1 Now after the death of Joshua that the children of Israel asked the LORD, saying, Who shall go up for us against the Canaanites first, to fight against them?
2 The LORD said, Judah shall go up: behold, I have delivered the land into his hand.
3 Judah said unto 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.
4 Judah went up; and the LORD delivered the Canaanites and the Perizzites into their hand: and they killed of them in Bezek ten thousand men.
5 They found Adonibezek in Bezek: and they fought against him, and they killed the Canaanites and the Perizzites.
6 But Adonibezek fled; and they pursued after him, and caught him, and cut off his thumbs and his great toes.
7 Adonibezek said, sixty and ten kings, having their thumbs and their great toes cut off, gathered their meat under my table: as I have done, so God has requited me. And they brought him to Jerusalem, and there he died.
8 Now the children of Judah had fought against Jerusalem, and had taken it, and smitten it with the edge of the sword, and set the city on fire.
9 Afterward the children of Judah went down to fight against the Canaanites, that lived in the mountain, and in the south, and in the valley.
10 Judah went against the Canaanites that lived in Hebron: (now the name of Hebron before was Kirjatharba:) and they killed Sheshai, and Ahiman, and Talmai.
11 From there he went against the inhabitants of Debir: and the name of Debir before was Kirjathsepher:
12 Caleb said, He that smites Kirjathsepher, and takes it, to him will I give Achsah my daughter to wife.
13 Othniel the son of Kenaz, Caleb’s younger brother, took it: and he gave him Achsah his daughter to wife.
14 When she came to him, that she moved him to ask of her father a field: and she lighted from off her ass; and Caleb said unto her, What will you?
15 She said unto him, Give me a blessing: for you have given me a south land; give me also springs of water. And Caleb gave her the upper springs and the nether springs.
16 The children of the Kenite, Moses’ father in law, went up out of the city of palm trees with the children of Judah into the wilderness of Judah, which lies in the south of Arad; and they went and lived among the people.
17 Judah went with Simeon his brother, and they killed the Canaanites that inhabited Zephath, and utterly destroyed it. And the name of the city was called Hormah.
18 Also Judah took Gaza with the coast thereof, and Askelon with the coast thereof, and Ekron with the coast thereof.
19 The LORD was with Judah; and he drave out the inhabitants of the mountain; but could not drive out the inhabitants of the valley, because they had chariots of iron.
20 They gave Hebron unto Caleb, as Moses said: and he expelled there the three sons of Anak.
21 The children of Benjamin did not drive out the Jebusites that inhabited Jerusalem; but the Jebusites live with the children of Benjamin in Jerusalem unto this day.
22 The house of Joseph, they also went up against Bethel: and the LORD was with them.
23 The house of Joseph sent to descry Bethel. (Now the name of the city before was Luz.)
24 The spies saw a man come forth out of the city, and they said unto him, show us, we pray you, the entrance into the city, and we will show you mercy.
25 When he showed them the entrance into the city, they smote the city with the edge of the sword; but they let go the man and all his family.
26 The man went into the land of the Hittites, and built a city, and called the name thereof Luz: which is the name thereof unto this day.
27 Neither did Manasseh drive out the inhabitants of Bethshean and her towns, nor Taanach and her towns, nor the inhabitants of Dor and her towns, nor the inhabitants of Ibleam and her towns, nor the inhabitants of Megiddo and her towns: but the Canaanites would live in that land.
28 When Israel was strong, that they put the Canaanites to tribute, and did not utterly drive them out.
29 Neither did Ephraim drive out the Canaanites that lived in Gezer; but the Canaanites lived in Gezer among them.
30 Neither did Zebulun drive out the inhabitants of Kitron, nor the inhabitants of Nahalol; but the Canaanites lived among them, and became tributaries.
31 Neither did Asher drive out the inhabitants of Accho, nor the inhabitants of Zidon, nor of Ahlab, nor of Achzib, nor of Helbah, nor of Aphik, nor of Rehob:
32 But the Asherites lived among the Canaanites, the inhabitants of the land: for they did not drive them out.
33 Neither did Naphtali drive out the inhabitants of Bethshemesh, nor the inhabitants of Bethanath; but he lived among the Canaanites, the inhabitants of the land: nevertheless the inhabitants of Bethshemesh and of Bethanath became tributaries unto them.
34 The Amorites forced the children of Dan into the mountain: for they would not suffer them to come down to the valley:
35 But the Amorites would live in mount Heres in Aijalon, and in Shaalbim: yet the hand of the house of Joseph prevailed, so that they became tributaries.
36 The coast of the Amorites was from the going up to Akrabbim, from the rock, and upward.
1 An angel of the LORD came up from Gilgal to Bochim, and said, I made you to go up out of Egypt, and have brought you unto the land which I swore unto your fathers; and I said, I will never break my covenant with you.
2 You shall make no league with the inhabitants of this land; you shall throw down their altars: but you have not obeyed my voice: why have you done this?
3 Wherefore 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 unto you.
4 When the angel of the LORD spoke these words unto all the children of Israel, that the people lifted up their voice, and wept.
5 They called the name of that place Bochim: and they sacrificed there unto the LORD.
6 When Joshua had let the people go, the children of Israel went every man unto his inheritance to possess the land.
7 The people served the LORD all the days of Joshua, and all the days of the elders that outlived Joshua, who had seen all the great works of the LORD, that he did for Israel.
8 Joshua the son of Nun, the servant of the LORD, died, being an hundred and ten years old.
9 They buried him in the border of his inheritance in Timnathheres, in the mount of Ephraim, on the north side of the hill Gaash.
10 Also all that generation were gathered unto their fathers: and there arose another generation after them, which knew not the LORD, nor yet the works which he had done for Israel.
11 The children of Israel did evil in the sight of the LORD, and served Baalim:
12 They forsook the LORD God of their fathers, which brought them out of the land of Egypt, and followed other gods, of the gods of the people that were round about them, and bowed themselves unto them, and provoked the LORD to anger.
13 They forsook the LORD, and served Baal and Ashtaroth.
14 The anger of the LORD was hot against Israel, and he delivered them into the hands of spoilers that spoiled them, and he sold them into the hands of their enemies round about, so that they could not any longer stand before their enemies.
15 Whithersoever they went out, the hand of the LORD was against them for evil, as the LORD had said, and as the LORD had sworn unto them: and they were greatly distressed.
16 Nevertheless the LORD raised up judges, which delivered them out of the hand of those that spoiled them.
17 Yet they would not hearken unto their judges, but they went a whoring after other gods, and bowed themselves unto them: they turned quickly out of the way which their fathers walked in, obeying the commandments of the LORD; but they did not so.
18 When the LORD raised them up judges, then the LORD was with the judge, and delivered them out of the hand of their enemies all the days of the judge: for it repented the LORD because of their groanings by reason of them that oppressed them and vexed them.
19 When the judge was dead, that they returned, and corrupted themselves more than their fathers, in following other gods to serve them, and to bow down unto them; they ceased not from their own doings, nor from their stubborn way.
20 The anger of the LORD was hot against Israel; and he said, Because that this people has transgressed my covenant which I commanded their fathers, and have not hearkened unto my voice;
21 I also will not from now on drive out any from before them of the nations which Joshua left when he died:
22 That through them I may prove Israel, whether they will keep the way of the LORD to walk therein, as their fathers did keep it, or not.
23 Therefore the LORD left those nations, without driving them out hastily; neither delivered he them into the hand of Joshua.
1 Now these are the nations which the LORD left, to prove Israel by them, even as many of Israel as had not known all the wars of Canaan;
2 Only that the generations of the children of Israel might know, to teach them war, at the least such as before knew nothing thereof;
3 Namely, five lords of the Philistines, and all the Canaanites, and the Sidonians, and the Hivites that lived in mount Lebanon, from mount Baalhermon unto the entering in of Hamath.
4 They were to prove Israel by them, to know whether they would hearken unto the commandments of the LORD, which he commanded their fathers by the hand of Moses.
5 The children of Israel lived among the Canaanites, Hittites, and Amorites, and Perizzites, and Hivites, and Jebusites:
6 They took their daughters to be their wives, and gave their daughters to their sons, and served their gods.
7 The children of Israel did evil in the sight of the LORD, and forgot the LORD their God, and served Baalim and the groves.
8 Therefore the anger of the LORD was hot against Israel, and he sold them into the hand of Chushanrishathaim king of Mesopotamia: and the children of Israel served Chushanrishathaim eight years.
9 When the children of Israel cried unto the LORD, the LORD raised up a deliverer to the children of Israel, who delivered them, even Othniel the son of Kenaz, Caleb’s younger brother.
10 The Spirit of the LORD came upon him, and he judged Israel, and went out to war: and the LORD delivered Chushanrishathaim king of Mesopotamia into his hand; and his hand prevailed against Chushanrishathaim.
11 The land had rest forty years. And Othniel the son of Kenaz died.
12 The children of Israel did evil again in the sight of the LORD: and the LORD strengthened Eglon the king of Moab against Israel, because they had done evil in the sight of the LORD.
13 He gathered unto him the children of Ammon and Amalek, and went and smote Israel, and possessed the city of palm trees.
14 So the children of Israel served Eglon the king of Moab eighteen years.
15 But when the children of Israel cried unto the LORD, the LORD raised them up a deliverer, Ehud the son of Gera, a Benjamite, a man lefthanded: and by him the children of Israel sent a present unto Eglon the king of Moab.
16 But Ehud made him a dagger which had two edges, of a cubit length; and he did gird it under his clothing upon his right thigh.
17 He brought the present unto Eglon king of Moab: and Eglon was a very fat man.
18 When he had made an end to offer the present, he sent away the people that gave birth to the present.
19 But he himself turned again from the quarries that were by Gilgal, and said, I have a secret errand unto you, O king: who said, Keep silence. And all that stood by him went out from him.
20 Ehud came unto him; and he was sitting in a summer parlour, which he had for himself alone. And Ehud said, I have a message from God unto you. And he arose out of his seat.
21 Ehud put forth his left hand, and took the dagger from his right thigh, and thrust it into his belly:
22 The haft also went in after the blade; and the fat closed upon the blade, so that he could not draw the dagger out of his belly; and the dirt came out.
23 Then Ehud went forth through the porch, and shut the doors of the parlour upon him, and locked them.
24 When he was gone out, his servants came; and when they saw that, behold, the doors of the parlour were locked, they said, Surely he covers his feet in his summer chamber.
25 They stayed till they were ashamed: and, behold, he opened not the doors of the parlour; therefore they took a key, and opened them: and, behold, their lord was fallen down dead on the earth.
26 Ehud escaped while they stayed, and passed beyond the quarries, and escaped unto Seirath.
27 When he was come, that he blew a trumpet in the mountain of Ephraim, and the children of Israel went down with him from the mount, and he before them.
28 He said unto them, Follow after me: for the LORD has delivered your enemies the Moabites into your hand. And they went down after him, and took the fords of Jordan toward Moab, and suffered not a man to pass over.
29 They killed of Moab at that time about ten thousand men, all lusty, and all men of valour; and there escaped not a man.
30 So Moab was subdued that day under the hand of Israel. And the land had rest eighty years.
31 After him was Shamgar the son of Anath, which killed of the Philistines six hundred men with an ox goad: and he also delivered Israel.
1 The children of Israel again did evil in the sight of the LORD, when Ehud was dead.
2 The LORD sold them into the hand of Jabin king of Canaan, that reigned in Hazor; the captain of whose host was Sisera, which lived in Harosheth of the Gentiles.
3 The children of Israel cried unto the LORD: for he had nine hundred chariots of iron; and twenty years he mightily oppressed the children of Israel.
4 Deborah, a prophetess, the wife of Lapidoth, she judged Israel at that time.
5 She lived under the palm tree of Deborah between Ramah and Bethel in mount Ephraim: and the children of Israel came up to her for judgment.
6 She sent and called Barak the son of Abinoam out of Kedeshnaphtali, and said unto him, has not the LORD God of Israel commanded, saying, Go and draw toward mount Tabor, and take with you ten thousand men of the children of Naphtali and of the children of Zebulun?
7 I will draw unto 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.
8 Barak said unto her, If you will go with me, then I will go: but if you will not go with me, then I will not go.
9 She said, I will surely go with you: notwithstanding the journey that you take shall not be for your honour; for the LORD shall sell Sisera into the hand of a woman. And Deborah arose, and went with Barak to Kedesh.
10 Barak called Zebulun and Naphtali to Kedesh; and he went up with ten thousand men at his feet: and Deborah went up with him.
11 Now Heber the Kenite, which was of the children of Hobab the father in law of Moses, had severed himself from the Kenites, and pitched his tent unto the plain of Zaanaim, which is by Kedesh.
12 They showed Sisera that Barak the son of Abinoam was gone up to mount Tabor.
13 Sisera gathered together all his chariots, even nine hundred chariots of iron, and all the people that were with him, from Harosheth of the Gentiles unto the river of Kishon.
14 Deborah said unto Barak, Up; for this is the day in which the LORD has delivered Sisera into your hand: is not the LORD gone out before you? So Barak went down from mount Tabor, and ten thousand men after him.
15 The LORD discomfited Sisera, and all his chariots, and all his host, with the edge of the sword before Barak; so that Sisera lighted down off his chariot, and fled away on his feet.
16 But Barak pursued after the chariots, and after the host, unto Harosheth of the Gentiles: and all the host of Sisera fell upon the edge of the sword; and there was not a man left.
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.
18 Jael went out to meet Sisera, and said unto him, Turn in, my lord, turn in to me; fear not. And when he had turned in unto her into the tent, she covered him with a mantle.
19 He said unto her, Give me, please, a little water to drink; for I am thirsty. And she opened a bottle of milk, and gave him drink, and covered him.
20 Again he said unto her, Stand in the door of the tent, and it shall be, when any man does come and enquire of you, and say, Is there any man here? that you shall say, No.
21 Then Jael Heber’s wife took a nail of the tent, and took an hammer in her hand, and went softly unto him, and smote the nail into his temples, and fastened it into the ground: for he was fast asleep and weary. So he died.
22 And, behold, as Barak pursued Sisera, Jael came out to meet him, and said unto him, Come, and I will show you the man whom you seek. And when he came into her tent, behold, Sisera lay dead, and the nail was in his temples.
23 So God subdued on that day Jabin the king of Canaan before the children of Israel.
24 The hand of the children of Israel prospered, and prevailed against Jabin the king of Canaan, until they had destroyed Jabin king of Canaan.
1 Then sang Deborah and Barak the son of Abinoam on that day, saying,
2 Praise you the LORD for the avenging of Israel, when the people willingly offered themselves.
3 Hear, O you kings; give ear, O you princes; I, even I, will sing unto the LORD; I will sing praise to the LORD God of Israel.
4 LORD, when you went out of Seir, when you marchedst out of the field of Edom, the earth trembled, and the heavens dropped, the clouds also dropped water.
5 The mountains melted from before the LORD, even that Sinai from before the LORD God of Israel.
6 In the days of Shamgar the son of Anath, in the days of Jael, the highways were unoccupied, and the travellers walked through byways.
7 The inhabitants of the villages ceased, they ceased in Israel, until that I Deborah arose, that I arose a mother in Israel.
8 They chose new gods; then was war in the gates: was there a shield or spear seen among forty thousand in Israel?
9 My heart is toward the governors of Israel, that offered themselves willingly among the people. Bless you the LORD.
10 Speak, you that ride on white asses, you that sit in judgment, and walk by the way.
11 They that are delivered from the noise of archers in the places of drawing water, there shall they rehearse the righteous acts of the LORD, even the righteous acts toward the inhabitants of his villages in Israel: then shall the people of the LORD go down to the gates.
12 Awake, awake, Deborah: awake, awake, utter a song: arise, Barak, and lead your captivity captive, you son of Abinoam.
13 Then he made him that remains have dominion over the nobles among the people: the LORD made me have dominion over the mighty.
14 Out of Ephraim was there a root of them against Amalek; after you, Benjamin, among your people; out of Machir came down governors, and out of Zebulun they that handle the pen of the writer.
15 The princes of Issachar were with Deborah; even Issachar, and also Barak: he was sent on foot into the valley. For the divisions of Reuben there were great thoughts of heart.
16 Why abod you among the sheepfolds, to hear the bleatings of the flocks? For the divisions of Reuben there were great searchings of heart.
17 Gilead abode beyond Jordan: and why did Dan remain in ships? Asher continued on the sea shore, and abode in his breaches.
18 Zebulun and Naphtali were a people that jeoparded their lives unto the death in the high places of the field.
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.
20 They fought from heaven; the stars in their courses fought against Sisera.
21 The river of Kishon swept them away, that ancient river, the river Kishon. O my soul, you have trodden down strength.
22 Then were the horsehoofs broken by the means of the pransings, the pransings of their mighty ones.
23 Curse you Meroz, said the angel of the LORD, curse you bitterly the inhabitants thereof; because they came not to the help of the LORD, to the help of the LORD against the mighty.
24 Blessed above women shall Jael the wife of Heber the Kenite be, blessed shall she be above women in the tent.
25 He asked water, and she gave him milk; she brought forth butter in a lordly dish.
26 She put her hand to the nail, and her right hand to the workmen’s hammer; and with the hammer she smote Sisera, she smote off his head, when she had pierced and stricken through his temples.
27 At her feet he bowed, he fell, he lay down: at her feet he bowed, he fell: where he bowed, there he fell down dead.
28 The mother of Sisera looked out at a window, and cried through the lattice, Why is his chariot so long in coming? why stay the wheels of his chariots?
29 Her wise ladies answered her, yea, she returned answer to herself,
30 Have they not sped? have they not divided the prey; to every man a damsel or two; to Sisera a prey of divers colours, a prey of divers colours of needlework, of divers colours of needlework on both sides, meet for the necks of them that take the spoil?
31 So let all your enemies perish, O LORD: but let them that love him be as the sun when he goes forth in his might. And the land had rest forty years.
1 The children of Israel did evil in the sight of the LORD: and the LORD delivered them into the hand of Midian seven years.
2 The hand of Midian prevailed against Israel: and because of the Midianites the children of Israel made them the dens which are in the mountains, and caves, and strong holds.
3 So it was, when Israel had sown, that the Midianites came up, and the Amalekites, and the children of the east, even they came up against them;
4 They encamped against them, and destroyed the increase of the earth, till you come unto Gaza, and left no sustenance for Israel, neither sheep, nor ox, nor ass.
5 For they came up with their cattle and their tents, and they came as grasshoppers for multitude; for both they and their camels were without number: and they entered into the land to destroy it.
6 Israel was greatly impoverished because of the Midianites; and the children of Israel cried unto the LORD.
7 When the children of Israel cried unto the LORD because of the Midianites,
8 That the LORD sent a prophet unto the children of Israel, which said unto them, Thus says the LORD God of Israel, I brought you up from Egypt, and brought you forth out of the house of bondage;
9 I delivered you out of the hand of the Egyptians, and out of the hand of all that oppressed you, and drave them out from before you, and gave you their land;
10 I said unto you, I am the LORD your God; fear not the gods of the Amorites, in whose land you live: but you have not obeyed my voice.
11 There came an angel of the LORD, and sat under an oak which was in Ophrah, that pertained unto Joash the Abiezrite: and his son Gideon threshed wheat by the winepress, to hide it from the Midianites.
12 The angel of the LORD appeared unto him, and said unto him, The LORD is with you, you mighty man of valour.
13 Gideon said unto him, Oh my Lord, if the LORD be with us, why then is all this befallen us? and where be all his miracles which our fathers told us of, saying, Did not the LORD bring us up from Egypt? but now the LORD has forsaken us, and delivered us into the hands of the Midianites.
14 The LORD looked upon him, and said, Go in this your might, and you shall save Israel from the hand of the Midianites: have not I sent you?
15 He said unto him, Oh my Lord, with which shall I save Israel? behold, my family is poor in Manasseh, and I am the least in my father’s house.
16 The LORD said unto him, Surely I will be with you, and you shall smite the Midianites as one man.
17 He said unto him, If now I have found grace in your sight, then show me a sign that you talk with me.
18 Depart not hence, please, until I come unto you, and bring forth my present, and set it before you. And he said, I will stay until you come again.
19 Gideon went in, and made ready a kid, and unleavened cakes of an ephah of flour: the flesh he put in a basket, and he put the broth in a pot, and brought it out unto him under the oak, and presented it.
20 The angel of God said unto him, Take the flesh and the unleavened cakes, and lay them upon this rock, and pour out the broth. And he did so.
21 Then the angel of the LORD put forth the end of the staff that was in his hand, and touched the flesh and the unleavened cakes; and there rose up fire out of the rock, and consumed the flesh and the unleavened cakes. Then the angel of the LORD departed out of his sight.
22 When Gideon perceived that he was an angel of the LORD, Gideon said, Alas, O LORD God! for because I have seen an angel of the LORD face to face.
23 The LORD said unto him, Peace be unto you; fear not: you shall not die.
24 Then Gideon built an altar there unto the LORD, and called it Jehovahshalom: unto this day it is yet in Ophrah of the Abiezrites.
25 The same night, that the LORD said unto him, Take your father’s young bullock, even the second bullock of seven years old, and throw down the altar of Baal that your father has, and cut down the grove that is by it:
26 Build an altar unto the LORD your God upon the top of this rock, in the ordered place, and take the second bullock, and offer a burnt sacrifice with the wood of the grove which you shall cut down.
27 Then Gideon took ten men of his servants, and did as the LORD had said unto him: and so it was, because he feared his father’s household, and the men of the city, that he could not do it by day, that he did it by night.
28 When the men of the city arose early in the morning, behold, the altar of Baal was cast down, and the grove was cut down that was by it, and the second bullock was offered upon the altar that was built.
29 They said one to another, Who has done this thing? And when they enquired and asked, they said, Gideon the son of Joash has done this thing.
30 Then the men of the city said unto Joash, Bring out your son, that he may die: because he has cast down the altar of Baal, and because he has cut down the grove that was by it.
31 Joash said unto all that stood against him, Will you plead for Baal? will you save him? he that will plead for him, let him be put to death whilst it is yet morning: if he be a god, let him plead for himself, because one has cast down his altar.
32 Therefore on that day he called him Jerubbaal, saying, Let Baal plead against him, because he has thrown down his altar.
33 Then all the Midianites and the Amalekites and the children of the east were gathered together, and went over, and pitched in the valley of Jezreel.
34 But the Spirit of the LORD came upon Gideon, and he blew a trumpet; and Abiezer was gathered after him.
35 He sent messengers throughout all Manasseh; who also was gathered after him: and he sent messengers unto Asher, and unto Zebulun, and unto Naphtali; and they came up to meet them.
36 Gideon said unto God, If you will save Israel by mine hand, as you have said,
37 Behold, I will put a fleece of wool in the floor; and if the dew be on the fleece only, and it be dry upon all the earth beside, then shall I know that you will save Israel by mine hand, as you have said.
38 It was so: for he rose up early on the morrow, and thrust the fleece together, and wringed the dew out of the fleece, a bowl full of water.
39 Gideon said unto God, Let not your anger be hot against me, and I will speak but this once: let me prove, please, but this once with the fleece; let it now be dry only upon the fleece, and upon all the ground let there be dew.
40 God did so that night: for it was dry upon the fleece only, and there was dew on all the ground.
1 Then Jerubbaal, who is Gideon, and all the people that were with him, rose up early, and pitched beside the well of Harod: so that the host of the Midianites were on the north side of them, by the hill of Moreh, in the valley.
2 The LORD said unto Gideon, The people that are with you are too many for me to give the Midianites into their hands, lest Israel vaunt themselves against me, saying, Mine own hand has saved me.
3 Now therefore go to, proclaim in the ears of the people, saying, Whosoever is fearful and afraid, let him return and depart early from mount Gilead. And there returned of the people twenty and two thousand; and there remained ten thousand.
4 The LORD said unto Gideon, The people are yet too many; bring them down unto the water, and I will try them for you there: and it shall be, that of whom I say unto you, This shall go with you, the same shall go with you; and of whomsoever I say unto you, This shall not go with you, the same shall not go.
5 So he brought down the people unto the water: and the LORD said unto Gideon, Every one that lapps of the water with his tongue, as a dog lapps, him shall you set by himself; likewise every one that bows down upon his knees to drink.
6 The number of them that lapped, putting their hand to their mouth, were three hundred men: but all the rest of the people bowed down upon their knees to drink water.
7 The LORD said unto Gideon, By the three hundred men that lapped will I save you, and deliver the Midianites into your hand: and let all the other people go every man unto his place.
8 So the people took victuals in their hand, and their trumpets: and he sent all the rest of Israel every man unto his tent, and retained those three hundred men: and the host of Midian was beneath him in the valley.
9 The same night, that the LORD said unto him, Arise, get you down unto the host; for I have delivered it into your hand.
10 But if you fear to go down, go you with Phurah your servant down to the host:
11 You shall hear what they say; and afterward shall your hands be strengthened to go down unto the host. Then went he down with Phurah his servant unto the outside of the armed men that were in the host.
12 The Midianites and the Amalekites and all the children of the east lay along in the valley like grasshoppers for multitude; and their camels were without number, as the sand by the sea side for multitude.
13 When Gideon was come, behold, there was a man that told a dream unto his fellow, and said, Behold, I dreamed a dream, and, lo, a cake of barley bread tumbled into the host of Midian, and came unto a tent, and smote it that it fell, and overturned it, that the tent lay along.
14 His fellow answered and said, This is nothing else save the sword of Gideon the son of Joash, a man of Israel: for into his hand has God delivered Midian, and all the host.
15 It was so, when Gideon heard the telling of the dream, and the interpretation thereof, that he worshipped, and returned into the host of Israel, and said, Arise; for the LORD has delivered into your hand the host of Midian.
16 He divided the three hundred men into three companies, and he put a trumpet in every man’s hand, with empty pitchers, and lamps within the pitchers.
17 He said unto them, Look on me, and do likewise: and, behold, when I come to the outside of the camp, it shall be that, as I do, so shall you do.
18 When I blow with a trumpet, I and all that are with me, then blow you the trumpets also on every side of all the camp, and say, The sword of the LORD, and of Gideon.
19 So Gideon, and the hundred men that were with him, came unto the outside of the camp in the beginning of the middle watch; and they had but newly set the watch: and they blew the trumpets, and brake the pitchers that were in their hands.
20 The three companies blew the trumpets, and brake the pitchers, and held the lamps in their left hands, and the trumpets in their right hands to blow withal: and they cried, The sword of the LORD, and of Gideon.
21 They stood every man in his place round about the camp; and all the host ran, and cried, and fled.
22 The three hundred blew the trumpets, and the LORD set every man’s sword against his fellow, even throughout all the host: and the host fled to Bethshittah in Zererath, and to the border of Abelmeholah, unto Tabbath.
23 The men of Israel gathered themselves together out of Naphtali, and out of Asher, and out of all Manasseh, and pursued after the Midianites.
24 Gideon sent messengers throughout all mount Ephraim, saying, come down against the Midianites, and take before them the waters unto Bethbarah and Jordan. Then all the men of Ephraim gathered themselves together, and took the waters unto Bethbarah and Jordan.
25 They took two princes of the Midianites, Oreb and Zeeb; and they killed Oreb upon the rock Oreb, and Zeeb they killed at the winepress of Zeeb, and pursued Midian, and brought the heads of Oreb and Zeeb to Gideon on the other side Jordan.
1 The men of Ephraim said unto him, Why have you served us thus, that you called us not, when you went to fight with the Midianites? And they did chide with him sharply.
2 He said unto them, What have I done now in comparison of you? Is not the gleaning of the grapes of Ephraim better than the vintage of Abiezer?
3 God has delivered into your hands the princes of Midian, Oreb and Zeeb: and what was I able to do in comparison of you? Then their anger was abated toward him, when he had said that.
4 Gideon came to Jordan, and passed over, he, and the three hundred men that were with him, faint, yet pursuing them.
5 He said unto the men of Succoth, Give, please, loaves of bread unto the people that follow me; for they be faint, and I am pursuing after Zebah and Zalmunna, kings of Midian.
6 The princes of Succoth said, Are the hands of Zebah and Zalmunna now in your hand, that we should give bread unto your army?
7 Gideon said, Therefore when the LORD has delivered Zebah and Zalmunna into mine hand, then I will tear your flesh with the thorns of the wilderness and with briers.
8 He went up there to Penuel, and spoke unto them likewise: and the men of Penuel answered him as the men of Succoth had answered him.
9 He spoke also unto the men of Penuel, saying, When I come again in peace, I will break down this tower.
10 Now Zebah and Zalmunna were in Karkor, and their hosts with them, about fifteen thousand men, all that were left of all the hosts of the children of the east: for there fell an hundred and twenty thousand men that drew sword.
11 Gideon went up by the way of them that lived in tents on the east of Nobah and Jogbehah, and smote the host; for the host was secure.
12 When Zebah and Zalmunna fled, he pursued after them, and took the two kings of Midian, Zebah and Zalmunna, and discomfited all the host.
13 Gideon the son of Joash returned from battle before the sun was up,
14 Caught a young man of the men of Succoth, and enquired of him: and he described unto him the princes of Succoth, and the elders thereof, even sixty and seventeen men.
15 He came unto the men of Succoth, and said, Behold Zebah and Zalmunna, with whom you did upbraid me, saying, Are the hands of Zebah and Zalmunna now in your hand, that we should give bread unto your men that are weary?
16 He took the elders of the city, and thorns of the wilderness and briers, and with them he taught the men of Succoth.
17 He beat down the tower of Penuel, and killed the men of the city.
18 Then said he unto Zebah and Zalmunna, What manner of men were they whom you killed at Tabor? And they answered, As you are, so were they; each one resembled the children of a king.
19 He said, They were my brethren, even the sons of my mother: as the LORD lives, if you had saved them alive, I would not kill you.
20 He said unto Jether his firstborn, Up, and kill them. But the youth drew not his sword: for he feared, because he was yet a youth.
21 Then Zebah and Zalmunna said, Rise you, and fall upon us: for as the man is, so is his strength. And Gideon arose, and killed Zebah and Zalmunna, and took away the ornaments that were on their camels’ necks.
22 Then the men of Israel said unto Gideon, Rule you over us, both you, and your son, and your son’s son also: for you have delivered us from the hand of Midian.
23 Gideon said unto them, I will not rule over you, neither shall my son rule over you: the LORD shall rule over you.
24 Gideon said unto them, I would desire a request of you, that you would give me every man the earrings of his prey. (For they had golden earrings, because they were Ishmaelites.)
25 They answered, We will willingly give them. And they spread a garment, and did cast therein every man the earrings of his prey.
26 The weight of the golden earrings that he requested was a thousand and seven hundred shekels of gold; beside ornaments, and collars, and purple clothing that was on the kings of Midian, and beside the chains that were about their camels’ necks.
27 Gideon made an ephod thereof, and put it in his city, even in Ophrah: and all Israel went there a whoring after it: which thing became a snare unto Gideon, and to his house.
28 Thus was Midian subdued before the children of Israel, so that they lifted up their heads no more. And the country was in quietness forty years in the days of Gideon.
29 Jerubbaal the son of Joash went and lived in his own house.
30 Gideon had sixty and ten sons of his body begotten: for he had many wives.
31 His concubine that was in Shechem, she also gave birth to him a son, whose name he called Abimelech.
32 Gideon the son of Joash died in a good old age, and was buried in the sepulchre of Joash his father, in Ophrah of the Abiezrites.
33 As soon as Gideon was dead, that the children of Israel turned again, and went a whoring after Baalim, and made Baalberith their god.
34 The children of Israel remembered not the LORD their God, who had delivered them out of the hands of all their enemies on every side:
35 Neither showed they kindness to the house of Jerubbaal, namely, Gideon, according to all the goodness which he had showed unto Israel.
1 Abimelech the son of Jerubbaal went to Shechem unto his mother’s brethren, and communed with them, and with all the family of the house of his mother’s father, saying,
2 Speak, please, in the ears of all the men of Shechem, Whether is better for you, either that all the sons of Jerubbaal, which are sixty and ten persons, reign over you, or that one reign over you? remember also that I am your bone and your flesh.
3 His mother’s brethren 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.
4 They gave him sixty and ten pieces of silver out of the house of Baalberith, with which Abimelech hired vain and light persons, which followed him.
5 He went unto his father’s house at Ophrah, and killed his brethren the sons of Jerubbaal, being sixty and ten persons, upon one stone: notwithstanding yet Jotham the youngest son of Jerubbaal was left; for he hid himself.
6 All the men of Shechem gathered together, and all the house of Millo, and went, and made Abimelech king, by the plain of the pillar that was in Shechem.
7 When they told it to Jotham, he went and stood in the top of mount Gerizim, and lifted up his voice, and cried, and said unto them, Hearken unto me, you men of Shechem, that God may hearken unto you.
8 The trees went forth on a time to anoint a king over them; and they said unto the olive tree, Reign you over us.
9 But the olive tree said unto them, Should I leave my fatness, with which by me they honour God and man, and go to be promoted over the trees?
10 The trees said to the fig tree, Come you, and reign over us.
11 But the fig tree said unto them, Should I forsake my sweetness, and my good fruit, and go to be promoted over the trees?
12 Then said the trees unto the vine, Come you, and reign over us.
13 The vine said unto them, Should I leave my wine, which cheers God and man, and go to be promoted over the trees?
14 Then said all the trees unto the bramble, Come you, and reign over us.
15 The bramble said unto the trees, If in truth you anoint me king over you, then come and put your trust in my shadow: and if not, let fire come out of the bramble, and devour the cedars of Lebanon.
16 Now therefore, if you have done truly and sincerely, in that you have made Abimelech king, and if you have dealt well with Jerubbaal and his house, and have done unto him according to the deserving of his hands;
17 (For my father fought for you, and adventured his life far, and delivered you out of the hand of Midian:
18 You are risen up against my father’s house this day, and have killed his sons, sixty and ten persons, upon one stone, and have made Abimelech, the son of his maidservant, king over the men of Shechem, because he is your brother;)
19 If you then have dealt truly and sincerely with Jerubbaal and with his house this day, then rejoice you in Abimelech, and let him also rejoice in you:
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.
21 Jotham ran away, and fled, and went to Beer, and lived there, for fear of Abimelech his brother.
22 When Abimelech had reigned three years over Israel,
23 Then God sent an evil spirit between Abimelech and the men of Shechem; and the men of Shechem dealt treacherously with Abimelech:
24 That the cruelty done to the sixty and ten sons of Jerubbaal might come, and their blood be laid upon Abimelech their brother, which killed them; and upon the men of Shechem, which aided him in the killing of his brethren.
25 The men of Shechem set liers in wait for him in the top of the mountains, and they robbed all that came along that way by them: and it was told Abimelech.
26 Gaal the son of Ebed came with his brethren, and went over to Shechem: and the men of Shechem put their confidence in him.
27 They went out into the fields, and gathered their vineyards, and trode the grapes, and made merry, and went into the house of their god, and did eat and drink, and cursed Abimelech.
28 Gaal the son of Ebed said, Who is Abimelech, and who is Shechem, that we should serve him? is not he the son of Jerubbaal? and Zebul his officer? serve the men of Hamor the father of Shechem: for why should we serve him?
29 Would to God this people were under my hand! then would I remove Abimelech. And he said to Abimelech, Increase your army, and come out.
30 When Zebul the ruler of the city heard the words of Gaal the son of Ebed, his anger was kindled.
31 He sent messengers unto Abimelech secretly, saying, Behold, Gaal the son of Ebed and his brethren be come to Shechem; and, behold, they fortify the city against you.
32 Now therefore up by night, you and the people that is with you, and lie in wait in the field:
33 It shall be, that in the morning, as soon as the sun is up, you shall rise early, and set upon the city: and, behold, when he and the people that is with him come out against you, then may you do to them as you shall find occasion.
34 Abimelech rose up, and all the people that were with him, by night, and they laid wait against Shechem in four companies.
35 Gaal the son of Ebed went out, and stood in the entering of the gate of the city: and Abimelech rose up, and the people that were with him, from lying in wait.
36 When Gaal saw the people, he said to Zebul, Behold, there come people down from the top of the mountains. And Zebul said unto him, you see the shadow of the mountains as if they were men.
37 Gaal spoke again, and said, See there come people down by the middle of the land, and another company come along by the plain of Meonenim.
38 Then said Zebul unto him, Where is now your mouth, with which you said, Who is Abimelech, that we should serve him? is not this the people that you have despised? go out, I pray now, and fight with them.
39 Gaal went out before the men of Shechem, and fought with Abimelech.
40 Abimelech chased him, and he fled before him, and many were overthrown and wounded, even unto the entering of the gate.
41 Abimelech lived at Arumah: and Zebul thrust out Gaal and his brethren, that they should not live in Shechem.
42 On the morrow, that the people went out into the field; and they told Abimelech.
43 He took the people, and divided them into three companies, and laid wait in the field, and looked, and, behold, the people were come forth out of the city; and he rose up against them, and smote them.
44 Abimelech, and the company that was with him, rushed forward, and stood in the entering of the gate of the city: and the two other companies ran upon all the people that were in the fields, and killed them.
45 Abimelech fought against the city all that day; and he took the city, and killed the people that was therein, and beat down the city, and sowed it with salt.
46 When all the men of the tower of Shechem heard that, they entered into an hold of the house of the god Berith.
47 It was told Abimelech, that all the men of the tower of Shechem were gathered together.
48 Abimelech went him up to mount Zalmon, he and all the people that were with him; and Abimelech took an axe in his hand, and cut down a bough from the trees, and took it, and laid it on his shoulder, and said unto the people that were with him, What you have seen me do, make haste, and do as I have done.
49 All the people likewise cut down every man his bough, and followed Abimelech, and put them to the hold, and set the hold on fire upon them; so that all the men of the tower of Shechem died also, about a thousand men and women.
50 Then went Abimelech to Thebez, and encamped against Thebez, and took it.
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 it to them, and went them up to the top of the tower.
52 Abimelech came unto the tower, and fought against it, and went hard unto the door of the tower to burn it with fire.
53 A certain woman cast a piece of a millstone upon Abimelech’s head, and all to brake his skull.
54 Then he called hastily unto the young man his armourbearer, and said unto him, Draw your sword, and kill me, that men say not of me, A women killed him. And his young man thrust him through, and he died.
55 When the men of Israel saw that Abimelech was dead, they departed every man unto his place.
56 Thus God rendered the wickedness of Abimelech, which he did unto his father, in slaying his seventy brethren:
57 All the evil of the men of Shechem did God render upon their heads: and upon them came the curse of Jotham the son of Jerubbaal.
1 After Abimelech there arose to defend Israel Tola the son of Puah, the son of Dodo, a man of Issachar; and he lived in Shamir in mount Ephraim.
2 He judged Israel twenty and three years, and died, and was buried in Shamir.
3 After him arose Jair, a Gileadite, and judged Israel twenty and two years.
4 He had thirty sons that rode on thirty ass colts, and they had thirty cities, which are called Havothjair unto this day, which are in the land of Gilead.
5 Jair died, and was buried in Camon.
6 The children of Israel did evil again in the sight of the LORD, and served Baalim, and Ashtaroth, and the gods of Syria, and the gods of Zidon, and the gods of Moab, and the gods of the children of Ammon, and the gods of the Philistines, and forsook the LORD, and served not him.
7 The anger of the LORD was hot against Israel, and he sold them into the hands of the Philistines, and into the hands of the children of Ammon.
8 That year they vexed and oppressed the children of Israel: eighteen years, all the children of Israel that were on the other side Jordan in the land of the Amorites, which is in Gilead.
9 Moreover the children of Ammon passed over Jordan to fight also against Judah, and against Benjamin, and against the house of Ephraim; so that Israel was sore distressed.
10 The children of Israel cried unto the LORD, saying, We have sinned against you, both because we have forsaken our God, and also served Baalim.
11 The LORD said unto the children of Israel, Did not I deliver you from the Egyptians, and from the Amorites, from the children of Ammon, and from the Philistines?
12 The Zidonians also, and the Amalekites, and the Maonites, did oppress you; and you cried to me, and I delivered you out of their hand.
13 Yet you have forsaken me, and served other gods: wherefore I will deliver you no more.
14 Go and cry unto the gods which you have chosen; let them deliver you in the time of your tribulation.
15 The children of Israel said unto the LORD, We have sinned: do you unto us whatsoever seems good unto you; deliver us only, we pray you, this day.
16 They put away the strange gods from among them, and served the LORD: and his soul was grieved for the misery of Israel.
17 Then the children of Ammon were gathered together, and encamped in Gilead. And the children of Israel assembled themselves together, and encamped in Mizpeh.
18 The people and princes of Gilead said one to another, What man is he that will begin to fight against the children of Ammon? he shall be head over all the inhabitants of Gilead.
1 Now Jephthah the Gileadite was a mighty man of valour, and he was the son of a prostitute: and Gilead became the father of Jephthah.
2 Gilead’s wife gave birth to him sons; and his wife’s sons grew up, and they thrust out Jephthah, and said unto him, you shall not inherit in our father’s house; for you are the son of a strange woman.
3 Then Jephthah fled from his brethren, and lived in the land of Tob: and there were gathered vain men to Jephthah, and went out with him.
4 In process of time, that the children of Ammon made war against Israel.
5 It was so, that when the children of Ammon made war against Israel, the elders of Gilead went to fetch Jephthah out of the land of Tob:
6 They said unto Jephthah, Come, and be our captain, that we may fight with the children of Ammon.
7 Jephthah said unto the elders of Gilead, Did not you hate me, and expel me out of my father’s house? and why are you come unto me now when you are in distress?
8 The elders of Gilead said unto Jephthah, Therefore we turn again to you now, that you may go with us, and fight against the children of Ammon, and be our head over all the inhabitants of Gilead.
9 Jephthah said unto the elders of Gilead, If you bring me home again to fight against the children of Ammon, and the LORD deliver them before me, shall I be your head?
10 The elders of Gilead said unto Jephthah, The LORD be witness between us, if we do not so according to your words.
11 Then Jephthah went with the elders of Gilead, and the people made him head and captain over them: and Jephthah uttered all his words before the LORD in Mizpeh.
12 Jephthah sent messengers unto the king of the children of Ammon, saying, What have you to do with me, that you are come against me to fight in my land?
13 The king of the children of Ammon answered unto the messengers of Jephthah, Because Israel took away my land, when they came up out of Egypt, from Arnon even unto Jabbok, and unto Jordan: now therefore restore those lands again peaceably.
14 Jephthah sent messengers again unto the king of the children of Ammon:
15 Said unto him, Thus says Jephthah, Israel took not away the land of Moab, nor the land of the children of Ammon:
16 But when Israel came up from Egypt, and walked through the wilderness unto the Red sea, and came to Kadesh;
17 Then Israel sent messengers unto the king of Edom, saying, Let me, please, pass through your land: but the king of Edom would not hearken thereto. And in like manner they sent unto the king of Moab: but he would not consent: and Israel abode in Kadesh.
18 Then they went along through the wilderness, and compassed the land of Edom, and the land of Moab, and came by the east side of the land of Moab, and pitched on the other side of Arnon, but came not within the border of Moab: for Arnon was the border of Moab.
19 Israel sent messengers unto Sihon king of the Amorites, the king of Heshbon; and Israel said unto him, Let us pass, we pray you, through your land into my place.
20 But Sihon trusted not Israel to pass through his coast: but Sihon gathered all his people together, and pitched in Jahaz, and fought against Israel.
21 The LORD God of Israel delivered Sihon and all his people into the hand of Israel, and they smote them: so Israel possessed all the land of the Amorites, the inhabitants of that country.
22 They possessed all the regions of the Amorites, from Arnon even unto Jabbok, and from the wilderness even unto Jordan.
23 So now the LORD God of Israel has dispossessed the Amorites from before his people Israel, and should you possess it?
24 Will not you possess that which Chemosh your god gives you to possess? So whomsoever the LORD our God shall drive out from before us, them will we possess.
25 Now are you any thing better than Balak the son of Zippor, king of Moab? did he ever strive against Israel, or did he ever fight against them,
26 While Israel lived in Heshbon and her towns, and in Aroer and her towns, and in all the cities that be along by the regions of Arnon, three hundred years? why therefore did you not recover them within that time?
27 Wherefore I have not sinned against you, but you do me wrong to war against me: the LORD the Judge be judge this day between the children of Israel and the children of Ammon.
28 However the king of the children of Ammon hearkened not unto the words of Jephthah which he sent him.
29 Then the Spirit of the LORD came upon Jephthah, and he passed over Gilead, and Manasseh, and passed over Mizpeh of Gilead, and from Mizpeh of Gilead he passed over unto the children of Ammon.
30 Jephthah vowed a vow unto the LORD, and said, If you shall without fail deliver the children of Ammon into mine hands,
31 Then it shall be, that whatsoever comes forth of the doors of my house to meet me, when I return in peace from the children of Ammon, shall surely be the LORD’s, and I will offer it up for a burnt offering.
32 So Jephthah passed over unto the children of Ammon to fight against them; and the LORD delivered them into his hands.
33 He smote them from Aroer, even till you come to Minnith, even twenty cities, and unto the plain of the vineyards, with a very great slaughter. Thus the children of Ammon were subdued before the children of Israel.
34 Jephthah came to Mizpeh unto his house, and, behold, his daughter came out to meet him with timbrels and with dances: and she was his only child; beside her he had neither son nor daughter.
35 When he saw her, that he rent his clothes, and said, Alas, my daughter! you have brought me very low, and you are one of them that trouble me: for I have opened my mouth unto the LORD, and I cannot go back.
36 She said unto him, My father, if you have opened your mouth unto the LORD, do to me according to that which has proceeded out of your mouth; forasmuch as the LORD has taken vengeance for you of your enemies, even of the children of Ammon.
37 She said unto her father, Let this thing be done for me: let me alone two months, that I may go up and down upon the mountains, and bewail my virginity, I and my fellows.
38 He said, Go. And he sent her away for two months: and she went with her companions, and bewailed her virginity upon the mountains.
39 At the end of two months, that she returned unto her father, who did with her according to his vow which he had vowed: and she knew no man. And it was a custom in Israel,
40 That the daughters of Israel went yearly to lament the daughter of Jephthah the Gileadite four days in a year.
1 The men of Ephraim gathered themselves together, and went northward, and said unto Jephthah, Wherefore passedst you over to fight against the children of Ammon, and did not call us to go with you? we will burn your house upon you with fire.
2 Jephthah said unto them, I and my people were at great strife with the children of Ammon; and when I called you, you delivered me not out of their hands.
3 When I saw that you delivered me not, I put my life in my hands, and passed over against the children of Ammon, and the LORD delivered them into my hand: wherefore then are you come up unto me this day, to fight against me?
4 Then Jephthah gathered together all the men of Gilead, and fought with Ephraim: and the men of Gilead smote Ephraim, because they said, you Gileadites are fugitives of Ephraim among the Ephraimites, and among the Manassites.
5 The Gileadites took the passages of Jordan before the Ephraimites: and it was so, that when those Ephraimites which were escaped said, Let me go over; that the men of Gilead said unto him, are you an Ephraimite? If he said, Nay;
6 Then said they unto him, Say now Shibboleth: and he said Sibbols: for he could not frame to pronounce it right. Then they took him, and killed him at the passages of Jordan: and there fell at that time of the Ephraimites forty and two thousand.
7 Jephthah judged Israel six years. Then died Jephthah the Gileadite, and was buried in one of the cities of Gilead.
8 After him Ibzan of Bethlehem judged Israel.
9 He had thirty sons, and thirty daughters, whom he sent abroad, and took in thirty daughters from abroad for his sons. And he judged Israel seven years.
10 Then died Ibzan, and was buried at Bethlehem.
11 After him Elon, a Zebulonite, judged Israel; and he judged Israel ten years.
12 Elon the Zebulonite died, and was buried in Aijalon in the country of Zebulun.
13 After him Abdon the son of Hillel, a Pirathonite, judged Israel.
14 He had forty sons and thirty nephews, that rode on sixty and ten ass colts: and he judged Israel eight years.
15 Abdon the son of Hillel the Pirathonite died, and was buried in Pirathon in the land of Ephraim, in the mount of the Amalekites.
1 The children of Israel did evil again in the sight of the LORD; and the LORD delivered them into the hand of the Philistines forty years.
2 There was a certain man of Zorah, of the family of the Danites, whose name was Manoah; and his wife was barren, and gave birth to not.
3 The angel of the LORD appeared unto the woman, and said unto her, Behold now, you are barren, and bear not: but you shall conceive, and bear a son.
4 Now therefore beware, please, and drink not wine nor strong drink, and eat not any unclean thing:
5 For, lo, you shall conceive, and bear a son; and no razor shall come on his head: for the child shall be a Nazarite unto God from the womb: and he shall begin to deliver Israel out of the hand of the Philistines.
6 Then the woman came and told her husband, saying, A man of God came unto me, and his countenance was like the countenance of an angel of God, very terrible: but I asked him not where he was, neither told he me his name:
7 But he said unto me, Behold, you shall conceive, and bear a son; and now drink no wine nor strong drink, neither eat any unclean thing: for the child shall be a Nazarite to God from the womb to the day of his death.
8 Then Manoah intreated the LORD, and said, O my Lord, let the man of God which you did send come again unto us, and teach us what we shall do unto the child that shall be born.
9 God hearkened to the voice of Manoah; and the angel of God came again unto the woman as she sat in the field: but Manoah her husband was not with her.
10 The woman made haste, and ran, and showed her husband, and said unto him, Behold, the man has appeared unto me, that came unto me the other day.
11 Manoah arose, and went after his wife, and came to the man, and said unto him, are you the man that spoke unto the woman? And he said, I am.
12 Manoah said, Now let your words come to pass. How shall we order the child, and how shall we do unto him?
13 The angel of the LORD said unto Manoah, Of all that I said unto the woman let her beware.
14 She may not eat of any thing 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.
15 Manoah said unto the angel of the LORD, please, let us detain you, until we shall have made ready a kid for you.
16 The angel of the LORD said unto Manoah, Though you detain me, I will not eat of your bread: and if you will offer a burnt offering, you must offer it unto the LORD. For Manoah knew not that he was an angel of the LORD.
17 Manoah said unto the angel of the LORD, What is your name, that when your sayings come to pass we may do you honour?
18 The angel of the LORD said unto him, Why ask you thus after my name, seeing it is secret?
19 So Manoah took a kid with a meat offering, and offered it upon a rock unto the LORD: and the angel did wonderously; and Manoah and his wife looked on.
20 For when the flame went up toward heaven from off the altar, that the angel of the LORD ascended in the flame of the altar. And Manoah and his wife looked on it, and fell on their faces to the ground.
21 But the angel of the LORD did no more appear to Manoah and to his wife. Then Manoah knew that he was an angel of the LORD.
22 Manoah said unto his wife, We shall surely die, because we have seen God.
23 But his wife said unto him, If the LORD were pleased to kill us, he would not have received a burnt offering and a meat offering at our hands, neither would he have showed us all these things, nor would as at this time have told us such things as these.
24 The woman gave birth to a son, and called his name Samson: and the child grew, and the LORD blessed him.
25 The Spirit of the LORD began to move him at times in the camp of Dan between Zorah and Eshtaol.
1 Samson went down to Timnath, and saw a woman in Timnath of the daughters of the Philistines.
2 He came up, and told his father and his mother, and said, I have seen a woman in Timnath of the daughters of the Philistines: now therefore get her for me to wife.
3 Then his father and his mother said unto him, Is there never a woman among the daughters of your brethren, or among all my people, that you go to take a wife of the uncircumcised Philistines? And Samson said unto his father, Get her for me; for she pleases me well.
4 But his father and his mother knew not that it was of the LORD, that he sought an occasion against the Philistines: for at that time the Philistines had dominion over Israel.
5 Then went Samson down, and his father and his mother, to Timnath, and came to the vineyards of Timnath: and, behold, a young lion roared against him.
6 The Spirit of the LORD came mightily upon him, and he rent him as he would have rent a kid, and he had nothing in his hand: but he told not his father or his mother what he had done.
7 He went down, and talked with the woman; and she pleased Samson well.
8 After a time he returned to take her, and he turned aside to see the carcase of the lion: and, behold, there was a swarm of bees and honey in the carcase of the lion.
9 He took thereof in his hands, and went on eating, and came to his father and mother, and he gave them, and they did eat: but he told not them that he had taken the honey out of the carcase of the lion.
10 So his father went down unto the woman: and Samson made there a feast; for so used the young men to do.
11 When they saw him, that they brought thirty companions to be with him.
12 Samson said unto them, I will now put forth a riddle unto you: if you can certainly declare it me within the seven days of the feast, and find it out, then I will give you thirty sheets and thirty change of garments:
13 But if you cannot declare it me, then shall you give me thirty sheets and thirty change of garments. And they said unto him, Put forth your riddle, that we may hear it.
14 He said unto them, Out of the eater came forth meat, and out of the strong came forth sweetness. And they could not in three days expound the riddle.
15 On the seventh day, that they said unto Samson’s wife, Entice your husband, that he may declare unto us the riddle, lest we burn you and your father’s house with fire: have you called us to take that we have? is it not so?
16 Samson’s wife wept before him, and said, you do but hate me, and love me not: you have put forth a riddle unto the children of my people, and have not told it me. And he said unto her, Behold, I have not told it my father nor my mother, and shall I tell it you?
17 She wept before him the seven days, while their feast lasted: On the seventh day, that he told her, because she lay sore upon him: and she told the riddle to the children of her people.
18 The men of the city said unto him on the seventh day before the sun went down, What is sweeter than honey? And what is stronger than a lion? and he said unto them, If you had not plowed with my heifer, you had not found out my riddle.
19 The Spirit of the LORD came upon him, and he went down to Ashkelon, and killed thirty men of them, and took their spoil, and gave change of garments unto them which expounded the riddle. And his anger was kindled, and he went up to his father’s house.
20 But Samson’s wife was given to his companion, whom he had used as his friend.
1 But within a while after, 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 would not suffer him to go in.
2 Her father said, I verily thought that you had utterly hated her; therefore I gave her to your companion: is not her younger sister fairer than she? take her, please, instead of her.
3 Samson said concerning them, Now shall I be more blameless than the Philistines, though I do them a displeasure.
4 Samson went and caught three hundred foxes, and took firebrands, and turned tail to tail, and put a firebrand in the midst between two tails.
5 When he had set the brands on fire, he let them go into the standing corn of the Philistines, and burnt up both the shocks, and also the standing corn, with the vineyards and olives.
6 Then the Philistines said, Who has done this? And they answered, Samson, the son in law of the Timnite, because he had taken his wife, and given her to his companion. And the Philistines came up, and burnt her and her father with fire.
7 Samson said unto them, Though you have done this, yet will I be avenged of you, and after that I will cease.
8 He smote them hip and thigh with a great slaughter: and he went down and lived in the top of the rock Etam.
9 Then the Philistines went up, and pitched in Judah, and spread themselves in Lehi.
10 The men of Judah said, Why are you come up against us? And they answered, To bind Samson are we come up, to do to him as he has done to us.
11 Then three thousand men of Judah went to the top of the rock Etam, and said to Samson, know you not that the Philistines are rulers over us? what is this that you have done unto us? And he said unto them, As they did unto me, so have I done unto them.
12 They said unto him, We are come down to bind you, that we may deliver you into the hand of the Philistines. And Samson said unto them, Swear unto me, that you will not fall upon me yourselves.
13 They spoke unto him, saying, No; but we will bind you fast, and deliver you into their hand: but surely we will not kill you. And they bound him with two new cords, and brought him up from the rock.
14 When he came unto Lehi, the Philistines shouted against him: and the Spirit of the LORD came mightily upon him, and the cords that were upon his arms became as flax that was burnt with fire, and his bands loosed from off his hands.
15 He found a new jawbone of an ass, and put forth his hand, and took it, and killed a thousand men therewith.
16 Samson said, With the jawbone of an ass, heaps upon heaps, with the jaw of an ass have I killed a thousand men.
17 When he had made an end of speaking, that he cast away the jawbone out of his hand, and called that place Ramathlehi.
18 He was sore athirst, and called on the LORD, and said, you have given this great deliverance into the hand of your servant: and now shall I die for thirst, and fall into the hand of the uncircumcised?
19 But God held fast an hollow place that was in the jaw, and there came water thereout; and when he had drunk, his spirit came again, and he revived: wherefore he called the name thereof Enhakkore, which is in Lehi unto this day.
20 He judged Israel in the days of the Philistines twenty years.
1 Then went Samson to Gaza, and saw there a prostitute, and went in unto her.
2 It was told the Gazites, saying, Samson is come here. And they compassed him in, and laid wait for him all night in the gate of the city, and were quiet all the night, saying, In the morning, when it is day, we shall kill him.
3 Samson lay till midnight, and arose at midnight, and took the doors of the gate of the city, and the two posts, and went away with them, bar and all, and put them upon his shoulders, and carried them up to the top of an hill that is before Hebron.
4 Afterward, that he loved a woman in the valley of Sorek, whose name was Delilah.
5 The lords of the Philistines came up unto her, and said unto her, Entice him, and see wherein his great strength lies, and by what means we may prevail against him, that we may bind him to afflict him; and we will give you every one of us eleven hundred pieces of silver.
6 Delilah said to Samson, Tell me, please, wherein your great strength lies, and with which you might be bound to afflict you.
7 Samson said unto her, If they bind me with seven green withs that were never dried, then shall I be weak, and be as another man.
8 Then the lords of the Philistines brought up to her seven green withs which had not been dried, and she bound him with them.
9 Now there were men lying in wait, abiding with her in the chamber. And she said unto him, The Philistines be upon you, Samson. And he brake the withs, as a thread of tow is broken when it touches the fire. So his strength was not known.
10 Delilah said unto Samson, Behold, you have mocked me, and told me lies: now tell me, please, with which you might be bound.
11 He said unto her, If they bind me fast with new ropes that never were occupied, then shall I be weak, and be as another man.
12 Delilah therefore took new ropes, and bound him therewith, and said unto him, The Philistines be upon you, Samson. And there were liers in wait abiding in the chamber. And he brake them from off his arms like a thread.
13 Delilah said unto Samson, until now you have mocked me, and told me lies: tell me with which you might be bound. And he said unto her, If you weave the seven locks of my head with the web.
14 She fastened it with the pin, and said unto him, The Philistines be upon you, Samson. And he awaked out of his sleep, and went away with the pin of the beam, and with the web.
15 She said unto 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 wherein your great strength lies.
16 When she pressed him daily with her words, and urged him, so that his soul was vexed unto death;
17 That he told her all his heart, and said unto her, There has not come a razor upon mine head; for I have been a Nazarite unto God from my mother’s womb: if I be shaven, then my strength will go from me, and I shall become weak, and be like any other man.
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 showed me all his heart. Then the lords of the Philistines came up unto her, and brought money in their hand.
19 She made him sleep upon her knees; and she called for a man, and she caused him to shave off the seven locks of his head; and she began to afflict him, and his strength went from him.
20 She said, The Philistines be upon you, Samson. And he awoke out of his sleep, and said, I will go out as at other times before, and shake myself. And he knew not that the LORD was departed from him.
21 But the Philistines took him, and put out his eyes, and brought him down to Gaza, and bound him with fetters of brass; and he did grind in the prison house.
22 However the hair of his head began to grow again after he was shaven.
23 Then the lords of the Philistines gathered them together for to offer a great sacrifice unto Dagon their god, and to rejoice: for they said, Our god has delivered Samson our enemy into our hand.
24 When the people saw him, they praised their god: for they said, Our god has delivered into our hands our enemy, and the destroyer of our country, which killed many of us.
25 When their hearts were merry, that they said, Call for Samson, that he may make us sport. And they called for Samson out of the prison house; and he made them sport: and they set him between the pillars.
26 Samson said unto the lad that held him by the hand, Suffer me that I may feel the pillars whereupon the house stands, that I may lean upon them.
27 Now the house was full of men and women; and all the lords of the Philistines were there; and there were upon the roof about three thousand men and women, that beheld while Samson made sport.
28 Samson called unto the LORD, and said, O Lord God, remember me, please, and strengthen me, please, only this once, O God, that I may be at once avenged of the Philistines for my two eyes.
29 Samson took hold of the two middle pillars upon which the house stood, and on which it was borne up, of the one with his right hand, and of the other with his left.
30 Samson said, Let me die with the Philistines. And he bowed himself with all his might; and the house fell upon the lords, and upon all the people that were therein. So the dead which he killed at his death were more than they which he killed in his life.
31 Then his brethren and all the house of his father came down, and took him, and brought him up, and buried him between Zorah and Eshtaol in the burial place of Manoah his father. And he judged Israel twenty years.
1 There was a man of mount Ephraim, whose name was Micah.
2 He said unto his mother, The eleven hundred shekels of silver that were taken from you, about which you cursedst, and spoke of also in mine ears, behold, the silver is with me; I took it. And his mother said, Blessed be you of the LORD, my son.
3 When he had restored the eleven hundred shekels of silver to his mother, his mother said, I had wholly dedicated the silver unto the LORD from my hand for my son, to make a graven image and a molten image: now therefore I will restore it unto you.
4 Yet he restored the money unto his mother; and his mother took two hundred shekels of silver, and gave them to the founder, who made thereof a graven image and a molten image: and they were in the house of Micah.
5 The man Micah had an house of gods, and made an ephod, and teraphim, and consecrated one of his sons, who became his priest.
6 In those days there was no king in Israel, but every man did that which was right in his own eyes.
7 There was a young man out of Bethlehemjudah of the family of Judah, who was a Levite, and he sojourned there.
8 The man departed out of the city from Bethlehemjudah to sojourn where he could find a place: and he came to mount Ephraim to the house of Micah, as he journeyed.
9 Micah said unto him, where come you? And he said unto him, I am a Levite of Bethlehemjudah, and I go to sojourn where I may find a place.
10 Micah said unto him, live with me, and be unto me a father and a priest, and I will give you ten shekels of silver by the year, and a suit of apparel, and your victuals. So the Levite went in.
11 The Levite was content to live with the man; and the young man was unto him as one of his sons.
12 Micah consecrated the Levite; and the young man became his priest, and was in the house of Micah.
13 Then said Micah, Now know I that the LORD will do me good, seeing I have a Levite to my priest.
1 In those days there was no king in Israel: and in those days the tribe of the Danites sought them an inheritance to live in; for unto that day all their inheritance had not fallen unto them among the tribes of Israel.
2 The children of Dan sent of their family five men from their regions, men of valour, from Zorah, and from Eshtaol, to spy out the land, and to search it; and they said unto them, Go, search the land: who when they came to mount Ephraim, to the house of Micah, they lodged there.
3 When they were by the house of Micah, they knew the voice of the young man the Levite: and they turned in there, and said unto him, Who brought you here? and what make you in this place? and what have you here?
4 He said unto them, Thus and thus deals Micah with me, and has hired me, and I am his priest.
5 They said unto him, Ask counsel, we pray you, of God, that we may know whether our way which we go shall be prosperous.
6 The priest said unto them, Go in peace: before the LORD is your way wherein you go.
7 Then the five men departed, and came to Laish, and saw the people that were therein, how they lived careless, after the manner of the Zidonians, quiet and secure; and there was no magistrate in the land, that might put them to shame in any thing; and they were far from the Zidonians, and had no business with any man.
8 They came unto their brethren to Zorah and Eshtaol: and their brethren said unto them, What say you?
9 They said, Arise, that we may go up against them: for we have seen the land, and, behold, it is very good: and are you still? be not slothful to go, and to enter to possess the land.
10 When you go, you shall come unto a people secure, and to a large land: for God has given it into your hands; a place where there is no want of any thing that is in the earth.
11 There went from there of the family of the Danites, out of Zorah and out of Eshtaol, six hundred men appointed with weapons of war.
12 They went up, and pitched in Kirjathjearim, in Judah: wherefore they called that place Mahanehdan unto this day: behold, it is behind Kirjathjearim.
13 They passed there unto mount Ephraim, and came unto the house of Micah.
14 Then answered the five men that went to spy out the country of Laish, and said unto their brethren, Do you know that there is in these houses an ephod, and teraphim, and a graven image, and a molten image? now therefore consider what you have to do.
15 They turned thitherward, and came to the house of the young man the Levite, even unto the house of Micah, and saluted him.
16 The six hundred men appointed with their weapons of war, which were of the children of Dan, stood by the entering of the gate.
17 The five men that went to spy out the land went up, and came in there, and took the graven image, and the ephod, and the teraphim, and the molten image: and the priest stood in the entering of the gate with the six hundred men that were appointed with weapons of war.
18 These went into Micah’s house, and fetched the carved image, the ephod, and the teraphim, and the molten image. Then said the priest unto them, What do you?
19 They said unto him, Hold your peace, lay your hand upon your mouth, and go with us, and be to us a father and a priest: is it better for you to be a priest unto the house of one man, or that you be a priest unto a tribe and a family in Israel?
20 The priest’s heart was glad, and he took the ephod, and the teraphim, and the graven image, and went in the midst of the people.
21 So they turned and departed, and put the little ones and the cattle and the carriage before them.
22 When they were a good way from the house of Micah, the men that were in the houses near to Micah’s house were gathered together, and overtook the children of Dan.
23 They cried unto the children of Dan. And they turned their faces, and said unto Micah, What troubles you, that you come with such a company?
24 He said, you have taken away my gods which I made, and the priest, and you are gone away: and what have I more? and what is this that you say unto me, What troubles you?
25 The children of Dan said unto him, Let not your voice be heard among us, lest angry fellows run upon you, and you lose your life, with the lives of your household.
26 The children of Dan went their way: and when Micah saw that they were too strong for him, he turned and went back unto his house.
27 They took the things which Micah had made, and the priest which he had, and came unto Laish, unto a people that were at quiet and secure: and they smote them with the edge of the sword, and burnt the city with fire.
28 There was no deliverer, because it was far from Zidon, and they had no business with any man; and it was in the valley that lies by Bethrehob. And they built a city, and lived therein.
29 They called the name of the city Dan, after the name of Dan their father, who was born unto Israel: however the name of the city was Laish at the first.
30 The children of Dan set up the graven image: and Jonathan, the son of Gershom, the son of Manasseh, he and his sons were priests to the tribe of Dan until the day of the captivity of the land.
31 They set them up Micah’s graven image, which he made, all the time that the house of God was in Shiloh.
1 In those days, when there was no king in Israel, that there was a certain Levite sojourning on the side of mount Ephraim, who took to him a concubine out of Bethlehemjudah.
2 His concubine played the whore against him, and went away from him unto her father’s house to Bethlehemjudah, and was there four whole months.
3 Her husband arose, and went after her, to speak friendly unto her, and to bring her again, having his servant with him, and a couple of asses: and she brought him into her father’s house: and when the father of the damsel saw him, he rejoiced to meet him.
4 His father in law, the damsel’s father, retained him; and he abode with him three days: so they did eat and drink, and lodged there.
5 On the fourth day, when they arose early in the morning, that he rose up to depart: and the damsel’s father said unto his son in law, Comfort your heart with a morsel of bread, and afterward go your way.
6 They sat down, and did eat and drink both of them together: for the damsel’s father had said unto the man, Be content, please, and stay all night, and let your heart be merry.
7 When the man rose up to depart, his father in law urged him: therefore he lodged there again.
8 He arose early in the morning on the fifth day to depart; and the damsel’s father said, Comfort your heart, please. And they stayed until afternoon, and they did eat both of them.
9 When the man rose up to depart, he, and his concubine, and his servant, his father in law, the damsel’s father, said unto 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 to morrow get you early on your way, that you may go home.
10 But the man would not stay that night, but he rose up and departed, and came over against Jebus, which is Jerusalem; and there were with him two asses saddled, his concubine also was with him.
11 When they were by Jebus, the day was far spent; and the servant said unto his master, Come, please, and let us turn in into this city of the Jebusites, and lodge in it.
12 His master said unto him, We will not turn aside here into the city of a stranger, that is not of the children of Israel; we will pass over to Gibeah.
13 He said unto his servant, Come, and let us draw near to one of these places to lodge all night, in Gibeah, or in Ramah.
14 They passed on and went their way; and the sun went down upon them when they were by Gibeah, which belongs to Benjamin.
15 They turned aside there, to go in and to lodge in Gibeah: and when he went in, he sat him down in a street of the city: for there was no man that took them into his house to lodging.
16 And, behold, there came an old man from his work out of the field at even, which was also of mount Ephraim; and he sojourned in Gibeah: but the men of the place were Benjamites.
17 When he had lifted up his eyes, he saw a wayfaring man in the street of the city: and the old man said, where go you? and where come you?
18 He said unto him, We are passing from Bethlehemjudah toward the side of mount Ephraim; from there am I: and I went to Bethlehemjudah, but I am now going to the house of the LORD; and there is no man that receives me to house.
19 Yet there is both straw and provender for our asses; and there is bread and wine also for me, and for your handmaid, and for the young man which is with your servants: there is no want of any thing.
20 The old man said, Peace be with you; howsoever let all your wants lie upon me; only lodge not in the street.
21 So he brought him into his house, and gave provender unto the asses: and they washed their feet, and did eat and drink.
22 Now as they were making their hearts merry, behold, the men of the city, certain sons of Belial, beset the house round about, and beat at the door, and spoke to the master of the house, the old man, saying, Bring forth the man that came into your house, that we may know him.
23 The man, the master of the house, went out unto them, and said unto them, Nay, my brethren, nay, please, do not so wickedly; seeing that this man is come into mine house, do not this folly.
24 Behold, here is my daughter a maiden, and his concubine; them I will bring out now, and humble you them, and do with them what seems good unto you: but unto this man do not so vile a thing.
25 But the men would not hearken to him: so the man took his concubine, and brought her forth unto 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.
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, till it was light.
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, and her hands were upon the threshold.
28 He said unto her, Up, and let us be going. But none answered. Then the man took her up upon an ass, and the man rose up, and went him unto his place.
29 When he was come into his house, he took a knife, and laid hold on his concubine, and divided her, together with her bones, into twelve pieces, and sent her into all the regions of Israel.
30 It was so, that all that 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 unto this day: consider of it, take advice, and speak your minds.
1 Then all the children of Israel went out, and the congregation was gathered together as one man, from Dan even to Beersheba, with the land of Gilead, unto the LORD in Mizpeh.
2 The chief 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 that drew sword.
3 (Now the children of Benjamin heard that the children of Israel were gone up to Mizpeh.) Then said the children of Israel, Tell us, how was this wickedness?
4 The Levite, the husband of the woman that was killed, answered and said, I came into Gibeah that belongs to Benjamin, I and my concubine, to lodge.
5 The men of Gibeah rose against me, and beset the house round about upon me by night, and thought to have killed me: and my concubine have they forced, that she is dead.
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.
7 Behold, you are all children of Israel; give here your advice and counsel.
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 into his house.
9 But now this shall be the thing which we will do to Gibeah; we will go up by lot against it;
10 We will take ten men of an hundred throughout all the tribes of Israel, and an hundred of a thousand, and a thousand out of ten thousand, to fetch victual for the people, that they may do, when they come to Gibeah of Benjamin, according to all the folly that they have wrought in Israel.
11 So all the men of Israel were gathered against the city, knit together as one man.
12 The tribes of Israel sent men through all the tribe of Benjamin, saying, What wickedness is this that is done among you?
13 Now therefore deliver us the men, the children of Belial, which are in Gibeah, that we may put them to death, and put away evil from Israel. But the children of Benjamin would not hearken to the voice of their brethren the children of Israel.
14 But the children of Benjamin gathered themselves together out of the cities unto Gibeah, to go out to battle against the children of Israel.
15 The children of Benjamin were numbered at that time out of the cities twenty and six thousand men that drew sword, beside the inhabitants of Gibeah, which were numbered seven hundred chosen men.
16 Among all this people there were seven hundred chosen men lefthanded; every one could sling stones at an hair breadth, and not miss.
17 The men of Israel, beside Benjamin, were numbered four hundred thousand men that drew sword: all these were men of war.
18 The children of Israel arose, and went up to the house of God, and asked counsel of God, and said, Which of us shall go up first to the battle against the children of Benjamin? And the LORD said, Judah shall go up first.
19 The children of Israel rose up in the morning, and encamped against Gibeah.
20 The men of Israel went out to battle against Benjamin; and the men of Israel put themselves in array to fight against them at Gibeah.
21 The children of Benjamin came forth out of Gibeah, and destroyed down to the ground of the Israelites that day twenty and two thousand men.
22 The people the men of Israel encouraged themselves, and set their battle again in array in the place where they put themselves in array the first day.
23 (And the children of Israel went up and wept before the LORD until even, and asked counsel of the LORD, saying, Shall I go up again to battle against the children of Benjamin my brother? And the LORD said, Go up against him.)
24 The children of Israel came near against the children of Benjamin the second day.
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.
26 Then all the children of Israel, and all the people, went up, and came unto the house of God, and wept, and sat there before the LORD, and fasted that day until even, and offered burnt offerings and peace offerings before the LORD.
27 The children of Israel enquired of the LORD, (for the ark of the covenant of God was there in those days,
28 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? And the LORD said, Go up; for to morrow I will deliver them into your hand.
29 Israel set liers in wait round about Gibeah.
30 The children of Israel went up against the children of Benjamin on the third day, and put themselves in array against Gibeah, as at other times.
31 The children of Benjamin went out against the people, and were drawn away from the city; and they began to smite of the people, and kill, as at other times, in the highways, of which one goes up to the house of God, and the other to Gibeah in the field, about thirty men of Israel.
32 The children of Benjamin said, They are smitten down before us, as at the first. But the children of Israel said, Let us flee, and draw them from the city unto the highways.
33 All the men of Israel rose up out of their place, and put themselves in array at Baaltamar: and the liers in wait of Israel came forth out of their places, even out of the meadows of Gibeah.
34 There came against Gibeah ten thousand chosen men out of all Israel, and the battle was sore: but they knew not that evil was near them.
35 The LORD smote Benjamin before Israel: and the children of Israel destroyed of the Benjamites that day twenty and five thousand and an hundred men: all these drew the sword.
36 So the children of Benjamin saw that they were smitten: for the men of Israel gave place to the Benjamites, because they trusted unto the liers in wait which they had set beside Gibeah.
37 The liers in wait hasted, and rushed upon Gibeah; and the liers in wait drew themselves along, and smote all the city with the edge of the sword.
38 Now there was an appointed sign between the men of Israel and the liers in wait, that they should make a great flame with smoke rise up out of the city.
39 When the men of Israel retired in the battle, Benjamin began to smite and kill of the men of Israel about thirty persons: for they said, Surely they are smitten down before us, as in the first battle.
40 But when the flame began to arise up out of the city with a pillar of smoke, the Benjamites looked behind them, and, behold, the flame of the city ascended up to heaven.
41 When the men of Israel turned again, the men of Benjamin were amazed: for they saw that evil was come upon them.
42 Therefore they turned their backs before the men of Israel unto the way of the wilderness; but the battle overtook them; and them which came out of the cities they destroyed in the midst of them.
43 Thus they inclosed the Benjamites round about, and chased them, and trode them down with ease over against Gibeah toward the sunrising.
44 There fell of Benjamin eighteen thousand men; all these were men of valour.
45 They turned and fled toward the wilderness unto the rock of Rimmon: and they gleaned of them in the highways five thousand men; and pursued hard after them unto Gidom, and killed two thousand men of them.
46 So that all which fell that day of Benjamin were twenty and five thousand men that drew the sword; all these were men of valour.
47 But six hundred men turned and fled to the wilderness unto the rock Rimmon, and abode in the rock Rimmon four months.
48 The men of Israel turned again upon the children of Benjamin, and smote them with the edge of the sword, as well the men of every city, as the beast, and all that came to hand: also they set on fire all the cities that they came to.
1 Now the men of Israel had sworn in Mizpeh, saying, There shall not any of us give his daughter unto Benjamin to wife.
2 The people came to the house of God, and abode there till even before God, and lifted up their voices, and wept sore;
3 Said, O LORD God of Israel, why is this come to pass in Israel, that there should be to day one tribe lacking in Israel?
4 On the morrow, that the people rose early, and built there an altar, and offered burnt offerings and peace offerings.
5 The children of Israel said, Who is there among all the tribes of Israel that came not up with the congregation unto the LORD? For they had made a great oath concerning him that came not up to the LORD to Mizpeh, saying, He shall surely be put to death.
6 The children of Israel repented them for Benjamin their brother, and said, There is one tribe cut off from Israel this day.
7 How shall we do for wives for them that remain, seeing we have sworn by the LORD that we will not give them of our daughters to wives?
8 They said, What one is there of the tribes of Israel that came not up to Mizpeh to the LORD? And, behold, there came none to the camp from Jabeshgilead to the assembly.
9 For the people were numbered, and, behold, there were none of the inhabitants of Jabeshgilead there.
10 The congregation sent there twelve thousand men of the valiantest, and commanded them, saying, Go and smite the inhabitants of Jabeshgilead with the edge of the sword, with the women and the children.
11 This is the thing that you shall do, you shall utterly destroy every male, and every woman that has lain by man.
12 They found among the inhabitants of Jabeshgilead four hundred young virgins, that had known no man by lying with any male: and they brought them unto the camp to Shiloh, which is in the land of Canaan.
13 The whole congregation sent some to speak to the children of Benjamin that were in the rock Rimmon, and to call peaceably unto them.
14 Benjamin came again at that time; and they gave them wives which they had saved alive of the women of Jabeshgilead: and yet so they sufficed them not.
15 The people repented them for Benjamin, because that the LORD had made a breach in the tribes of Israel.
16 Then the elders of the congregation said, How shall we do for wives for them that remain, seeing the women are destroyed out of Benjamin?
17 They said, There must be an inheritance for them that be escaped of Benjamin, that a tribe be not destroyed out of Israel.
18 However we may not give them wives of our daughters: for the children of Israel have sworn, saying, Cursed be he that gives a wife to Benjamin.
19 Then they said, Behold, there is a feast of the LORD in Shiloh yearly in a place which is on the north side of Bethel, on the east side of the highway that goes up from Bethel to Shechem, and on the south of Lebonah.
20 Therefore they commanded the children of Benjamin, saying, Go and lie in wait in the vineyards;
21 See, and, behold, if the daughters of Shiloh come out to dance in 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.
22 It shall be, when their fathers or their brethren come unto us to complain, that we will say unto them, Be favourable unto them for our sakes: because we reserved not to each man his wife in the war: for you did not give unto them at this time, that you should be guilty.
23 The children of Benjamin did so, and took them wives, according to their number, of them that danced, whom they caught: and they went and returned unto their inheritance, and repaired the cities, and lived in them.
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.
25 In those days there was no king in Israel: every man did that which was right in his own eyes.