^20:1And the Lord said to Joshua, ^20:2Say to the children of Israel, Let certain towns be marked out as safe places, as I said to you by the mouth of Moses, ^20:3So that any man who in error and without design has taken the life of another, may go in flight to them: and they will be safe places for you from him who has the right of punishment for blood. ^20:4And if anyone goes in flight to one of those towns, and comes into the public place of the town, and puts his cause before the responsible men of the town, they will take him into the town and give him a place among them where he may be safe. ^20:5And if the one who has the right of punishment comes after him, they are not to give the taker of life up to him; because he was the cause of his neighbour's death without designing it and not in hate. ^20:6And he is to go on living in that town till he has to come before the meeting of the people to be judged; (till the death of him who is high priest at that time:) then the taker of life may come back to his town and to his house, to the town from which he had gone in flight. ^20:7So they made selection of Kedesh in Galilee in the hill-country of Naphtali, and Shechem in the hill-country of Ephraim, and Kiriath-arba (which is Hebron) in the hill-country of Judah. ^20:8And on the east side of Jordan at Jericho, they made selection of Bezer in the waste land, in the table-land, out of the tribe of Reuben, and Ramoth in Gilead out of the tribe of Gad, and Golan in Bashan out of the tribe of Manasseh. ^20:9These were the towns marked out for all the children of Israel and for the man from a strange country living among them, so that anyone causing the death of another in error, might go in flight there, and not be put to death by him who has the right of punishment for blood till he had come before the meeting of the people.

^21:1Then the heads of the families of the Levites came to Eleazar the priest and Joshua, the son of Nun, and to the heads of families of the tribes of the children of Israel; ^21:2And said to them in Shiloh in the land of Canaan, The Lord gave orders by Moses that we were to have towns for living in, with their grass-lands for our cattle. ^21:3And the children of Israel out of their heritage gave to the Levites these towns with their grass-lands, by the order of the Lord. ^21:4And the heritage came out for the families of the Kohathites: the children of Aaron the priest, who were of the Levites, were given thirteen towns from the tribes of Judah, Simeon, and Benjamin. ^21:5The rest of the children of Kohath by their families were given ten towns from the tribes of Ephraim and Dan and the half-tribe of Manasseh. ^21:6The children of Gershon by their families were given thirteen towns from the tribes of Issachar and Asher and Naphtali and the half-tribe of Manasseh which was in Bashan. ^21:7The children of Merari by their families were given twelve towns from the tribes of Reuben and Gad and Zebulun. ^21:8All these towns with their grass-lands the children of Israel gave by the decision of the Lord to the Levites, as the Lord had given orders by Moses. ^21:9From the tribes of the children of Judah and the children of Simeon they gave these towns, listed here by name: ^21:10These were for the children of Aaron among the families of the Kohathites, of the children of Levi: for they came first in the distribution. ^21:11They gave them Kiriath-arba, the town of Arba, the father of Anak, (which is Hebron) in the hill-country of Judah, with its grass-lands. ^21:12But the open country round the town, and its unwalled places, they gave to Caleb, the son of Jephunneh, as his property. ^21:13And to the children of Aaron the priest they gave Hebron with its grass-lands, the town where the taker of life might be safe, and Libnah with its grass-lands; ^21:14And Jattir with its grass-lands, and Eshtemoa with its grass-lands; ^21:15And Holon with its grass-lands, and Debir with its grass-lands; ^21:16And Ain, and Juttah, and Beth-shemesh, with their grass-lands; nine towns from those two tribes. ^21:17And from the tribe of Benjamin they gave Gibeon and Geba with their grass-lands; ^21:18Anathoth and Almon with their grass-lands, four towns. ^21:19Thirteen towns with their grass-lands were given to the children of Aaron, the priests. ^21:20The rest of the families of the children of Kohath, the Levites, were given towns from the tribe of Ephraim. ^21:21And they gave them Shechem with its grass-lands in the hill-country of Ephraim, the town where the taker of life might be safe, and Gezer with its grass-lands; ^21:22And Kibzaim and Beth-horon with their grass-lands, four towns. ^21:23And from the tribe of Dan, Elteke and Gibbethon with their grass-lands; ^21:24Aijalon and Gath-rimmon with their grass-lands, four towns. ^21:25And from the half-tribe of Manasseh, Taanach and Gath-rimmon with their grass-lands, two towns. ^21:26All the towns of the rest of the families of the children of Kohath were ten with their grass-lands. ^21:27And to the children of Gershon, of the families of the Levites, they gave from the half-tribe of Manasseh, Golan in Bashan with its grass-lands, the town where the taker of life might be safe, and Ashtaroth with its grass-lands, two towns. ^21:28And from the tribe of Issachar, Kishion and Daberath with their grass-lands; ^21:29Jarmuth and En-gannim with their grass-lands, four towns. ^21:30And from the tribe of Asher, Mishal and Abdon, with their grass-lands: ^21:31Helkath and Rehob with their grass-lands, four towns. ^21:32And from the tribe of Naphtali, Kedesh in Galilee with its grass-lands, the town where the taker of life might be safe, and Hammoth-dor and Kartan with their grass-lands, three towns. ^21:33All the towns of the Gershonites with their families were thirteen with their grass-lands. ^21:34And to the rest of the Levites, that is, the families of the children of Merari, they gave from the tribe of Zebulun, Jokneam and Kartah with their grass-lands; ^21:35Dimnah and Nahalal with their grass-lands, four towns. ^21:36And from the tribe of Reuben, Bezer and Jahaz with their grass-lands; ^21:37Kedemoth and Mephaath with their grass-lands, four towns. ^21:38And from the tribe of Gad, Ramoth in Gilead, the town where the taker of life might be safe, and Mahanaim with their grass-lands; ^21:39Heshbon and Jazer with their grass-lands, four towns. ^21:40All these towns were given to the children of Merari by their families, that is, the rest of the families of the Levites; and their heritage was twelve towns. ^21:41All the towns of the Levites, among the heritage of the children of Israel, were forty-eight towns with their grass-lands. ^21:42Every one of these towns had grass-lands round it. ^21:43So the Lord gave to Israel all the land which he gave by oath to their fathers; so it became their heritage and their living-place. ^21:44And the Lord gave them peace on every side, as he had said to their fathers: all those who were against them gave way before them, for the Lord gave them all up into their hands. ^21:45The Lord kept faith with the house of Israel about all the good which he said he would do for them, and all his words came true.

^22:1Then Joshua sent for the Reubenites and the Gadites and the half-tribe of Manasseh, ^22:2And said to them, You have kept all the orders of Moses, the Lord's servant, and have done everything I gave you orders to do: ^22:3You have now been with your brothers for a long time; till this day you have been doing the orders of the Lord your God. ^22:4And now the Lord your God has given your brothers rest, as he said: so now you may go back to your tents, to the land of your heritage, which Moses, the Lord's servant, gave to you on the other side of Jordan. ^22:5Only take great care to do the orders and the law which Moses, the Lord's servant, gave you; to have love for the Lord your God and to go in all his ways; and to keep his laws and to be true to him and to be his servants with all your heart and with all your soul. ^22:6Then Joshua gave them his blessing and sent them away: and they went back to their tents. ^22:7Now to the one half of the tribe of Manasseh, Moses had given a heritage in Bashan; but to the other half, Joshua gave a heritage among their brothers on the west side of Jordan. Now when Joshua sent them away to their tents, he gave them his blessing, ^22:8And said to them, Go back with much wealth to your tents, and with very much cattle, with silver and gold and brass and iron, and with a very great store of clothing; give your brothers a part of the goods taken in the war. ^22:9So Reuben and Gad and the half-tribe of Manasseh went back, parting from the children of Israel at Shiloh in the land of Canaan, to go to the land of Gilead, to the land of their heritage which had been given to them by the Lord's order to Moses. ^22:10Now when they came to the country by Jordan in the land of Canaan, the children of Reuben and the children of Gad and the half-tribe of Manasseh put up there, by Jordan, a great altar, seen from far. ^22:11And news came to the children of Israel, See, the children of Reuben and the children of Gad and the half-tribe of Manasseh have put up an altar opposite the land of Canaan, in the country by Jordan on the side which is Israel's. ^22:12Then all the meeting of the children of Israel, hearing this, came together at Shiloh to go up against them to war. ^22:13And the children of Israel sent Phinehas, the son of Eleazar the priest, to the children of Reuben and the children of Gad and the half-tribe of Manasseh, to the land of Gilead, ^22:14And with him they sent ten chiefs, one for every tribe of the children of Israel, every one of them the head of his house among the families of Israel. ^22:15And they came to the children of Reuben and the children of Gad and the half-tribe of Manasseh, to the land of Gilead, and said to them, ^22:16This is what all the meeting of the people of the Lord has said, What is this wrong which you have done against the God of Israel, turning back this day from the Lord and building an altar for yourselves, and being false to the Lord? ^22:17Was not the sin of Baal-peor great enough, from which we are not clear even to this day, though punishment came on the people of the Lord, ^22:18That now you are turned back from the Lord? and, because you are false to him today, tomorrow his wrath will be let loose on all the people of Israel. ^22:19But if the land you now have is unclean, come over into the Lord's land where his House is, and take up your heritage among us: but do not be false to the Lord and to us by building yourselves an altar in addition to the altar of the Lord our God. ^22:20Did not Achan, the son of Zerah, do wrong about the cursed thing, causing wrath to come on all the people of Israel? And not on him only came the punishment of death. ^22:21Then the children of Reuben and the children of Gad and the half-tribe of Manasseh said in answer to the heads of the families of Israel, ^22:22God, even God the Lord, God, even God the Lord, he sees, and Israel will see--if it is in pride or in sin against the Lord, ^22:23That we have made ourselves an altar, being false to the Lord, keep us not safe from death this day; and if for the purpose of offering burned offerings on it and meal offerings, or peace-offerings, let the Lord himself send punishment for it; ^22:24And if we have not, in fact, done this designedly and with purpose, having in our minds the fear that in time to come your children might say to our children, What have you to do with the Lord, the God of Israel? ^22:25For the Lord has made Jordan a line of division between us and you, the children of Reuben and the children of Gad; you have no part in the Lord: so your children will make our children give up fearing the Lord. ^22:26So we said, Let us now make an altar for ourselves, not for burned offerings or for the offerings of beasts: ^22:27But to be a witness between us and you, and between the future generations, that we have the right of worshipping the Lord with our burned offerings and our offerings of beasts and our peace-offerings; so that your children will not be able to say to our children in time to come, You have no part in the Lord. ^22:28For we said to ourselves, If they say this to us or to future generations, then we will say, See this copy of the Lord's altar which our fathers made, not for burned offerings or offerings of beasts, but for a witness between us and you. ^22:29Never let it be said that we were false to the Lord, turning back this day from him and building an altar for burned offerings and meal offerings and offerings of beasts, in addition to the altar of the Lord our God which is before his House. ^22:30Then Phinehas the priest and the chiefs of the meeting and the heads of the families of Israel who were with him, hearing what the children of Reuben and the children of Gad and the children of Manasseh said, were pleased. ^22:31And Phinehas, the son of Eleazar the priest, said to the children of Reuben and the children of Gad and the children of Manasseh, Now we are certain that the Lord is among us, because you have not done this wrong against the Lord: and you have kept us from falling into the hands of the Lord. ^22:32Then Phinehas, the son of Eleazar the priest, and the chiefs went back from the land of Gilead, from the children of Reuben and the children of Gad, and came to the children of Israel in Canaan and gave them the news. ^22:33And the children of Israel were pleased about this; and they gave praise to God, and had no more thought of going to war against the children of Reuben and the children of Gad for the destruction of their land. ^22:34And the children of Reuben and the children of Gad gave to that altar the name of Ed. For, they said, It is a witness between us that the Lord is God.

^23:1Now after a long time, when the Lord had given Israel rest from wars on every side, and Joshua was old and full of years, ^23:2Joshua sent for all Israel, for their responsible men and their chiefs and their judges and their overseers, and said to them, I am old, and full of years: ^23:3You have seen everything the Lord your God has done to all these nations because of you; for it is the Lord your God who has been fighting for you. ^23:4Now I have given to you, as the heritage of your tribes, all these nations which are still in the land, together with those cut off by me, from Jordan as far as the Great Sea on the west. ^23:5The Lord your God will send them away by force, driving them out before you; and you are to take their land for your heritage, as the Lord your God said to you. ^23:6So be very strong to keep and do whatever is recorded in the book of the law of Moses, not turning away from it to the right or to the left; ^23:7Have nothing to do with these nations who still are living among you; let not their gods be named by you or used in your oaths; do not be their servants or give them worship: ^23:8But be true to the Lord your God as you have been till this day. ^23:9For the Lord has sent out from before you nations great and strong: and they have all given way before you till this day. ^23:10One man of you is able to put to flight a thousand; for it is the Lord your God who is fighting for you, as he has said to you. ^23:11So keep watch on yourselves, and see that you have love for the Lord your God. ^23:12For if you go back, joining yourselves to the rest of these nations who are still among you, getting married to them and living with them and they with you: ^23:13Then you may be certain that the Lord your God will not go on driving these nations out from before you; but they will become a danger and a cause of sin to you, a whip for your sides and thorns in your eyes, till you are cut off from this good land which the Lord your God has given you. ^23:14Now I am about to go the way of all the earth: and you have seen and are certain, all of you, in your hearts and souls, that in all the good things which the Lord said about you, he has kept faith with you; everything has come true for you. ^23:15And you will see that, as all the good things which the Lord your God undertook to do for you, have come to you, so the Lord will send down on you all the evil things till he has made your destruction complete, and you are cut off from the good land which the Lord your God has given you. ^23:16If the agreement of the Lord your God, which was given to you by his orders, is broken, and you become the servants of other gods and give them worship, then the wrath of the Lord will be burning against you, and you will quickly be cut off from the good land which he has given you.

^24:1Then Joshua got all the tribes of Israel together at Shechem; and he sent for the responsible men of Israel and their chiefs and their judges and their overseers; and they took their place before God. ^24:2And Joshua said to all the people, These are the words of the Lord, the God of Israel: In the past your fathers, Terah, the father of Abraham, and the father of Nahor, were living on the other side of the River: and they were worshipping other gods. ^24:3And I took your father Abraham from the other side of the River, guiding him through all the land of Canaan; I made his offspring great in number, and gave him Isaac. ^24:4And to Isaac I gave Jacob and Esau: to Esau I gave Mount Seir, as his heritage; but Jacob and his children went down to Egypt. ^24:5And I sent Moses and Aaron, troubling Egypt by all the signs I did among them: and after that I took you out. ^24:6I took your fathers out of Egypt: and you came to the Red Sea; and the Egyptians came after your fathers to the Red Sea, with their war-carriages and their horsemen. ^24:7And at their cry, the Lord made it dark between you and the Egyptians, and made the sea go over them, covering them with its waters; your eyes have seen what I did in Egypt: then for a long time you were living in the waste land. ^24:8And I took you into the lands of the Amorites on the other side of Jordan; and they made war on you, and I gave them into your hands and you took their land; and I sent destruction on them before you. ^24:9Then Balak, the son of Zippor, king of Moab, went up to war against Israel; and he sent for Balaam, the son of Beor, to put a curse on you: ^24:10But I did not give ear to Balaam; and so he went on blessing you; and I kept you safe from him. ^24:11Then you went over Jordan and came to Jericho: and the men of Jericho made war on you, the Amorites and the Perizzites and the Canaanites and the Hittites and the Girgashites and the Hivites and the Jebusites: and I gave them up into your hands. ^24:12And I sent the hornet before you, driving out the two kings of the Amorites before you, not with your sword and your bow. ^24:13And I gave you a land on which you had done no work, and towns not of your building, and you are now living in them; and your food comes from vine-gardens and olive-gardens not of your planting. ^24:14So now, go in fear of the Lord, and be his servants with true hearts: put away the gods worshipped by your fathers across the River and in Egypt, and be servants of the Lord. ^24:15And if it seems evil to you to be the servants of the Lord, make the decision this day whose servants you will be: of the gods whose servants your fathers were across the River, or of the gods of the Amorites in whose land you are living: but I and my house will be the servants of the Lord. ^24:16Then the people in answer said, Never will we give up the Lord to be the servants of other gods; ^24:17For it is the Lord our God who has taken us and our fathers out of the land of Egypt, out of the prison-house, and who did all those great signs before our eyes, and kept us safe on all our journeys, and among all the peoples through whom we went: ^24:18And the Lord sent out from before us all the peoples, the Amorites living in the land: so we will be the servants of the Lord, for he is our God. ^24:19And Joshua said to the people, You are not able to be the servants of the Lord, for he is a holy God, a God who will not let his honour be given to another: he will have no mercy on your wrongdoing or your sins. ^24:20If you are turned away from the Lord and become the servants of strange gods, then turning against you he will do you evil, cutting you off, after he has done you good. ^24:21And the people said to Joshua, No! But we will be the servants of the Lord. ^24:22And Joshua said to the people, You are witnesses against yourselves that you have made the decision to be the servants of the Lord. And they said, We are witnesses. ^24:23Then, he said, put away the strange gods among you, turning your hearts to the Lord, the God of Israel. ^24:24And the people said to Joshua, We will be the servants of the Lord our God, and we will give ear to his voice. ^24:25So Joshua made an agreement with the people that day, and gave them a rule and a law in Shechem. ^24:26And Joshua put these words on record, writing them in the book of the law of God; and he took a great stone, and put it up there under the oak-tree which was in the holy place of the Lord. ^24:27And Joshua said to all the people, See now, this stone is to be a witness against us; for all the words of the Lord have been said to us in its hearing: so it will be a witness against you if you are false to the Lord your God. ^24:28Then Joshua let the people go away, every man to his heritage. ^24:29Now after these things, the death of Joshua, the son of Nun, the servant of the Lord, took place, he being then a hundred and ten years old. ^24:30And they put his body in the earth in the land of his heritage in Timnath-serah, in the hill-country of Ephraim, to the north of Mount Gaash. ^24:31And Israel was true to the Lord all the days of Joshua, and all the days of the older men who were still living after Joshua's death, and had seen what the Lord had done for Israel. ^24:32And the bones of Joseph, which the children of Israel had taken up from Egypt, they put in the earth in Shechem, in the property which Jacob had got from the sons of Hamor, the father of Shechem, for a hundred shekels: and they became the heritage of the children of Joseph. ^24:33Then the death of Eleazar, the son of Aaron, took place; and his body was put in the earth in the hill of Phinehas his son, which had been given to him in the hill-country of Ephraim.

Judges

^1:1Now after the death of Joshua, the children of Israel made request to the Lord, saying, Who is to go up first to make war for us against the Canaanites? ^1:2And the Lord said, Judah is to go up: see, I have given the land into his hands. ^1:3Then Judah said to Simeon his brother, Come up with me into my heritage, so that we may make war against the Canaanites; and I will then go with you into your heritage. So Simeon went with him. ^1:4And Judah went up; and the Lord gave the Canaanites and the Perizzites into their hands; and they overcame ten thousand of them in Bezek. ^1:5And they came across Adoni-zedek, and made war on him; and they overcame the Canaanites and the Perizzites. ^1:6But Adoni-zedek went in flight; and they went after him and overtook him, and had his thumbs and his great toes cut off. ^1:7And Adoni-zedek said, Seventy kings, whose thumbs and great toes had been cut off, got broken meat under my table: as I have done, so has God done to me in full. And they took him to Jerusalem, and he came to his end there. ^1:8Then the children of Judah made an attack on Jerusalem, and took it, burning down the town after they had put its people to the sword without mercy. ^1:9After that the children of Judah went down to make war on the Canaanites living in the hill-country and in the south and in the lowlands. ^1:10And Caleb went against the Canaanites of Hebron: (now in earlier times Hebron was named Kiriath-arba:) and he put Sheshai and Ahiman and Talmai to the sword. ^1:11And from there he went up against the people of Debir. (Now the name of Debir in earlier times was Kiriath-sepher.) ^1:12And Caleb said, I will give Achsah, my daughter, as wife to the man who overcomes Kiriath-sepher and takes it. ^1:13And Othniel, the son of Kenaz, Caleb's younger brother, took it; so he gave him his daughter Achsah for his wife. ^1:14Now when she came to him, he put into her mind the idea of requesting a field from her father: and she got down from her ass; and Caleb said to her, What is it? ^1:15And she said to him, Give me a blessing; because you have put me in a dry south-land, now give me springs of water. So Caleb gave her the higher spring and the lower spring. ^1:16Now Hobab the Kenite, Moses' father-in-law, had come up out of the town of palm-trees, with the children of Judah, into the waste land of Arad; and he went and was living among the Amalekites; ^1:17And Judah went with Simeon, his brother, and overcame the Canaanites living in Zephath, and put it under the curse; and he gave the town the name of Hormah. ^1:18Then Judah took Gaza and its limit, and Ashkelon and its limit, and Ekron and its limit. ^1:19And the Lord was with Judah; and he took the hill-country for his heritage; but he was unable to make the people of the valley go out, for they had war-carriages of iron. ^1:20And they gave Hebron to Caleb, as Moses had said; and he took the land of the three sons of Anak, driving them out from there. ^1:21And the children of Judah did not make the Jebusites who were living in Jerusalem go out; the Jebusites are still living with the children of Benjamin in Jerusalem. ^1:22And the family of Joseph went up against Beth-el, and the Lord was with them. ^1:23So they sent men to make a search round Beth-el. (Now the name of the town in earlier times was Luz.) ^1:24And the watchers saw a man coming out of the town, and said to him, If you will make clear to us the way into the town, we will be kind to you. ^1:25So he made clear to them the way into the town, and they put it to the sword; but they let the man and all his family get away safe. ^1:26And he went into the land of the Hittites, building a town there and naming it Luz: which is its name to this day. ^1:27And Manasseh did not take away the land of the people of Beth-shean and its daughter-towns, or of Taanach and its daughter-towns, or of the people of Dor and its daughter-towns, or of the people of Ibleam and its daughter-towns, or of the people of Megiddo and its daughter-towns, driving them out; but the Canaanites would go on living in that land. ^1:28And whenever Israel became strong, they put the Canaanites to forced work, without driving them out completely. ^1:29And Ephraim did not make the Canaanites who were living in Gezer go out; but the Canaanites went on living in Gezer among them. ^1:30Zebulun did not make the people of Kitron or the people of Nahalol go out; but the Canaanites went on living among them and were put to forced work. ^1:31And Asher did not take the land of the people of Acco, or Zidon, or Ahlab, or Achzib, or Helbah, or Aphik, or Rehob, driving them out; ^1:32But the Asherites went on living among the Canaanites, the people of the land, without driving them out. ^1:33Naphtali did not take the land of the people of Beth-shemesh or of Beth-anath, driving them out; but he was living among the Canaanites in the land; however, the people of Beth-shemesh and Beth-anath were put to forced work. ^1:34And the children of Dan were forced into the hill-country by the Amorites, who would not let them come down into the valley; ^1:35For the Amorites would go on living in Mount Heres, in Aijalon, and in Shaalbim; but the children of Joseph became stronger than they, and put them to forced work. ^1:36And the limit of the Edomites went from the slope of Akrabbim from Sela and up.

^2:1Now the angel of the Lord came up from Gilgal to Bochim. And he said, *** I took you out of Egypt, guiding you into the land which I gave by an oath to your fathers; and I said, My agreement with you will never be broken by me: ^2:2And you are to make no agreement with the people of this land; you are to see that their altars are broken down: but you have not given ear to my voice: what have you done? ^2:3And so I have said, I will not send them out from before you; but they will be a danger to you, and their gods will be a cause of falling to you. ^2:4Now on hearing these words which the angel of the Lord said to all the children of Israel, the people gave themselves up to loud crying and weeping. ^2:5And they gave that place the name of Bochim, and made offerings there to the Lord. ^2:6And Joshua let the people go away, and the children of Israel went, every man to his heritage, to take the land for themselves. ^2:7And the people were true to the Lord all the days of Joshua, and all the days of the responsible men who were still living after the death of Joshua, and had seen all the great work of the Lord which he had done for Israel. ^2:8And death came to Joshua, the son of Nun, the servant of the Lord, he being a hundred and ten years old. ^2:9And they put his body in the earth in the land of his heritage in Timnath-heres, in the hill-country of Ephraim to the north of Mount Gaash. ^2:10And in time death overtook all that generation; and another generation came after them, having no knowledge of the Lord or of the things which he had done for Israel. ^2:11And the children of Israel did evil in the eyes of the Lord and became servants to the Baals; ^2:12And they gave up the Lord, the God of their fathers, who had taken them out of the land of Egypt, and went after other gods, the gods of the peoples round about them, worshipping them and moving the Lord to wrath. ^2:13And they gave up the Lord, and became the servants of Baal and the Astartes. ^2:14And the wrath of the Lord was burning against Israel, and he gave them up into the hands of those who violently took their property, and into the hands of their haters all round them, so that they were forced to give way before them. ^2:15Wherever they went out, the hand of the Lord was against them for evil, as the Lord had taken his oath it would be; and things became very hard for them. ^2:16Then the Lord gave them judges, as their saviours from the hands of those who were cruel to them. ^2:17But still they would not give ear to their judges, but went after other gods and gave them worship; quickly turning from the way in which their fathers had gone, keeping the orders of the Lord; but they did not do so. ^2:18And whenever the Lord gave them judges, then the Lord was with the judge, and was their saviour from the hands of their haters all the days of the judge; for the Lord was moved by their cries of grief because of those who were cruel to them. ^2:19But whenever the judge was dead, they went back and did more evil than their fathers, going after other gods, to be their servants and their worshippers; giving up nothing of their sins and their hard-hearted ways. ^2:20And the wrath of the Lord was burning against Israel, and he said, Because this nation has not been true to my agreement which I made with their fathers, and has not given ear to my voice; ^2:21From now on I will not go on driving out from before them any of the nations which at the death of Joshua were still living in this land; ^2:22In order to put Israel to the test, and see if they will keep the way of the Lord, walking in it as their fathers did, or not. ^2:23So the Lord let those nations go on living in the land, not driving them out quickly, and did not give them up into the hands of Joshua.

^3:1Now these are the nations which the Lord kept in the land for the purpose of testing Israel by them, all those who had had no experience of all the wars of Canaan; ^3:2Only because of the generations of the children of Israel, for the purpose of teaching them war--only those who up till then had no experience of it; ^3:3The five chiefs of the Philistines, and all the Canaanites and the Zidonians and the Hivites living in Mount Lebanon, from the mountain Baal-hermon as far as Hamath: ^3:4For the purpose of testing Israel by them, to see if they would give ear to the orders of the Lord, which he had given to their fathers by the hand of Moses. ^3:5Now the children of Israel were living among the Canaanites, the Hittites, and the Amorites, and the Perizzites, and the Hivites, and the Jebusites: ^3:6And they took as wives the daughters of these nations and gave their daughters to their sons, and became servants to their gods. ^3:7And the children of Israel did evil in the eyes of the Lord, and put out of their minds the Lord their God, and became servants to the Baals and the Astartes. ^3:8So the wrath of the Lord was burning against Israel, and he gave them up into the hands of Cushan-rishathaim, king of Mesopotamia; and the children of Israel were his servants for eight years. ^3:9And when the children of Israel made prayer to the Lord, he gave them a saviour, Othniel, the son of Kenaz, Caleb's younger brother. ^3:10And the spirit of the Lord came on him and he became judge of Israel, and went out to war, and the Lord gave up Cushan-rishathaim, king of Mesopotamia, into his hands and he overcame him. ^3:11Then for forty years the land had peace, till the death of Othniel, the son of Kenaz. ^3:12Then the children of Israel again did evil in the eyes of the Lord; and the Lord made Eglon, king of Moab, strong against Israel, because they had done evil in the Lord's eyes. ^3:13And Eglon got together the people of Ammon and Amalek, and they went and overcame Israel and took the town of palm-trees. ^3:14And the children of Israel were servants to Eglon, king of Moab, for eighteen years. ^3:15Then when the children of Israel made prayer to the Lord, he gave them a saviour, Ehud, the son of Gera, the Benjamite, a left-handed man; and the children of Israel sent an offering by him to Eglon, king of Moab. ^3:16So Ehud made himself a two-edged sword, a cubit long, which he put on at his right side under his robe. ^3:17And he took the offering to Eglon, king of Moab, who was a very fat man. ^3:18And after giving the offering, he sent away the people who had come with the offering. ^3:19But he himself, turning back from the stone images at Gilgal, said, I have something to say to you in secret, O king. And he said, Let there be quiet. Then all those who were waiting before him went out. ^3:20Then Ehud came in to him while he was seated by himself in his summer-house. And Ehud said, I have a word from God for you. And he got up from his seat. ^3:21And Ehud put out his left hand, and took the sword from his right side, and sent it into his stomach; ^3:22And the hand-part went in after the blade, and the fat was joined up over the blade; for he did not take the sword out of his stomach. And he went out into the ... ^3:23Then Ehud went out into the covered way, shutting the doors of the summer-house on him and locking them. ^3:24Now when he had gone, the king's servants came, and saw that the doors of the summer-house were locked; and they said, It may be that he is in his summer-house for a private purpose. ^3:25And they went on waiting till they were shamed, but the doors were still shut; so they took the key, and, opening them, saw their lord stretched out dead on the floor. ^3:26But Ehud had got away while they were waiting and had gone past the stone images and got away to Seirah. ^3:27And when he came there, he had a horn sounded in the hill-country of Ephraim, and all the children of Israel went down with him from the hill-country, and he at their head. ^3:28And he said to them, Come after me; for the Lord has given the Moabites, your haters, into your hands. So they went down after him and took the crossing-places of Jordan against Moab, and let no one go across. ^3:29At that time they put about ten thousand men of Moab to the sword, every strong man and every man of war; not a man got away. ^3:30So Moab was broken that day under the hand of Israel. And for eighty years the land had peace. ^3:31And after him came Shamgar, the son of Anath, who put to death six hundred Philistines with an ox-stick; and he was another saviour of Israel.

^4:1And the children of Israel again did evil in the eyes of the Lord when Ehud was dead. ^4:2And the Lord gave them up into the hands of Jabin, king of Canaan, who was ruling in Hazor; the captain of his army was Sisera, who was living in Harosheth of the Gentiles. ^4:3Then the children of Israel made prayer to the Lord; for he had nine hundred iron war-carriages, and for twenty years he was very cruel to the children of Israel. ^4:4Now Deborah, a woman prophet, the wife of Lapidoth, was judge of Israel at that time. ^4:5(And she had her seat under the palm-tree of Deborah between Ramah and Beth-el in the hill-country of Ephraim; and the children of Israel came up to her to be judged.) ^4:6And she sent for Barak, the son of Abinoam, from Kedesh-naphtali, and said to him, Has not the Lord, the God of Israel, given orders saying, Go and get your force into line in Mount Tabor, and take with you ten thousand men of the children of Naphtali and of the children of Zebulun? ^4:7And I will make Sisera, the captain of Jabin's army, with his war-carriages and his forces, come against you at the river Kishon, where I will give him into your hands. ^4:8And Barak said to her, If you will go with me then I will go; but if you will not go with me I will not go. ^4:9And she said, I will certainly go with you: though you will get no honour in your undertaking, for the Lord will give Sisera into the hands of a woman. So Deborah got up and went with Barak to Kedesh. ^4:10Then Barak sent for Zebulun and Naphtali to come to Kedesh; and ten thousand men went up after him, and Deborah went up with him. ^4:11Now Heber the Kenite, separating himself from the rest of the Kenites, from the children of Hobab, the brother-in-law of Moses, had put up his tent as far away as the oak-tree in Zaanannim, by Kedesh. ^4:12And word was given to Sisera that Barak, the son of Abinoam, had gone up to Mount Tabor. ^4:13So Sisera got together all his war-carriages, nine hundred war-carriages of iron, and all the people who were with him, from Harosheth of the Gentiles as far as the river Kishon. ^4:14Then Deborah said to Barak, Up! for today the Lord has given Sisera into your hands: has not the Lord gone out before you? So Barak went down from Mount Tabor and ten thousand men after him. ^4:15And the Lord sent fear on Sisera and all his war-carriages and all his army before Barak; and Sisera got down from his war-carriage and went in flight on foot. ^4:16But Barak went after the war-carriages and the army as far as Harosheth of the Gentiles; and all Sisera's army was put to the sword; not a man got away. ^4:17But Sisera went in flight on foot to the tent of Jael, the wife of Heber the Kenite; for there was peace between Jabin, king of Hazor, and the family of Heber the Kenite. ^4:18And Jael went out to Sisera, and said to him, Come in, my lord, come in to me without fear. So he went into her tent, and she put a cover over him. ^4:19Then he said to her, Give me now a little water, for I have need of a drink. And opening a skin of milk, she gave him drink, and put the cover over him again. ^4:20And he said to her, Take your place at the door of the tent, and if anyone comes and says to you, Is there any man here, say, No. ^4:21Then Jael, Heber's wife, took a tent-pin and a hammer and went up to him quietly, driving the pin into his head, and it went through his head into the earth, for he was in a deep sleep from weariness; and so he came to his end. ^4:22Then Jael went out, and meeting Barak going after Sisera, said to him, Come, and I will let you see the man you are searching for. So he came into her tent and saw, and there was Sisera stretched out dead with the tent-pin in his head. ^4:23So that day God overcame Jabin, king of Canaan, before the children of Israel. ^4:24And the power of the children of Israel went on increasing against Jabin, king of Canaan, till he was cut off.

^5:1At that time Deborah and Barak, the son of Abinoam, made this song, saying: ^5:2Because of the flowing hair of the fighters in Israel, because the people gave themselves freely, give praise to the Lord. ^5:3Give attention, O kings; give ear, O rulers; I, even I, will make a song to the Lord; I will make melody to the Lord, the God of Israel. ^5:4Lord, when you went out from Seir, moving like an army from the field of Edom, the earth was shaking and the heavens were troubled, and the clouds were dropping water. ^5:5The mountains were shaking before the Lord, before the Lord, the God of Israel. ^5:6In the days of Shamgar, the son of Anath, in the days of Jael, the highways were not used, and travellers went by side roads. ^5:7Country towns were no more in Israel, *** were no more, till you, Deborah, came up, till you came up as a mother in Israel. ^5:8They had no one to make arms, there were no more armed men in the towns; was there a body-cover or a spear to be seen among forty thousand in Israel? ^5:9Come, you rulers of Israel, you who gave yourselves freely among the people: give praise to the Lord. ^5:10Let them give thought to it, who go on white asses, and those who are walking on the road. ^5:11Give ear to the women laughing by the water-springs; there they will give again the story of the upright acts of the Lord, all the upright acts of his arm in Israel. ^5:12Awake! awake! Deborah: awake! awake! give a song: Up! Barak, and take prisoner those who took you prisoner, O son of Abinoam. ^5:13Then the chiefs went down to the doors; the Lord's people went down among the strong ones. ^5:14Out of Ephraim they came down into the valley; after you, Benjamin, among your tribesmen; from Machir came down the captains, and from Zebulun those in whose hand is the ruler's rod. ^5:15Your chiefs, Issachar, were with Deborah; and Naphtali was true to Barak; into the valley they went rushing out at his feet. In Reuben there were divisions, and great searchings of heart. ^5:16Why did you keep quiet among the sheep, hearing nothing but the watchers piping to the flocks? ^5:17Gilead was living over Jordan; and Dan was waiting in his ships; Asher kept in his place by the sea's edge, living by his inlets. ^5:18It was the people of Zebulun who put their lives in danger, even to death, with Naphtali on the high places of the field. ^5:19The kings came on to the fight, the kings of Canaan were warring; in Taanach by the waters of Megiddo: they took no profit in money. ^5:20The stars from heaven were fighting; from their highways they were fighting against Sisera. ^5:21The river Kishon took them violently away, stopping their flight, the river Kishon. Give praise, O my soul, to the strength of the Lord! ^5:22Then loudly the feet of the horses were sounding with the stamping, the stamping of their war-horses. ^5:23A curse, a curse on Meroz! said the angel of the Lord. A bitter curse on her townspeople! Because they came not to the help of the Lord, to the help of the Lord among the strong ones. ^5:24Blessings be on Jael, more than on all women! Blessings greater than on any in the tents! ^5:25His request was for water, she gave him milk; she put butter before him on a fair plate. ^5:26She put out her hand to the tent-pin, and her right hand to the workman's hammer; and she gave Sisera a blow, crushing his head, wounding and driving through his brow. ^5:27Bent at her feet he went down, he was stretched out; bent at her feet he went down; where he was bent down, there he went down in death. ^5:28Looking out from the window she gave a cry, the mother of Sisera was crying out through the window, Why is his carriage so long in coming? When will the noise of his wheels be sounding? ^5:29Her wise women gave answer to her, yes, she made answer again to herself, ^5:30Are they not getting, are they not parting the goods among them: a young girl or two to every man; and to Sisera robes of coloured needlework, worked in fair colours on this side and on that, for the neck of the queen? ^5:31So may destruction come on all your haters, O Lord; but let your lovers be like the sun going out in his strength. And for forty years the land had peace.

^6:1And the children of Israel did evil in the eyes of the Lord; and the Lord gave them up into the hand of Midian for seven years. ^6:2And Midian was stronger than Israel; and because of the Midianites, the children of Israel made holes for themselves in the mountains, and hollows in the rocks, and strong places. ^6:3And whenever Israel's grain was planted, the Midianites and the Amalekites and the people of the east came up against them; ^6:4And put their army in position against them; and they took all the produce of the earth as far as Gaza, till there was no food in Israel, or any sheep or oxen or asses. ^6:5For they came up regularly with their oxen and their tents; they came like the locusts in number; they and their camels were without number; and they came into the land for its destruction. ^6:6And Israel was in great need because of Midian; and the cry of the children of Israel went up to the Lord. ^6:7And when the cry of the children of Israel, because of Midian, came before the Lord, ^6:8The Lord sent a prophet to the children of Israel, who said to them, The Lord the God of Israel, has said, I took you up from Egypt, out of the prison-house; ^6:9And I took you out of the hands of the Egyptians and out of the hands of all who were cruel to you, and I sent them out by force from before you and gave you their land; ^6:10And I said to you, I am the Lord your God; you are not to give worship to the gods of the Amorites in whose land you are living, but you did not give ear to my voice. ^6:11Now the angel of the Lord came and took his seat under the oak-tree in Ophrah, in the field of Joash the Abiezrite; and his son Gideon was crushing grain in the place where the grapes were crushed, so that the Midianites might not see it. ^6:12And the angel of the Lord came before his eyes, and said to him, The Lord is with you, O man of war. ^6:13Then Gideon said to him, O my lord, if the Lord is with us why has all this come on us? And where are all his works of power, of which our fathers have given us word, saying, Did not the Lord take us out of Egypt? But now he has given us up, handing us over to the power of Midian. ^6:14And the Lord, turning to him, said, Go in the strength you have and be Israel's saviour from Midian: have I not sent you? ^6:15And he said to him, O Lord, how may I be the saviour of Israel? See, my family is the poorest in Manasseh, and I am the least in my father's house. ^6:16Then the Lord said to him, Truly, I will be with you, and you will overcome the Midianites as if they were one man. ^6:17So he said to him, If now I have grace in your eyes, then give me a sign that it is you who are talking to me. ^6:18Do not go away till I come with my offering and put it before you. And he said, I will not go away before you come back. ^6:19Then Gideon went in and made ready a young goat, and with an ephah of meal he made unleavened cakes: he put the meat in a basket and the soup in which it had been cooked he put in a pot, and he took it out to him under the oak-tree and gave it to him there. ^6:20And the angel of God said to him, Take the meat and the unleavened cakes and put them down on the rock over there, draining out the soup over them. And he did so. ^6:21Then the angel of the Lord put out the stick which was in his hand, touching the meat and the cakes with the end of it; and a flame came up out of the rock, burning up the meat and the cakes: and the angel of the Lord was seen no longer. ^6:22Then Gideon was certain that he was the angel of the Lord; and Gideon said, I am in fear, O Lord God! for I have seen the angel of the Lord face to face. ^6:23But the Lord said to him, Peace be with you; have no fear: you are in no danger of death. ^6:24Then Gideon made an altar there to the Lord, and gave it the name Yahweh-shalom; to this day it is in Ophrah of the Abiezrites. ^6:25The same night the Lord said to him, Take ten men of your servants and an ox seven years old, and after pulling down the altar of Baal which is your father's, and cutting down the holy tree by its side, ^6:26Make an altar to the Lord your God on the top of this rock, in the ordered way and take the ox and make a burned offering with the wood of the holy tree which has been cut down. ^6:27Then Gideon took ten of his servants and did as the Lord had said to him; but fearing to do it by day, because of his father's people and the men of the town, he did it by night. ^6:28And the men of the town got up early in the morning, and they saw the altar of Baal broken down, and the holy tree which was by it cut down, and the ox offered on the altar which had been put up there. ^6:29And they said to one another, Who has done this thing? And after searching with care, they said, Gideon, the son of Joash, has done this thing. ^6:30Then the men of the town said to Joash, Make your son come out to be put to death, for pulling down the altar of Baal and cutting down the holy tree which was by it. ^6:31But Joash said to all those who were attacking him, Will you take up the cause of Baal? will you be his saviour? Let anyone who will take up his cause be put to death while it is still morning: if he is a god, let him take up his cause himself because of the pulling down of his altar. ^6:32So that day he gave him the name of Jerubbaal, saying, Let Baal take up his cause against him because his altar has been broken down. ^6:33Then all the Midianites and the Amalekites and the people of the east, banding themselves together, went over and put up their tents in the valley of Jezreel. ^6:34But the spirit of the Lord came on Gideon; and at the sound of his horn all Abiezer came together after him. ^6:35And he sent through all Manasseh, and they came after him; and he sent to Asher and Zebulun and Naphtali, and they came up and were joined to the others. ^6:36Then Gideon said to God, If you are going to give Israel salvation by my hand, as you have said, ^6:37See, I will put the wool of a sheep on the grain-floor; if there is dew on the wool only, while all the earth is dry, then I will be certain that it is your purpose to give Israel salvation by my hand as you have said. ^6:38And it was so: for he got up early on the morning after, and twisting the wool in his hands, he got a basin full of water from the dew on the wool. ^6:39Then Gideon said to God, Do not be moved to wrath against me if I say only this: let me make one more test with the wool; let the wool now be dry, while the earth is covered with dew. ^6:40And that night God did so; for the wool was dry, and there was dew on all the earth round it.

^7:1Then Jerubbaal, that is, Gideon, and all the people with him, got up early and put up their tents by the side of the water-spring of Harod; the tents of Midian were on the north side of him, under the hill of Moreh in the valley. ^7:2And the Lord said to Gideon, So great is the number of your people, that if I give the Midianites into their hands they will be uplifted in pride over me and will say, I myself have been my saviour. ^7:3So now, let it be given out to the people that anyone who is shaking with fear is to go back from Mount Galud. So twenty-two thousand of the people went back, but there were still ten thousand. ^7:4Then the Lord said to Gideon, There are still more people than is necessary; take them down to the water so that I may put them to the test for you there; then whoever I say is to go with you will go, and whoever I say is not to go will not go. ^7:5So he took the people down to the water; and the Lord said to Gideon, Put on one side by themselves all those drinking up the water with their tongues like a dog; and in the same way, all those who go down on their knees to the water while drinking. ^7:6Now the number of those who took up the water with their tongues was three hundred; all the rest of the people went down on their knees to the water. ^7:7And the Lord said to Gideon, By those three hundred who were drinking with their tongues I will give you salvation and give the Midianites into your hands; let the rest of the people go away, every man to his place. ^7:8So they took the vessels of the people, and their horns from their hands, and he sent them away, every man to his tent, keeping only the three hundred; and the tents of Midian were lower down in the valley. ^7:9The same night the Lord said to him, Up! go down now against their army, for I have given them into your hands. ^7:10But if you have fear of going down, take your servant Purah with you and go down to the tents; ^7:11And after hearing what they are saying, you will get strength to go down against the army. So he went down with his servant Purah to the outer line of the tents of the armed men. ^7:12Now the Midianites and the Amalekites and all the people of the east were covering the valley like locusts; and their camels were like the sand by the seaside, without number. ^7:13When Gideon came there, a man was giving his friend an account of his dream, saying, See, I had a dream about a cake of barley bread which, falling into the tents of Midian, came on to the tent, overturning it so that it was stretched out flat on the earth. ^7:14And his friend in answer said, This is certainly the sword of Gideon, the son of Joash, the men of Israel: into their hands God has given up all the army of Midian. ^7:15Then Gideon, hearing the story of the dream and the sense in which they took it, gave worship; then he went back to the tents of Israel, and said, Up! for the Lord has given the army of Midian into your hands. ^7:16Then separating the three hundred men into three bands, he gave every man a horn, and a vessel in which was a flaming branch. ^7:17And he said to them, Keep your eyes on me, and do what I do; when I come to the outer line of tents, whatever I do, you are to do the same. ^7:18At the sound of my horn, and the horns of those who are with me, let your horns be sounded all round the tents, and say, For the Lord and for Gideon. ^7:19So Gideon and the three hundred men who were with him came to the outer line of tents, at the start of the middle watch, when the watchmen had only then taken their stations; and the horns were sounded and the vessels broken. ^7:20So the three bands all gave a loud note on their horns, and when the vessels had been broken, they took the flaming branches in their left hands, and the horns in their right hands ready for blowing, crying out, For the Lord and for Gideon. ^7:21Then they made a line round the tents, every man in his place; and all the army, awaking from sleep, came running out, and with loud cries went in flight. ^7:22And the three hundred gave a loud note on their horns, and every man's sword was turned by the Lord against his brother all through the army; and the army went in flight as far as Beth-shittah in the direction of Zeredah, to the edge of Abel-meholah by Tabbath. ^7:23And the men of Israel came together from Naphtali and from Asher and all Manasseh, and went after Midian. ^7:24Then Gideon sent through all the hill-country of Ephraim saying, Come down against Midian, and keep the ways across Jordan before they come. So all the men of Ephraim, massing themselves together, kept the ways across Jordan. ^7:25And they took the two chiefs of Midian, Oreb and Zeeb; and they put Oreb to death at the rock of Oreb, and Zeeb they put to death at the place of the grape-crushing in Zeeb, and they went after Midian; but the heads of Oreb and Zeeb they took across Jordan to Gideon.

^8:1And the men of Ephraim came and said to him, Why did you not send for us when you went to war against Midian? And they said sharp and angry words to him. ^8:2And he said to them, What have I done in comparison with you? Is not that which Ephraim took up after the grape-cutting better than all the grapes which Abiezer got in from the grape-cutting? ^8:3God has given into your hands the chiefs of Midian, Oreb and Zeeb; what have I been able to do in comparison with you? And when he said this, their feeling about him became kinder. ^8:4Then Gideon came to Jordan and went over it with his three hundred, overcome with weariness and in need of food. ^8:5And he said to the men of Succoth, Give bread cakes to my people, for they are overcome with weariness, and I am going on after Zebah and Zalmunna, the kings of Midian. ^8:6But the chiefs of Succoth said, Are the hands of Zebah and Zalmunna even now in your hand that we are to give bread to your army? ^8:7Then Gideon said, Because of this, when the Lord has given Zebah and Zalmunna into my hands, I will have you stretched on a bed of thorns of the waste land and on sharp stems, and have you crushed as grain is crushed on a grain-floor. ^8:8So he went up from there to Penuel and made the same request to the men of Penuel; but they gave him the same answer as the men of Succoth had given. ^8:9So he said to the men of Penuel, When I come back in peace, I will have this tower broken down. ^8:10Now Zebah and Zalmunna were in Karkor and their armies with them, about fifteen thousand men, those of all the army of the children of the east who were still living; for a hundred and twenty thousand of their swordsmen had been put to death. ^8:11And Gideon went up by the way used by the people living in tents on the east of Nobah and Jogbehah, and made an attack on the army when they had no thought of danger. ^8:12And Zebah and Zalmunna went in flight; and he went after them, and took the two kings of Midian, Zebah and Zalmunna, and put all the army to the curse. ^8:13Then Gideon, the son of Joash, went back from the fight: ^8:14And taking prisoner a young man of the people of Succoth, he got from him, in answer to his questions, a list of the chiefs of Succoth and the responsible men, seventy-seven men. ^8:15So he came to the men of Succoth and said, Here are Zebah and Zalmunna, on account of whom you made sport of me, saying, Are the hands of Zebah and Zalmunna even now in your hand, that we are to give bread to your army who are overcome with weariness? ^8:16Then he took the responsible men of the town and had them crushed on a bed of thorns and sharp stems. ^8:17And he had the tower of Penuel broken down and the men of the town put to death. ^8:18Then he said to Zebah and Zalmunna, Where are the men whom you put to death at Tabor? And they gave answer, As you are, so were they; every one of them was like a king's son. ^8:19And he said, They were my brothers, my mother's sons: by the life of the Lord, if you had kept them safe, I would not put you to death. ^8:20Then he said to Jether, his oldest son, Up! Put them to death. But the boy did not take out his sword, fearing because he was still a boy. ^8:21Then Zebah and Zalmunna said, Up! Put an end to us yourself: for you have a man's strength. Then Gideon got up and put Zebah and Zalmunna to death and took the ornaments which were on their camels' necks. ^8:22Then the men of Israel said to Gideon, Be our ruler, you and your son and your son's son after him; for you have been our saviour from the hands of Midian. ^8:23But Gideon said to them, I will not be a ruler over you, and my son will not be a ruler over you: it is the Lord who will be ruler over you. ^8:24Then Gideon said to them, I have a request to make to you; let every man give me the ear-rings he has taken. (For they had gold ear-rings, because they were Ishmaelites.) ^8:25And they gave answer, We will gladly give them. So they put down a robe, every man dropping into it the ear-rings he had taken. ^8:26The weight of the gold ear-rings which he got from them was one thousand, seven hundred shekels of gold; in addition to the moon-ornaments and jewels and the purple robes which were on the kings of Midian, and the chains on their camels' necks. ^8:27And Gideon made an ephod from them and put it up in his town Ophrah; and all Israel went after it there and were false to the Lord; and it became a cause of sin to Gideon and his house. ^8:28So Midian was broken before the children of Israel and the Midianites never got back their strength. And the land had peace for forty years, in the days of Gideon. ^8:29And Jerubbaal, the son of Joash, went back to his house and was living there. ^8:30Gideon had seventy sons, the offspring of his body; for he had a number of wives. ^8:31And the servant-wife he had in Shechem had a son by him, to whom he gave the name Abimelech. ^8:32And Gideon, the son of Joash, came to his end when he was very old, and his body was put in the resting-place of Joash his father, in Ophrah of the Abiezrites. ^8:33And after the death of Gideon, the children of Israel again went after the gods of Canaan and were false to the Lord, and made Baal-berith their god. ^8:34And the children of Israel did not keep in their minds the Lord their God, who had been their saviour from all their haters on every side; ^8:35And they were not kind to the house of Jerubbaal, that is, Gideon, in reward for all the good he had done to Israel.

^9:1Now Abimelech, the son of Jerubbaal, went to Shechem to his mother's family, and said to them and to all the family of his mother's father, ^9:2Say now in the ears of all the townsmen of Shechem, Is it better for you to be ruled by all the seventy sons of Jerubbaal or by one man only? And keep in mind that I am your bone and your flesh. ^9:3So his mother's family said all this about him in the ears of all the townsmen of Shechem: and their hearts were turned to Abimelech, for they said, He is our brother. ^9:4And they gave him seventy shekels of silver from the house of Baal-berith, with which Abimelech got the support of a number of uncontrolled and good-for-nothing persons. ^9:5Then he went to his father's house at Ophrah, and put his brothers, the seventy sons of Jerubbaal, to death on the same stone; however, Jotham, the youngest, kept himself safe by going away to a secret place. ^9:6And all the townsmen of Shechem and all Beth-millo came together and went and made Abimelech their king, by the oak of the pillar in Shechem. ^9:7Now Jotham, on hearing of it, went to the top of Mount Gerizim, and crying out with a loud voice said to them, Give ear to me, you townsmen of Shechem, so that God may give ear to you. ^9:8One day the trees went out to make a king for themselves; and they said to the olive-tree, Be king over us. ^9:9But the olive-tree said to them, Am I to give up my wealth of oil, by which men give honour to God, and go waving over the trees? ^9:10Then the trees said to the fig-tree, You come and be king over us. ^9:11But the fig-tree said to them, Am I to give up my sweet taste and my good fruit and go waving over the trees? ^9:12Then the trees said to the vine, You come and be king over us. ^9:13But the vine said to them, Am I to give up my wine, which makes glad God and men, to go waving over the trees? ^9:14Then all the trees said to the thorn, You come and be king over us. ^9:15And the thorn said to the trees, If it is truly your desire to make me your king, then come and put your faith in my shade; and if not, may fire come out of the thorn, burning up the cedars of Lebanon. ^9:16So now, if you have done truly and uprightly in making Abimelech king, and if you have done well to Jerubbaal and his house in reward for the work of his hands; ^9:17(For my father made war for you, and put his life in danger, and made you free from the hands of Midian; ^9:18And you have gone against my father's family this day, and have put to death his sons, even seventy men on one stone, and have made Abimelech, the son of his servant-wife, king over the townsmen of Shechem because he is your brother;) ^9:19If then you have done what is true and upright to Jerubbaal and his family this day, may you have joy in Abimelech, and may he have joy in you; ^9:20But if not, may fire come out from Abimelech, burning up the townsmen of Shechem and Beth-millo; and may fire come out from the townsmen of Shechem and Beth-millo, for the destruction of Abimelech. ^9:21Then Jotham straight away went in flight to Beer, and was living there for fear of his brother Abimelech. ^9:22So Abimelech was chief over Israel for three years. ^9:23And God sent an evil spirit between Abimelech and the townsmen of Shechem; and the townsmen of Shechem were false to Abimelech; ^9:24So that punishment for the violent attack made on the seventy sons of Jerubbaal, and for their blood, might come on Abimelech, their brother, who put them to death, and on the townsmen of Shechem who gave him their help in putting his brothers to death. ^9:25And the townsmen of Shechem put secret watchers on the tops of the mountains, and they made attacks on all who went by on the road and took their goods; and word of this came to Abimelech. ^9:26Then Gaal, the son of Ebed, came with his brothers, and went over to Shechem; and the men of Shechem put their faith in him. ^9:27And they went out into their fields and got in the fruit of their vines, and when the grapes had been crushed, they made a holy feast and went into the house of their god, and over their food and drink they were cursing Abimelech. ^9:28And Gaal, the son of Ebed, said, Who is Abimelech and who is Shechem, that we are to be his servants? Is it not right for the son of Jerubbaal and Zebul his captain to be servants to the men of Hamor, the father of Shechem? But why are we to be his servants? ^9:29If only I had authority over this people! I would put Abimelech out of the way, and I would say to Abimelech, Make your army strong, and come out. ^9:30Now Zebul, the ruler of the town, hearing what Gaal, the son of Ebed, had said, was moved to wrath. ^9:31And he sent to Abimelech at Arumah, saying, See, Gaal, the son of Ebed, and his brothers have come to Shechem, and they are working up the town against you. ^9:32So now, get up by night, you and your people, and keep watch in the field secretly; ^9:33And in the morning, when the sun is up, get up early and make a rush on the town; and when he and his people come out against you, do to them whatever you have a chance to do. ^9:34So Abimelech and the people with him got up by night, in four bands, to make a surprise attack on Shechem. ^9:35And Gaal, the son of Ebed, went out, and took his place at the doorway into the town; then Abimelech and his people got up from the place where they had been waiting. ^9:36And when Gaal saw the people, he said to Zebul, See! people are coming down from the tops of the mountains. And Zebul said to him, You see the shade of the mountains like men. ^9:37And Gaal said again, See! people are coming down from the middle of the land, and one band is coming by way of the oak-tree of the Seers. ^9:38Then Zebul said to him, Now where is your loud talk when you said, Who is Abimelech that we are to be his servants? Is this not the people whom you were rating so low? Go out now, and make war on them. ^9:39So Gaal went out at the head of the townsmen of Shechem and made war on Abimelech. ^9:40And Abimelech went after him and he went in flight before him; and a great number were falling by the sword all the way up to the town. ^9:41Then Abimelech went back to Arumah; and Zebul sent Gaal and his brothers away and would not let them go on living in Shechem. ^9:42Now the day after, the people went out into the fields; and news of it came to Abimelech. ^9:43And he took his people, separating them into three bands, and was waiting secretly in the field; and when he saw the people coming out of the town, he went up and made an attack on them. ^9:44And Abimelech with his band made a rush, and took up their position at the doorway into the town; and the other two bands made a rush on all those who were in the fields, and overcame them. ^9:45And all that day Abimelech was fighting against the town; and he took it, and put to death the people who were in it, and had the town pulled down and covered with salt. ^9:46Then all the townsmen of the tower of Shechem, hearing of it, went into the inner room of the house of El-berith. ^9:47And word was given to Abimelech that all the men of the tower of Shechem were there together. ^9:48Then Abimelech went up to Mount Zalmon, with all his people; and Abimelech took an axe in his hand and, cutting down branches of trees, took them and put them on his back. And he said to the people who were with him, Be quick and do as you have seen me do. ^9:49So all the people got branches, every man cutting down a branch, and they went with Abimelech at their head and, massing the branches against the inner room, put fire to the room over them; so all those who were in the tower of Shechem, about a thousand men and women, were burned to death with it. ^9:50Then Abimelech went to Thebez, and put his army in position against Thebez and took it. ^9:51But in the middle of the town there was a strong tower, to which all the men and women of the town went in flight and, shutting themselves in, went up to the roof of the tower. ^9:52And Abimelech came to the tower and made an attack on it, and got near to the door of the tower for the purpose of firing it. ^9:53But a certain woman sent a great stone, such as is used for crushing grain, on to the head of Abimelech, cracking the bone. ^9:54Then quickly crying out to his body-servant, he said to him, Take out your sword and put an end to me straight away, so that men may not say of me, His death was the work of a woman. So the young man put his sword through him, causing his death. ^9:55And when the men of Israel saw that Abimelech was dead, they went away, every man to his place. ^9:56In this way Abimelech was rewarded by God for the evil he had done to his father in putting his seventy brothers to death; ^9:57And God sent back on to the heads of the men of Shechem all the evil they had done, and the curse of Jotham, the son of Jerubbaal, came on them.

^10:1Now after Abimelech, Tola, the son of Puah, the son of Dodo, a man of Issachar, became the saviour of Israel; he was living in Shamir in the hill-country of Ephraim. ^10:2He was judge over Israel for twenty-three years; and at his death his body was put to rest in the earth in Shamir. ^10:3And after him came Jair the Gileadite, who was judge over Israel for twenty-two years. ^10:4And he had thirty sons, who went on thirty young asses; and they had thirty towns in the land of Gilead, which are named Havvoth-Jair to this day. ^10:5And at the death of Jair his body was put to rest in the earth in Kamon. ^10:6And again the children of Israel did evil in the eyes of the Lord, worshipping the Baals and Astartes, and the gods of Aram and the gods of Zidon and the gods of Moab and the gods of the children of Ammon and the gods of the Philistines; they gave up the Lord and were servants to him no longer. ^10:7And the wrath of the Lord was burning against Israel, and he gave them up into the hands of the Philistines and into the hands of the children of Ammon. ^10:8And that year the children of Israel were crushed under their yoke; for eighteen years all the children of Israel on the other side of Jordan, in the land of the Amorites which is in Gilead, were cruelly crushed down. ^10:9And the children of Ammon went over Jordan, to make war against Judah and Benjamin and the house of Ephraim; and Israel was in great trouble. ^10:10Then the children of Israel, crying out to the Lord, said, Great is our sin against you, for we have given up our God and have been servants to the Baals. ^10:11And the Lord said to the children of Israel, Were not the Egyptians and the Amorites and the children of Ammon and the Philistines ^10:12And the Zidonians and Amalek and Midian crushing you down, and in answer to your cry did I not give you salvation from their hands? ^10:13But, for all this, you have given me up and have been servants to other gods: so I will be your saviour no longer. ^10:14Go, send up your cry for help to the gods of your selection; let them be your saviours in the time of your trouble. ^10:15And the children of Israel said to the Lord, We are sinners; do to us whatever seems good to you: only give us salvation this day. ^10:16So they put away the strange gods from among them, and became the Lord's servants; and his soul was angry because of the sorrows of Israel. ^10:17Then the children of Ammon came together and put their army in position in Gilead. And the children of Israel came together and put their army in position in Mizpah. ^10:18And the people of Israel said to one another, Who will be the first to make an attack on the children of Ammon? We will make him head over all Gilead.

^11:1Now Jephthah the Gileadite was a great man of war; he was the son of a loose woman, and Gilead was his father. ^11:2And Gilead's wife gave birth to sons, and when her sons became men, they sent Jephthah away, saying, You have no part in the heritage of our father's house, for you are the son of another woman. ^11:3So Jephthah went in flight from his brothers and was living in the land of Tob, where a number of good-for-nothing men, joining Jephthah, went out with him on his undertakings. ^11:4Now after a time the children of Ammon made war against Israel. ^11:5And when the children of Ammon made war against Israel, the responsible men of Gilead went to get Jephthah back from the land of Tob; ^11:6And they said to Jephthah, Come and be our chief so that we may make war against the children of Ammon. ^11:7But Jephthah said to the responsible men of Gilead, Did you not, in your hate for me, send me away from my father's house? Why do you come to me now when you are in trouble? ^11:8And the responsible men of Gilead said to Jephthah, That is the reason we have come back to you; so go with us and make war against the children of Ammon, and we will make you our head over all the people of Gilead. ^11:9Then Jephthah said to the responsible men of Gilead, If you take me back to make war against the children of Ammon, and if with the help of the Lord I overcome them, will you make me your head? ^11:10And the responsible men of Gilead said to Jephthah, May the Lord be our witness: we will certainly do as you say. ^11:11So Jephthah went with the responsible men of Gilead, and the people made him head and chief over them; and Jephthah said all these things before the Lord in Mizpah. ^11:12Then Jephthah sent men to the king of the children of Ammon, saying, What have you against me that you have come to make war against my land? ^11:13And the king of the children of Ammon said to the men sent by Jephthah, Because Israel, when he came up out of Egypt, took away my land, from the Arnon as far as the Jabbok and as far as Jordan: so now, give me back those lands quietly. ^11:14And Jephthah sent again to the king of the children of Ammon, ^11:15And said to him, This is the word of Jephthah: Israel did not take away the land of Moab or the land of the children of Ammon; ^11:16But when they came up from Egypt, Israel went through the waste land to the Red Sea and came to Kadesh; ^11:17Then Israel sent men to the king of Edom saying, Let me now go through your land; but the king of Edom did not give ear to them. And in the same way he sent to the king of Moab, but he would not; so Israel went on living in Kadesh. ^11:18Then he went on through the waste land and round the land of Edom and the land of Moab, and came by the east side of the land of Moab, and put up their tents on the other side of the Arnon; they did not come inside the limit of Moab, for the Arnon was the limit of Moab. ^11:19And Israel sent men to Sihon, king of the Amorites, the king of Heshbon; and Israel said to him, Let me now go through your land to my place. ^11:20But Sihon would not give way and let Israel go through his land; and Sihon got together all his people, and put his army in position in Jahaz, and made war on Israel. ^11:21And the Lord, the God of Israel, gave Sihon and all his people into the hands of Israel, and they overcame them; so all the land of the Amorites, the people of that land, became Israel's. ^11:22All the limit of the Amorites was theirs, from the Arnon as far as the Jabbok and from the waste land even to Jordan. ^11:23So now the Lord, the God of Israel, has taken away their land from the Amorites and given it to his people Israel; are you then to have it? ^11:24Do you not keep the lands of those whom Chemosh your god sends out from before you? So we will keep all the lands of those whom the Lord our God sends out from before us. ^11:25What! are you any better than Balak, the son of Zippor, king of Moab? Did he ever take up a cause against Israel or make war against them? ^11:26While Israel was living in Heshbon and its daughter-towns and in Aroer and its daughter-towns and in all the towns which are by the side of the Arnon, for three hundred years, why did you not get them back at that time? ^11:27So I have done no wrong against you, but you are doing wrong to me in fighting against me: may the Lord, who is Judge this day, be judge between the children of Israel and the children of Ammon. ^11:28The king of the children of Ammon, however, did not give ear to the words which Jephthah sent to him. ^11:29Then the spirit of the Lord came on Jephthah, and he went through Gilead and Manasseh, and came to Mizpeh of Gilead; and from Mizpeh of Gilead he went over to the children of Ammon. ^11:30And Jephthah took an oath to the Lord, and said, If you will give the children of Ammon into my hands, ^11:31Then whoever comes out from the door of my house, meeting me when I come back in peace from the children of Ammon, will be the Lord's and I will give him as a burned offering. ^11:32So Jephthah went over to the children of Ammon to make war on them; and the Lord gave them into his hands. ^11:33And he made an attack on them from Aroer all the way to Minnith, overrunning twenty towns, as far as Abel-cheramim, and put great numbers to the sword. So the children of Ammon were crushed before the children of Israel. ^11:34Then Jephthah came back to his house in Mizpah, and his daughter came out, meeting him on his way with music and with dances; she was his only child; he had no other sons or daughters. ^11:35And when he saw her he was overcome with grief, and said, Ah! my daughter! I am crushed with sorrow, and it is you who are the chief cause of my trouble; for I have made an oath to the Lord and I may not take it back. ^11:36And she said to him, My father, you have made an oath to the Lord; do then to me whatever you have said; for the Lord has sent a full reward on your haters, on the children of Ammon. ^11:37Then she said to her father, Only do this for me: let me have two months to go away into the mountains with my friends, weeping for my sad fate. ^11:38And he said, Go then. So he sent her away for two months; and she went with her friends to the mountains, weeping for her sad fate. ^11:39And at the end of two months she went back to her father, who did with her as he had said in his oath: and she had never been touched by a man. So it became a rule in Israel, ^11:40For the women to go year by year sorrowing for the daughter of Jephthah the Gileadite, four days in every year.

^12:1Now the men of Ephraim came together and took up arms and went over to Zaphon; and they said to Jephthah, Why did you go over to make war against the children of Ammon without sending for us to go with you? Now we will put your house on fire over you. ^12:2And Jephthah said to them, I and my people were in danger, and the children of Ammon were very cruel to us, and when I sent for you, you gave me no help against them. ^12:3So when I saw that there was no help to be had from you, I put my life in my hand and went over against the children of Ammon, and the Lord gave them into my hands: why then have you come up to me this day to make war on me? ^12:4Then Jephthah got together all the men of Gilead and made war on Ephraim; and the men of Gilead overcame Ephraim. ^12:5And the Gileadites took the crossing-places of Jordan against the Ephraimites; and when any of the men of Ephraim who had gone in flight said, let me go over; the men of Gilead said to him, Are you an Ephraimite? And if he said, No; ^12:6Then they said to him, Now say Shibboleth; and he said Sibboleth, and was not able to say it in the right way; then they took him and put him to death at the crossing-places of Jordan; and at that time forty-two thousand Ephraimites were put to death. ^12:7Now Jephthah was judge of Israel for six years. And Jephthah the Gileadite came to his death, and his body was put to rest in his town, Mizpeh of Gilead. ^12:8And after him, Ibzan of Beth-lehem was judge of Israel. ^12:9He had thirty sons, and thirty daughters whom he sent to other places, and he got thirty wives from other places for his sons. And he was judge of Israel for seven years. ^12:10And Ibzan came to his death and his body was put to rest at Beth-lehem. ^12:11And after him, Elon the Zebulonite was judge of Israel; and he was judge of Israel for ten years. ^12:12And Elon the Zebulonite came to his death, and his body was put to rest in Aijalon in the land of Zebulun. ^12:13And after him, Abdon, the son of Hillel, the Pirathonite, was judge of Israel. ^12:14He had forty sons and thirty sons' sons who went on seventy young asses; and he was judge of Israel for eight years. ^12:15And Abdon, the son of Hillel, came to his death, and his body was put to rest in Pirathon in the land of Ephraim, in the hill-country of the Amalekites.

^13:1And the children of Israel again did evil in the eyes of the Lord; and the Lord gave them into the hands of the Philistines for forty years. ^13:2Now there was a certain man of Zorah of the family of the Danites, and his name was Manoah; and his wife had never given birth to a child. ^13:3And the angel of the Lord came to the woman, and said to her, See now! though you have never given birth to children, you will be with child and give birth to a son. ^13:4Now then take care to have no wine or strong drink and to take no unclean thing for food; ^13:5For you are with child and will give birth to a son; his hair is never to be cut, for the child is to be separate to God from his birth; and he will take up the work of freeing Israel from the hands of the Philistines. ^13:6Then the woman came in, and said to her husband, A man came to me, and his form was like the form of a god, causing great fear; I put no question to him about where he came from, and he did not give me his name; ^13:7But he said to me, You are with child and will give birth to a son; and now do not take any wine or strong drink or let anything unclean be your food; for the child will be separate to God from his birth to the day of his death. ^13:8Then Manoah made prayer to the Lord, and said, O Lord, let the man of God whom you sent come to us again and make clear to us what we are to do for the child who is to come. ^13:9And God gave ear to the voice of Manoah; and the angel of God came to the woman again when she was seated in the field; but her husband Manoah was not with her. ^13:10So the woman, running quickly, gave her husband the news, saying, I have seen the man who came to me the other day. ^13:11And Manoah got up and went after his wife, and came up to the man and said to him, Are you the man who was talking to this woman? And he said, I am. ^13:12And Manoah said, Now when your words come true, what is to be the rule for the child and what will be his work? ^13:13And the angel of the Lord said to Manoah, Let the woman take note of what I have said to her. ^13:14She is to have nothing which comes from the vine for her food, and let her take no wine or strong drink or anything which is unclean; let her take care to do all I have given her orders to do. ^13:15And Manoah said to the angel of the Lord, Now let us keep you while we make ready a young goat for you. ^13:16And the angel of the Lord said to Manoah, Though you keep me I will not take of your food; but if you will make a burned offering, let it be offered to the Lord. For it had not come into Manoah's mind that he was the angel of the Lord. ^13:17Then Manoah said to the angel of the Lord, What is your name, so that when your words come true we may give you honour? ^13:18But the angel of the Lord said to him, Why are you questioning me about my name, seeing that it is a wonder? ^13:19So Manoah took the young goat with its meal offering, offering it on the rock to the Lord, who did strange things. ^13:20And when the flame went up to heaven from the altar, the angel of the Lord went up in the flame of the altar, while Manoah and his wife were looking on; and they went down on their faces to the earth. ^13:21But the angel of the Lord was seen no more by Manoah and his wife. Then it was clear to Manoah that he was the angel of the Lord. ^13:22And Manoah said to his wife, Death will certainly be our fate, for it is a god whom we have seen. ^13:23But his wife said to him, If the Lord was purposing our death, he would not have taken our burned offering and our meal offering, or have given us such orders about the child. ^13:24So the woman gave birth to a son, and gave him the name Samson; and he became a man and the blessing of the Lord was on him. ^13:25And the spirit of the Lord first came on him in Mahaneh-dan, between Zorah and Eshtaol.

^14:1Now Samson went down to Timnah, and saw a woman in Timnah, of the daughters of the Philistines; ^14:2And when he came back he said to his father and mother, I have seen a woman in Timnah, of the daughters of the Philistines: get her now for me for my wife. ^14:3Then his father and mother said to him, Is there no woman among the daughters of your relations or among all my people, that you have to go for your wife to the Philistines, who are without circumcision? But Samson said to his father, Get her for me, for she is pleasing to me. ^14:4Now his father and mother had no knowledge that this was the purpose of the Lord, who had the destruction of the Philistines in mind. Now the Philistines at that time were ruling over Israel. ^14:5Then Samson went down to Timnah (and his father and his mother,) and came to the vine-gardens of Timnah; and a young lion came rushing out at him. ^14:6And the spirit of the Lord came on him with power, and, unarmed as he was, pulling the lion in two as one might do to a young goat, he put him to death; (but he said nothing to his father and mother of what he had done.) ^14:7So he went down and had talk with the woman; and she was pleasing to Samson. ^14:8Then after a time he went back to take her; and turning from the road to see the dead body of the lion, he saw a mass of bees in the body of the lion, and honey there. ^14:9And he took the honey in his hand, and went on, tasting it on the way; and when he came to his father and mother he gave some to them; but did not say that he had taken the honey from the body of the lion. ^14:10Then Samson went down to the woman, and made a feast there, as was the way among young men. ^14:11And he took thirty friends, and they were with him. ^14:12And Samson said, Now I have a hard question for you: if you are able to give me the answer before the seven days of the feast are over, I will give you thirty linen robes and thirty changes of clothing; ^14:13But if you are not able to give me the answer, then you will have to give me thirty linen robes and thirty changes of clothing. And they said to him, Put your hard question and let us see what it is. ^14:14And he said, Out of the taker of food came food, and out of the strong came the sweet. And at the end of three days they were still not able to give the answer. ^14:15So on the fourth day they said to Samson's wife, Get from your husband the answer to his question by some trick or other, or we will have you and your father's house burned with fire; did you get us here to take all we have? ^14:16Then Samson's wife, weeping over him, said, Truly you have no love for me but only hate; you have put a hard question to the children of my people and have not given me the answer. And he said to her, See, I have not given the answer even to my father or my mother; am I to give it to you? ^14:17And all the seven days of the feast she went on weeping over him; and on the seventh day he gave her the answer, because she gave him no peace; and she sent word of it to the children of her people. ^14:18Then on the seventh day, before he went into the bride's room, the men of the town said to him, What is sweeter than honey? and what is stronger than a lion? And he said to them, If you had not been ploughing with my cow you would not have got the answer to my question. ^14:19And the spirit of the Lord came rushing on him, and he went down to Ashkelon and, attacking thirty men there, took their clothing from them, and gave it to the men who had given the answer to his hard question. Then, full of wrath, he went back to his father's house. ^14:20But Samson's wife was given to the friend who had been his best man.