Bible in 90 Days

²⁸ And he said to them, Follow me, for the Lord has delivered your enemies the Moabites into your hand. So they went down after him and seized the fords of the Jordan against the Moabites and permitted not a man to pass over.

²⁹ They slew at that time about 10,000 Moabites, all strong, courageous men; not a man escaped.

³⁰ So Moab was subdued that day under the hand of Israel, and the land had peace and rest for eighty years.

³¹ After [Ehud] was Shamgar son of Anath, who slew 600 Philistine men with an oxgoad. He also delivered Israel.

4 But after Ehud died the Israelites again did evil in the sight of the Lord.

² So the Lord sold them into the hand of Jabin king of Canaan, who reigned in Hazor. The commander of his army was Sisera, who dwelt in Harosheth-hagoiim [fortress or city of the nations].

³ Then the Israelites cried to the Lord, for [Jabin] had 900 chariots of iron and had severely oppressed the Israelites for twenty years.

⁴ Now Deborah, a ^[a]prophetess, the wife of Lappidoth, judged Israel at that time.

⁵ She sat under the palm tree of Deborah between Ramah and Bethel in the hill country of Ephraim, and the Israelites came up to her for judgment.

⁶ And she sent and called Barak son of Abinoam from Kedesh in Naphtali and said to him, Has not the Lord, the God of Israel, commanded [you], Go, gather your men at Mount Tabor, taking 10,000 men from the tribes of Naphtali and Zebulun?

⁷ And I will draw out Sisera, the general of Jabin’s army, to meet you at the river Kishon with his chariots and his multitude, and I will deliver him into your hand?

⁸ And Barak said to her, If you will go with me, then I will go; but if you will not go with me, I will not go.

⁹ And she said, I will surely go with you; nevertheless, the trip you take will not be for your glory, for the Lord will sell Sisera into the hand of a woman. And Deborah arose and went with Barak to Kedesh. [Fulfilled in Judg. 4:22.]

¹⁰ And Barak called Zebulun and Naphtali to Kedesh, and he went up with 10,000 men at his heels, and Deborah went up with him.

¹¹ Now Heber the Kenite, of the descendants of Hobab, the father-in-law of Moses, had separated from the Kenites and encamped as far away as the oak in Zaanannim, which is near Kedesh.

¹² When it was told Sisera that Barak son of Abinoam had gone up to Mount Tabor,

¹³ Sisera gathered together all his chariots, even 900 chariots of iron, and all the men who were with him from Harosheth-hagoiim to the river Kishon.

¹⁴ And Deborah said to Barak, Up! For this is the day when the Lord has given Sisera into your hand. Is not the Lord gone out before you? So Barak went down from Mount Tabor with 10,000 men following him.

¹⁵ And the Lord confused and terrified Sisera and all his chariot drivers and all his army before Barak with the sword. And Sisera alighted from his chariot and fled on foot.

¹⁶ But Barak pursued after the chariots and the army to Harosheth-hagoiim, and all the army of Sisera fell by the sword; not a man was left.

¹⁷ But Sisera fled on foot to the tent of Jael, the wife of Heber the Kenite, for there was peace between Jabin the king of Hazor and the house of Heber the Kenite.

¹⁸ And Jael went out to meet Sisera and said to him, Turn aside, my lord, turn aside to me; have no fear. So he turned aside to her into the tent, and she covered him with a rug.

¹⁹ And he said to her, Give me, I pray you, a little water to drink for I am thirsty. And she opened a skin of milk and gave him a drink and covered him.

²⁰ And he said to her, Stand at the door of the tent, and if any man comes and asks you, Is there any man here? Tell him, No.

²¹ But Jael, Heber’s wife, took a tent pin and a hammer in her hand and went softly to him and drove the pin through his temple and into the ground; for he was in a deep sleep from weariness. So he died.

²² And behold, as Barak pursued Sisera, Jael came out to meet him and said to him, Come, and I will show you the man you seek. And when he came into her tent, behold, Sisera lay dead, and the tent pin was in his temples.

²³ So God subdued on that day Jabin king of Canaan before the Israelites.

²⁴ And the hand of the Israelites bore more and more upon Jabin king of Canaan until they had destroyed [him].

5 Then sang Deborah and Barak son of Abinoam on that day, saying,

² For the leaders who took the lead in Israel, for the people who offered themselves willingly, bless the Lord!

³ Hear, O kings; give ear, O princes; I will sing to the Lord. I will sing praise to the Lord, the God of Israel.

⁴ Lord, when You went forth out of Seir, when You marched out of the field of Edom, the earth trembled and the heavens also dropped, yes, the clouds dropped water.

⁵ The mountains quaked at the presence of the Lord, yes, yonder Sinai at the presence of the Lord, the God of Israel.

⁶ After the days of Shamgar son of Anath, after the days of Jael [meaning here Ehud] the caravans ceased, travelers walked through byways.

⁷ The villages were unoccupied and rulers ceased in Israel until ^[b]you arose—you, Deborah, arose—a mother in Israel.

⁸ [Formerly] they chose new gods; then war was in the gates. Was there a shield or spear seen among 40,000 in Israel?

⁹ My heart goes out to the commanders of Israel who offered themselves willingly among the people. Bless the Lord!

¹⁰ Tell of it—you who ride on white donkeys, you who sit on rich carpets, and you who walk by the way.

¹¹ Far from the noise of archers in the places of drawing water, there shall they rehearse the righteous acts of the Lord, even the righteous acts toward His villagers in Israel. Then the people of the Lord went down to the gates.

¹² Awake, awake, Deborah! Awake, awake, utter a song! Arise, Barak, and lead away your captives, you son of Abinoam.

¹³ Then down marched the remnant of the nobles, the people of the Lord marched down for Me against the mighty.

¹⁴ Out of Ephraim they came down whose root is in Amalek, after you, Benjamin, with your kinsmen. Out of Machir came down commanders and lawgivers, and out of Zebulun those who ^[c]handle the pen or stylus of the writer.

¹⁵ And the princes of Issachar came with Deborah, and Issachar was faithful to Barak; into the valley they rushed forth at his heels. [But] among the clans of Reuben were great searchings of heart.

¹⁶ Why [Reuben] did you linger among the sheepfolds listening to the piping for the flocks? Among the clans of Reuben there were great searchings of heart.

¹⁷ Gilead remained beyond the Jordan, and why did Dan stay with the ships? Asher sat still on the seacoast and remained by his creeks. [These came not forth to battle for God’s people.]

¹⁸ But Zebulun was a people who endangered their lives to the death; Naphtali did also on the heights of the field.

¹⁹ The kings came and fought, then fought the kings of Canaan at Taanach by the waters of Megiddo. Gain of booty they did not obtain.

²⁰ From the heavens the stars fought, from their courses they fought against Sisera.

²¹ The torrent Kishon swept [the foe] away, the onrushing torrent, the torrent Kishon. O my soul, march on with strength!

²² Then the horses’ hoofs beat loudly because of the galloping of [fleeing] valiant riders.

²³ Curse Meroz, said the messenger of the Lord. Curse bitterly its inhabitants, because they came not to the help of the Lord, to the help of the Lord against the mighty!

²⁴ Blessed above women shall Jael, the wife of Heber the Kenite, be; blessed shall she be above women in the tent.

²⁵ [Sisera] asked for water, and she gave [him] milk; she brought him curds in a lordly dish.

²⁶ She put her [left] hand to the tent pin, and her right hand to the workmen’s hammer. And with the wooden hammer she smote Sisera, she smote his head, yes, she struck and pierced his temple.

²⁷ He sank, he fell, he lay still at her feet. At her feet he sank, he fell; where he sank, there he fell—dead!

²⁸ The ^[d]mother of Sisera looked out at a window and wailed through the lattice, Why is his chariot so long in coming? Why do the hoofbeats of his chariots tarry?

²⁹ Her wise ladies answered her, yet she repeated her words to herself,

³⁰ Have they not found and been dividing the spoil? A maiden or two for every man, a spoil of dyed garments for Sisera, a spoil of dyed stuffs embroidered, two pieces of dyed work embroidered for my neck as spoil?

³¹ So let all Your enemies perish, O Lord! But let those who love Him be like the sun when it rises in its might. And the land had peace and rest for forty years.

6 But the Israelites did evil in the sight of the Lord, and the Lord gave them into the hand of Midian for seven years.

² And the hand of Midian prevailed against Israel. Because of Midian the Israelites made themselves the dens which are in the mountains and the caves and the strongholds.

³ For whenever Israel had sown their seed, the Midianites and the Amalekites and the people of the east came up against them.

⁴ They would encamp against them and destroy the crops as far as Gaza and leave no nourishment for Israel, and no ox or sheep or donkey.

⁵ For they came up with their cattle and their tents, and they came like locusts for multitude; both they and their camels could not be counted. So they wasted the land as they entered it.

⁶ And Israel was greatly impoverished because of the Midianites, and the Israelites cried to the Lord.

⁷ And when they cried to the Lord because of Midian,

⁸ The Lord sent a prophet to the Israelites, who said to them, Thus says the Lord, the God of Israel, I brought you up from Egypt and brought you forth out of the house of bondage.

⁹ And I delivered you out of the hand of the Egyptians and out of the hand of all who oppressed you, and drove them out from before you and gave you their land.

¹⁰ And I said to you, I am the Lord your God; fear not the gods of the Amorites, in whose land you dwell. But you have not obeyed My voice.

¹¹ Now the ^[e]Angel of the Lord came and sat under the oak (terebinth) at Ophrah, which belonged to Joash the Abiezrite, and his son Gideon was beating wheat in the winepress to hide it from the Midianites.

¹² And the Angel of the Lord appeared to him and said to him, The Lord is with you, you mighty man of [fearless] courage.

¹³ And Gideon said to him, O sir, if the Lord is with us, why is all this befallen us? And where are all His wondrous works of which our fathers told us, saying, Did not the Lord bring us up from Egypt? But now the Lord has forsaken us and given us into the hand of Midian.

¹⁴ The Lord turned to him and said, Go in this your might, and you shall save Israel from the hand of Midian. Have I not sent you?

¹⁵ Gideon said to Him, Oh Lord, how can I deliver Israel? Behold, my clan is the poorest in Manasseh, and I am the least in my father’s house.

¹⁶ The Lord said to him, Surely I will be with you, and you shall smite the Midianites as one man.

¹⁷ Gideon said to Him, If now I have found favor in Your sight, then show me a sign that it is You Who talks with me.

¹⁸ Do not leave here, I pray You, until I return to You and bring my offering and set it before You. And He said, I will wait until you return.

¹⁹ Then Gideon went in and prepared a kid and unleavened cakes of an ephah of flour. The meat he put in a basket and the broth in a pot, and brought them to Him under the oak and presented them.

²⁰ And the Angel of God said to him, Take the meat and unleavened cakes and lay them on this rock and pour the broth over them. And he did so.

²¹ Then the Angel of the Lord reached out the tip of the staff that was in His hand, and touched the meat and the unleavened cakes, and there flared up fire from the rock and consumed the meat and the unleavened cakes. Then the Angel of the Lord vanished from his sight.

²² And when Gideon perceived that He was the Angel of the Lord, Gideon said, Alas, O Lord God! For now I have seen the Angel of the Lord face to face!

²³ The Lord said to him, Peace be to you, do not fear; you shall not die.

²⁴ Then Gideon built an altar there to the Lord and called it, The Lord is Peace. To this day it still stands in Ophrah, which belongs to the Abiezrites.

²⁵ That night the Lord said to Gideon, Take your father’s bull, the second bull seven years old, and pull down the altar of Baal that your father has and cut down the Asherah [symbol of the goddess Asherah] that is beside it;

²⁶ And build an altar to the Lord your God on top of this stronghold with stones laid in proper order. Then take the second bull and offer a burnt sacrifice with the wood of the Asherah which you shall cut down.

²⁷ Then Gideon took ten men of his servants and did as the Lord had told him, but because he was too afraid of his father’s household and the men of the city to do it by day, he did it by night.

²⁸ And when the men of the city arose early in the morning, behold, the altar of Baal was cast down, and the Asherah was cut down that was beside it, and the second bull was offered on the altar which had been built.

²⁹ And they said to one another, Who has done this thing? And when they searched and asked, they were told, Gideon son of Joash has done this thing.

³⁰ Then the men of the city commanded Joash, Bring out your son, that he may die, for he has pulled down the altar of Baal and cut down the Asherah beside it.

³¹ But Joash said to all who stood against him, Will you contend for Baal? Or will you save him? He who will contend for Baal, let him be put to death while it is still morning. If Baal is a god, let him contend for himself because one has pulled down his altar.

³² Therefore on that day he called Gideon Jerubbaal, meaning, Let Baal contend against him, because he had pulled down his altar.

³³ Then all the Midianites and the Amalekites and the people of the east came together and, crossing the Jordan, encamped in the Valley of Jezreel.

³⁴ But the Spirit of the Lord clothed Gideon with Himself and took possession of him, and he blew a trumpet, and [the clan of] Abiezer was gathered to him.

³⁵ And he sent messengers throughout all Manasseh, and the Manassites were called to follow him; and he sent messengers to Asher, to Zebulun, and to Naphtali, and they came up to meet them.

³⁶ And Gideon said to God, If You will deliver Israel by my hand as You have said,

³⁷ Behold, I will put a fleece of wool on the threshing floor. If there is dew on the fleece only and it is dry on all the ground, then I shall know that You will deliver Israel by my hand, as You have said.

³⁸ And it was so. When he rose early next morning and squeezed the dew out of the fleece, he wrung from it a bowlful of water.

³⁹ And Gideon said to God, Let not your anger be kindled against me, and I will speak but this once. Let me make trial only this once with the fleece, I pray you; let it now be dry only upon the fleece and upon all the ground let there be dew.

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

7 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 north of them by the hill of Moreh in the valley.

² The Lord said to Gideon, The people who are with you are too many for Me to give the Midianites into their hands, lest Israel boast about themselves against Me, saying, My own hand has delivered me.

³ So now proclaim in the ears of the men, saying, Whoever is fearful and trembling, let him turn back and depart from Mount Gilead. And 22,000 of the men returned, but 10,000 remained.

⁴ And the Lord said to Gideon, The men 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 man shall go with you, shall go with you; and he of whom I say to you, This man shall not go with you, shall not go.

⁵ So he brought the men down to the water, and the Lord said to Gideon, Everyone who laps up the water with his tongue as a dog laps it, you shall set by himself, likewise everyone who bows down on his knees to drink.

⁶ And the number of those who lapped, putting their hand to their mouth, was 300 men, but all the rest of the people bowed down upon their knees to drink water.

⁷ And the Lord said to Gideon, With the 300 men who lapped I will deliver you, and give the Midianites into your hand. Let all the others return every man to his home.

⁸ So the people took provisions and their trumpets in their hands, and he sent all the rest of Israel every man to his home and retained those 300 men. And the host of Midian was below him in the valley.

⁹ That same night the Lord said to Gideon, Arise, go down against their camp, for I have given it into your hand.

¹⁰ But if you fear to go down, go with Purah your servant down to the camp

¹¹ And you shall hear what they say, and afterward your hands shall be strengthened to go down against the camp. Then he went down with Purah his servant to the outposts of the camp of the armed men.

¹² And the Midianites and the Amalekites and all the sons of the east lay along the valley like locusts for multitude; and their camels were without number, as the sand on the seashore for multitude.

¹³ When Gideon arrived, behold, a man was telling a dream to his comrade. And he said, Behold, I dreamed a dream, and behold, a cake of ^[f]barley bread tumbled into the camp of Midian and came to the tent and struck it so that it fell, and turned it upside down so that the tent lay flat.

¹⁴ And his comrade replied, This is nothing else but the sword of Gideon son of Joash, a man of Israel. Into his hand God has given Midian and all the host.

¹⁵ When Gideon heard the telling of the dream and its interpretation, he worshiped and returned to the camp of Israel and said, Arise, for the Lord has given into your hand the host of Midian.

¹⁶ And he divided the 300 men into three companies, and he put into the hands of all of them trumpets and empty pitchers, with torches inside the pitchers.

¹⁷ And he said to them, Look at me, then do likewise. When I come to the edge of their camp, do as I do.

¹⁸ When I blow the trumpet, I and all who are with me, then you blow the trumpets also on every side of all the camp and shout, For the Lord and for Gideon!

¹⁹ So Gideon and the 100 men who were with him came to the outskirts of the camp at the beginning of the middle watch, when the guards had just been changed, and they blew the trumpets and smashed the pitchers that were in their hands.

²⁰ And the three companies blew the trumpets and shattered the pitchers, holding the torches in their left hands, and in their right hands the trumpets to blow [leaving no chance to use swords], and they cried, The sword for the Lord and Gideon!

²¹ They stood every man in his place round about the camp, and all the [Midianite] army ran—they cried out and fled.

²² When [Gideon’s men] blew the 300 trumpets, the Lord set every [Midianite’s] sword against his comrade and against all the army, and the army fled as far as Beth-shittah toward Zererah, as far as the border of Abel-meholah by Tabbath.

²³ And the men of Israel were called together out of Naphtali and Asher and all Manasseh, and they pursued Midian.

²⁴ And Gideon sent messengers throughout all the hill country of Ephraim, saying, Come down against the Midianites and take all the intervening fords as far as Beth-barah and also the Jordan. So all the men of Ephraim were gathered together and took all the fords as far as Beth-barah and also the Jordan.

²⁵ And [the men of Ephraim] took the two princes of Midian, Oreb and Zeeb, and they slew Oreb at the rock of Oreb, and Zeeb they slew at the winepress of Zeeb, and pursued Midian; and they brought the heads of Oreb and Zeeb to Gideon beyond the Jordan.

8 And the men of Ephraim said to Gideon, Why have you treated us like this, not calling us when you went to fight with Midian? And they quarreled with him furiously.

² And he said to them, What have I done now in comparison with you? Is not the gleaning of the grapes of [your big tribe of] Ephraim better than the vintage of [my little clan of] Abiezer?

^3 [g]God has given into your hands the princes of Midian, Oreb and Zeeb, and what was I able to do in comparison with you? Then their anger toward him was abated when he had said that.

⁴ And Gideon came to the Jordan and passed over, he and the 300 men with him, faint yet pursuing.

⁵ And he said to the men of Succoth, Give, I pray you, loaves of bread to the people who follow me, for they are faint, and I am pursuing Zebah and Zalmunna, kings of Midian.

⁶ And the princes of Succoth said, Are Zebah and Zalmunna already in your hand, that we should give bread to your army?

⁷ And Gideon said, For that, when the Lord has delivered Zebah and Zalmunna into my hand, I will thresh your flesh with the thorns and briers of the wilderness!

⁸ And he went from there up to Penuel and made the same request, and the men of Penuel answered him as the men of Succoth had done.

⁹ And [Gideon] said to the men of Penuel, When I come again in peace, I will break down this tower.

¹⁰ Now Zebah and Zalmunna were in Karkor with their army—about 15,000 men, all who were left of all the army of the sons of the east, for there had fallen 120,000 men who drew the sword.

¹¹ And Gideon went up by the route of those who dwelt in tents east of Nobah and Jogbehah and smote their camp [unexpectedly], for the army thought itself secure.

¹² And Zebah and Zalmunna fled, and he pursued them and took the two kings of Midian, Zebah and Zalmunna, and terrified all the army.

¹³ Then Gideon son of Joash returned from the battle by the ascent of Heres.

¹⁴ And he caught a young man of Succoth and inquired of him, and [the youth] wrote down for him [the names of] the officials of Succoth and its elders, seventy-seven men.

¹⁵ And he came to the men of Succoth and said, Behold Zebah and Zalmunna, about whom you scoffed at me, saying, Are Zebah and Zalmunna now in your hand, that we should give bread to your men who are faint?

¹⁶ And he took the elders of the city and thorns of the wilderness and briers, and with them he taught the men of Succoth [a lesson].

¹⁷ And he broke down the tower of Penuel and slew the men of the city.

¹⁸ Then [Gideon] said to Zebah and Zalmunna, What kind of men were they whom you slew at Tabor? And they replied, They were like you, each of them resembled the son of a king.

¹⁹ And he said, They were my brothers, the sons of my mother. As the Lord lives, if you had saved them alive, I would not slay you.

²⁰ And [Gideon] said to Jether his firstborn [to embarrass them], Up, and slay them. But the youth drew not his sword, for he feared because he was yet a lad.

²¹ Then Zebah and Zalmunna said, Rise yourself and fall on us; for as the man is, so is his strength. And Gideon arose and slew Zebah and Zalmunna and took the [crescent-shaped] ornaments that were on their camels’ necks.

²² Then the men of Israel said to Gideon, Rule over us—you and your son and your son’s son also—for you have delivered us from the hand of Midian.

²³ And Gideon said to them, I will not rule over you, and my son will not rule over you; the Lord will rule over you.

²⁴ And Gideon said to them, Let me make a request of you—every man of you give me the earrings of his spoil. For [the Midianites] had gold earrings because they were Ishmaelites [general term for all descendants of Keturah].

²⁵ And they answered, We will willingly give them. And they spread a garment, and every man cast on it the earrings of his spoil.

²⁶ And the weight of the golden earrings that he requested was 1,700 shekels of gold, besides the crescents and pendants and the purple garments worn by the kings of Midian, and the chains that were about their camels’ necks.

²⁷ And Gideon made an ephod [a sacred, high priest’s garment] of it, and put it in his city of Ophrah, and all Israel paid homage to it there, and ^[h]it became a snare to Gideon and to his family.

²⁸ Thus was Midian subdued before the Israelites so that they lifted up their heads no more. And the land had peace and rest for forty years in the days of Gideon.

²⁹ Jerubbaal (Gideon) son of Joash went and dwelt in his own house.

³⁰ Now Gideon had seventy sons born to him, for he had many wives.

³¹ And his concubine, who was in Shechem, also bore him a son, whom he named Abimelech.

³² Gideon son of Joash died at a good old age and was buried in the tomb of Joash his father in Ophrah of the Abiezrites.

³³ As soon as Gideon was dead, the Israelites turned again and played the harlot after the Baals and made Baal-berith their god.

³⁴ And the Israelites did not remember the Lord their God, Who had delivered them out of the hand of all their enemies on every side;

³⁵ Neither did they show kindness to the family of Jerubbaal, that is, Gideon, in return for all the good which he had done for Israel.

9 Now Abimelech son of Jerubbaal (Gideon) went to Shechem to his mother’s kinsmen and said to them and to the whole clan of his mother’s family,

² Say, I pray you, in the hearing of all the men of Shechem, Which is better for you: that all seventy of the sons of Jerubbaal reign over you, or that one man rule over you? Remember also that I am your bone and your flesh.

³ And his mother’s kinsmen spoke all these words concerning him in the hearing of all the men of Shechem, and their hearts inclined to follow Abimelech, for they said, He is our brother.

⁴ And they gave him seventy pieces of silver out of the house of Baal-berith, with which Abimelech hired worthless and foolhardy men who followed him.

⁵ And he went to his father’s house at 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 And all the men of Shechem gathered together and all of Beth-millo, and they went and made Abimelech king by the oak (terebinth) of the pillar at Shechem.

⁷ When it was told to Jotham, he went and stood at the top of Mount Gerizim and shouted to them, Hear me, men of Shechem, that God may hear you.

⁸ One time the trees went forth to anoint a king over them, and they said to the olive tree, Reign over us.

⁹ But the olive tree said to them, Should I leave my fatness, by which God and man are honored, 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, Should I leave my sweetness and my good fruit and go to wave over the trees?

¹² Then the trees said to the vine (grapevine), You come and reign over us.

¹³ And the vine (grapevine) replied, Should I leave my new wine, which rejoices God and man, and go to wave over the trees?

¹⁴ Then all the trees said to the bramble, You come and reign over us.

¹⁵ And the bramble said to the trees, If in good faith you are anointing me king over you, then come and take refuge in my shade; but if not, let fire come out of the bramble and devour the cedars of Lebanon.

¹⁶ Now therefore, if you acted sincerely and honorably when you made Abimelech king, and if you have dealt well with Jerubbaal and his house and have done to him as his deeds deserved—

¹⁷ For my father fought for you, jeopardized his life, and rescued you from the hand of Midian;

¹⁸ And you have risen up against my father’s house this day and have slain his sons, seventy men, on one stone and have made Abimelech, son of his maidservant, king over the people of Shechem because he is your kinsman—

¹⁹ If you then have acted sincerely and honorably with Jerubbaal and his house this day, then rejoice in Abimelech, and let him also rejoice in you;

²⁰ But if not, let fire come out from Abimelech and devour the people of Shechem and Beth-millo, and let fire come out from the people of Shechem and Beth-millo and devour Abimelech.

²¹ And Jotham ran away and fled, and went to Beer and dwelt there for fear of Abimelech his brother.

²² Abimelech reigned three years over Israel.

²³ And God sent an evil spirit between Abimelech and the men of Shechem, and the men of Shechem dealt treacherously with Abimelech,

²⁴ That the violence done to the seventy sons of Jerubbaal might come, and that their blood might be laid upon Abimelech their brother, who slew them, and upon the men of Shechem, who strengthened his hands to slay his brothers.

²⁵ And the men of Shechem set men in ambush against [Abimelech] on the mountaintops, and they robbed all who passed by them along that way; and it was told to Abimelech.

²⁶ And Gaal son of Ebed came with his kinsmen and moved into Shechem, and the men of Shechem put confidence in him.

²⁷ And they went out into the field, gathered their vineyard fruits and trod them, and held a festival; and going into the house of their god, they ate and drank and cursed Abimelech.

²⁸ Gaal son of Ebed said, Who is Abimelech, and who are we of Shechem, that we should serve him? Were not the son of Jerubbaal and Zebul, his officer, servants of the men of Hamor the father and founder of Shechem? Then why should we serve him?

²⁹ Would that this people were under my hand! Then would I remove Abimelech and say to him, Increase your army and come out.

³⁰ When Zebul the city’s mayor heard the words of Gaal son of Ebed, his anger was kindled.

³¹ And he sent messengers to Abimelech slyly, saying, Behold, Gaal son of Ebed and his kinsmen have come to Shechem; and behold, they stir up the city to rise against you.

³² Now therefore, rise up by night, you and the men with you, and lie in wait in the field.

³³ Then in the morning, as soon as the sun is up, rise early and set upon the city; and when Gaal and the men with him come out against you, do to them as opportunity permits.

³⁴ And Abimelech rose up by night, and all the men with him, and they laid in wait against Shechem in four companies.

³⁵ And Gaal son of Ebed came out and stood in the entrance of the city’s gate. Then Abimelech and the men with him rose up from ambush.

³⁶ When Gaal saw the men, he said to Zebul, Look, men are coming down from the mountaintops! Zebul said to him, The shadow of the mountains looks to you like men.

³⁷ And Gaal spoke again and said, See, men are coming down from the center of the land, and one company is coming from the direction of the oak of Meonenim [the sorcerers].

³⁸ Then said Zebul to Gaal, Where is your [big] mouth now, you who said, Who is Abimelech, that we should serve him? Are not these the men whom you have despised? Go out now and fight with them.

³⁹ And Gaal went out ahead of the men of Shechem and fought with Abimelech.

⁴⁰ And Abimelech chased him, and he fled before him; and many fell wounded—even to the entrance of the gate.

⁴¹ And Abimelech lodged at Arumah, and Zebul thrust out Gaal and his kinsmen so that they could not live in Shechem.

⁴² The next day the men went out into the fields, and Abimelech was told.

⁴³ He took his men and divided them into three companies and laid in wait in the field; and he looked and behold, the people were coming out of the city. And he rose up against them and smote them.

⁴⁴ And Abimelech and the company with him rushed forward and stood in the entrance of the city’s gate, while the two other companies rushed upon all who were in the field and slew them.

⁴⁵ And Abimelech fought against the city all that day. He took the city and slew the people who were in it. He demolished the city and ^[i]sowed it with salt.

⁴⁶ And when all the men of the Tower of Shechem heard of it, they entered the stronghold of the house of El-berith [the god of Berith].

⁴⁷ Abimelech was told that all the people of the Tower of Shechem were gathered together.

⁴⁸ And Abimelech went up to Mount Zalmon, he and all the men with him; and Abimelech took an ax in his hand and cut down a bundle of brush, picked it up, and laid it on his shoulder. And he said to the men with him, What you have seen me do, make haste to do also.

⁴⁹ So each of the men cut down his bundle and following Abimelech put it against the stronghold and set [the stronghold] on fire over the people in it, so that all the people of the Tower of Shechem also died, about 1,000 men and women.

⁵⁰ Then Abimelech went to Thebez and encamped against Thebez and took it.

⁵¹ But there was a strong tower in the city, and all the people of the city—men and women—fled to it, shut themselves in, and went to the roof of the tower.

⁵² And Abimelech came to the tower and fought against it and drew near the door of the tower to burn it with fire.

⁵³ But a certain woman cast an upper millstone [down] upon Abimelech’s head and broke his skull.

⁵⁴ Then he called hastily to the young man, his armor-bearer, and said to him, Draw your sword and slay me, so that men may not say of me, A woman slew him. And his young man thrust him through, and he died.

⁵⁵ And when the men of Israel saw that Abimelech was dead, they departed each man to his home.

⁵⁶ Thus God repaid the wickedness of Abimelech which he had done to his father [Gideon] by slaying his seventy brothers;

⁵⁷ And all the wickedness of the men of Shechem God repaid upon their heads and caused to come upon them the curse of Jotham son of Jerubbaal.^(A)

10 After Abimelech there arose to rescue Israel, Tola son of Puah, the son of Dodo, a man of Issachar; and he lived at Shamir in the hill country of Ephraim.

² He judged Israel twenty-three years; then he died and was buried in Shamir.

³ After him arose Jair the Gileadite, and he judged Israel twenty-two years.

⁴ And he had thirty sons who rode on thirty donkey colts, and they had thirty towns called Havvoth-jair [towns of Jair] which to this day are in the land of Gilead.

⁵ And Jair died and was buried in Kamon.

⁶ And the Israelites again did what was evil in the sight of the Lord, served the Baals, the Ashtaroth [female deities], the gods of Syria, the gods of Sidon, the gods of Moab, the gods of the Ammonites, and the gods of the Philistines. They forsook the Lord and did not serve Him.

⁷ And the anger of the Lord was kindled against Israel, and He sold them into the hands of the Philistines and the Ammonites,

⁸ And they oppressed and crushed and broke the Israelites that year. For eighteen years they oppressed all the Israelites beyond the Jordan in the land of the Amorites, which is in Gilead.

⁹ And the Ammonites passed over the Jordan to fight against Judah, Benjamin, and the house of Ephraim, so that Israel was sorely distressed.

¹⁰ And the Israelites cried to the Lord, saying, We have sinned against You, because we have forsaken our God and have served the Baals.

¹¹ And the Lord said to the Israelites, Did I not deliver you from the Egyptians, the Amorites, the Ammonites, and the Philistines?

¹² Also when the Sidonians, the Amalekites, and the Maonites oppressed and crushed you, you cried to Me, and I delivered you out of their hands.

¹³ Yet you have forsaken Me and served other gods; therefore I will deliver you no more.

¹⁴ Go, cry to the gods you have chosen; let them deliver you in your time of distress.

¹⁵ And the Israelites said to the Lord, We have sinned, do to us whatever seems good to You; only deliver us, we pray You, this day.

¹⁶ So they put away the foreign gods from among them and served the Lord, and His heart became impatient over the misery of Israel.

¹⁷ Then the Ammonites were gathered together and they encamped in Gilead. And the Israelites assembled and encamped at Mizpah.

¹⁸ And the leaders of Gilead [the Israelites] said one to another, Who is the man who will begin to fight against the Ammonites? He shall be head over all the inhabitants of Gilead.

11 Now Jephthah the Gileadite was a mighty warrior, but he was the son of a harlot. Gilead was Jephthah’s father.

² And Gilead’s wife also bore him sons, and when his wife’s sons grew up, they thrust Jephthah out and said to him, You shall not have an inheritance in our father’s house, for you are the son of another woman.

³ Then Jephthah fled from his brothers and dwelt in the land of Tob; and worthless men gathered around Jephthah and went on raids with him.

⁴ And after a time, the Ammonites made war against Israel.

⁵ And when the Ammonites made war against Israel, the elders of Gilead went to bring Jephthah out of the land of Tob;

⁶ And they said to Jephthah, Come and be our leader, that we may fight with the Ammonites.

⁷ But Jephthah said to the elders of Gilead, Did you not hate me and drive me out of my father’s house? Why have you come to me now when you are in trouble?

⁸ And the elders of Gilead said to Jephthah, This is why we have turned to you now, that you may go with us and fight the Ammonites and be our head over all the citizens of Gilead.

⁹ Jephthah said to the elders of Gilead, If you bring me home again to fight against the Ammonites and the Lord gives them over to me, [understand that] I will be your head.

¹⁰ And the elders of Gilead said to Jephthah, The Lord is witness between us, if we do not do as you have said.

¹¹ So Jephthah went with the elders of Gilead, and the people made him head and leader over them. And Jephthah repeated all he had promised before the Lord at Mizpah.

¹² And Jephthah sent messengers to the king of the Ammonites, saying, What have you to do with me, that you have come against me to fight in my land?

¹³ The Ammonites’ king replied to the messengers of Jephthah, Because Israel took away my land [which was not true] when they came up out of Egypt [300 years before], from the Arnon even to Jabbok and to the Jordan; now therefore, restore those lands peaceably.

¹⁴ And Jephthah sent messengers again to the king of the Ammonites

¹⁵ And said to him, Thus says Jephthah, Israel did not take the land of Moab or the land of the Ammonites.

¹⁶ But when [Israel] came up from Egypt, [they] walked through the wilderness to the Red Sea and came to Kadesh.

¹⁷ Then Israel sent messengers to the king of Edom, saying, Let us, we pray, pass through your land, but the king of Edom would not listen. Also they sent to the king of Moab, but he would not consent. So Israel remained at Kadesh.

¹⁸ Then they went through the wilderness and went around the land of Edom and the land of Moab, and came by the east side of the land of Moab and camped on the other side of the Arnon; but they came not within the territory of Moab, for the Arnon was the boundary of Moab.

¹⁹ Then Israel sent messengers to Sihon king of the Amorites, king of Heshbon, and Israel said to him, Let us pass, we pray you, through your land to our country.

²⁰ But Sihon did not trust Israel to pass through his territory; so Sihon gathered all his people together and encamped at Jahaz and fought with Israel.

²¹ And the Lord, the God of Israel, gave Sihon and all his people into the hand of Israel, and they defeated them; so Israel took possession of all the land of the Amorites, the inhabitants of that country.

²² They possessed all the territory of the Amorites, from the Arnon even to the Jabbok, and from the wilderness even to the Jordan.

²³ So now the Lord God of Israel has dispossessed the Amorites from before His people Israel, and should you possess them?

²⁴ Will you not possess what Chemosh your god gives you to possess? And all the Lord our God dispossessed before us, we will possess.

²⁵ Now are you any better than Balak son of Zippor, king of Moab? Did he ever strive against Israel or did he ever go to war with them?

²⁶ While Israel dwelt in Heshbon and its villages, and in Aroer and its villages, and in all the cities along the banks of the Arnon for 300 years, why did you not recover [your lost lands] during that time?

²⁷ So I have not sinned against you, but you are doing me wrong to war against me. The Lord, the [righteous] Judge, judge this day between the Israelites and the Ammonites.

²⁸ But the king of the Ammonites did not listen to the message Jephthah sent him.

²⁹ Then the Spirit of the Lord came upon Jephthah, and he passed through Gilead and Manasseh, and Mizpah of Gilead, and from Mizpah of Gilead he passed on to the Ammonites.

³⁰ And Jephthah made a vow to the Lord and said, If You will indeed give the Ammonites into my hand,

³¹ Then whatever or whoever comes forth from the doors of my house to meet me when I return in peace from the Ammonites, it shall be the Lord’s, and I will offer it or him up as a burnt offering.

³² Then Jephthah crossed over to the Ammonites to fight with them, and the Lord gave them into his hand.

³³ And from Aroer to Minnith he smote them, twenty cities, and as far as Abel-cheramim [the meadow of vineyards], with a very great slaughter. So the Ammonites were subdued before the Israelites.

³⁴ Then Jephthah came to Mizpah to his home, and behold, his daughter came out to meet him with timbrels and with dances! And she was his only child; beside her he had neither son nor daughter.

³⁵ And when he saw her, he rent his clothes and said, Alas, my daughter! You have brought me very low, and you are the cause of great trouble to me; for I have opened my mouth [in a vow] to the Lord, and I cannot take it back.

³⁶ And she said to him, My father, if you have opened your mouth to the Lord, do to me according to what you have vowed, since the Lord has taken vengeance for you on your enemies, the Ammonites.

³⁷ And she said to her father, Let this thing be done for me; let me alone two months, that I may go and wander 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 went with her companions and bewailed her virginity upon the mountains.

³⁹ At the end of two months she returned to her father, who ^[j]did with her according to his vow which he had vowed. She never mated with a man. This became a custom in Israel—

⁴⁰ That the daughters of Israel went yearly to mourn the daughter of Jephthah the Gileadite four days in a year.

12 The men of Ephraim were summoned together and they crossed to Zaphon and said to Jephthah, Why did you cross over to fight with the Ammonites and did not summon us to go with you? We will burn your house over you with fire.

² And Jephthah said to them, I and my people were in a severe conflict with the Ammonites, and I when I called you, you did not rescue me from their hands.

³ And when I saw that you would not rescue me, I put my life in my hands and crossed over against the Ammonites, and the Lord delivered them into my hand. Why then have you come up to me this day to fight against me?

⁴ Then Jephthah gathered all the men of Gilead and fought with Ephraim; and the men of Gilead smote Ephraim because they had said, You Gileadites are fugitives of Ephraim in the midst of Ephraim and Manasseh.

⁵ And the Gileadites took the fords of the Jordan before the Ephraimites; and when any of those Ephraimites who had escaped said, Let me go over, the men of Gilead said to him, Are you an Ephraimite? If he said, No,

⁶ They said to him, Then say Shibboleth; and he said, Sibboleth, for he could not pronounce it right. Then they seized him and slew him at the fords of the Jordan. And there fell at that time 42,000 of the Ephraimites.

⁷ Jephthah judged Israel six years. Then Jephthah the Gileadite died and was buried in one of the cities of Gilead.

⁸ And after him Ibzan of Bethlehem judged Israel.

⁹ And he had thirty sons and thirty daughters whom he gave [to husbands] outside his tribe, and thirty daughters [daughters-in-law] whom he brought in from outside his tribe for his sons. And he judged Israel seven years.

¹⁰ Then Ibzan died and was buried at Bethlehem.

¹¹ After him Elon the Zebulunite judged Israel, and he judged Israel ten years.

¹² Then Elon the Zebulunite died and was buried at Aijalon in the land of Zebulun.

¹³ And after him Abdon son of Hillel the Pirathonite judged Israel.

¹⁴ And he had forty sons and thirty grandsons who rode on seventy donkey colts; and he judged Israel eight years.

¹⁵ Then Abdon son of Hillel the Pirathonite died, and was buried at Pirathon in the land of Ephraim, in the hill country of the Amalekites.

13 And the Israelites again did what was evil in the sight of the Lord, and the Lord gave them into the hands of the Philistines for forty years.

² And there was a certain man of Zorah, of the tribe of the Danites, whose name was Manoah; and his wife was barren and had no children.

³ And the ^[k]Angel of the Lord appeared to the woman and said to her, Behold, you are barren and have no children, but you shall become pregnant and bear a son.

⁴ Therefore beware and drink no wine or strong drink and eat nothing unclean.

⁵ For behold, you shall become pregnant and bear a son. No razor shall come upon his head, for the child shall be a Nazirite to God from birth, and he shall begin to deliver Israel out of the hands of the Philistines.

⁶ Then the woman went and told her husband, saying, A ^[l]Man of God came to me and his face was like the face of the Angel of God, to be greatly and reverently feared. I did not ask him from where he came, and he did not tell me his name.

⁷ But he said to me, Behold, you shall become pregnant and bear a son, and now drink no wine or strong drink and eat nothing unclean, for the child shall be a Nazirite to God from birth to the day of his death.

⁸ Then Manoah entreated the Lord and said, O Lord, let the Man of God whom You sent come again to us and teach us what we shall do with the child that shall be born.

⁹ And God listened to the voice of Manoah, and the Angel of God came again to the woman as she sat in the field; but Manoah her husband was not with her.

¹⁰ And the woman ran in haste and told her husband and said to him, Behold, the Man who came to me the other day has appeared to me.

¹¹ And Manoah arose and went after his wife and came to the Man and 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 true, how shall we manage the child, and what is he to do?

¹³ And the Angel of the Lord said to Manoah, Let the mother beware of all that I told her.

¹⁴ She may not eat of anything that comes from the grapevine, nor drink wine or strong drink nor eat any unclean thing. All that I commanded her let her observe.

¹⁵ And Manoah said to the Angel of the Lord, Pray, let us detain you that we may prepare a kid for you.

¹⁶ And the Angel of the Lord said to Manoah, Though you detain me, I will not eat of your food, but if you make ready a burnt offering, offer it to the Lord. For Manoah did not know that he was the Angel of the Lord.

¹⁷ And Manoah said to the Angel of the Lord, What is your name, so that when your words come true, we may do you honor?

¹⁸ And the Angel of the Lord said to him, Why do you ask my name, seeing it is wonderful?^(B)

¹⁹ So Manoah took the kid with the cereal offering and offered it upon a rock to the Lord, the Angel working wonders, while Manoah and his wife looked on.

²⁰ For when the flame went up toward the heavens from the altar, the Angel of the Lord ascended in the altar flame. And Manoah and his wife looked on, and they fell on their faces to the ground.

²¹ The Angel of the Lord did not appear again to Manoah or to his wife. Then Manoah knew that he was the Angel of the Lord.

²² And Manoah said to his wife, We shall surely die, because we have seen God.

²³ But his [sensible] wife said to him, If the Lord were pleased to kill us, He would not have received a burnt offering and a cereal offering from our hands, nor have shown us all these things or now have announced such things as these.

²⁴ And the woman [in due time] bore a son and called his name Samson; and the child grew and the Lord blessed him.

²⁵ And the Spirit of the Lord began to move him at times in Mahaneh-dan [the camp of Dan] between Zorah and Eshtaol.

14 Samson went down to Timnah and at Timnah saw one of the daughters of the Philistines.

² And he came up and told his father and mother, I saw one of the daughters of the Philistines at Timnah; now get her for me as my wife.

³ But his father and mother said to him, Is there not a woman among the daughters of your kinsmen or among all our people, that you must go to take a wife from the uncircumcised Philistines? And Samson said to his father, Get her for me, for she is all right in my eyes.

⁴ His father and mother did not know that it was of the Lord, and that He sought an occasion for assailing the Philistines. At that time the Philistines had dominion over Israel.

⁵ Then Samson and his father and mother went down to Timnah and came to the vineyards of Timnah. And behold, a young lion roared against him.

⁶ And the Spirit of the Lord came mightily upon him, and he tore the lion as he would have torn a kid, and he had nothing in his hand; but he did not tell his father or mother what he had done.

⁷ And he went down and talked with the woman, and she pleased Samson well.

⁸ And after a while he returned to take her, and he turned aside to see the body of the lion, and behold, a swarm of bees and honey were in the body of the lion.

⁹ And he scraped some of the honey out into his hands and went along eating. And he came to his father and mother and gave them some, and they ate it; but he did not tell them he had taken the honey from the body of the lion.

¹⁰ His father went down to the woman, and Samson made a feast there, for that was the customary thing for young men to do.

¹¹ And when the people saw him, they brought thirty companions to be with him.

¹² And Samson said to them, I will now put forth a riddle to you; if you can tell me what it is within the seven days of the feast, and find it out, then I will give you thirty linen undergarments and thirty changes of raiment.

¹³ But if you cannot declare it to me, then shall you give me thirty linen undergarments and thirty changes of festive [costly] raiment. And they said to him, Put forth your riddle, that we may 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 solve the riddle in three days.

¹⁵ And on the seventh day they said to Samson’s wife, Entice your husband to declare to us the riddle, lest we burn you and your father’s household with fire. Have you invited us to make us poor? Is this not true?

¹⁶ And Samson’s wife wept before him and said, You only hate me, you do not love me; you have put forth a riddle to my countrymen and have not told the answer to me. And he said to her, Behold, I have not told my father or my mother, and shall I tell you?

¹⁷ And Samson’s wife wept before him the seven days their feast lasted, and on the seventh day he told her because she pressed him with entreaties. Then she told the riddle to her countrymen.

¹⁸ And the men of the city said to [Samson] on the seventh day before sundown, What is sweeter than honey? What is stronger than a lion? And he said to them, If you had not plowed with my heifer, you would not have solved my riddle.

¹⁹ And the Spirit of the Lord came upon him, and he went down to Ashkelon and slew thirty men of them and took their apparel [as spoil], and gave the changes of garments to those who explained the riddle. And his anger was kindled, and he went up to his father’s house.

²⁰ But Samson’s wife was [given] to his companion who was his [best] friend.

15 But some days later, in the time of wheat harvest, Samson went to visit his wife, taking along a kid [as a token of reconciliation]; and he said, I will go unto my wife in the inner chamber. But her father would not allow him to go in.

² And her father said, I truly thought you utterly hated her, so I gave her to your companion. Is her younger sister not fairer than she? Take her, I pray you, instead.

³ And Samson said of them, This time shall I be blameless as regards the Philistines, though I do them evil.

⁴ So Samson went and caught 300 foxes or jackals and took torches and turning the foxes tail to tail, he put a torch between each pair of tails.

⁵ And when he had set the torches ablaze, he let the foxes go into the standing grain of the Philistines, and he burned up the shocks and the standing grain, along with the olive orchards.

⁶ Then the Philistines said, Who has done this? And they were told, Samson, the son-in-law of the Timnite, because he [the Timnite] has taken his [Samson’s] wife and has given her to his companion. And the Philistines came up and burned her and her father with fire.

⁷ And Samson said to them, If this is the way you act, surely I will take revenge on you, and after that I will quit.

⁸ And he smote them hip and thigh [unsparingly], a great slaughter; and he went down and dwelt in the cleft of the rock of Etam.

⁹ Then the Philistines came up and encamped in Judah and spread themselves in Lehi.

¹⁰ And the men of Judah said, Why have you come up against us? And they answered, We have come up to bind Samson, to do to him as he has done to us.

¹¹ Then 3,000 men of Judah went down to the cleft of the rock Etam and said to Samson, Have you not known that the Philistines are rulers over us? What is this that you have done to us? He said to them, As they did to me, so have I done to them.

¹² And they said to him, We have come down to bind you, that we may deliver you into the hands of the Philistines. And Samson said to them, Swear to me that you will not fall upon me yourselves.