
Judges

   

   {1:1} It happened after the death of Joshua, the children of Israel
asked of Yahweh, saying, Who shall go up for us first against the
Canaanites, to fight against them? {1:2} Yahweh said, Judah shall go
up: behold, I have delivered the land into his hand. {1:3} Judah said
to Simeon his brother, Come up with me into my lot, that we may fight
against the Canaanites; and I likewise will go with you into your lot.
So Simeon went with him. {1:4} Judah went up; and Yahweh delivered the
Canaanites and the Perizzites into their hand: and they struck of them
in Bezek ten thousand men. {1:5} They found Adoni-bezek in Bezek; and
they fought against him, and they struck the Canaanites and the
Perizzites. {1:6} But Adoni-bezek fled; and they pursued after him, and
caught him, and cut off his thumbs and his great toes. {1:7}
Adoni-bezek said, "Seventy kings, having their thumbs and their great
toes cut off, gathered [their food] under my table: as I have done, so
God has requited me." They brought him to Jerusalem, and he died there.
{1:8} The children of Judah fought against Jerusalem, and took it, and
struck it with the edge of the sword, and set the city on fire. {1:9}
Afterward the children of Judah went down to fight against the
Canaanites who lived in the hill-country, and in the South, and in the
lowland. {1:10} Judah went against the Canaanites who lived in Hebron
(now the name of Hebron before was Kiriath Arba); and they struck
Sheshai, and Ahiman, and Talmai. {1:11} From there he went against the
inhabitants of Debir. (Now the name of Debir before was Kiriath
Sepher.) {1:12} Caleb said, He who strikes Kiriath Sepher, and takes
it, to him will I give Achsah my daughter as wife. {1:13} Othniel the
son of Kenaz, Caleb's younger brother, took it: and he gave him Achsah
his daughter as wife. {1:14} It happened, when she came [to him], that
she moved him to ask of her father a field: and she alighted from off
her donkey; and Caleb said to her, What would you? {1:15} She said to
him, Give me a blessing; for that you have set me in the land of the
South, give me also springs of water. Caleb gave her the upper springs
and the lower springs. {1:16} The children of the Kenite, Moses'
brother-in-law, went up out of the city of palm trees with the children
of Judah into the wilderness of Judah, which is in the south of Arad;
and they went and lived with the people. {1:17} Judah went with Simeon
his brother, and they struck the Canaanites who inhabited Zephath, and
utterly destroyed it. The name of the city was called Hormah. {1:18}
Also Judah took Gaza with the border of it, and Ashkelon with the
border of it, and Ekron with the border of it. {1:19} Yahweh was with
Judah; and drove out [the inhabitants of] the hill-country; for he
could not drive out the inhabitants of the valley, because they had
chariots of iron. {1:20} They gave Hebron to Caleb, as Moses had
spoken: and he drove out there the three sons of Anak. {1:21} The
children of Benjamin did not drive out the Jebusites who inhabited
Jerusalem; but the Jebusites dwell with the children of Benjamin in
Jerusalem to this day. {1:22} The house of Joseph, they also went up
against Bethel; and Yahweh was with them. {1:23} The house of Joseph
sent to spy out Bethel. (Now the name of the city before was Luz.)
{1:24} The watchers saw a man come forth out of the city, and they said
to him, Show us, we pray you, the entrance into the city, and we will
deal kindly with you. {1:25} He shown them the entrance into the city;
and they struck the city with the edge of the sword; but they let the
man go and all his family. {1:26} The man went into the land of the
Hittites, and built a city, and called the name of it Luz, which is the
name of it to this day. {1:27} Manasseh did not drive out [the
inhabitants of] Beth-shean and its towns, nor [of] Taanach and its
towns, nor the inhabitants of Dor and its towns, nor the inhabitants of
Ibleam and its towns, nor the inhabitants of Megiddo and its towns; but
the Canaanites would dwell in that land. {1:28} It happened, when
Israel had grown strong, that they put the Canaanites to forced labor,
and did not utterly drive them out. {1:29} Ephraim didn't drive out the
Canaanites who lived in Gezer; but the Canaanites lived in Gezer among
them. {1:30} Zebulun didn't drive out the inhabitants of Kitron, nor
the inhabitants of Nahalol; but the Canaanites lived among them, and
became subject to forced labor. {1:31} Asher didn't drive out the
inhabitants of Acco, nor the inhabitants of Sidon, nor of Ahlab, nor of
Achzib, nor of Helbah, nor of Aphik, nor of Rehob; {1:32} but the
Asherites lived among the Canaanites, the inhabitants of the land; for
they did not drive them out. {1:33} Naphtali didn't drive out the
inhabitants of Beth-shemesh, nor the inhabitants of Beth Anath; but he
lived among the Canaanites, the inhabitants of the land: nevertheless
the inhabitants of Beth-shemesh and of Beth Anath became subject to
forced labor. {1:34} The Amorites forced the children of Dan into the
hill-country; for they would not allow them to come down to the valley;
{1:35} but the Amorites would dwell in Mount Heres, in Aijalon, and in
Shaalbim: yet the hand of the house of Joseph prevailed, so that they
became subject to forced labor. {1:36} The border of the Amorites was
from the ascent of Akrabbim, from the rock, and upward.

   {2:1} The angel of Yahweh came up from Gilgal to Bochim. He said, I
made you to go up out of Egypt, and have brought you to the land which
I swore to your fathers; and I said, I will never break my covenant
with you: {2:2} and you shall make no covenant with the inhabitants of
this land; you shall break down their altars. But you have not listened
to my voice: why have you done this? {2:3} Therefore I also said, I
will not drive them out from before you; but they shall be [as thorns]
in your sides, and their gods shall be a snare to you. {2:4} It
happened, when the angel of Yahweh spoke these words to all the
children of Israel, that the people lifted up their voice, and wept.
{2:5} They called the name of that place Bochim: and they sacrificed
there to Yahweh. {2:6} Now when Joshua had sent the people away, the
children of Israel went every man to his inheritance to possess the
land. {2:7} The people served Yahweh all the days of Joshua, and all
the days of the elders who outlived Joshua, who had seen all the great
work of Yahweh that he had worked for Israel. {2:8} Joshua the son of
Nun, the servant of Yahweh, died, being one hundred ten years old.
{2:9} They buried him in the border of his inheritance in Timnath
Heres, in the hill country of Ephraim, on the north of the mountain of
Gaash. {2:10} Also all that generation were gathered to their fathers:
and there arose another generation after them, who didn't know Yahweh,
nor yet the work which he had worked for Israel. {2:11} The children of
Israel did that which was evil in the sight of Yahweh, and served the
Baals; {2:12} and they forsook Yahweh, the God of their fathers, who
brought them out of the land of Egypt, and followed other gods, of the
gods of the peoples who were round about them, and bowed themselves
down to them: and they provoked Yahweh to anger. {2:13} They forsook
Yahweh, and served Baal and the Ashtaroth. {2:14} The anger of Yahweh
was kindled against Israel, and he delivered them into the hands of
spoilers who despoiled them; and he sold them into the hands of their
enemies round about, so that they could not any longer stand before
their enemies. {2:15} Wherever they went out, the hand of Yahweh was
against them for evil, as Yahweh had spoken, and as Yahweh had sworn to
them: and they were sore distressed. {2:16} Yahweh raised up judges,
who saved them out of the hand of those who despoiled them. {2:17} Yet
they didn't listen to their judges; for they played the prostitute
after other gods, and bowed themselves down to them: they turned aside
quickly out of the way in which their fathers walked, obeying the
commandments of Yahweh; [but] they didn't do so. {2:18} When Yahweh
raised them up judges, then Yahweh was with the judge, and saved them
out of the hand of their enemies all the days of the judge: for it
grieved Yahweh because of their groaning by reason of those who
oppressed them and vexed them. {2:19} But it happened, when the judge
was dead, that they turned back, and dealt more corruptly than their
fathers, in following other gods to serve them, and to bow down to
them; they didn't cease from their doings, nor from their stubborn way.
{2:20} The anger of Yahweh was kindled against Israel; and he said,
Because this nation have transgressed my covenant which I commanded
their fathers, and have not listened to my voice; {2:21} I also will
not henceforth drive out any from before them of the nations that
Joshua left when he died; {2:22} that by them I may prove Israel,
whether they will keep the way of Yahweh to walk therein, as their
fathers did keep it, or not. {2:23} So Yahweh left those nations,
without driving them out hastily; neither delivered he them into the
hand of Joshua.

   {3:1} Now these are the nations which Yahweh left, to prove Israel
by them, even as many [of Israel] as had not known all the wars of
Canaan; {3:2} only that the generations of the children of Israel might
know, to teach them war, at the least such as before knew nothing of
it: {3:3} [namely], the five lords of the Philistines, and all the
Canaanites, and the Sidonians, and the Hivites who lived on Mount
Lebanon, from Mount Baal Hermon to the entrance of Hamath. {3:4} They
were [left], to prove Israel by them, to know whether they would listen
to the commandments of Yahweh, which he commanded their fathers by
Moses. {3:5} The children of Israel lived among the Canaanites, the
Hittites, and the Amorites, and the Perizzites, and the Hivites, and
the Jebusites: {3:6} and they took their daughters to be their wives,
and gave their own daughters to their sons and served their gods. {3:7}
The children of Israel did that which was evil in the sight of Yahweh,
and forgot Yahweh their God, and served the Baals and the Asheroth.
{3:8} Therefore the anger of Yahweh was kindled against Israel, and he
sold them into the hand of Cushan Rishathaim king of Mesopotamia: and
the children of Israel served Cushan Rishathaim eight years. {3:9} When
the children of Israel cried to Yahweh, Yahweh raised up a savior to
the children of Israel, who saved them, even Othniel the son of Kenaz,
Caleb's younger brother. {3:10} The Spirit of Yahweh came on him, and
he judged Israel; and he went out to war, and Yahweh delivered Cushan
Rishathaim king of Mesopotamia into his hand: and his hand prevailed
against Cushan Rishathaim. {3:11} The land had rest forty years.
Othniel the son of Kenaz died. {3:12} The children of Israel again did
that which was evil in the sight of Yahweh: and Yahweh strengthened
Eglon the king of Moab against Israel, because they had done that which
was evil in the sight of Yahweh. {3:13} He gathered to him the children
of Ammon and Amalek; and he went and struck Israel, and they possessed
the city of palm trees. {3:14} The children of Israel served Eglon the
king of Moab eighteen years. {3:15} But when the children of Israel
cried to Yahweh, Yahweh raised them up a savior, Ehud the son of Gera,
the Benjamite, a man left-handed. The children of Israel sent tribute
by him to Eglon the king of Moab. {3:16} Ehud made him a sword which
had two edges, a cubit in length; and he girded it under his clothing
on his right thigh. {3:17} He offered the tribute to Eglon king of
Moab: now Eglon was a very fat man. {3:18} When he had made an end of
offering the tribute, he sent away the people who bore the tribute.
{3:19} But he himself turned back from the quarries that were by
Gilgal, and said, I have a secret errand to you, king. He said, Keep
silence. All who stood by him went out from him. {3:20} Ehud came to
him; and he was sitting by himself alone in the cool upper room. Ehud
said, I have a message from God to you. He arose out of his seat.
{3:21} Ehud put forth his left hand, and took the sword from his right
thigh, and thrust it into his body: {3:22} and the haft also went in
after the blade; and the fat closed on the blade, for he didn't draw
the sword out of his body; and it came out behind. {3:23} Then Ehud
went forth into the porch, and shut the doors of the upper room on him,
and locked them. {3:24} Now when he was gone out, his servants came;
and they saw, and, behold, the doors of the upper room were locked; and
they said, Surely he is covering his feet in the upper chamber. {3:25}
They waited until they were ashamed; and, behold, he didn't open the
doors of the upper room: therefore they took the key, and opened
[them], and, behold, their lord was fallen down dead on the earth.
{3:26} Ehud escaped while they waited, and passed beyond the quarries,
and escaped to Seirah. {3:27} It happened, when he had come, that he
blew a trumpet in the hill-country of Ephraim; and the children of
Israel went down with him from the hill-country, and he before them.
{3:28} He said to them, Follow after me; for Yahweh has delivered your
enemies the Moabites into your hand. They went down after him, and took
the fords of the Jordan against the Moabites, and didn't allow a man to
pass over. {3:29} They struck of Moab at that time about ten thousand
men, every lusty man, and every man of valor; and there escaped not a
man. {3:30} So Moab was subdued that day under the hand of Israel. The
land had rest eighty years. {3:31} After him was Shamgar the son of
Anath, who struck of the Philistines six hundred men with an ox-goad:
and he also saved Israel.

    {4:1} The children of Israel again did that which was evil in the
sight of Yahweh, when Ehud was dead. {4:2} Yahweh sold them into the
hand of Jabin king of Canaan, who reigned in Hazor; the captain of
whose army was Sisera, who lived in Harosheth of the Gentiles. {4:3}
The children of Israel cried to Yahweh: for he had nine hundred
chariots of iron; and twenty years he mightily oppressed the children
of Israel. {4:4} Now Deborah, a prophetess, the wife of Lappidoth, she
judged Israel at that time. {4:5} She lived under the palm tree of
Deborah between Ramah and Bethel in the hill-country of Ephraim: and
the children of Israel came up to her for judgment. {4:6} She sent and
called Barak the son of Abinoam out of Kedesh-naphtali, and said to
him, Hasn't Yahweh, the God of Israel, commanded, [saying], Go and draw
to Mount Tabor, and take with you ten thousand men of the children of
Naphtali and of the children of Zebulun? {4:7} I will draw to you, to
the river Kishon, Sisera, the captain of Jabin's army, with his
chariots and his multitude; and I will deliver him into your hand.
{4:8} Barak said to her, If you will go with me, then I will go; but if
you will not go with me, I will not go. {4:9} She said, I will surely
go with you: notwithstanding, the journey that you take shall not be
for your honor; for Yahweh will sell Sisera into the hand of a woman.
Deborah arose, and went with Barak to Kedesh. {4:10} Barak called
Zebulun and Naphtali together to Kedesh; and there went up ten thousand
men at his feet: and Deborah went up with him. {4:11} Now Heber the
Kenite had separated himself from the Kenites, even from the children
of Hobab the brother-in-law of Moses, and had pitched his tent as far
as the oak in Zaanannim, which is by Kedesh. {4:12} They told Sisera
that Barak the son of Abinoam was gone up to Mount Tabor. {4:13} Sisera
gathered together all his chariots, even nine hundred chariots of iron,
and all the people who were with him, from Harosheth of the Gentiles,
to the river Kishon. {4:14} Deborah said to Barak, Up; for this is the
day in which Yahweh has delivered Sisera into your hand; hasn't Yahweh
gone out before you? So Barak went down from Mount Tabor, and ten
thousand men after him. {4:15} Yahweh confused Sisera, and all his
chariots, and all his army, with the edge of the sword before Barak;
and Sisera alighted from his chariot, and fled away on his feet. {4:16}
But Barak pursued after the chariots, and after the army, to Harosheth
of the Gentiles: and all the army of Sisera fell by the edge of the
sword; there was not a man left. {4:17} However Sisera fled away on his
feet to the tent of Jael the wife of Heber the Kenite; for there was
peace between Jabin the king of Hazor and the house of Heber the
Kenite. {4:18} Jael went out to meet Sisera, and said to him, Turn in,
my lord, turn in to me; don't be afraid. He came in to her into the
tent, and she covered him with a rug. {4:19} He said to her, Please
give me a little water to drink; for I am thirsty. She opened a bottle
of milk, and gave him drink, and covered him. {4:20} He said to her,
Stand in the door of the tent, and it shall be, when any man does come
and inquire of you, and say, Is there any man here? that you shall say,
No. {4:21} Then Jael Heber's wife took a tent-pin, and took a hammer in
her hand, and went softly to him, and struck the pin into his temples,
and it pierced through into the ground; for he was in a deep sleep; so
he swooned and died. {4:22} Behold, as Barak pursued Sisera, Jael came
out to meet him, and said to him, Come, and I will show you the man
whom you seek. He came to her; and, behold, Sisera lay dead, and the
tent-pin was in his temples. {4:23} So God subdued on that day Jabin
the king of Canaan before the children of Israel. {4:24} The hand of
the children of Israel prevailed more and more against Jabin the king
of Canaan, until they had destroyed Jabin king of Canaan.

    {5:1} Then sang Deborah and Barak the son of Abinoam on that day,
saying,
{5:2} For that the leaders took the lead in Israel,
For that the people offered themselves willingly,
Bless you Yahweh.
{5:3} Hear, you kings; give ear, you princes;
I, [even] I, will sing to Yahweh;
I will sing praise to Yahweh, the God of Israel.
{5:4} Yahweh, when you went forth out of Seir,
When you marched out of the field of Edom,
The earth trembled, the sky also dropped,
Yes, the clouds dropped water.
{5:5} The mountains quaked at the presence of Yahweh,
Even yon Sinai at the presence of Yahweh, the God of Israel.
{5:6} In the days of Shamgar the son of Anath,
In the days of Jael, the highways were unoccupied,
The travelers walked through byways.
{5:7} The rulers ceased in Israel, they ceased,
Until that I Deborah arose,
That I arose a mother in Israel.
{5:8} They chose new gods;
Then was war in the gates:
Was there a shield or spear seen
Among forty thousand in Israel?
{5:9} My heart is toward the governors of Israel,
Who offered themselves willingly among the people:
Bless you Yahweh.
{5:10} Tell [of it], you who ride on white donkeys,
You who sit on rich carpets,
You who walk by the way.
{5:11} Far from the noise of archers, in the places of drawing water,
There shall they rehearse the righteous acts of Yahweh,
[Even] the righteous acts of his rule in Israel.
Then the people of Yahweh went down to the gates.

{5:12} Awake, awake, Deborah;
Awake, awake, utter a song:
Arise, Barak, and lead away your captives, you son of Abinoam.
{5:13} Then came down a remnant of the nobles [and] the people;
Yahweh came down for me against the mighty.
{5:14} Out of Ephraim [came down] they whose root is in Amalek;
After you, Benjamin, among your peoples;
Out of Machir came down governors,
Out of Zebulun those who handle the marshal's staff.
{5:15} The princes of Issachar were with Deborah;
As was Issachar, so was Barak;
Into the valley they rushed forth at his feet.
By the watercourses of Reuben
There were great resolves of heart.
{5:16} Why sat you among the sheepfolds,
To hear the whistling for the flocks?
At the watercourses of Reuben
There were great searchings of heart.
{5:17} Gilead abode beyond the Jordan:
Dan, why did he remain in ships?
Asher sat still at the haven of the sea,
Abode by his creeks.
{5:18} Zebulun was a people that jeopardized their lives to the death,
Naphtali, on the high places of the field.

{5:19} The kings came and fought;
Then fought the kings of Canaan.
In Taanach by the waters of Megiddo:
They took no gain of money.
{5:20} From the sky the stars fought,
From their courses they fought against Sisera.
{5:21} The river Kishon swept them away,
That ancient river, the river Kishon.
My soul, march on with strength.
{5:22} Then did the horse hoofs stamp
By reason of the prancings, the prancings of their strong ones.
{5:23} Curse you Meroz, said the angel of Yahweh.
Curse you bitterly the inhabitants of it,
Because they didn't come to the help of Yahweh,
To the help of Yahweh against the mighty.
{5:24} Blessed above women shall Jael be,
The wife of Heber the Kenite;
Blessed shall she be above women in the tent.
{5:25} He asked water, [and] she gave him milk;
She brought him butter in a lordly dish.
{5:26} She put her hand to the tent-pin,
Her right hand to the workmen's hammer;
With the hammer she struck Sisera, she struck through his head;
Yes, she pierced and struck through his temples.
{5:27} At her feet he bowed, he fell, he lay;
At her feet he bowed, he fell;
Where he bowed, there he fell down dead.

{5:28} Through the window she looked forth, and cried,
The mother of Sisera [cried] through the lattice,
Why is his chariot so long in coming?
Why do the wheels of his chariots wait?
{5:29} Her wise ladies answered her,
Yes, she returned answer to herself,
{5:30} Have they not found, have they not divided the spoil?
A lady, two ladies to every man;
To Sisera a spoil of dyed garments,
A spoil of dyed garments embroidered,
Of dyed garments embroidered on both sides, on the necks of the spoil?
{5:31} So let all your enemies perish, Yahweh:
But let those who love him be as the sun when he goes forth in his
      might.

   The land had rest forty years.

   {6:1} The children of Israel did that which was evil in the sight of
Yahweh: and Yahweh delivered them into the hand of Midian seven years.
{6:2} The hand of Midian prevailed against Israel; and because of
Midian the children of Israel made them the dens which are in the
mountains, and the caves, and the strongholds. {6:3} So it was, when
Israel had sown, that the Midianites came up, and the Amalekites, and
the children of the east; they came up against them; {6:4} and they
encamped against them, and destroyed the increase of the earth, until
you come to Gaza, and left no sustenance in Israel, neither sheep, nor
ox, nor donkey. {6:5} For they came up with their cattle and their
tents; they came in as locusts for multitude; both they and their
camels were without number: and they came into the land to destroy it.
{6:6} Israel was brought very low because of Midian; and the children
of Israel cried to Yahweh. {6:7} It happened, when the children of
Israel cried to Yahweh because of Midian, {6:8} that Yahweh sent a
prophet to the children of Israel: and he said to them, Thus says
Yahweh, the God of Israel, I brought you up from Egypt, and brought you
forth out of the house of bondage; {6:9} and I delivered you out of the
hand of the Egyptians, and out of the hand of all who oppressed you,
and drove them out from before you, and gave you their land; {6:10} and
I said to you, I am Yahweh your God; you shall not fear the gods of the
Amorites, in whose land you dwell. But you have not listened to my
voice. {6:11} The angel of Yahweh came, and sat under the oak which was
in Ophrah, that pertained to Joash the Abiezrite: and his son Gideon
was beating out wheat in the winepress, to hide it from the Midianites.
{6:12} The angel of Yahweh appeared to him, and said to him, Yahweh is
with you, you mighty man of valor. {6:13} Gideon said to him, Oh, my
lord, if Yahweh is with us, why then has all this happened to us? and
where are all his wondrous works which our fathers told us of, saying,
Did not Yahweh bring us up from Egypt? but now Yahweh has cast us off,
and delivered us into the hand of Midian. {6:14} Yahweh looked at him,
and said, Go in this your might, and save Israel from the hand of
Midian: have not I sent you? {6:15} He said to him, Oh, Lord, with
which shall I save Israel? behold, my family is the poorest in
Manasseh, and I am the least in my father's house. {6:16} Yahweh said
to him, Surely I will be with you, and you shall strike the Midianites
as one man. {6:17} He said to him, If now I have found favor in your
sight, then show me a sign that it is you who talk with me. {6:18}
Please don't go away, until I come to you, and bring out my present,
and lay it before you. He said, I will wait until you come again.
{6:19} Gideon went in, and made ready a kid, and unleavened cakes of an
ephah of meal: the flesh he put in a basket, and he put the broth in a
pot, and brought it out to him under the oak, and presented it. {6:20}
The angel of God said to him, Take the flesh and the unleavened cakes,
and lay them on this rock, and pour out the broth. He did so. {6:21}
Then the angel of Yahweh put forth the end of the staff that was in his
hand, and touched the flesh and the unleavened cakes; and there went up
fire out of the rock, and consumed the flesh and the unleavened cakes;
and the angel of Yahweh departed out of his sight. {6:22} Gideon saw
that he was the angel of Yahweh; and Gideon said, Alas, Lord Yahweh!
because I have seen the angel of Yahweh face to face. {6:23} Yahweh
said to him, Peace be to you; don't be afraid: you shall not die.
{6:24} Then Gideon built an altar there to Yahweh, and called it
Yahweh-shalom: to this day it is yet in Ophrah of the Abiezrites.
{6:25} It happened the same night, that Yahweh said to him, Take your
father's bull, even the second bull seven years old, and throw down the
altar of Baal that your father has, and cut down the Asherah that is by
it; {6:26} and build an altar to Yahweh your God on the top of this
stronghold, in the orderly manner, and take the second bull, and offer
a burnt offering with the wood of the Asherah which you shall cut down.
{6:27} Then Gideon took ten men of his servants, and did as Yahweh had
spoken to him: and it happened, because he feared his father's
household and the men of the city, so that he could not do it by day,
that he did it by night. {6:28} When the men of the city arose early in
the morning, behold, the altar of Baal was broken down, and the Asherah
was cut down that was by it, and the second bull was offered on the
altar that was built. {6:29} They said one to another, Who has done
this thing? When they inquired and asked, they said, Gideon the son of
Joash has done this thing. {6:30} Then the men of the city said to
Joash, Bring out your son, that he may die, because he has broken down
the altar of Baal, and because he has cut down the Asherah that was by
it. {6:31} Joash said to all who stood against him, Will you contend
for Baal? Or will you save him? he who will contend for him, let him be
put to death while [it is yet] morning: if he be a god, let him contend
for himself, because one has broken down his altar. {6:32} Therefore on
that day he named him Jerubbaal, saying, Let Baal contend against him,
because he has broken down his altar. {6:33} Then all the Midianites
and the Amalekites and the children of the east assembled themselves
together; and they passed over, and encamped in the valley of Jezreel.
{6:34} But the Spirit of Yahweh came on Gideon; and he blew a trumpet;
and Abiezer was gathered together after him. {6:35} He sent messengers
throughout all Manasseh; and they also were gathered together after
him: and he sent messengers to Asher, and to Zebulun, and to Naphtali;
and they came up to meet them. {6:36} Gideon said to God, If you will
save Israel by my hand, as you have spoken, {6:37} behold, I will put a
fleece of wool on the threshing floor; if there be dew on the fleece
only, and it be dry on all the ground, then shall I know that you will
save Israel by my hand, as you have spoken. {6:38} It was so; for he
rose up early on the next day, and pressed the fleece together, and
wrung the dew out of the fleece, a bowl full of water. {6:39} Gideon
said to God, Don't let your anger be kindled against me, and I will
speak but this once: Please let me make a trial just this once with the
fleece; let it now be dry only on the fleece, and on all the ground let
there be dew. {6:40} God did so that night: for it was dry on the
fleece only, and there was dew on all the ground.

    {7:1} Then Jerubbaal, who is Gideon, and all the people who were
with him, rose up early, and encamped beside the spring of Harod: and
the camp of Midian was on the north side of them, by the hill of Moreh,
in the valley. {7:2} Yahweh said to Gideon, The people who are with you
are too many for me to give the Midianites into their hand, lest Israel
vaunt themselves against me, saying, My own hand has saved me. {7:3}
Now therefore proclaim in the ears of the people, saying, Whoever is
fearful and trembling, let him return and depart from Mount Gilead.
There returned of the people twenty-two thousand; and there remained
ten thousand. {7:4} Yahweh said to Gideon, The people are yet too many;
bring them down to the water, and I will try them for you there: and it
shall be, that of whom I tell you, This shall go with you, the same
shall go with you; and of whoever I tell you, This shall not go with
you, the same shall not go. {7:5} So he brought down the people to the
water: and Yahweh said to Gideon, Everyone who laps of the water with
his tongue, as a dog laps, him shall you set by himself; likewise
everyone who bows down on his knees to drink. {7:6} The number of those
who lapped, putting their hand to their mouth, was three hundred men:
but all the rest of the people bowed down on their knees to drink
water. {7:7} Yahweh said to Gideon, By the three hundred men who lapped
will I save you, and deliver the Midianites into your hand; and let all
the people go every man to his place. {7:8} So the people took food in
their hand, and their trumpets; and he sent all the men of Israel every
man to his tent, but retained the three hundred men: and the camp of
Midian was beneath him in the valley. {7:9} It happened the same night,
that Yahweh said to him, Arise, get you down into the camp; for I have
delivered it into your hand. {7:10} But if you fear to go down, go you
with Purah your servant down to the camp: {7:11} and you shall hear
what they say; and afterward shall your hands be strengthened to go
down into the camp. Then went he down with Purah his servant to the
outermost part of the armed men who were in the camp. {7:12} The
Midianites and the Amalekites and all the children of the east lay
along in the valley like locusts for multitude; and their camels were
without number, as the sand which is on the sea-shore for multitude.
{7:13} When Gideon had come, behold, there was a man telling a dream to
his fellow; and he said, Behold, I dreamed a dream; and, behold, a cake
of barley bread tumbled into the camp of Midian, and came to the tent,
and struck it so that it fell, and turned it upside down, so that the
tent lay flat. {7:14} His fellow answered, This is nothing else save
the sword of Gideon the son of Joash, a man of Israel: into his hand
God has delivered Midian, and all the army. {7:15} It was so, when
Gideon heard the telling of the dream, and the interpretation of it,
that he worshiped; and he returned into the camp of Israel, and said,
Arise; for Yahweh has delivered into your hand the army of Midian.
{7:16} He divided the three hundred men into three companies, and he
put into the hands of all of them trumpets, and empty pitchers, with
torches within the pitchers. {7:17} He said to them, Look on me, and do
likewise: and, behold, when I come to the outermost part of the camp,
it shall be that, as I do, so shall you do. {7:18} When I blow the
trumpet, I and all who are with me, then blow you the trumpets also on
every side of all the camp, and say, For Yahweh and for Gideon. {7:19}
So Gideon, and the hundred men who were with him, came to the outermost
part of the camp in the beginning of the middle watch, when they had
but newly set the watch: and they blew the trumpets, and broke in
pieces the pitchers that were in their hands. {7:20} The three
companies blew the trumpets, and broke the pitchers, and held the
torches in their left hands, and the trumpets in their right hands with
which to blow; and they cried, The sword of Yahweh and of Gideon.
{7:21} They stood every man in his place round about the camp; and all
the army ran; and they shouted, and put [them] to flight. {7:22} They
blew the three hundred trumpets, and Yahweh set every man's sword
against his fellow, and against all the army; and the army fled as far
as Beth-shittah toward Zererah, as far as the border of Abel Meholah,
by Tabbath. {7:23} The men of Israel were gathered together out of
Naphtali, and out of Asher, and out of all Manasseh, and pursued after
Midian. {7:24} Gideon sent messengers throughout all the hill-country
of Ephraim, saying, Come down against Midian, and take before them the
waters, as far as Beth Barah, even the Jordan. So all the men of
Ephraim were gathered together, and took the waters as far as Beth
Barah, even the Jordan. {7:25} They took the two princes of Midian,
Oreb and Zeeb; and they killed Oreb at the rock of Oreb, and Zeeb they
killed at the winepress of Zeeb, and pursued Midian: and they brought
the heads of Oreb and Zeeb to Gideon beyond the Jordan.

    {8:1} The men of Ephraim said to him, Why have you served us thus,
that you didn't call us, when you went to fight with Midian? They did
chide with him sharply. {8:2} He said to them, What have I now done in
comparison with you? Isn't the gleaning of the grapes of Ephraim better
than the vintage of Abiezer? {8:3} God has delivered into your hand the
princes of Midian, Oreb and Zeeb: and what was I able to do in
comparison with you? Then their anger was abated toward him, when he
had said that. {8:4} Gideon came to the Jordan, [and] passed over, he,
and the three hundred men who were with him, faint, yet pursuing. {8:5}
He said to the men of Succoth, Please give loaves of bread to the
people who follow me; for they are faint, and I am pursuing after Zebah
and Zalmunna, the kings of Midian. {8:6} The princes of Succoth said,
Are the hands of Zebah and Zalmunna now in your hand, that we should
give bread to your army? {8:7} Gideon said, Therefore when Yahweh has
delivered Zebah and Zalmunna into my hand, then I will tear your flesh
with the thorns of the wilderness and with briers. {8:8} He went up
there to Penuel, and spoke to them in like manner; and the men of
Penuel answered him as the men of Succoth had answered. {8:9} He spoke
also to the men of Penuel, saying, When I come again in peace, I will
break down this tower. {8:10} Now Zebah and Zalmunna were in Karkor,
and their armies with them, about fifteen thousand men, all who were
left of all the army of the children of the east; for there fell one
hundred twenty thousand men who drew sword. {8:11} Gideon went up by
the way of those who lived in tents on the east of Nobah and Jogbehah,
and struck the army; for the army was secure. {8:12} Zebah and Zalmunna
fled; and he pursued after them; and he took the two kings of Midian,
Zebah and Zalmunna, and confused all the army. {8:13} Gideon the son of
Joash returned from the battle from the ascent of Heres. {8:14} He
caught a young man of the men of Succoth, and inquired of him: and he
described for him the princes of Succoth, and the elders of it,
seventy-seven men. {8:15} He came to the men of Succoth, and said, See
Zebah and Zalmunna, concerning whom you did taunt me, saying, Are the
hands of Zebah and Zalmunna now in your hand, that we should give bread
to your men who are weary? {8:16} He took the elders of the city, and
thorns of the wilderness and briers, and with them he taught the men of
Succoth. {8:17} He broke down the tower of Penuel, and killed the men
of the city. {8:18} Then said he to Zebah and Zalmunna, What manner of
men were they whom you killed at Tabor? They answered, As you are, so
were they; each one resembled the children of a king. {8:19} He said,
They were my brothers, the sons of my mother: as Yahweh lives, if you
had saved them alive, I would not kill you. {8:20} He said to Jether
his firstborn, Up, and kill them. But the youth didn't draw his sword;
for he feared, because he was yet a youth. {8:21} Then Zebah and
Zalmunna said, Rise you, and fall on us; for as the man is, so is his
strength. Gideon arose, and killed Zebah and Zalmunna, and took the
crescents that were on their camels' necks. {8:22} Then the men of
Israel said to Gideon, Rule you over us, both you, and your son, and
your son's son also; for you have saved us out of the hand of Midian.
{8:23} Gideon said to them, I will not rule over you, neither shall my
son rule over you: Yahweh shall rule over you. {8:24} Gideon said to
them, I would make a request of you, that you would give me every man
the ear-rings of his spoil. (For they had golden ear-rings, because
they were Ishmaelites.) {8:25} They answered, We will willingly give
them. They spread a garment, and did cast therein every man the
ear-rings of his spoil. {8:26} The weight of the golden ear-rings that
he requested was one thousand and seven hundred [shekels] of gold,
besides the crescents, and the pendants, and the purple clothing that
was on the kings of Midian, and besides the chains that were about
their camels' necks. {8:27} Gideon made an ephod of it, and put it in
his city, even in Ophrah: and all Israel played the prostitute after it
there; and it became a snare to Gideon, and to his house. {8:28} So
Midian was subdued before the children of Israel, and they lifted up
their heads no more. The land had rest forty years in the days of
Gideon. {8:29} Jerubbaal the son of Joash went and lived in his own
house. {8:30} Gideon had seventy sons conceived from his body; for he
had many wives. {8:31} His concubine who was in Shechem, she also bore
him a son, and he named him Abimelech. {8:32} Gideon the son of Joash
died in a good old age, and was buried in the tomb of Joash his father,
in Ophrah of the Abiezrites. {8:33} It happened, as soon as Gideon was
dead, that the children of Israel turned again, and played the
prostitute after the Baals, and made Baal Berith their god. {8:34} The
children of Israel didn't remember Yahweh their God, who had delivered
them out of the hand of all their enemies on every side; {8:35} neither
shown they kindness to the house of Jerubbaal, [who is] Gideon,
according to all the goodness which he had shown to Israel.

    {9:1} Abimelech the son of Jerubbaal went to Shechem to his
mother's brothers, and spoke with them, and with all the family of the
house of his mother's father, saying, {9:2} Please speak in the ears of
all the men of Shechem, Whether is better for you, that all the sons of
Jerubbaal, who are seventy persons, rule over you, or that one rule
over you? Remember also that I am your bone and your flesh. {9:3} His
mother's brothers spoke of him in the ears of all the men of Shechem
all these words: and their hearts inclined to follow Abimelech; for
they said, He is our brother. {9:4} They gave him seventy [pieces] of
silver out of the house of Baal Berith, with which Abimelech hired vain
and light fellows, who followed him. {9:5} He went to his father's
house at Ophrah, and killed his brothers the sons of Jerubbaal, being
seventy persons, on one stone: but Jotham the youngest son of Jerubbaal
was left; for he hid himself. {9:6} All the men of Shechem assembled
themselves together, and all the house of Millo, and went and made
Abimelech king, by the oak of the pillar that was in Shechem. {9:7}
When they told it to Jotham, he went and stood on the top of Mount
Gerizim, and lifted up his voice, and cried, and said to them, Listen
to me, you men of Shechem, that God may listen to you. {9:8} The trees
went forth on a time to anoint a king over them; and they said to the
olive tree, Reign you over us. {9:9} But the olive tree said to them,
Should I leave my fatness, with which by me they honor God and man, and
go to wave back and forth over the trees? {9:10} The trees said to the
fig tree, Come you, and reign over us. {9:11} But the fig tree said to
them, Should I leave my sweetness, and my good fruit, and go to wave
back and forth over the trees? {9:12} The trees said to the vine, Come
you, and reign over us. {9:13} The vine said to them, Should I leave my
new wine, which cheers God and man, and go to wave back and forth over
the trees? {9:14} Then said all the trees to the bramble, Come you, and
reign over us. {9:15} The bramble said to the trees, If in truth you
anoint me king over you, then come and take refuge in my shade; and if
not, let fire come out of the bramble, and devour the cedars of
Lebanon. {9:16} Now therefore, if you have dealt truly and righteously,
in that you have made Abimelech king, and if you have dealt well with
Jerubbaal and his house, and have done to him according to the
deserving of his hands {9:17} (for my father fought for you, and
adventured his life, and delivered you out of the hand of Midian:
{9:18} and you are risen up against my father's house this day, and
have slain his sons, seventy persons, on one stone, and have made
Abimelech, the son of his maid-servant, king over the men of Shechem,
because he is your brother); {9:19} if you then have dealt truly and
righteously with Jerubbaal and with his house this day, then rejoice
you in Abimelech, and let him also rejoice in you: {9:20} but if not,
let fire come out from Abimelech, and devour the men of Shechem, and
the house of Millo; and let fire come out from the men of Shechem, and
from the house of Millo, and devour Abimelech. {9:21} Jotham ran away,
and fled, and went to Beer, and lived there, for fear of Abimelech his
brother. {9:22} Abimelech was prince over Israel three years. {9:23}
God sent an evil spirit between Abimelech and the men of Shechem; and
the men of Shechem dealt treacherously with Abimelech: {9:24} that the
violence done to the seventy sons of Jerubbaal might come, and that
their blood might be laid on Abimelech their brother, who killed them,
and on the men of Shechem, who strengthened his hands to kill his
brothers. {9:25} The men of Shechem set liers-in-wait for him on the
tops of the mountains, and they robbed all who came along that way by
them: and it was told Abimelech. {9:26} Gaal the son of Ebed came with
his brothers, and went over to Shechem; and the men of Shechem put
their trust in him. {9:27} They went out into the field, and gathered
their vineyards, and trod [the grapes], and held festival, and went
into the house of their god, and did eat and drink, and cursed
Abimelech. {9:28} Gaal the son of Ebed said, Who is Abimelech, and who
is Shechem, that we should serve him? Isn't he the son of Jerubbaal?
and Zebul his officer? serve you the men of Hamor the father of
Shechem: but why should we serve him? {9:29} Would that this people
were under my hand! then would I remove Abimelech. He said to
Abimelech, Increase your army, and come out. {9:30} When Zebul the
ruler of the city heard the words of Gaal the son of Ebed, his anger
was kindled. {9:31} He sent messengers to Abimelech craftily, saying,
Behold, Gaal the son of Ebed and his brothers are come to Shechem; and,
behold, they constrain the city [to take part] against you. {9:32} Now
therefore, up by night, you and the people who are with you, and lie in
wait in the field: {9:33} and it shall be, that in the morning, as soon
as the sun is up, you shall rise early, and rush on the city; and,
behold, when he and the people who are with him come out against you,
then may you do to them as you shall find occasion. {9:34} Abimelech
rose up, and all the people who were with him, by night, and they laid
wait against Shechem in four companies. {9:35} Gaal the son of Ebed
went out, and stood in the entrance of the gate of the city: and
Abimelech rose up, and the people who were with him, from the ambush.
{9:36} When Gaal saw the people, he said to Zebul, Behold, there come
people down from the tops of the mountains. Zebul said to him, You see
the shadow of the mountains as if they were men. {9:37} Gaal spoke
again and said, Behold, there come people down by the middle of the
land, and one company comes by the way of the oak of Meonenim. {9:38}
Then said Zebul to him, Where is now your mouth, that you said, Who is
Abimelech, that we should serve him? is not this the people that you
have despised? go out now, I pray, and fight with them. {9:39} Gaal
went out before the men of Shechem, and fought with Abimelech. {9:40}
Abimelech chased him, and he fled before him, and there fell many
wounded, even to the entrance of the gate. {9:41} Abimelech lived at
Arumah: and Zebul drove out Gaal and his brothers, that they should not
dwell in Shechem. {9:42} It happened on the next day, that the people
went out into the field; and they told Abimelech. {9:43} He took the
people, and divided them into three companies, and laid wait in the
field; and he looked, and, behold, the people came forth out of the
city; He rose up against them, and struck them. {9:44} Abimelech, and
the companies that were with him, rushed forward, and stood in the
entrance of the gate of the city: and the two companies rushed on all
who were in the field, and struck them. {9:45} Abimelech fought against
the city all that day; and he took the city, and killed the people who
were therein: and he beat down the city, and sowed it with salt. {9:46}
When all the men of the tower of Shechem heard of it, they entered into
the stronghold of the house of Elberith. {9:47} It was told Abimelech
that all the men of the tower of Shechem were gathered together. {9:48}
Abimelech got him up to Mount Zalmon, he and all the people who were
with him; and Abimelech took an axe in his hand, and cut down a bough
from the trees, and took it up, and laid it on his shoulder: and he
said to the people who were with him, What you have seen me do, make
haste, and do as I have done. {9:49} All the people likewise cut down
every man his bough, and followed Abimelech, and put them to the
stronghold, and set the stronghold on fire on them; so that all the men
of the tower of Shechem died also, about a thousand men and women.
{9:50} Then went Abimelech to Thebez, and encamped against Thebez, and
took it. {9:51} But there was a strong tower within the city, and there
fled all the men and women, and all they of the city, and shut
themselves in, and got them up to the roof of the tower. {9:52}
Abimelech came to the tower, and fought against it, and drew near to
the door of the tower to burn it with fire. {9:53} A certain woman cast
an upper millstone on Abimelech's head, and broke his skull. {9:54}
Then he called hastily to the young man his armor bearer, and said to
him, Draw your sword, and kill me, that men not say of me, A woman
killed him. His young man thrust him through, and he died. {9:55} When
the men of Israel saw that Abimelech was dead, they departed every man
to his place. {9:56} Thus God requited the wickedness of Abimelech,
which he did to his father, in killing his seventy brothers; {9:57} and
all the wickedness of the men of Shechem did God requite on their
heads: and on them came the curse of Jotham the son of Jerubbaal.

   {10:1} After Abimelech there arose to save Israel Tola the son of
Puah, the son of Dodo, a man of Issachar; and he lived in Shamir in the
hill-country of Ephraim. {10:2} He judged Israel twenty-three years,
and died, and was buried in Shamir. {10:3} After him arose Jair, the
Gileadite; and he judged Israel twenty-two years. {10:4} He had thirty
sons who rode on thirty donkey colts, and they had thirty cities, which
are called Havvoth Jair to this day, which are in the land of Gilead.
{10:5} Jair died, and was buried in Kamon. {10:6} The children of
Israel again did that which was evil in the sight of Yahweh, and served
the Baals, and the Ashtaroth, and the gods of Syria, and the gods of
Sidon, and the gods of Moab, and the gods of the children of Ammon, and
the gods of the Philistines; and they forsook Yahweh, and didn't serve
him. {10:7} The anger of Yahweh was kindled against Israel, and he sold
them into the hand of the Philistines, and into the hand of the
children of Ammon. {10:8} They vexed and oppressed the children of
Israel that year: eighteen years [oppressed they] all the children of
Israel that were beyond the Jordan in the land of the Amorites, which
is in Gilead. {10:9} The children of Ammon passed over the Jordan to
fight also against Judah, and against Benjamin, and against the house
of Ephraim; so that Israel was sore distressed. {10:10} The children of
Israel cried to Yahweh, saying, We have sinned against you, even
because we have forsaken our God, and have served the Baals. {10:11}
Yahweh said to the children of Israel, Didn't I save you from the
Egyptians, and from the Amorites, from the children of Ammon, and from
the Philistines? {10:12} The Sidonians also, and the Amalekites, and
the Maonites, did oppress you; and you cried to me, and I saved you out
of their hand. {10:13} Yet you have forsaken me, and served other gods:
therefore I will save you no more. {10:14} Go and cry to the gods which
you have chosen; let them save you in the time of your distress.
{10:15} The children of Israel said to Yahweh, We have sinned: do you
to us whatever seems good to you; only deliver us, we pray you, this
day. {10:16} They put away the foreign gods from among them, and served
Yahweh; and his soul was grieved for the misery of Israel. {10:17} Then
the children of Ammon were gathered together, and encamped in Gilead.
The children of Israel assembled themselves together, and encamped in
Mizpah. {10:18} The people, the princes of Gilead, said one to another,
What man is he who will begin to fight against the children of Ammon?
he shall be head over all the inhabitants of Gilead.

   {11:1} Now Jephthah the Gileadite was a mighty man of valor, and he
was the son of a prostitute: and Gilead became the father of Jephthah.
{11:2} Gilead's wife bore him sons; and when his wife's sons grew up,
they drove out Jephthah, and said to him, You shall not inherit in our
father's house; for you are the son of another woman. {11:3} Then
Jephthah fled from his brothers, and lived in the land of Tob: and
there were gathered vain fellows to Jephthah, and they went out with
him. {11:4} It happened after a while, that the children of Ammon made
war against Israel. {11:5} It was so, that when the children of Ammon
made war against Israel, the elders of Gilead went to get Jephthah out
of the land of Tob; {11:6} and they said to Jephthah, Come and be our
chief, that we may fight with the children of Ammon. {11:7} Jephthah
said to the elders of Gilead, Didn't you hate me, and drive me out of
my father's house? and why are you come to me now when you are in
distress? {11:8} The elders of Gilead said to Jephthah, Therefore are
we turned again to you now, that you may go with us, and fight with the
children of Ammon; and you shall be our head over all the inhabitants
of Gilead. {11:9} Jephthah said to the elders of Gilead, If you bring
me home again to fight with the children of Ammon, and Yahweh deliver
them before me, shall I be your head? {11:10} The elders of Gilead said
to Jephthah, Yahweh shall be witness between us; surely according to
your word so will we do. {11:11} Then Jephthah went with the elders of
Gilead, and the people made him head and chief over them: and Jephthah
spoke all his words before Yahweh in Mizpah. {11:12} Jephthah sent
messengers to the king of the children of Ammon, saying, What have you
to do with me, that you are come to me to fight against my land?
{11:13} The king of the children of Ammon answered to the messengers of
Jephthah, Because Israel took away my land, when he came up out of
Egypt, from the Arnon even to the Jabbok, and to the Jordan: now
therefore restore those [lands] again peaceably. {11:14} Jephthah sent
messengers again to the king of the children of Ammon; {11:15} and he
said to him, Thus says Jephthah: Israel didn't take away the land of
Moab, nor the land of the children of Ammon, {11:16} but when they came
up from Egypt, and Israel went through the wilderness to the Red Sea,
and came to Kadesh; {11:17} then Israel sent messengers to the king of
Edom, saying, Please let me pass through your land; but the king of
Edom didn't listen. In the same way, he sent to the king of Moab; but
he would not: and Israel abode in Kadesh. {11:18} Then they went
through the wilderness, and went around the land of Edom, and the land
of Moab, and came by the east side of the land of Moab, and they
encamped on the other side of the Arnon; but they didn't come within
the border of Moab, for the Arnon was the border of Moab. {11:19}
Israel sent messengers to Sihon king of the Amorites, the king of
Heshbon; and Israel said to him, Let us pass, we pray you, through your
land to my place. {11:20} But Sihon didn't trust Israel to pass through
his border; but Sihon gathered all his people together, and encamped in
Jahaz, and fought against Israel. {11:21} Yahweh, the God of Israel,
delivered Sihon and all his people into the hand of Israel, and they
struck them: so Israel possessed all the land of the Amorites, the
inhabitants of that country. {11:22} They possessed all the border of
the Amorites, from the Arnon even to the Jabbok, and from the
wilderness even to the Jordan. {11:23} So now Yahweh, the God of
Israel, has dispossessed the Amorites from before his people Israel,
and should you possess them? {11:24} Won't you possess that which
Chemosh your god gives you to possess? So whoever Yahweh our God has
dispossessed from before us, them will we possess. {11:25} Now are you
anything better than Balak the son of Zippor, king of Moab? did he ever
strive against Israel, or did he ever fight against them? {11:26} While
Israel lived in Heshbon and its towns, and in Aroer and its towns, and
in all the cities that are along by the side of the Arnon, three
hundred years; why didn't you recover them within that time? {11:27} I
therefore have not sinned against you, but you do me wrong to war
against me: Yahweh, the Judge, be judge this day between the children
of Israel and the children of Ammon. {11:28} However the king of the
children of Ammon didn't listen to the words of Jephthah which he sent
him. {11:29} Then the Spirit of Yahweh came on Jephthah, and he passed
over Gilead and Manasseh, and passed over Mizpeh of Gilead, and from
Mizpeh of Gilead he passed over to the children of Ammon. {11:30}
Jephthah vowed a vow to Yahweh, and said, If you will indeed deliver
the children of Ammon into my hand, {11:31} then it shall be, that
whatever comes forth from the doors of my house to meet me, when I
return in peace from the children of Ammon, it shall be Yahweh's, and I
will offer it up for a burnt offering. {11:32} So Jephthah passed over
to the children of Ammon to fight against them; and Yahweh delivered
them into his hand. {11:33} He struck them from Aroer until you come to
Minnith, even twenty cities, and to Abelcheramim, with a very great
slaughter. So the children of Ammon were subdued before the children of
Israel. {11:34} Jephthah came to Mizpah to his house; and, behold, his
daughter came out to meet him with tambourines and with dances: and she
was his only child; besides her he had neither son nor daughter.
{11:35} It happened, when he saw her, that he tore his clothes, and
said, Alas, my daughter! you have brought me very low, and you are one
of those who trouble me; for I have opened my mouth to Yahweh, and I
can't go back. {11:36} She said to him, My father, you have opened your
mouth to Yahweh; do to me according to that which has proceeded out of
your mouth, because Yahweh has taken vengeance for you on your enemies,
even on the children of Ammon. {11:37} She said to her father, Let this
thing be done for me: let me alone two months, that I may depart and go
down on the mountains, and bewail my virginity, I and my companions.
{11:38} He said, Go. He sent her away for two months: and she departed,
she and her companions, and mourned her virginity on the mountains.
{11:39} It happened at the end of two months, that she returned to her
father, who did with her according to his vow which he had vowed: and
she was a virgin. It was a custom in Israel, {11:40} that the daughters
of Israel went yearly to celebrate the daughter of Jephthah the
Gileadite four days in a year.

   {12:1} The men of Ephraim were gathered together, and passed
northward; and they said to Jephthah, Why did you pass over to fight
against the children of Ammon, and didn't call us to go with you? we
will burn your house on you with fire. {12:2} Jephthah said to them, I
and my people were at great strife with the children of Ammon; and when
I called you, you didn't save me out of their hand. {12:3} When I saw
that you didn't save me, I put my life in my hand, and passed over
against the children of Ammon, and Yahweh delivered them into my hand:
why then are you come up to me this day, to fight against me? {12:4}
Then Jephthah gathered together all the men of Gilead, and fought with
Ephraim; and the men of Gilead struck Ephraim, because they said, You
are fugitives of Ephraim, you Gileadites, in the midst of Ephraim,
[and] in the midst of Manasseh. {12:5} The Gileadites took the fords of
the Jordan against the Ephraimites. It was so, that when [any of] the
fugitives of Ephraim said, Let me go over, the men of Gilead said to
him, Are you an Ephraimite? If he said, No; {12:6} then said they to
him, Say now Shibboleth; and he said Sibboleth; for he couldn't manage
to pronounce it right: then they laid hold on him, and killed him at
the fords of the Jordan. There fell at that time of Ephraim forty-two
thousand. {12:7} Jephthah judged Israel six years. Then died Jephthah
the Gileadite, and was buried in [one of] the cities of Gilead. {12:8}
After him Ibzan of Bethlehem judged Israel. {12:9} He had thirty sons;
and thirty daughters he sent abroad, and thirty daughters he brought in
from abroad for his sons. He judged Israel seven years. {12:10} Ibzan
died, and was buried at Bethlehem. {12:11} After him Elon the
Zebulunite judged Israel; and he judged Israel ten years. {12:12} Elon
the Zebulunite died, and was buried in Aijalon in the land of Zebulun.
{12:13} After him Abdon the son of Hillel the Pirathonite judged
Israel. {12:14} He had forty sons and thirty sons' sons, who rode on
seventy donkey colts: and he judged Israel eight years. {12:15} Abdon
the son of Hillel the Pirathonite died, and was buried in Pirathon in
the land of Ephraim, in the hill-country of the Amalekites.

   {13:1} The children of Israel again did that which was evil in the
sight of Yahweh; and Yahweh delivered them into the hand of the
Philistines forty years. {13:2} There was a certain man of Zorah, of
the family of the Danites, whose name was Manoah; and his wife was
barren, and didn't bear. {13:3} The angel of Yahweh appeared to the
woman, and said to her, See now, you are barren, and don't bear; but
you shall conceive, and bear a son. {13:4} Now therefore please beware
and drink no wine nor strong drink, and don't eat any unclean thing:
{13:5} for, behold, you shall conceive, and bear a son; and no razor
shall come on his head; for the child shall be a Nazirite to God from
the womb: and he shall begin to save Israel out of the hand of the
Philistines. {13:6} Then the woman came and told her husband, saying, A
man of God came to me, and his face was like the face of the angel of
God, very awesome; and I didn't ask him whence he was, neither did he
tell me his name: {13:7} but he said to me, Behold, you shall conceive,
and bear a son; and now drink no wine nor strong drink, and eat not any
unclean thing; for the child shall be a Nazirite to God from the womb
to the day of his death. {13:8} Then Manoah entreated Yahweh, and said,
Oh, Lord, please let the man of God whom you did send come again to us,
and teach us what we shall do to the child who shall be born. {13:9}
God listened to the voice of Manoah; and the angel of God came again to
the woman as she sat in the field: but Manoah, her husband, wasn't with
her. {13:10} The woman made haste, and ran, and told her husband, and
said to him, Behold, the man has appeared to me, who came to me the
[other] day. {13:11} Manoah arose, and went after his wife, and came to
the man, and said to him, Are you the man who spoke to the woman? He
said, I am. {13:12} Manoah said, Now let your words happen: what shall
be the ordering of the child, and [how] shall we do to him? {13:13} The
angel of Yahweh said to Manoah, Of all that I said to the woman let her
beware. {13:14} She may not eat of anything that comes of the vine,
neither let her drink wine or strong drink, nor eat any unclean thing;
all that I commanded her let her observe. {13:15} Manoah said to the
angel of Yahweh, I pray you, let us detain you, that we may make ready
a kid for you. {13:16} The angel of Yahweh said to Manoah, Though you
detain me, I won't eat of your bread; and if you will make ready a
burnt offering, you must offer it to Yahweh. For Manoah didn't know
that he was the angel of Yahweh. {13:17} Manoah said to the angel of
Yahweh, What is your name, that when your words happen, we may honor
you? {13:18} The angel of Yahweh said to him, Why do you ask after my
name, seeing it is wonderful? {13:19} So Manoah took the kid with the
meal-offering, and offered it on the rock to Yahweh: and [the angel]
did wondrously, and Manoah and his wife looked on. {13:20} For it
happened, when the flame went up toward the sky from off the altar,
that the angel of Yahweh ascended in the flame of the altar: and Manoah
and his wife looked on; and they fell on their faces to the ground.
{13:21} But the angel of Yahweh did no more appear to Manoah or to his
wife. Then Manoah knew that he was the angel of Yahweh. {13:22} Manoah
said to his wife, We shall surely die, because we have seen God.
{13:23} But his wife said to him, If Yahweh were pleased to kill us, he
wouldn't have received a burnt offering and a meal-offering at our
hand, neither would he have shown us all these things, nor would at
this time have told such things as these. {13:24} The woman bore a son,
and named him Samson: and the child grew, and Yahweh blessed him.
{13:25} The Spirit of Yahweh began to move him in Mahaneh-dan, between
Zorah and Eshtaol.

   {14:1} Samson went down to Timnah, and saw a woman in Timnah of the
daughters of the Philistines. {14:2} He came up, and told his father
and his mother, and said, I have seen a woman in Timnah of the
daughters of the Philistines: now therefore get her for me as wife.
{14:3} Then his father and his mother said to him, Is there never a
woman among the daughters of your brothers, or among all my people,
that you go to take a wife of the uncircumcised Philistines? Samson
said to his father, Get her for me; for she pleases me well. {14:4} But
his father and his mother didn't know that it was of Yahweh; for he
sought an occasion against the Philistines. Now at that time the
Philistines had rule over Israel. {14:5} Then went Samson down, and his
father and his mother, to Timnah, and came to the vineyards of Timnah:
and, behold, a young lion roared against him. {14:6} The Spirit of
Yahweh came mightily on him, and he tore him as he would have torn a
kid; and he had nothing in his hand: but he didn't tell his father or
his mother what he had done. {14:7} He went down, and talked with the
woman, and she pleased Samson well. {14:8} After a while he returned to
take her; and he turned aside to see the carcass of the lion: and,
behold, there was a swarm of bees in the body of the lion, and honey.
{14:9} He took it into his hands, and went on, eating as he went; and
he came to his father and mother, and gave to them, and they ate: but
he didn't tell them that he had taken the honey out of the body of the
lion. {14:10} His father went down to the woman: and Samson made there
a feast; for so used the young men to do. {14:11} It happened, when
they saw him, that they brought thirty companions to be with him.
{14:12} Samson said to them, Let me now put forth a riddle to you: if
you can declare it to me within the seven days of the feast, and find
it out, then I will give you thirty linen garments and thirty changes
of clothing; {14:13} but if you can't declare it to me, then shall you
give me thirty linen garments and thirty changes of clothing. They said
to him, Put forth your riddle, that we may hear it. {14:14} He said to
them,
Out of the eater came forth food,
Out of the strong came forth sweetness.

   They couldn't in three days declare the riddle. {14:15} It happened
on the seventh day, that they said to Samson's wife, Entice your
husband, that he may declare to us the riddle, lest we burn you and
your father's house with fire: have you called us to impoverish us? is
it not [so]? {14:16} Samson's wife wept before him, and said, You do
but hate me, and don't love me: you have put forth a riddle to the
children of my people, and haven't told it me. He said to her, Behold,
I haven't told it my father nor my mother, and shall I tell you?
{14:17} She wept before him the seven days, while their feast lasted:
and it happened on the seventh day, that he told her, because she
pressed him sore; and she told the riddle to the children of her
people. {14:18} The men of the city said to him on the seventh day
before the sun went down, What is sweeter than honey? and what is
stronger than a lion? He said to them,
If you hadn't plowed with my heifer,
You wouldn't have found out my riddle.

   {14:19} The Spirit of Yahweh came mightily on him, and he went down
to Ashkelon, and struck thirty men of them, and took their spoil, and
gave the changes [of clothing] to those who declared the riddle. His
anger was kindled, and he went up to his father's house. {14:20} But
Samson's wife was [given] to his companion, whom he had used as his
friend.

   {15:1} But it happened after a while, in the time of wheat harvest,
that Samson visited his wife with a kid; and he said, I will go in to
my wife into the chamber. But her father wouldn't allow him to go in.
{15:2} Her father said, I most assuredly thought that you had utterly
hated her; therefore I gave her to your companion: isn't her younger
sister more beautiful than she? Please take her, instead. {15:3} Samson
said to them, This time shall I be blameless in regard of the
Philistines, when I do them a mischief. {15:4} Samson went and caught
three hundred foxes, and took firebrands, and turned tail to tail, and
put a firebrand in the midst between every two tails. {15:5} When he
had set the brands on fire, he let them go into the standing grain of
the Philistines, and burnt up both the shocks and the standing grain,
and also the olive groves. {15:6} Then the Philistines said, Who has
done this? They said, Samson, the son-in-law of the Timnite, because he
has taken his wife, and given her to his companion. The Philistines
came up, and burnt her and her father with fire. {15:7} Samson said to
them, If you do after this manner, surely I will be avenged of you, and
after that I will cease. {15:8} He struck them hip and thigh with a
great slaughter: and he went down and lived in the cleft of the rock of
Etam. {15:9} Then the Philistines went up, and encamped in Judah, and
spread themselves in Lehi. {15:10} The men of Judah said, Why are you
come up against us? They said, To bind Samson are we come up, to do to
him as he has done to us. {15:11} Then three thousand men of Judah went
down to the cleft of the rock of Etam, and said to Samson, "Don't you
know that the Philistines are rulers over us? What then is this that
you have done to us?" He said to them, As they did to me, so have I
done to them. {15:12} They said to him, We have come down to bind you,
that we may deliver you into the hand of the Philistines. Samson said
to them, Swear to me that you will not fall on me yourselves. {15:13}
They spoke to him, saying, No; but we will bind you fast, and deliver
you into their hand: but surely we will not kill you. They bound him
with two new ropes, and brought him up from the rock. {15:14} When he
came to Lehi, the Philistines shouted as they met him: and the Spirit
of Yahweh came mightily on him, and the ropes that were on his arms
became as flax that was burnt with fire, and his bands dropped from off
his hands. {15:15} He found a fresh jawbone of a donkey, and put forth
his hand, and took it, and struck a thousand men therewith. {15:16}
Samson said, With the jawbone of a donkey, heaps on heaps, With the
jawbone of a donkey I have struck a thousand men. {15:17} It happened,
when he had made an end of speaking, that he cast away the jawbone out
of his hand; and that place was called Ramath Lehi. {15:18} He was very
thirsty, and called on Yahweh, and said, You have given this great
deliverance by the hand of your servant; and now shall I die for
thirst, and fall into the hand of the uncircumcised. {15:19} But God
split the hollow place that is in Lehi, and water came out of it. When
he had drunk, his spirit came again, and he revived: therefore the name
of it was called En Hakkore, which is in Lehi, to this day. {15:20} He
judged Israel in the days of the Philistines twenty years.

   {16:1} Samson went to Gaza, and saw there a prostitute, and went in
to her. {16:2} [It was told] the Gazites, saying, Samson is come here.
They compassed him in, and laid wait for him all night in the gate of
the city, and were quiet all the night, saying, [Let be] until morning
light, then we will kill him. {16:3} Samson lay until midnight, and
arose at midnight, and laid hold of the doors of the gate of the city,
and the two posts, and plucked them up, bar and all, and put them on
his shoulders, and carried them up to the top of the mountain that is
before Hebron. {16:4} It came to pass afterward, that he loved a woman
in the valley of Sorek, whose name was Delilah. {16:5} The lords of the
Philistines came up to her, and said to her, Entice him, and see in
which his great strength lies, and by what means we may prevail against
him, that we may bind him to afflict him: and we will each give you of
us eleven hundred [pieces] of silver. {16:6} Delilah said to Samson,
Tell me, Please, in which your great strength lies, and with which you
might be bound to afflict you. {16:7} Samson said to her, If they bind
me with seven green cords that were never dried, then shall I become
weak, and be as another man. {16:8} Then the lords of the Philistines
brought up to her seven green cords which had not been dried, and she
bound him with them. {16:9} Now she had liers-in-wait abiding in the
inner chamber. She said to him, The Philistines are on you, Samson. He
broke the cords, as a string of tow is broken when it touches the fire.
So his strength was not known. {16:10} Delilah said to Samson, Behold,
you have mocked me, and told me lies: now tell me, Please, with which
you might be bound. {16:11} He said to her, If they only bind me with
new ropes with which no work has been done, then shall I become weak,
and be as another man. {16:12} So Delilah took new ropes, and bound him
therewith, and said to him, The Philistines are on you, Samson. The
liers-in-wait were abiding in the inner chamber. He broke them off his
arms like a thread. {16:13} Delilah said to Samson, Hitherto you have
mocked me, and told me lies: tell me with which you might be bound. He
said to her, If you weave the seven locks of my head with the web.
{16:14} She fastened it with the pin, and said to him, The Philistines
are on you, Samson. He awakened out of his sleep, and plucked away the
pin of the beam, and the web. {16:15} She said to him, How can you say,
I love you, when your heart is not with me? you have mocked me these
three times, and have not told me in which your great strength lies.
{16:16} It happened, when she pressed him daily with her words, and
urged him, that his soul was vexed to death. {16:17} He told her all
his heart, and said to her, "No razor has ever come on my head; for I
have been a Nazirite to God from my mother's womb. If I am shaved, then
my strength will go from me, and I will become weak, and be like any
other man." {16:18} When Delilah saw that he had told her all his
heart, she sent and called for the lords of the Philistines, saying,
Come up this once, for he has told me all his heart. Then the lords of
the Philistines came up to her, and brought the money in their hand.
{16:19} She made him sleep on her knees; and she called for a man, and
shaved off the seven locks of his head; and she began to afflict him,
and his strength went from him. {16:20} She said, The Philistines are
on you, Samson. He awoke out of his sleep, and said, I will go out as
at other times, and shake myself free. But he didn't know that Yahweh
had departed from him. {16:21} The Philistines laid hold on him, and
put out his eyes; and they brought him down to Gaza, and bound him with
fetters of brass; and he did grind in the prison-house. {16:22} However
the hair of his head began to grow again after he was shaved. {16:23}
The lords of the Philistines gathered them together to offer a great
sacrifice to Dagon their god, and to rejoice; for they said, Our god
has delivered Samson our enemy into our hand. {16:24} When the people
saw him, they praised their god; for they said, Our god has delivered
into our hand our enemy, and the destroyer of our country, who has
slain many of us. {16:25} It happened, when their hearts were merry,
that they said, Call for Samson, that he may make us sport. They called
for Samson out of the prison-house; and he made sport before them. They
set him between the pillars: {16:26} and Samson said to the boy who
held him by the hand, Allow me that I may feel the pillars whereupon
the house rests, that I may lean on them. {16:27} Now the house was
full of men and women; and all the lords of the Philistines were there;
and there were on the roof about three thousand men and women, who saw
while Samson made sport. {16:28} Samson called to Yahweh, and said,
Lord Yahweh, remember me, Please, and strengthen me, Please, only this
once, God, that I may be at once avenged of the Philistines for my two
eyes. {16:29} Samson took hold of the two middle pillars on which the
house rested, and leaned on them, the one with his right hand, and the
other with his left. {16:30} Samson said, Let me die with the
Philistines. He bowed himself with all his might; and the house fell on
the lords, and on all the people who were therein. So the dead that he
killed at his death were more than those who he killed in his life.
{16:31} Then his brothers and all the house of his father came down,
and took him, and brought him up, and buried him between Zorah and
Eshtaol in the burying-place of Manoah his father. He judged Israel
twenty years.

   {17:1} There was a man of the hill-country of Ephraim, whose name
was Micah. {17:2} He said to his mother, The eleven hundred [pieces] of
silver that were taken from you, about which you did utter a curse, and
did also speak it in my ears, behold, the silver is with me; I took it.
His mother said, Blessed be my son of Yahweh. {17:3} He restored the
eleven hundred [pieces] of silver to his mother; and his mother said, I
most assuredly dedicate the silver to Yahweh from my hand for my son,
to make an engraved image and a molten image: now therefore I will
restore it to you. {17:4} When he restored the money to his mother, his
mother took two hundred [pieces] of silver, and gave them to the
founder, who made of it an engraved image and a molten image: and it
was in the house of Micah. {17:5} The man Micah had a house of gods,
and he made an ephod, and teraphim, and consecrated one of his sons,
who became his priest. {17:6} In those days there was no king in
Israel: every man did that which was right in his own eyes. {17:7}
There was a young man out of Bethlehem Judah, of the family of Judah,
who was a Levite; and he sojourned there. {17:8} The man departed out
of the city, out of Bethlehem Judah, to sojourn where he could find [a
place], and he came to the hill-country of Ephraim to the house of
Micah, as he traveled. {17:9} Micah said to him, Whence come you? He
said to him, I am a Levite of Bethlehem Judah, and I go to sojourn
where I may find [a place]. {17:10} Micah said to him, Dwell with me,
and be to me a father and a priest, and I will give you ten [pieces] of
silver by the year, and a suit of clothing, and your food. So the
Levite went in. {17:11} The Levite was content to dwell with the man;
and the young man was to him as one of his sons. {17:12} Micah
consecrated the Levite, and the young man became his priest, and was in
the house of Micah. {17:13} Then said Micah, Now know I that Yahweh
will do me good, seeing I have a Levite to my priest.

   {18:1} In those days there was no king in Israel: and in those days
the tribe of the Danites sought them an inheritance to dwell in; for to
that day [their] inheritance had not fallen to them among the tribes of
Israel. {18:2} The children of Dan sent of their family five men from
their whole number, men of valor, from Zorah, and from Eshtaol, to spy
out the land, and to search it; and they said to them, Go, search the
land. They came to the hill-country of Ephraim, to the house of Micah,
and lodged there. {18:3} When they were by the house of Micah, they
knew the voice of the young man the Levite; and they turned aside
there, and said to him, Who brought you here? and what do you in this
place? and what have you here? {18:4} He said to them, Thus and thus
has Micah dealt with me, and he has hired me, and I am become his
priest. {18:5} They said to him, Ask counsel, we pray you, of God, that
we may know whether our way which we go shall be prosperous. {18:6} The
priest said to them, Go in peace: before Yahweh is your way wherein you
go. {18:7} Then the five men departed, and came to Laish, and saw the
people who were therein, how they lived in security, after the manner
of the Sidonians, quiet and secure; for there was none in the land,
possessing authority, that might put [them] to shame in anything, and
they were far from the Sidonians, and had no dealings with any man.
{18:8} They came to their brothers to Zorah and Eshtaol: and their
brothers said to them, What [say] you? {18:9} They said, Arise, and let
us go up against them; for we have seen the land, and, behold, it is
very good: and are you still? don't be slothful to go and to enter in
to possess the land. {18:10} When you go, you shall come to a people
secure, and the land is large; for God has given it into your hand, a
place where there is no want of anything that is in the earth. {18:11}
There set forth from there of the family of the Danites, out of Zorah
and out of Eshtaol, six hundred men girt with weapons of war. {18:12}
They went up, and encamped in Kiriath Jearim, in Judah: therefore they
called that place Mahaneh-dan, to this day; behold, it is behind
Kiriath Jearim. {18:13} They passed there to the hill-country of
Ephraim, and came to the house of Micah. {18:14} Then the five men who
went to spy out the country of Laish answered, and said to their
brothers, Do you know that there is in these houses an ephod, and
teraphim, and an engraved image, and a molten image? now therefore
consider what you have to do. {18:15} They turned aside there, and came
to the house of the young man the Levite, even to the house of Micah,
and asked him of his welfare. {18:16} The six hundred men girt with
their weapons of war, who were of the children of Dan, stood by the
entrance of the gate. {18:17} The five men who went to spy out the land
went up, and came in there, and took the engraved image, and the ephod,
and the teraphim, and the molten image: and the priest stood by the
entrance of the gate with the six hundred men girt with weapons of war.
{18:18} When these went into Micah's house, and fetched the engraved
image, the ephod, and the teraphim, and the molten image, the priest
said to them, What do you? {18:19} They said to him, Hold your peace,
lay your hand on your mouth, and go with us, and be to us a father and
a priest: is it better for you to be priest to the house of one man, or
to be priest to a tribe and a family in Israel? {18:20} The priest's
heart was glad, and he took the ephod, and the teraphim, and the
engraved image, and went in the midst of the people. {18:21} So they
turned and departed, and put the little ones and the cattle and the
goods before them. {18:22} When they were a good way from the house of
Micah, the men who were in the houses near to Micah's house were
gathered together, and overtook the children of Dan. {18:23} They cried
to the children of Dan. They turned their faces, and said to Micah,
What ails you, that you come with such a company? {18:24} He said, you
have taken away my gods which I made, and the priest, and are gone
away, and what have I more? and how then say you to me, What ails you?
{18:25} The children of Dan said to him, "Don't let your voice be heard
among us, lest angry fellows fall on you, and you lose your life, with
the lives of your household." {18:26} The children of Dan went their
way: and when Micah saw that they were too strong for him, he turned
and went back to his house. {18:27} They took that which Micah had
made, and the priest whom he had, and came to Laish, to a people quiet
and secure, and struck them with the edge of the sword; and they burnt
the city with fire. {18:28} There was no deliverer, because it was far
from Sidon, and they had no dealings with any man; and it was in the
valley that lies by Beth Rehob. They built the city, and lived therein.
{18:29} They called the name of the city Dan, after the name of Dan
their father, who was born to Israel: however the name of the city was
Laish at the first. {18:30} The children of Dan set up for themselves
the engraved image: and Jonathan, the son of Gershom, the son of Moses,
he and his sons were priests to the tribe of the Danites until the day
of the captivity of the land. {18:31} So they set them up Micah's
engraved image which he made, all the time that the house of God was in
Shiloh.

   {19:1} It happened in those days, when there was no king in Israel,
that there was a certain Levite sojourning on the farther side of the
hill-country of Ephraim, who took to him a concubine out of Bethlehem
Judah. {19:2} His concubine played the prostitute against him, and went
away from him to her father's house to Bethlehem Judah, and was there
the space of four months. {19:3} Her husband arose, and went after her,
to speak kindly to her, to bring her again, having his servant with
him, and a couple of donkeys: and she brought him into her father's
house; and when the father of the young lady saw him, he rejoiced to
meet him. {19:4} His father-in-law, the young lady's father, retained
him; and he abode with him three days: so they ate and drink, and
lodged there. {19:5} It happened on the fourth day, that they arose
early in the morning, and he rose up to depart: and the young lady's
father said to his son-in-law, Strengthen your heart with a morsel of
bread, and afterward you shall go your way. {19:6} So they sat down,
and ate and drink, both of them together: and the young lady's father
said to the man, Please be pleased to stay all night, and let your
heart be merry. {19:7} The man rose up to depart; but his father-in-law
urged him, and he lodged there again. {19:8} He arose early in the
morning on the fifth day to depart; and the young lady's father said,
Please strengthen your heart and stay until the day declines; and they
ate, both of them. {19:9} When the man rose up to depart, he, and his
concubine, and his servant, his father-in-law, the young lady's father,
said to him, Behold, now the day draws toward evening, please stay all
night: behold, the day grows to an end, lodge here, that your heart may
be merry; and tomorrow get you early on your way, that you may go home.
{19:10} But the man wouldn't stay that night, but he rose up and
departed, and came over against Jebus (the same is Jerusalem): and
there were with him a couple of donkeys saddled; his concubine also was
with him. {19:11} When they were by Jebus, the day was far spent; and
the servant said to his master, Please come and let us turn aside into
this city of the Jebusites, and lodge in it. {19:12} His master said to
him, We won't turn aside into the city of a foreigner, that is not of
the children of Israel; but we will pass over to Gibeah. {19:13} He
said to his servant, Come and let us draw near to one of these places;
and we will lodge in Gibeah, or in Ramah. {19:14} So they passed on and
went their way; and the sun went down on them near to Gibeah, which
belongs to Benjamin. {19:15} They turned aside there, to go in to lodge
in Gibeah: and he went in, and sat him down in the street of the city;
for there was no man who took them into his house to lodge. {19:16}
Behold, there came an old man from his work out of the field at even:
now the man was of the hill-country of Ephraim, and he sojourned in
Gibeah; but the men of the place were Benjamites. {19:17} He lifted up
his eyes, and saw the wayfaring man in the street of the city; and the
old man said, Where go you? and whence come you? {19:18} He said to
him, We are passing from Bethlehem Judah to the farther side of the
hill-country of Ephraim; from there am I, and I went to Bethlehem
Judah: and I am [now] going to the house of Yahweh; and there is no man
who takes me into his house. {19:19} Yet there is both straw and
provender for our donkeys; and there is bread and wine also for me, and
for your handmaid, and for the young man who is with your servants:
there is no want of anything. {19:20} The old man said, Peace be to
you; howsoever let all your wants lie on me; only don't lodge in the
street. {19:21} So he brought him into his house, and gave the donkeys
fodder; and they washed their feet, and ate and drink. {19:22} As they
were making their hearts merry, behold, the men of the city, certain
base fellows, beset the house round about, beating at the door; and
they spoke to the master of the house, the old man, saying, Bring forth
the man who came into your house, that we may know him. {19:23} The
man, the master of the house, went out to them, and said to them, No,
my brothers, please don't act so wickedly; seeing that this man is come
into my house, don't do this folly. {19:24} Behold, here is my daughter
a virgin, and his concubine; them I will bring out now, and humble you
them, and do with them what seems good to you: but to this man don't do
any such folly. {19:25} But the men wouldn't listen to him: so the man
laid hold on his concubine, and brought her forth to them; and they
knew her, and abused her all the night until the morning: and when the
day began to spring, they let her go. {19:26} Then came the woman in
the dawning of the day, and fell down at the door of the man's house
where her lord was, until it was light. {19:27} Her lord rose up in the
morning, and opened the doors of the house, and went out to go his way;
and, behold, the woman his concubine was fallen down at the door of the
house, with her hands on the threshold. {19:28} He said to her, Up, and
let us be going; but none answered: then he took her up on the donkey;
and the man rose up, and got him to his place. {19:29} When he was come
into his house, he took a knife, and laid hold on his concubine, and
divided her, limb by limb, into twelve pieces, and sent her throughout
all the borders of Israel. {19:30} It was so, that all who saw it said,
There was no such deed done nor seen from the day that the children of
Israel came up out of the land of Egypt to this day: consider it, take
counsel, and speak.

   {20:1} Then all the children of Israel went out, and the
congregation was assembled as one man, from Dan even to Beersheba, with
the land of Gilead, to Yahweh at Mizpah. {20:2} The chiefs of all the
people, even of all the tribes of Israel, presented themselves in the
assembly of the people of God, four hundred thousand footmen who drew
sword. {20:3} (Now the children of Benjamin heard that the children of
Israel had gone up to Mizpah.) The children of Israel said, Tell us,
how was this wickedness brought to pass? {20:4} The Levite, the husband
of the woman who was murdered, answered, I came into Gibeah that
belongs to Benjamin, I and my concubine, to lodge. {20:5} The men of
Gibeah rose against me, and beset the house round about me by night; me
they thought to have slain, and my concubine they forced, and she is
dead. {20:6} I took my concubine, and cut her in pieces, and sent her
throughout all the country of the inheritance of Israel; for they have
committed lewdness and folly in Israel. {20:7} Behold, you children of
Israel, all of you, give here your advice and counsel. {20:8} All the
people arose as one man, saying, We will not any of us go to his tent,
neither will we any of us turn to his house. {20:9} But now this is the
thing which we will do to Gibeah: [we will go up] against it by lot;
{20:10} and we will take ten men of one hundred throughout all the
tribes of Israel, and one hundred of one thousand, and a thousand out
of ten thousand, to get food for the people, that they may do, when
they come to Gibeah of Benjamin, according to all the folly that they
have worked in Israel. {20:11} So all the men of Israel were gathered
against the city, knit together as one man. {20:12} The tribes of
Israel sent men through all the tribe of Benjamin, saying, What
wickedness is this that is happen among you? {20:13} Now therefore
deliver up the men, the base fellows, who are in Gibeah, that we may
put them to death, and put away evil from Israel. But Benjamin would
not listen to the voice of their brothers the children of Israel.
{20:14} The children of Benjamin gathered themselves together out of
the cities to Gibeah, to go out to battle against the children of
Israel. {20:15} The children of Benjamin were numbered on that day out
of the cities twenty-six thousand men who drew the sword, besides the
inhabitants of Gibeah, who were numbered seven hundred chosen men.
{20:16} Among all this people there were seven hundred chosen men
left-handed; everyone could sling stones at a hair-breadth, and not
miss. {20:17} The men of Israel, besides Benjamin, were numbered four
hundred thousand men who drew sword: all these were men of war. {20:18}
The children of Israel arose, and went up to Bethel, and asked counsel
of God; and they said, Who shall go up for us first to battle against
the children of Benjamin? Yahweh said, Judah [shall go up] first.
{20:19} The children of Israel rose up in the morning, and encamped
against Gibeah. {20:20} The men of Israel went out to battle against
Benjamin; and the men of Israel set the battle in array against them at
Gibeah. {20:21} The children of Benjamin came forth out of Gibeah, and
destroyed down to the ground of the Israelites on that day Twenty-two
thousand men. {20:22} The people, the men of Israel, encouraged
themselves, and set the battle again in array in the place where they
set themselves in array the first day. {20:23} The children of Israel
went up and wept before Yahweh until even; and they asked of Yahweh,
saying, Shall I again draw near to battle against the children of
Benjamin my brother? Yahweh said, Go up against him. {20:24} The
children of Israel came near against the children of Benjamin the
second day. {20:25} Benjamin went forth against them out of Gibeah the
second day, and destroyed down to the ground of the children of Israel
again eighteen thousand men; all these drew the sword. {20:26} Then all
the children of Israel, and all the people, went up, and came to
Bethel, and wept, and sat there before Yahweh, and fasted that day
until even; and they offered burnt-offerings and peace-offerings before
Yahweh. {20:27} The children of Israel asked of Yahweh (for the ark of
the covenant of God was there in those days, {20:28} and Phinehas, the
son of Eleazar, the son of Aaron, stood before it in those days),
saying, Shall I yet again go out to battle against the children of
Benjamin my brother, or shall I cease? Yahweh said, Go up; for tomorrow
I will deliver him into your hand. {20:29} Israel set liers-in-wait
against Gibeah round about. {20:30} The children of Israel went up
against the children of Benjamin on the third day, and set themselves
in array against Gibeah, as at other times. {20:31} The children of
Benjamin went out against the people, and were drawn away from the
city; and they began to strike and kill of the people, as at other
times, in the highways, of which one goes up to Bethel, and the other
to Gibeah, in the field, about thirty men of Israel. {20:32} The
children of Benjamin said, They are struck down before us, as at the
first. But the children of Israel said, Let us flee, and draw them away
from the city to the highways. {20:33} All the men of Israel rose up
out of their place, and set themselves in array at Baal Tamar: and the
liers-in-wait of Israel broke forth out of their place, even out of
Maareh Geba. {20:34} There came over against Gibeah ten thousand chosen
men out of all Israel, and the battle was sore; but they didn't know
that evil was close on them. {20:35} Yahweh struck Benjamin before
Israel; and the children of Israel destroyed of Benjamin that day
twenty-five thousand one hundred men: all these drew the sword. {20:36}
So the children of Benjamin saw that they were struck; for the men of
Israel gave place to Benjamin, because they trusted to the
liers-in-wait whom they had set against Gibeah. {20:37} The
liers-in-wait hurried, and rushed on Gibeah; and the liers-in-wait drew
themselves along, and struck all the city with the edge of the sword.
{20:38} Now the appointed sign between the men of Israel and the
liers-in-wait was that they should make a great cloud of smoke rise up
out of the city. {20:39} The men of Israel turned in the battle, and
Benjamin began to strike and kill of the men of Israel about thirty
persons; for they said, Surely they are struck down before us, as in
the first battle. {20:40} But when the cloud began to arise up out of
the city in a pillar of smoke, the Benjamites looked behind them; and,
behold, the whole of the city went up in smoke to the sky. {20:41} The
men of Israel turned, and the men of Benjamin were dismayed; for they
saw that evil had come on them. {20:42} Therefore they turned their
backs before the men of Israel to the way of the wilderness; but the
battle followed hard after them; and those who came out of the cities
destroyed them in the midst of it. {20:43} They enclosed the Benjamites
round about, [and] chased them, [and] trod them down at [their]
resting-place, as far as over against Gibeah toward the sunrise.
{20:44} There fell of Benjamin eighteen thousand men; all these [were]
men of valor. {20:45} They turned and fled toward the wilderness to the
rock of Rimmon: and they gleaned of them in the highways five thousand
men, and followed hard after them to Gidom, and struck of them two
thousand men. {20:46} So that all who fell that day of Benjamin were
twenty-five thousand men who drew the sword; all these [were] men of
valor. {20:47} But six hundred men turned and fled toward the
wilderness to the rock of Rimmon, and abode in the rock of Rimmon four
months. {20:48} The men of Israel turned again on the children of
Benjamin, and struck them with the edge of the sword, both the entire
city, and the cattle, and all that they found: moreover all the cities
which they found they set on fire.

   {21:1} Now the men of Israel had sworn in Mizpah, saying, There
shall not any of us give his daughter to Benjamin as wife. {21:2} The
people came to Bethel, and sat there until evening before God, and
lifted up their voices, and wept sore. {21:3} They said, Yahweh, the
God of Israel, why has this happened in Israel, that there should be
today one tribe lacking in Israel? {21:4} It happened on the next day
that the people rose early, and built there an altar, and offered burnt
offerings and peace-offerings. {21:5} The children of Israel said, Who
is there among all the tribes of Israel who didn't come up in the
assembly to Yahweh? For they had made a great oath concerning him who
didn't come up to Yahweh to Mizpah, saying, He shall surely be put to
death. {21:6} The children of Israel grieved for Benjamin their
brother, and said, There is one tribe cut off from Israel this day.
{21:7} How shall we do for wives for those who remain, seeing we have
sworn by Yahweh that we will not give them of our daughters to wives?
{21:8} They said, What one is there of the tribes of Israel who didn't
come up to Yahweh to Mizpah? Behold, there came none to the camp from
Jabesh Gilead to the assembly. {21:9} For when the people were
numbered, behold, there were none of the inhabitants of Jabesh Gilead
there. {21:10} The congregation sent there twelve thousand men of the
most valiant, and commanded them, saying, Go and strike the inhabitants
of Jabesh Gilead with the edge of the sword, with the women and the
little ones. {21:11} This is the thing that you shall do: you shall
utterly destroy every male, and every woman who has lain by man.
{21:12} They found among the inhabitants of Jabesh Gilead four hundred
young virgins, who had not known man by lying with him; and they
brought them to the camp to Shiloh, which is in the land of Canaan.
{21:13} The whole congregation sent and spoke to the children of
Benjamin who were in the rock of Rimmon, and proclaimed peace to them.
{21:14} Benjamin returned at that time; and they gave them the women
whom they had saved alive of the women of Jabesh Gilead: and yet so
they weren't enough for them. {21:15} The people grieved for Benjamin,
because that Yahweh had made a breach in the tribes of Israel. {21:16}
Then the elders of the congregation said, How shall we do for wives for
those who remain, seeing the women are destroyed out of Benjamin?
{21:17} They said, There must be an inheritance for those who are
escaped of Benjamin, that a tribe not be blotted out from Israel.
{21:18} However we may not give them wives of our daughters, for the
children of Israel had sworn, saying, Cursed be he who gives a wife to
Benjamin. {21:19} They said, Behold, there is a feast of Yahweh from
year to year in Shiloh, which is on the north of Bethel, on the east
side of the highway that goes up from Bethel to Shechem, and on the
south of Lebonah. {21:20} They commanded the children of Benjamin,
saying, Go and lie in wait in the vineyards, {21:21} and see, and,
behold, if the daughters of Shiloh come out to dance in the dances,
then come you out of the vineyards, and catch you every man his wife of
the daughters of Shiloh, and go to the land of Benjamin. {21:22} It
shall be, when their fathers or their brothers come to complain to us,
that we will say to them, Grant them graciously to us, because we
didn't take for each man his wife in battle, neither did you give them
to them, else would you now be guilty. {21:23} The children of Benjamin
did so, and took them wives, according to their number, of those who
danced, whom they carried off: and they went and returned to their
inheritance, and built the cities, and lived in them. {21:24} The
children of Israel departed there at that time, every man to his tribe
and to his family, and they went out from there every man to his
inheritance. {21:25} In those days there was no king in Israel: every
man did that which was right in his own eyes.

   

   

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