of the gate.
¹⁷ And the five men who had gone to spy the land went up and entered there to seize the sculptured idol and the ephod and the teraphim and the molten image. And the priest stood at the entrance of the gate with the six hundred men girded with weapons of war.
¹⁸ And when these men entered the house of Micah and seized the sculptured idol and the ephod and the teraphim and the molten image, the priest said to them, What are you doing?
¹⁹ And they said to him, Quiet down; put your hand over your mouth, and go with us and be a father and a priest to us. Is it better for you to be a priest for the house of one man or for you to be a priest for a tribe and family in Israel?
²⁰ And the priest’s heart was glad; and he took the ephod and teraphim and the sculptured idol, and went into the midst of the people.
²¹ And they turned and departed; and they put the little ones and the livestock and the goods before them.
²² When they were some distance from the house of Micah, the men who were in the houses that were near the house of Micah were gathered together; and they overtook the children of Dan.
²³ And they called out to the children of Dan. And they turned and faced them and said to Micah, What is bothering you, that you have been gathered together?
²⁴ And he said, You have taken away my gods that I have made, along with the priest, and have gone off. And what do I still have? How then can you say to me, What is bothering you?
²⁵ And the children of Dan said, Do not let your voice be heard among us, lest men of fierce temper fall on you and you lose your life and the lives of your household.
²⁶ And 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.
²⁷ So they took that which Micah had made and the priest that had been his, and came to Laish, to a people quiet and secure; and they struck them with the edge of the sword and burned the city with fire.
²⁸ And there was no one to deliver it; for it was far from Sidon, and they had nothing to do with anyone. Now it was in the valley that is by Beth-rehob. And they rebuilt the city and dwelt in it.
²⁹ And they called the name of the city Dan, according to the name of Dan their father who had been born to Israel. However the name of the city was Laish formerly.
³⁰ And the children of Dan erected the sculptured idol; and Jonathan the son of Gershom, the son of Moses, he and his sons, became priests to the tribe of Dan until the day of the captivity of the land.
³¹ Thus they set up the sculptured idol that Micah had made the whole time that the house of God was in Shiloh.

19

¹ Now in those days, when there was no king in Israel, there was a certain Levite dwelling in the far end of the hill country of Ephraim. And he took for himself a concubine from Bethlehem in Judah.
² But his concubine went about as a harlot, and she departed from him to her father’s house, to Bethlehem in Judah; and she was there for a period of four months.
³ Then her husband rose up and came after her to speak to her affectionately and to bring her back, bringing with him his young man and a pair of donkeys. And she brought him into her father’s house; and when the father of the young woman saw him, he rejoiced to see him.
⁴ And his father-in-law, the father of the young woman, detained him; and he stayed with him three days. So they ate and drank, and they spent the night there.
⁵ And on the fourth day, they rose up early in the morning and got up to go. But the father of the young woman said to his son-in-law, Sustain yourself with a morsel of bread, and afterward you can go.
⁶ So they sat down, and the two of them ate and drank together. And the father of the young woman said to the man, Will you not, I beg you, stay overnight and let your heart be merry?
⁷ And the man got up to go; but his father-in-law urged him, and he spent the night there again.
⁸ Then on the fifth day he rose up early in the morning to go; but the father of the young woman said, Sustain yourself, I beg you, and linger until the day has declined. So the two of them ate.
⁹ And when the man got up to go, with his concubine and his young man, his father-in-law, the father of the young woman, said to him, Look now, the day is waning toward evening; spend the night, I beg you. Look, the day is drawing to a close. Spend the night here, and let your heart be merry; then rise up early tomorrow for your journey and go home.
¹⁰ But the man did not want to spend the night, so he rose up and left. And he arrived at Jebus (that is, Jerusalem); and with him were a couple of saddled donkeys, and his concubine was with him.
¹¹ And when they were at Jebus, the day was far spent; and the young man said to his master, Come now, and let us turn aside toward this city of the Jebusites and spend the night in it.
¹² And his master said to him, We will not turn aside toward a city of foreigners, who are not of the children of Israel; we will pass over to Gibeah.
¹³ And he said to his young man, Come and let us approach one of these places; and we will spend the night in Gibeah or Ramah.
¹⁴ And they passed on and went further; and the sun went down on them near Gibeah, which belongs to Benjamin.
¹⁵ And they turned aside there to go in and spend the night in Gibeah. And he went into the city and sat in the square of the city, but no one took them into his house to lodge them.
¹⁶ Then in the evening there came an old man out of the field from his work. Now the man was from the hill country of Ephraim, and he was a sojourner in Gibeah. And the men of that place were Benjaminites.
¹⁷ And he lifted up his eyes and saw the wayfarer in the square of the city. And the old man said, Where are you traveling to, and where have you come from?
¹⁸ And he said to him, We are passing from Bethlehem in Judah to the far end of the hill country of Ephraim. I am from there, and I went to Bethlehem in Judah; and I am going to my house, and no one takes me into his house.
¹⁹ There are both straw and fodder for our donkeys, and bread and wine also for myself and your female servant and the young man who is with your servants; there is no need of anything.
²⁰ And the old man said, Peace be with you. Just let all your needs come upon me; just do not spend the night in the square.
²¹ And he brought him to his house and gave his donkeys fodder; and they washed their feet, and ate and drank.
²² And while they were making their hearts merry, the men of the city, worthless men, surrounded the house, beating on the door. And they spoke to the master of the house, the old man, saying, Bring out the man who went into your house that we may know him.
²³ And the master of the house came out to them and said to them, No, my brothers; do not do this evil thing, I beg you. Since this man has come into my house, do not commit this folly.
²⁴ Here is my virgin daughter and his concubine. Let me bring them out, I beg you; and humble them and do to them what seems good in your sight. But to this man do not do such folly.
²⁵ But the men did not want to listen to him; so the man took hold of his concubine and brought her out to them; and they knew her. And they abused her all night long until morning; and they let her go when the dawn broke.
²⁶ And in the early morning the woman came and fell at the entrance of the man’s house, where her lord had been until it was light.
²⁷ And her lord rose up in the morning and opened the doors of the house, and he went out to go on his way. And there was his concubine, fallen at the entrance of the house with her hands upon the threshold.
²⁸ And he said to her, Get up, and let us go. But there was no answer. And he put her upon the donkey; and the man rose up and went to his place.
²⁹ And when he came to his house, he took a knife and laid hold of his concubine and cut her up limb by limb into twelve pieces; and he sent her throughout all the territory of Israel.
³⁰ And when everyone saw this, they said, No such thing has ever happened or been seen since the day the children of Israel went up out of the land of Egypt until this day. Consider it, and take counsel and speak.

20

¹ Then all the children of Israel went out; and the assembly gathered as one man unto Jehovah at Mizpah, from Dan as far as Beer-sheba, with the land of Gilead.
² And the leaders of all the people, of all the tribes of Israel, presented themselves in the congregation of the people of God, four hundred thousand footmen who drew the sword.
³ (Now the children of Benjamin heard that the children of Israel had gone up to Mizpah.) And the children of Israel said, Tell us, How did this evil thing happen?
⁴ And the Levite, the husband of the woman who had been murdered, answered and said, I and my concubine came to Gibeah, which is in Benjamin, to spend the night.
⁵ And the men of Gibeah rose up against me and surrounded the house at night to get me. It was me that they intended to slay, but they humbled my concubine until she died.
⁶ Therefore I took hold of my concubine and cut her up and sent her throughout all the land of Israel’s inheritance, for they have committed wickedness and folly in Israel.
⁷ Behold, all you children of Israel, give your advice and counsel here.
⁸ And all the people rose up as one man, saying, None of us will go to our tents, nor will any of us return to our houses.
⁹ But now this is the thing that we will do to Gibeah: we will go up against it by lot;
¹⁰ And we will take ten men per hundred throughout all the tribes of Israel, and a hundred per thousand, and a thousand per ten thousand, to get provisions for the people, so that when they come to Gibeah of Benjamin, they may deal with them according to all the folly which they have committed in Israel.
¹¹ So all the men of Israel, knit together as one man, were gathered against the city.
¹² And the tribes of Israel sent men throughout the tribe of Benjamin, saying, What is this evil thing that has happened among you?
¹³ Now therefore deliver up the worthless men who are in Gibeah, and we will kill them and put away evil from Israel. But the Benjaminites would not listen to the voice of their brothers, the children of Israel.
¹⁴ And the children of Benjamin gathered together at Gibeah from their cities to go to battle with the children of Israel.
¹⁵ And the children of Benjamin were numbered on that day from the cities: twenty-six thousand men who drew the sword, apart from the inhabitants of Gibeah who were numbered, seven hundred choice men.
¹⁶ Of all these people seven hundred choice men were left-handed; all these could sling a stone at a hair and not miss.
¹⁷ And the men of Israel were numbered apart from Benjamin: four hundred thousand men who drew the sword; all these were men of war.
¹⁸ And the children of Israel rose up and went up to Bethel, and they inquired of God and said, Who will go up for us first into battle with the children of Benjamin? And Jehovah said, Judah first.
¹⁹ So the children of Israel rose up in the morning and encamped against Gibeah.
²⁰ And the men of Israel went up into battle with Benjamin. And the men of Israel set the battle in array against them at Gibeah.
²¹ Then the children of Benjamin came forth from Gibeah and struck down to the ground on that day twenty-two thousand men in Israel.
²² And the people, the men of Israel, encouraged themselves and set the battle in array again in the place where they had set it in array the first day.
²³ Now the children of Israel had gone up and wept before Jehovah into the evening; and they had inquired of Jehovah, saying, Shall I again approach the battle with the children of Benjamin my brother? And Jehovah had said, Go up against him.
²⁴ And the children of Israel drew near to the children of Benjamin on the second day.
²⁵ And Benjamin went forth from Gibeah to meet them on the second day, and they struck down to the ground another eighteen thousand men among the children of Israel; all of these were ones who drew the sword.
²⁶ Then all the children of Israel and all the people went up and came to Bethel. And they wept and sat there before Jehovah, and they fasted on that day until evening; and they offered burnt offerings and peace offerings before Jehovah.
²⁷ And the children of Israel inquired of Jehovah (for the Ark of the Covenant of God was there in those days;
²⁸ And Phinehas the son of Eleazar, the son of Aaron, stood before it in those days), saying, Shall I again go out into battle with the children of Benjamin my brother, or shall I cease? And Jehovah said, Go up, for tomorrow I will deliver them into your hand.
²⁹ And Israel set men in ambush all around Gibeah.
³⁰ And 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.
³¹ And the children of Benjamin went out to meet the people; they were drawn away from the city. And they began to strike some of the people, about thirty men of Israel, slaying them as at other times, on the highways which lead into the open field, one of which goes up to Bethel and the other to Gibeah.
³² And the children of Benjamin said, They are stricken down before us as they were at first. And the children of Israel said, Let us flee and draw them away from the city to the highways.
³³ Then all the men of Israel rose up from their places and set themselves in array at Baal-tamar; and Israel’s ambush left their place at Maareh-geba.
³⁴ And ten thousand chosen men out of all Israel came against Gibeah. And the battle was fierce, but the children of Benjamin did not know that disaster was very near to them.
³⁵ And Jehovah struck down Benjamin before Israel; and the children of Israel destroyed twenty-five thousand one hundred men of Benjamin that day; all these were ones who drew the sword.
³⁶ And the children of Benjamin saw that they were stricken down. Now the men of Israel had given ground to Benjamin, for they trusted in the ambush that they had set against Gibeah.
³⁷ And the ambush hurried and rushed against Gibeah; and the ambush proceeded and struck the whole city with the edge of the sword.
³⁸ And the appointed sign between the men of Israel and the ambush was that they would make a great cloud of smoke rise up from the city,
³⁹ And then the men of Israel would turn into the battle. So Benjamin had begun to strike, killing about thirty men among the men of Israel; for they said, They are certainly stricken down before us as in the first battle.
⁴⁰ But when the cloud began to go up from the city like a pillar of smoke, the Benjaminites looked behind them, and there was the whole city, going up in smoke to heaven.
⁴¹ And the men of Israel turned; and the men of Benjamin were dismayed, for they saw that disaster was very near to them.
⁴² Then they turned before the men of Israel into the way of the wilderness; but the battle overtook them, and those from the cities struck them down in between.
⁴³ They surrounded the Benjaminites, chased them, and trampled them at the resting place, as far as over against Gibeah toward the rising of the sun.
⁴⁴ And eighteen thousand men of Benjamin fell; all of these were men of valor.
⁴⁵ And they turned and fled into the wilderness to the rock of Rimmon, but the men of Israel gleaned five thousand of them in the highways; and they pursued after them as far as Gidom and struck two thousand of them.
⁴⁶ So all who fell of Benjamin on that day were twenty-five thousand men who drew the sword; all of these were men of valor.
⁴⁷ But six hundred men turned and fled into the wilderness to the rock of Rimmon, and they dwelt at the rock of Rimmon four months.
⁴⁸ And the men of Israel returned to the children of Benjamin and struck them with the edge of the sword, both the entire city with the cattle and all that was found there; moreover all the cities that were found they set on fire.

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¹ Now the men of Israel swore in Mizpah, saying, None of us shall give his daughter to a Benjaminite as a wife.
² And the people came to Bethel and sat there before God until evening, and they lifted up their voice and wept greatly.
³ And they said, Why, O Jehovah God of Israel, has this happened in Israel, that there is one tribe missing in Israel today?
⁴ And in the morning the people rose early and built an altar there, and they offered burnt offerings and peace offerings.
⁵ And the children of Israel said, Who did not come up into the congregation to Jehovah from all the tribes of Israel? For they had made a great oath concerning anyone who did not come up to Jehovah at Mizpah, saying, He shall surely be put to death.
⁶ And the children of Israel were grieved concerning Benjamin their brother, and they said, Today a tribe has been cut down from Israel.
⁷ What shall we do about wives for those who remain, since we have sworn by Jehovah not to give them any of our daughters as wives?
⁸ And they said, Is there anyone from the tribes of Israel who did not come to Jehovah at Mizpah? Now there was no one from Jabesh-gilead who had come to the congregation at the camp.
⁹ For when the people were numbered, there was no one from among the inhabitants of Jabesh-gilead there.
¹⁰ So the assembly sent twelve thousand of the valiant there and commanded them, saying, Go and strike the inhabitants of Jabesh-gilead with the edge of the sword, including women and children.
¹¹ And this is the thing that you shall do: Every male and every woman who has lain with a male you shall utterly destroy.
¹² And they found among the inhabitants of Jabesh-gilead four hundred young virgins, who had not known men by lying with a male; and they brought them to the camp at Shiloh, which was in the land of Canaan.
¹³ And the whole assembly sent men and spoke to the children of Benjamin, who were at the rock of Rimmon; and they proclaimed peace to them.
¹⁴ And the Benjaminites returned at that time. And they gave them the women who had been kept alive from among the women of Jabesh-gilead; but there were not enough for them.
¹⁵ And the people were grieved concerning Benjamin, for Jehovah had made a breach among the tribes of Israel.
¹⁶ So the elders of the assembly said, What shall we do about wives for those who remain, since the women are destroyed from Benjamin?
¹⁷ And they said, There should be some possession for those of Benjamin who have escaped, that no tribe would be blotted out of Israel.
¹⁸ But we cannot give them any of our daughters as wives. For the children of Israel had sworn, saying, Cursed is he who gives a wife to Benjamin.
¹⁹ And they said, Behold, there is a feast of Jehovah each year in Shiloh (which is north of Bethel, on the east of the highway that goes up from Bethel to Shechem, and south of Lebonah).
²⁰ And they commanded the children of Benjamin, saying, Go and lie in wait in the vineyards;
²¹ And immediately when you see the daughters of Shiloh coming out to dance in the dances, come out of the vineyards, and each of you shall catch his wife from the daughters of Shiloh; then go into the land of Benjamin.
²² And when their fathers or brothers come to complain to us, we will say to them, Give them to us as a gift, for we did not take a wife in battle for each man, nor did you give them to them and thereby incur guilt for yourselves now.
²³ And the children of Benjamin did so and took wives, whom they carried off, according to their number from those who danced. And they went and returned to their inheritance, and they rebuilt the cities and dwelt in them.
²⁴ And the children of Israel departed from there at that time, each man to his tribe and to his family; and they went forth from there, each man to his inheritance.
²⁵ In those days there was no king in Israel; everyone did what was right in his own eyes.