1 After the death of Y'hoshua, the people of Isra'el asked ADONAI, 'Who will go up for us first to fight against the Kena'ani?'
2 ADONAI said: 'Y'hudah will go up; here, I have handed the land over to him.'
3 Y'hudah said to his brother Shim'on, 'Come up with me into my assigned territory, so that we can fight against the Kena'ani; and I likewise will go with you into your territory.' So Shim'on went with him.
4 Y'hudah went up; and ADONAI gave the Kena'ani and the P'rizi into their hands; of those in Bezek they killed ten thousand men.
5 They found Adoni-Bezek in Bezek; and they fought against him. They killed the Kena'ani and the P'rizi,
6 but Adoni-Bezek fled. They pursued him, caught him, and cut off his thumbs and big toes.
7 Adoni-Bezek said: 'Seventy kings, with their thumbs and their big toes cut off, gathered food under my table; God has paid me back in accordance with what I did.' They brought him to Yerushalayim, and he died there.
8 Then the people of Y'hudah fought against Yerushalayim, captured it, overpowered it with the sword, and set the city on fire.
9 Afterwards, the people of Y'hudah went down to fight against the Kena'ani who lived in the hill-country, in the Negev, and in the Sh'felah.
10 Y'hudah also attacked the Kena'ani living in Hevron (formerly called Kiryat-Arba), and they overpowered Sheshai, Achiman and Talmai.
11 From there they attacked the inhabitants of D'vir (D'vir was formerly called Kiryat-Sefer).
12 Kalev said: 'To whoever overpowers Kiryat-Sefer and captures it I will give my daughter 'Akhsah as his wife.'
13 'Otni'el the son of K'naz, Kalev's younger brother, captured it; so he gave him 'Akhsah his daughter as his wife.
14 After becoming his wife, she persuaded him to ask her father to give them a field; when she got off her donkey, Kalev asked her, 'What do you want?'
15 She said to him: 'Give me a blessing: since you gave me land in the Negev, also give me sources of water.' So Kalev gave her the Upper Springs and the Lower Springs.
16 Next, the descendants of the Keini, Moshe's father-in-law, went up out of the City of Date-Palms with the people of Y'hudah into the Y'hudah Desert south of 'Arad; and they came and settled with the people.
17 Y'hudah went with Shim'on his brother; they overpowered the Kena'ani who inhabited Tz'fat, and completely destroyed it. The name of the city was called Hormah.
18 Y'hudah also took 'Azah with its territory, Ashkelon with its territory and 'Ekron with its territory.
19 ADONAI was with Y'hudah, and they took possession of the hill-country, because they could not drive out the inhabitants of the valley, since they had iron chariots.
20 They gave Hevron to Kalev, as Moshe had said to do; and he drove out from there the three sons of 'Anak.
21 The people of Binyamin did not drive out the Y'vusi who inhabited Yerushalayim; rather, the Y'vusi continued living with the people of Binyamin in Yerushalayim, as they do to this day.
22 The house of Yosef likewise attacked Beit-El; and ADONAI was with them.
23 The house of Yosef sent spies to Beit-El (the city was formerly called Luz).
24 The spies saw a man coming out of the city and said to him: 'Please show us the way to enter the city, and we will treat you kindly.'
25 So he showed them the way into the city, and they overpowered the city with the sword, but they let the man and all his family go free.
26 He went into the land of the Hittim, built a city and called it Luz, which is its name to this day.
27 M'nasheh did not drive out the inhabitants of Beit-Sh'an and its villages, Ta'anakh and its villages, Dor and its villages, Yivle'am and its villages or Megiddo and its villages; so that the Kena'ani managed to keep on living in that land.
28 In time, when Isra'el had grown strong, they did put the Kena'ani to forced labor but failed to drive them out completely.
29 Efrayim did not drive out the Kena'ani living in Gezer; so the Kena'ani continued living in Gezer along with them.
30 Z'vulun did not drive out the inhabitants of Kitron or Nahalol; so the Kena'ani continued to live among them but became subject to forced labor.
31 Asher did not drive out the inhabitants of 'Akko, Tzidon, Achlav, Akhziv, Helbah, Afik or Rechov;
32 so the Asheri lived among the Kena'ani who were living in the land, because they didn't drive them out.
33 Naftali did not drive out the inhabitants of Beit-Shemesh or Beit-'Anat but lived among the Kena'ani living in the land; however, the inhabitants of Beit-Shemesh and Beit-'Anat became forced labor for them.
34 The Emori forced the people of Dan into the hills; for they would not let them come down to the valley.
35 The Emori had resolved to live in the Heres Hills, in Ayalon and in Sha'alvim; but when the power of the house of Yosef grew greater, they became subject to forced labor.
36 So the territory of the Emori was from the Scorpion Ascent and the Rock upward.
1 Now the angel of ADONAI came up from Gilgal to Bokhim and said, 'I brought you up out of Egypt, led you to the land I swore to your fathers and said, 'I will never break my covenant with you;
2 you, for your part, are not to make any covenant with the inhabitants of this land but must tear down their altars.' However, you have paid no attention to what I said. What is this you have done?
3 This is why I also said, 'I will not drive them out before you; but they will be on your flanks, and their gods will become a snare for you.''
4 When the angel of ADONAI spoke these words to all the people of Isra'el, they began crying and wailing at the top of their voices.
5 So they called the name of that place Bokhim [crying] and sacrificed there to ADONAI.
6 When Y'hoshua had sent the people away, the people of Isra'el had gone each one to his assigned property in order to take possession of the land.
7 The people served ADONAI throughout Y'hoshua's life and throughout the lives of all the older men who outlived Y'hoshua and who had seen all the great work of ADONAI which he had done for Isra'el.
8 When Y'hoshua the son of Nun, the servant of ADONAI, died, he was 110 years old;
9 and they buried him near the boundary of his property in Timnat-Heres, in the hills of Efrayim, north of Mount Ga'ash.
10 When that entire generation had been gathered to their ancestors, another generation arose that knew neither ADONAI nor the work he had done for Isra'el.
11 Then the people of Isra'el did what was evil from ADONAI's perspective and served the ba'alim.
12 They abandoned ADONAI, the God of their fathers, who had brought them out of the land of Egypt, and followed other gods, selected from the gods of the peoples around them, and worshipped them; this made ADONAI angry.
13 They abandoned ADONAI and served Ba'al and the 'ashtarot.
14 The anger of ADONAI blazed against Isra'el; and he handed them over to pillagers, who plundered them, and to their enemies around them; so that they could no longer resist their enemies.
15 Whenever they launched an attack, the power of ADONAI was against them, so that things turned out badly - just as ADONAI had said would happen and had sworn to them. They were in dire distress.
16 But then ADONAI raised up judges, who rescued them from the power of those who were plundering them.
17 Yet they did not pay attention to their judges, but made whores of themselves to other gods and worshipped them; they quickly turned away from the path on which their ancestors had walked, the way of obeying ADONAI's mitzvot - they failed to do this.
18 When ADONAI raised up judges for them, ADONAI was with the judge and delivered them from the hands of their enemies throughout the lifetime of the judge; for ADONAI was moved to pity by their groaning under those oppressing and crushing them.
19 But after the judge died, they would relapse into worse behavior than that of their ancestors, following other gods to serve and worship them; they abandoned none of their practices or stubborn ways.
20 So the anger of ADONAI blazed against Isra'el; he said, 'Because this nation violates my covenant, which I ordered their fathers to obey; and they don't pay attention to what I say;
21 in the future, I will not expel ahead of them any of the nations that Y'hoshua left when he died.
22 This is how I will test Isra'el, to see whether or not they will keep the way of ADONAI, living according to it, as their ancestors did.'
23 So ADONAI allowed those nations to remain where they were, without quickly driving them out; he did not hand them over to Y'hoshua.
1 These are the nations which ADONAI allowed to remain, in order to put to the test all the people of Isra'el who had not known any of the wars with Kena'an.
2 This was only so that the generations of Isra'el who had previously known nothing of war might learn about it.
3 These nations consisted of the five chiefs of the P'lishtim, all the Kena'ani, the Tzidoni, and the Hivi who lived in the hills of the L'vanon between Mount Ba'al-Hermon and the entrance to Hamat.
4 They stayed there to test whether Isra'el would pay attention to the mitzvot of ADONAI, which, through Moshe, he had ordered their ancestors to obey.
5 So the people of Isra'el lived among the Kena'ani, Hitti, Emori, P'rizi, Hivi and Y'vusi;
6 taking their daughters as their wives, giving their own daughters to their sons and serving their gods.
7 Thus the people of Isra'el did what was evil from ADONAI's perspective, forgot ADONAI their God, and served the ba'alim and asherim.
8 Therefore the anger of ADONAI blazed against Isra'el, and he gave them over into the hands of Kushan-Rish'atayim king of Aram-Naharayim; and the people of Isra'el served Kushan-Rish'atayim eight years.
9 But when the people of Isra'el cried out to ADONAI, ADONAI raised up a savior for the people of Isra'el; and he rescued them; this was 'Otni'el, the son of Kalev's younger brother K'naz.
10 The spirit of ADONAI came upon him, and he judged Isra'el. Then he went out to war, and ADONAI gave Kushan-Rish'atayim king of Aram into his hands; his power prevailed against Kushan-Rish'atayim.
11 So the land had rest for forty years, until 'Otni'el the son of K'naz died.
12 But the people of Isra'el again did what was evil from ADONAI's perspective, so ADONAI strengthened 'Eglon the king of Mo'av against Isra'el, because they had done what was evil from ADONAI's perspective.
13 In confederation with the people of 'Amon and 'Amalek, 'Eglon went out and defeated Isra'el, capturing the City of Date-Palms;
14 and the people of Isra'el served 'Eglon the king of Mo'av eighteen years.
15 But when the people of Isra'el cried out to ADONAI, ADONAI raised up for them a savior, Ehud the son of Gera, from the tribe of Binyamin, a left-handed man. The people of Isra'el appointed him to take their tribute to 'Eglon the king of Mo'av.
16 Ehud made himself a double-edged sword eighteen inches long and strapped it to his right thigh under his clothes.
17 Then he presented the tribute to 'Eglon king of Mo'av. Now 'Eglon was a very fat man.
18 When he had finished presenting the tribute, he dismissed the people who had brought it.
19 But he himself, after reaching the quarries at Gilgal, went back and said, 'King, I have a secret message for you.' The king commanded silence, and all his attendants withdrew.
20 Ehud came to him; he was sitting alone by himself in his upstairs room, where it was cool. Ehud said: 'I have a message from God for you.' As the king arose from his seat,
21 Ehud reached out with his left hand, took the sword from his right thigh, and thrust it into the king's belly.
22 The hilt too went in after the blade, and the fat closed around the blade, for he did not draw the sword out of his belly, so that it came out behind.
23 Then Ehud went out onto the porch, shut the doors of the upstairs room behind him and locked them.
24 After Ehud had left, the king's servants came. Seeing that the doors of the upper room were locked, they said, 'He must be relieving himself in the inner part of the cool room.'
25 They waited until they became embarrassed, but he still didn't open the doors of the upstairs room. So they took the key and opened them; and there before them lay their master, dead on the ground.
26 But while they were delaying, Ehud escaped- he passed beyond the quarries and arrived safely in Se'irah.
27 Upon arrival in the hills of Efrayim, he began sounding the call on the shofar; and the people of Isra'el went down with him from the hill-country; he himself took the lead.
28 He said to them: 'Follow me, because ADONAI has given your enemy Mo'av into your hands. They went down after him, seized the fords of the Yarden opposite Mo'av and permitted no one to cross.
29 On that occasion they defeated Mo'av, some ten thousand men, all tough, experienced soldiers; not one of them escaped.
30 Thus was Mo'av subdued that day under the power of Isra'el. Then the land had rest for eighty years.
31 After Ehud came Shamgar the son of 'Anat, who killed 600 P'lishtim with an oxgoad; and he too rescued Isra'el.
1 But after Ehud had died, the people of Isra'el again did what was evil from ADONAI's perspective.
2 So ADONAI handed them over to Yavin king of Kena'an. He ruled from Hatzor; and the commander of his army was Sisra, who lived in Haroshet-HaGoyim.
3 The people of Isra'el cried out to ADONAI, because he had 900 iron chariots, and for twenty years he cruelly oppressed the people of Isra'el.
4 Now D'vorah, a woman and a prophet, the wife of Lapidot, was judging Isra'el at that time.
5 She used to sit under D'vorah's Palm between Ramah and Beit-El, in the hills of Efrayim; and the people of Isra'el would come to her for judgment.
6 She sent for Barak the son of Avino'am, from Kedesh in Naftali, and said to him: 'ADONAI has given you this order: 'Go, march to Mount Tavor, and take with you 10,000 men from the people of Naftali and Z'vulun.
7 I will cause Sisra, the commander of Yavin's army, to encounter you at the Kishon River with his chariots and troops; and I will hand him over to you.''
8 Barak answered her: 'If you go with me, I'll go; but if you won't go with me, I won't go.'
9 She replied, 'Yes, I will gladly go with you; but the way you are doing it will bring you no glory; because ADONAI will hand Sisra over to a woman.' Then D'vorah set out and went with Barak to Kedesh.
10 Barak summoned Z'vulun and Naftali to come to Kedesh. Ten thousand men followed him, and D'vorah went up with him.
11 Now Hever the Keini had cut himself off from the rest of Kayin, the descendants of Hovav Moshe's father-in-law; he had pitched his tent near the oak at Tza'ananim, which is close to Kedesh.
12 Sisra was informed that Barak the son of Avino'am had gone up to Mount Tavor.
13 So Sisra rallied his chariots, all 900 iron chariots, and all the troops he had with him, from Haroshet-HaGoyim to the Kishon River.
14 D'vorah said to Barak: 'Get going! This is the day when ADONAI will hand Sisra over to you! ADONAI has gone out ahead of you!' So Barak went down from Mount Tavor with 10,000 men following him;
15 and ADONAI threw Sisra, all his chariots and his entire army into a panic before Barak's sword; so that Sisra got down from his chariot and fled on foot.
16 But Barak pursued the chariots and the army all the way to Haroshet-HaGoyim. Sisra's entire army was put to the sword; not one man was left.
17 However, Sisra ran on foot to the tent of Ya'el the wife of Hever the Keini, because there was peace between Yavin the king of Hatzor and the family of Hever the Keini.
18 Ya'el went out to meet Sisra and said to him, 'Come in, my lord; stay here with me; and don't be afraid.' So he went into her tent, and she covered him with a blanket.
19 He said to her, 'Please give me a little water to drink - I'm thirsty.' She opened a goatskin of milk, gave him some to drink, and covered him up again.
20 He said to her, 'Stand at the entrance to the tent; and if anyone asks you if somebody is here, say, 'No.''
21 But when he was deeply asleep, Ya'el the wife of Hever took a tent peg and a hammer in her hand, crept in to him quietly and drove the tent peg into his temple, right through to the ground; so that he died without waking up.
22 So here is Barak pursuing Sisra, and Ya'el steps out to meet him and says, 'Come, I will show you the man you are looking for.' He goes into her tent; and there is Sisra, lying dead with the tent peg through his temple.
23 Thus God on that day defeated Yavin the king of Kena'an in the presence of the people of Isra'el.
24 The hand of the people of Isra'el came down more and more heavily against Yavin the king of Kena'an, until they had completely destroyed Yavin the king of Kena'an.
1 On that day D'vorah and Barak the son of Avino'am sang this song:
2 'When leaders in Isra'el dedicate themselves, and the people volunteer, you should all bless ADONAI.
3 Hear, kings; listen, princes; I will sing to ADONAI! I will sing praise to ADONAI the God of Isra'el.
4 'ADONAI, when you went out from Se'ir, when you marched out from the field of Edom; the earth quaked, and the sky shook; yes, the clouds poured down torrents.
5 The mountains melted at the presence of ADONAI, at Sinai, before ADONAI the God of Isra'el.
6 'In the days of Shamgar the son of 'Anat, in the days of Ya'el, the main roads were deserted; travelers walked the byways.
7 The rulers ceased in Isra'el, they ceased, until you arose, D'vorah, arose a mother in Isra'el.
8 'They chose new gods when war was at the gates. Was there a shield or spear to be seen among Isra'el's forty thousand men?
9 My heart goes out to Isra'el's leaders and to those among the people who volunteer. All of you, bless ADONAI.
10 'You who ride white donkeys, sitting on soft saddle-blankets, and you walking on the road, talk about it!
11 Louder than the sound of archers at the watering-holes will they sound as they retell the righteous acts of ADONAI, the righteous acts of his rulers in Isra'el. 'Then ADONAI's people marched down to the gates.
12 'Awake, awake, D'vorah! Awake, awake, break into song! Arise, Barak! Lead away your captives, son of Avino'am!
13 'Then a remnant of the nobles marched down; the people of ADONAI marched down to me like warriors.
14 From Efrayim came those rooted in 'Amalek. Behind you, Binyamin is with your peoples. From Makhir the commanders marched down, and from Z'vulun those holding the musterer's staff.
15 The princes of Yissakhar were with D'vorah, Yissakhar, along with Barak; into the valley they rushed forth behind him. Among the divisions of Re'uven they made great resolutions in their hearts.
16 But why did you stay at the pens for the sheep, and listen to the shepherd's flute playing for the flocks? Concerning the divisions of Re'uven there were great searchings of heart.
17 Gil'ad lives beyond the Yarden. Dan - why does he stay by the ships? Asher stayed by the shore of the sea, remaining near its bays.
18 The people of Z'vulun risked their lives, Naftali too, on the open heights.
19 'Kings came; they fought. Yes, the kings of Kena'an fought at Ta'anakh, by the waters of Megiddo; but they took no spoil of silver.
20 They fought from heaven, the stars in their courses; yes, they fought against Sisra.
21 The Kishon River swept them away, that ancient river, the Kishon River. O my soul, march on with strength!
22 Then the horses' hoofs pounded the ground, their mighty steeds galloping at full speed.
23 ''Curse Meroz!' said the angel of ADONAI, 'Curse the people living there with a bitter punishment for not coming to help ADONAI, to help ADONAI against the mighty warriors.'
24 'Ya'el will be blessed more than all women. The wife of Hever the Keini will be blessed more than any woman in the tent.
25 He asked for water, and she gave him milk; In an elegant bowl she brought him curds.
26 Then she took a tent peg in her left hand and a workman's hammer in her right; with the hammer she struck Sisra, pierced his skull, yes, she shattered and crushed his temple.
27 He sank down at her feet, he fell and lay there; he sank at her feet, he fell - where he sank down, there he fell dead.
28 'Sisra's mother looks out the window; peering out through the lattice she wonders, 'Why is his chariot so long in coming? Why are his horses so slow to return?'
29 The wisest of her ladies answer her, and she repeats it to herself,
30 'Of course! They're collecting and dividing the spoil a girl, two girls for every warrior, for Sisra booty of dyed clothing, a plunder of colorfully embroidered garments, two embroidered scarves for every soldier's neck.'
31 'May all your enemies perish like this, ADONAI; but may those who love him be like the sun going forth in its glory!' Then the land had rest for forty years.
1 But the people of Isra'el did what was evil from ADONAI's perspective, so ADONAI handed them over to Midyan for seven years.
2 Midyan exercised its power harshly against Isra'el, and because of Midyan the people of Isra'el hid themselves in mountains, in caves and in other safe places.
3 One time, after Isra'el's sowing season, Midyan, with 'Amalek and others from the east, attacked them.
4 They set up camp by them and destroyed the produce of the country all the way to 'Azah; they left nothing for people to live on, no sheep, no oxen, no donkeys.
5 For they came up with their cattle and tents, and they came in as thick as locusts; both they and their camels were beyond numbering, and they came into the land to destroy it.
6 Isra'el became very discouraged because of Midyan, and the people of Isra'el cried out to ADONAI.
7 When the people of Isra'el cried out to ADONAI because of Midyan,
8 ADONAI sent a prophet to the people of Isra'el, who said to them: 'ADONAI the God of Isra'el says, 'I brought you up from Egypt, out of a life of slavery.
9 I delivered you from the power of the Egyptians and from the power of all your oppressors. I drove them out ahead of you and gave you their land.
10 And I said to you: 'I am ADONAI your God; you are not to be afraid of the gods of the Emori in whose land you are living.' But you paid no attention to what I said!''
11 Then the angel of ADONAI came and sat under the pistachio tree in 'Ofrah that belonged to Yo'ash the Avi'ezri. His son Gid'on was threshing wheat in the winepress, in order to hide it from Midyan.
12 The angel of ADONAI appeared to him and said to him: 'You valiant hero! ADONAI is with you!'
13 'Excuse me, sir,' answered Gid'on, 'but if ADONAI is with us, then why is all this happening to us? And where are all his miracles our ancestors told us about when they said, 'Didn't ADONAI bring us up from Egypt?' For now ADONAI has abandoned us and handed us over to Midyan.'
14 ADONAI turned to him and said, 'Go in this strength of yours and save Isra'el from the hands of Midyan. Haven't I sent you?'
15 But Gid'on answered him, 'Forgive me, my Lord, but with what am I to save Isra'el? Why, my family is the poorest in M'nasheh, and I'm the youngest person in my father's house!'
16 ADONAI said to him, 'Because I will be with you, you will strike down Midyan as easily as if they were just one man.'
17 Gid'on replied, 'If indeed you favor me, would you mind giving me a sign that it is really you talking with me?
18 Please don't leave until I go and return with a gift and present it to you.' He replied, 'I'll wait till you come back.'
19 Gid'on went in, cooked a young goat and made matzot from a bushel of flour. He put the meat in a basket and the broth in a pot, brought them out to him under the pistachio tree and presented them.
20 The angel of God said to him, 'Take the meat and matzot, lay them on this rock, and pour out the broth.' Gid'on did so.
21 Then the angel of ADONAI reached out with the stick he was holding, touched the meat and matzot, and fire shot up out of the rock and burned up the meat and matzot. Then the angel of ADONAI disappeared before his eyes.
22 Gid'on realized that he was the angel of ADONAI and said, 'Oh no! My Lord! ADONAI! Because I've seen the angel of ADONAI face-to-face!'
23 But ADONAI reassured him, 'Shalom to you, don't be afraid, you won't die!'
24 Then Gid'on built an altar there to ADONAI and called it 'ADONAI-Shalom'; to this day it remains in 'Ofrah of the Avi'ezri.
25 That very night ADONAI said to him, 'Take your father's bull and the other bull, the seven-year-old. Destroy the altar to Ba'al that belongs to your father, cut down the sacred pole next to it,
26 and build a proper altar to ADONAI your God on top of this strong-point. Then take the second bull; and offer it as a burnt offering, using the wood of the sacred pole you cut down.'
27 Gid'on took ten of his servants and did what ADONAI had told him to do. He didn't do it by day, because he was afraid of the men in his father's household and those from the city, so he did it at night.
28 When the men of the city got up the next morning, there was the altar of Ba'al destroyed, the sacred pole cut down, and the second bull a burnt offering on the newly built altar.
29 They asked each other, 'Who could have done this?' But after investigating, they concluded that Gid'on the son of Yo'ash had done it.
30 'Bring out your son,' the men of the city demanded of Yo'ash, 'so that he may die, because he destroyed the altar of Ba'al and cut down the sacred pole next to it!'
31 But Yo'ash said to all those crowding around him, 'You're defending Ba'al, are you? It's your job to save him? Anyone who defends Ba'al will be put to death before morning! If he's a god, let him defend himself! After all, somebody destroyed his altar!'
32 Therefore on that day Gid'on was given the name Yeruba'al [let Ba'al defend], because they said, 'Let Ba'al defend himself against him, since he destroyed his altar.'
33 Now all Midyan, 'Amalek and the others from the east joined forces, crossed the Yarden, and set up camp in the Yizre'el Valley.
34 But the Spirit of ADONAI covered Gid'on. He sounded the call on the shofar, and Avi'ezer rallied behind him.
35 He sent messengers throughout all M'nasheh, and they too rallied behind him. He also sent messengers to Asher, Z'vulun and Naftali; and they came up to join them.
36 Gid'on said to God, 'If you are going to save Isra'el through me, as you said you would,
37 then, here: I will lay a wool fleece on the threshing-floor; if there is dew on the fleece only, while all the ground stays dry, I will be convinced that you will save Isra'el through me, as you said you would.'
38 And it happened! He got up early in the morning, pressed the fleece together and wrung dew out of it, a bowlful of water.
39 But Gid'on said to God, 'Don't be angry with me because I am asking one more thing, let me make one more test, please: this time let it be dry only on the fleece, with dew all over the ground.'
40 And that is what God did that night - it was dry only on the fleece, even though there was dew all over the ground.
1 Then Yeruba'al, that is, Gid'on, and all the people with him, got up early and set up camp by 'Ein-Harod; the camp of Midyan was north of them, by Giv'at-Moreh, in the valley.
2 ADONAI said to Gid'on, 'There are too many people with you for me to hand Midyan over to them, because I don't want Isra'el to be able to boast against me, 'We saved ourselves by our own strength.'
3 Therefore, proclaim to the people 'Anyone who is anxious or afraid should go back home, while we stay here on Mount Gil'ad.'' Twenty-two thousand returned, but ten thousand remained.
4 ADONAI said to Gid'on, 'There are still too many people. Have them come down to the water, and there I will screen them for you. If I say of anyone, 'This one is for you,' he will go with you; and if I say, 'This one is not for you,' he won't go with you.'
5 So he brought the people down to the water, and ADONAI said to Gid'on, 'Put to one side everyone who laps up water with his tongue the way a dog does, and put to the other side everyone who gets down on his knees to drink.'
6 Three hundred lapped, putting their hand to their mouth; all the rest of the men got down on their knees to drink water.
7 ADONAI said to Gid'on, 'I will use the three hundred men who lapped the water to save you; I will hand Midyan over to you. Let all these others go back home.'
8 So they took the provisions and the shofars of the people; then he sent all the men of Isra'el away, each to his tent. But the three hundred men he kept. The camp of Midyan was in the valley below him.
9 That night ADONAI said to him, 'Get up and attack the camp, because I have handed it over to you.
10 But if you are afraid to attack, go down with your servant Purah;
11 and after you hear what they are saying, you will have the courage to attack the camp.' So with his servant Purah he went down to the outposts of the camp.
12 Now Midyan, 'Amalek and all the others from the east had settled in the valley as thick as locusts; their camels too were beyond counting, like the sand on the seashore.
13 Gid'on got there just as a man was telling a comrade about a dream he had had: 'I just now dreamt that a loaf of barley bread fell into the camp of Midyan, came to the tent and struck it so hard that it overturned the tent and knocked it flat.'
14 His comrade answered, 'This can only be the sword of Gid'on son of Yo'ash, a man of Isra'el. God has given Midyan and all its army into his hands.'
15 When Gid'on heard the dream and its interpretation, he fell on his knees in worship. Then he returned to the camp of Isra'el and said, 'Get up! because ADONAI has handed Midyan's army over to you.'
16 He divided the three hundred men into three companies. He put in the hands of all of them shofars and empty pitchers with torches in them.
17 Then he said to them, 'Watch me, and do what I do. When I get to the edge of the camp, whatever I do, you do the same.
18 When I and everyone with me blow the shofar, then you blow your shofars all around the whole camp, and shout, 'For ADONAI and for Gid'on!'
19 Gid'on and the hundred men with him arrived at the edge of the camp a little before midnight, just after they had changed the guard. They blew the shofars and broke in pieces the pitchers that were in their hands.
20 All three companies blew the shofars, broke the pitchers and held the torches in their left hands, keeping their right hands free for the shofars they were blowing; and they shouted, 'The sword for ADONAI and for Gid'on!'
21 Then, as every man stood still in place around the camp, the whole camp was thrown into panic, with everyone screaming and trying to escape.
22 Gid'on's men blew their 300 shofars, and ADONAI caused everyone in the camp to attack his comrades; and the enemy fled beyond Beit-Sheetah near Tz'rerah, as far as the border of Avel-M'cholah, by Tabat.
23 Then men of Isra'el were summoned from Naftali, Asher, and both regions of M'nasheh; and they pursued Midyan.
24 Gid'on sent messengers through all the hills of Efrayim, with the message, 'Come down and attack Midyan; and capture the rivers before they get there, as far as Beit-Barah, and also the Yarden.' So all the men of Efrayim came together and seized the rivers as far as Beit-Barah and the Yarden.
25 They also captured two chiefs of Midyan, 'Orev and Ze'ev. They put 'Orev to death at the Rock of 'Orev and Ze'ev at Ze'ev's Winepress; then, as they kept pursuing Midyan, they brought the heads of Orev and Ze'ev to Gid'on, who had crossed to the far side of the Yarden.
1 But the men of Efrayim complained to Gid'on, 'Why didn't you call on us when you went to fight Midyan? Why did you treat us this way?' They were sharp in their criticism.
2 He answered by saying to them, 'How can what I have done be compared with what you have done? Aren't the grapes Efrayim leaves on the vines better than the ones Avi'ezer harvests?
3 God handed over to you Midyan's chiefs, 'Orev and Ze'ev. What could I do that matches what you did?' By saying that, he appeased their anger at him.
4 By now Gid'on and his three hundred men had come to the Yarden and crossed over. They were exhausted but were still pursuing the enemy.
5 In Sukkot he asked the people there, 'Please give some loaves of bread to the men following me, because they are exhausted, and I am pursuing Zevach and Tzalmuna the kings of Midyan.'
6 But the chiefs of Sukkot said, 'You haven't captured Zevach and Tzalmuna yet, so why should we give bread to your army?'
7 Gid'on said: 'If that's your answer, then after ADONAI has put Zevach and Tzalmuna in my hands, I will tear your flesh apart with desert thorns and thistles!'
8 From there he went up to P'nu'el and made the same request, and the people of P'nu'el gave the same answer as those of Sukkot.
9 So he answered the people of P'nu'el similarly, 'When I return safe and sound, I will break down this tower!'
10 Now Zevach and Tzalmuna were in Karkor with their army, about 15,000 men, all that remained of the entire army of the people from the east; since 120,000 arms-bearing soldiers had fallen.
11 Gid'on went up, using the route of the nomads east of Novach and Yogbehah, and struck down the army when they thought they were safe.
12 Zevach and Tzalmuna fled, but Gid'on pursued them. Thus he captured the two kings of Midyan, Zevach and Tzalmuna, and routed their whole army in panic.
13 When Gid'on the son of Yo'ash returned from the battle by way of the Heres Pass,
14 he captured a young man from Sukkot and asked him about the chiefs and leaders of Sukkot; he wrote down for him the names of seventy-seven of them.
15 Then he came to the people of Sukkot and said: 'You insulted me when you said, 'You haven't captured Zevach and Tzalmuna yet, so why should we give bread to your exhausted men?' Well, here are Zevach and Tzalmuna!'
16 And he took the leaders of the city and desert thorns and thistles, and used them to teach the people of Sukkot a lesson!
17 He also broke down the tower of P'nu'el and put the men of the city to death.
18 Then he said to Zevach and Tzalmuna, 'Tell me about the men you killed at Tavor.' They answered, 'They looked like you, like a king's sons.'
19 Gid'on replied, 'They were my brothers, my mother's sons. As surely as ADONAI is alive, I swear that if you had spared them, I would not kill you.'
20 Then he ordered his oldest son, Yeter, 'Get up, and kill them!' But the boy didn't draw his sword; being still a boy, he was afraid.
21 Then Zevach and Tzalmuna said, 'You, do it. You, kill us. Let a grown man do what takes a grown man's strength.' So Gid'on got up and killed Zevach and Tzalmuna; then he took the ornamental crescents from around their camels' necks.
22 The men of Isra'el said to Gid'on: 'Rule over us, you, your son and your grandson, because you saved us from the power of Midyan.
23 Gid'on replied, 'Neither I nor my son will rule over you; ADONAI will rule over you.'
24 Then he added, 'But I have this request to make of you, that each of you would give me the earrings from the booty you have taken.' For the enemy soldiers had worn gold earrings, like all the other tribes descended from Yishma'el.
25 They replied, 'We're glad to give them to you.' They spread out a robe, and each man threw in the earrings from his booty.
26 The gold earrings he requested weighed more than forty-two pounds; and this doesn't include the crescents, pendants and purple cloth worn by the kings of Midyan and the chains around their camels' necks.
27 Out of these things Gid'on made a ritual vest, which he located in his city, 'Ofrah. But all Isra'el turned it into an idol there, and it thus became a snare to Gid'on and his family.
28 This is how Midyan was defeated by Isra'el, so that they ceased to be a threat. The land had rest forty years during the lifetime of Gid'on;
29 Yeruba'al the son of Yo'ash returned to his home and stayed there.
30 Gid'on became the father of seventy sons, because he had many wives.
31 He also had a concubine in Sh'khem, and she too bore him a son, whom he called Avimelekh.
32 Gid'on the son of Yo'ash died at a ripe old age and was buried in the tomb of his father Yo'ash, in 'Ofrah of the Avi'ezri.
33 But as soon as Gid'on was dead, the people of Isra'el again went astray after the ba'alim and made Ba'al-B'rit their god.
34 They forgot ADONAI their God, who had saved them from the power of all their enemies on every side;
35 and they showed no kindness toward the family of Yeruba'al, that is, Gid'on, to repay them for all the good he had done for Isra'el.
1 Avimelekh the son of Yeruba'al went to Sh'khem, to his mother's brothers, and spoke with them and with the whole clan of his maternal grandfather. He said,
2 'Please ask all the men of Sh'khem, 'Which is better for you - that all seventy sons of Yeruba'al rule over you, or that one person rule over you? And remember that I am your blood relative.''
3 His mother's brothers spoke to all the men of Sh'khem and said all this about him, so that they followed their feelings and supported Avimelekh, arguing, 'After all, he's our brother.'
4 They also gave him seventy pieces of silver from the temple of Ba'al-B'rit; and he used these to pay good-for-nothing thugs to follow him.
5 He went back to his father's house in 'Ofrah and killed his brothers the sons of Yeruba'al, all seventy of them, on a single rock, except for Yotam Yeruba'al's youngest son, who stayed alive because he hid himself.
6 All the men of Sh'khem and all Beit-Millo got together and went and made Avimelekh king at the oak by the cult-pillar in Sh'khem.
7 When they told this to Yotam, he went and stood on top of Mount G'rizim and shouted, 'Listen to me, you leaders of Sh'khem; then God will listen to you!
8 Once the trees went out to choose a king to rule them. They said to the olive tree, 'Rule over us!'
9 But the olive tree replied, 'Am I supposed to leave my oil, which is used to honor both God and humanity, just to go and hold sway over the trees?'
10 So the trees said to the fig tree, 'You, come and rule over us!'
11 But the fig tree replied, 'Am I supposed to leave my sweetness and my good fruit just to go and hold sway over the trees?'
12 So the trees said to the grapevine, 'You, come and rule over us!'
13 But the grapevine replied, 'Am I supposed to leave my wine, which gives cheer to God and humanity, just to go and hold sway over the trees?'
14 Finally, all the trees said to the thorn bush, 'You, come and rule over us!'
15 The thorn bush replied, 'If you really make me king over you, then come and take shelter in my shade. But if not, let fire come out of the thorn bush and burn down the cedars of the L'vanon!'
16 'Here's the point. Have you been honest and straightforward in making Avimelekh king? Have you been fair with Yeruba'al and his household and treated him as he deserves?
17 My father fought on your behalf, risking his life, and rescued you from the power of Midyan;
18 and now you are rebelling against my father's household. You've killed his seventy sons on a single stone and made Avimelekh, the son of his slave-girl, king over the men of Sh'khem, because he's your brother.
19 I say this: if you are dealing honestly and righteously with Yeruba'al and his household today, then may you enjoy Avimelekh and may he enjoy you!
20 But if not, let fire come out from Avimelekh and burn up the men of Sh'khem and Beit-Millo; and let fire come out from the men of Sh'khem and Beit-Millo and burn up Avimelekh!'
21 Then Yotam fled, making his way to Be'er, and he lived there for fear of Avimelekh his brother.
22 Avimelekh was chief over Isra'el for three years.
23 But God sent a spirit of discord between Avimelekh and the men of Sh'khem, so that the men of Sh'khem dealt treacherously with Avimelekh.
24 This came about so that the crime against the seventy sons of Yeruba'al might be avenged and the responsibility for their bloody death be placed on Avimelekh their brother, who murdered them, and on the men of Sh'khem, who helped him kill his brothers.
25 So the men of Sh'khem sent out men to ambush him on the mountaintops. They robbed everyone who went past them, and Avimelekh was told about it.
26 Ga'al the son of a slave came with his brothers and went on to Sh'khem, and the men of Sh'khem put their trust in him.
27 They went out into the field, gathered their grapes and pressed the juice out of them. Then they held a feast and went into the house of their god to eat and drink, and there they insulted Avimelekh.
28 Ga'al the son of a slave said, 'Who is Avimelekh? Think of the contrast with Sh'khem! Why should we serve Avimelekh? Isn't he the son of Yeruba'al? Isn't Z'vul his officer? Serve the men of Hamor the father of Sh'khem! Why should we serve Avimelekh?
29 If I were in control of this people, I'd get rid of Avimelekh!' Then, addressing his words to Avimelekh, he said, 'Come out and fight! I don't care if you make your army even larger!'
30 When Z'vul the ruler of the city heard the words of Ga'al the son of a slave, he was enraged.
31 He sent messengers to Avimelekh in Tormah with this message: 'Ga'al the son of a slave and his brothers have come to Sh'khem, and they're inciting the city against you.
32 You and the men with you should come up now at night and lie in wait in the field.
33 In the morning, get up early, as soon as the sun rises; and attack the city. Then, when Ga'al and the men with him come out to fight you, do whatever you can to them.'
34 Avimelekh and all the men with him came up by night and lay in wait against Sh'khem in four groups.
35 Ga'al the son of a slave went out and stationed himself at the entrance to the city gate. Then Avimelekh and his men rose from their ambush.
36 When Ga'al saw the men, he said to Z'vul, 'Look, there are men coming down from the mountaintops.' Z'vul answered, 'You're seeing the shadows of the mountains as if they were men.'
37 Ga'al said again, 'Look, there are men coming down from the main hill in the land, and one group is coming on the road from the Fortuneteller's Oak.
38 Z'vul said to him, 'Where's your mouth now? You said, 'Who is Avimelekh? Why should we serve him?' Aren't these the people you despise? Go on out and fight them!'
39 So Ga'al went out, leading the men of Sh'khem, and fought Avimelekh.
40 But Avimelekh gave chase, and Ga'al took to flight; many fell wounded, strewn all along the way to the city gate.
41 Then Avimelekh took up residence in Arumah, and Z'vul drove out Ga'al and his brothers, so that they could not live in Sh'khem.
42 But the very next day, the people went out into the field, and Avimelekh was told about it.
43 He took his men, divided them into three groups, and lay in wait in the field. When he saw the people going out of the city, he came out of hiding and slaughtered them.
44 Avimelekh and his group rushed forward and occupied the entrance to the city gate, while the other two groups attacked all those in the field and killed them.
45 Avimelekh fought against the city all that day; captured it, killed its people, destroyed its buildings and sowed its land with salt.
46 When all the men in the fortress at Sh'khem heard about this, they took refuge in the stronghold of the temple of El-B'rit.
47 Avimelekh was told that all the men from the Sh'khem fortress had gathered together;
48 so he led all his men up to Mount Tzalmon, where he took an axe in his hand, cut a branch off a tree, and laid it on his shoulder. Then he said to those with him, 'Quick! Do just what you saw me do!'
49 They all did likewise, each man cutting off his branch; and they followed Avimelekh. They put the branches up against the stronghold, set them on fire, and burned down the stronghold; so that all the people from the Sh'khem fortress died, about a thousand men and women.
50 Then Avimelekh went to Tevetz, set up camp against Tevetz and captured it.
51 But there was a fortified tower inside the city; and all the men and women took refuge in it, everyone in the city. They shut themselves inside and went up onto the roof of the tower.
52 However, when Avimelekh approached the tower, attacked it, and then came up close to the tower's door in order to burn it down,
53 a woman dropped an upper millstone on Avimelekh's head, cracking his skull.
54 He quickly called out to the young man holding his armor, 'Draw your sword, and finish me off, so that people won't say a woman killed me.' So his attendant ran him through, and he died.
55 When the men of Isra'el saw that Avimelekh was dead, they all went back home.
56 This is how God paid back Avimelekh for the wrong he did to his father in murdering his seventy brothers.
57 God also repaid the men of Sh'khem for all the wrong they had done; on them came the curse of Yotam the son of Yeruba'al.
1 After Avimelekh there arose to save Isra'el Tola the son of Pu'ah, the son of Dodo, from the tribe of Yissakhar. He lived in Shamir, in the hills of Efrayim.
2 He judged Isra'el twenty-three years, and when he died he was buried in Shamir.
3 After him arose Ya'ir, from Gil'ad. He judged Isra'el twenty-two years.
4 He had thirty sons who rode on thirty young donkeys. They owned thirty cities which are called Havot-Ya'ir to this day; they are in the territory of Gil'ad.
5 When Ya'ir died, he was buried in Kamon.
6 Again the people of Isra'el did what was evil from ADONAI's perspective - they served the ba'alim, the 'ashtarot, the gods of Aram, the gods of Tzidon, the gods of Mo'av, the gods of the people of 'Amon and the gods of the P'lishtim. They abandoned ADONAI and did not serve him;
7 so the anger of ADONAI blazed against Isra'el, and he handed them over to the P'lishtim and the people of 'Amon.
8 For eighteen years, starting that year, they oppressed and persecuted all the people of Isra'el who lived beyond the Yarden, in the territory of the Emorim, in Gil'ad.
9 The people of 'Amon also crossed the Yarden to fight Y'hudah, Binyamin and the house of Efrayim; so that Isra'el was greatly distressed.
10 Then the people of Isra'el cried to ADONAI, 'We have sinned against you by forsaking our God and serving the ba'alim.'
11 ADONAI said to the people of Isra'el, 'I saved you from the Egyptians, the Emorim, the people of 'Amon, and the P'lishtim, didn't I?
12 Likewise, when the people of Tzidon, 'Amalek and Ma'on oppressed you, you cried out to me; and I rescued you from their power.
13 Yet you abandoned me and served other gods; therefore I will not rescue you any more.
14 Go and cry to the gods you chose; let them rescue you when you're in trouble!'
15 The people of Isra'el said to ADONAI, 'We have sinned! Treat us in whatever way seems good to you, but save us today, please!'
16 They got rid of their foreign gods and served ADONAI, and he became troubled by Isra'el's misery.
17 Then the people of 'Amon gathered together and set up camp in Gil'ad, while the people of Isra'el assembled and camped at Mitzpah.
18 The people, the chiefs of Gil'ad, said to each other, 'Whoever leads the battle against the army of 'Amon will be head over everyone living in Gil'ad.'
1 Now Yiftach, a brave soldier from Gil'ad, was the son of a prostitute. His father, Gil'ad,
2 had other sons by his wife; and when his wife's sons grew up, they drove Yiftach away and told him, 'You will not inherit from our father, because you are another woman's son.'
3 Then Yiftach fled from his brothers and lived in the territory of Tov, where he enlisted a gang of rowdies who would go out raiding with him.
4 After a while the people of 'Amon made war against Isra'el.
5 When the army of 'Amon attacked Isra'el, the leaders of Gil'ad went to fetch Yiftach from the territory of Tov
6 and said to him, 'Come and be our chief, so that we can fight the army of 'Amon.'
7 Yiftach answered the leaders of Gil'ad, 'Didn't you hate me so much that you forced me out of my father's house? Why are you coming to me now, when you're in trouble?'
8 The leaders of Gil'ad replied, 'Here is why we've come back to you now: if you lead us in war with the people of 'Amon, you will be head over everyone living in Gil'ad.'
9 Yiftach answered them, 'If you bring me back home to fight the army of 'Amon, and ADONAI defeats them for me, I will be your head.'
10 The leaders of Gil'ad said to Yiftach, 'ADONAI is witness that we promise to do what you have said.'
11 Then Yiftach went with the leaders of Gil'ad, and the people made him head and chief over them. Yiftach repeated all these conditions at Mitzpah in the presence of ADONAI.
12 Yiftach sent messengers to the king of the people of 'Amon to say, 'What's your problem with us? Why are you invading our territory?'
13 The king of 'Amon answered the messengers of Yiftach, 'Because Isra'el took away my territory when they came up from Egypt. They took everything from the Arnon to the Yabok and the Yarden. Now, restore it peacefully.'
14 Yiftach sent messengers again to the king of the people of 'Amon
15 with this response, 'Here is what Yiftach has to say: 'Isra'el captured neither the territory of Mo'av nor the territory of the people of 'Amon.
16 But when Isra'el came up from Egypt, walked through the desert to the Red Sea and arrived at Kadesh,
17 then Isra'el sent messengers to the king of Edom, to say, 'Please let us pass through your land.' But the king of Edom wouldn't let them. He sent a similar message to the king of Mo'av, but neither would he, so Isra'el stayed at Kadesh.
18 Then they walked through the desert, around the territory of Edom and the territory of Mo'av, past the east border of the territory of Mo'av, and pitched camp on the other side of the Arnon; but they did not cross the border into Mo'av, for the Arnon was the border of Mo'av.
19 Isra'el sent messengers to Sichon king of the Emori and king of Heshbon with this message, 'Please let us pass through your land to our own place.'
20 But Sichon did not trust that Isra'el would only pass through his land, so he gathered all his people together, pitched camp in Yahatz and fought against Isra'el.
21 ADONAI the God of Isra'el handed Sichon and all his people over to Isra'el, and they killed them. Thus Isra'el possessed all the territory of the Emori who lived there.
22 They took possession of all the territory of the Emori from the Arnon to the Yabok and from the desert to the Yarden.
23 So now that ADONAI the God of Isra'el has expelled the Emori before his people Isra'el, do you think that you will expel us?
24 You should just keep the territory your god K'mosh has given you; while we, for our part, will hold onto whatever ADONAI our God has given us of the lands that belonged to others before us.
25 Really, are you better than Balak the son of Tzippor, king of Mo'av? Did he ever pick a quarrel with Isra'el or fight with us?
26 Isra'el lived in Heshbon and its villages, in 'Aro'er and its villages and in all the cities on the banks of the Arnon for three hundred years. Why didn't you take them back during that time?
27 No, I have done you no wrong. But you are doing me wrong to war against me. May ADONAI the Judge be judge today between the people of Isra'el and the people of 'Amon.''
28 But the king of the people of 'Amon paid no attention to the message Yiftach sent him.
29 Then the spirit of ADONAI came upon Yiftach; and he passed through Gil'ad and M'nasheh, on through Mitzpeh of Gil'ad, and from there over to the people of 'Amon.
30 Yiftach made a vow to ADONAI: 'If you will hand the people of 'Amon over to me,
31 then whatever comes out the doors of my house to meet me when I return in peace from the people of 'Amon will belong to ADONAI; I will sacrifice it as a burnt offering.'
32 So Yiftach crossed over to fight the people of 'Amon, and ADONAI handed them over to him.
33 He killed them from 'Aro'er until you reach Minnit, twenty cities, all the way to Avel-K'ramim; it was a massacre. So the people of 'Amon were defeated before the people of Isra'el.
34 As Yiftach was returning to his house in Mitzpah, his daughter came dancing out to meet him with tambourines. She was his only child; he had no other son or daughter.
35 When he saw her, he tore his clothes and said, 'Oh, no, my daughter! You're breaking my heart! Why must you be the cause of such pain to me? I made a vow to ADONAI, and I can't go back on my word.'
36 She said to him, 'Father, you made a vow to ADONAI; so do whatever you said you would do to me; because ADONAI did take vengeance on your enemies the people of 'Amon.'
37 Then she said to her father, 'Just do this one thing for me - let me be alone for two months. I'll go away into the mountains with my friends and mourn, because I will die without getting married.'
38 'You may go,' he answered, and he sent her away for two months. She left, she and her friends, and mourned in the mountains that she would die unmarried.
39 After two months she returned to her father, and he did with her what he had vowed; she had remained a virgin. So it became a law in Isra'el
40 that the women of Isra'el would go every year for four days to lament the daughter of Yiftach from Gil'ad.
1 The men of Efrayim assembled, crossed into Tzafon and said to Yiftach, 'Why didn't you call us to go with you when you went over to fight the people of 'Amon? We're ready to burn down your house with you in it!'
2 Yiftach answered, 'When my people and I were in a serious dispute with the people of 'Amon, I called you; and you didn't rescue me from their power.
3 When I saw that you weren't rescuing me, I put my life in my own hands and went over to attack the people of 'Amon; and ADONAI gave them over into my power. So why have you come up today to fight me?'
4 Then Yiftach gathered together all the men of Gil'ad and fought with Efrayim, and the men of Gil'ad defeated Efrayim; because they were saying, 'You Gil'ad men who live in Efrayim and M'nasheh have deserted Efrayim!'
5 The men of Gil'ad cut off Efrayim from the crossings over the Yarden, and whenever anyone from Efrayim tried to escape and said, 'Let me go across,' the men of Gil'ad would ask him, 'Are you from Efrayim?' and if he said, 'No,'
6 they would tell him to say 'Shibbolet.' If he said, 'Sibbolet,' because he could not make his mouth pronounce it right, they took hold of him and killed him on the spot at the Yarden crossing; at that time 42,000 men of Efrayim died.
7 Yiftach judged Isra'el for six years. Then Yiftach from Gil'ad died, and he was buried in one of the cities of Gil'ad.
8 After him Ibtzan of Beit-Lechem judged Isra'el.
9 He had thirty sons, and he had thirty daughters whom he sent abroad; he brought thirty women from abroad in to marry his sons. He judged Isra'el for seven years.
10 Then Ibtzan died and was buried at Beit-Lechem.
11 After him Elon from Z'vulun judged Isra'el; he judged Isra'el for ten years.
12 Then Elon from Z'vulun died and was buried at Ayalon, in the territory of Z'vulun.
13 After him Avdon the son of Hillel from Pir'aton judged Isra'el.
14 He had forty sons and thirty grandsons who rode on seventy young donkeys. He judged Isra'el for eight years.
15 Then Avdon the son of Hillel from Pir'aton died and was buried at Pir'aton in the territory of Efrayim, in the 'Amalek hills.
1 Again the people of Isra'el did what was evil from ADONAI's perspective, and ADONAI handed them over to the P'lishtim for forty years.
2 There was a man from Tzor'ah from the family of Dan, whose name was Manoach; his wife was barren, childless.
3 The angel of ADONAI appeared to the woman and said to her, 'Listen! You are barren, you haven't had a child, but you will conceive and bear a son.
4 Now, therefore, be careful not to drink any wine or other intoxicating liquor, and don't eat anything unclean.
5 For indeed you will conceive and bear a son. No razor is to touch his head, because the child will be a nazir for God from the womb. Moreover, he will begin to rescue Isra'el from the power of the P'lishtim.'
6 The woman came and told her husband; she said, 'A man of God came to me; his face was fearsome, like that of the angel of God. I didn't ask him where he came from, and he didn't tell me his name.
7 But he said to me, 'Listen! You will conceive and bear a son, so now don't drink any wine or other intoxicating liquor, and don't eat anything unclean, because the child will be a nazir for God from the womb until the day he dies.''
8 Then Manoach prayed to ADONAI, 'Please, Adonai, let the man of God you sent come again to us and teach us what we should do for the child who will be born.'
9 God paid attention to what Manoach said, and the angel of God came again to the woman as she sat in the field, but her husband Manoach wasn't with her.
10 The woman hurried and ran to tell her husband, 'Here! That man, the one who came to me the other day, he's come again!'
11 Manoach got up, followed his wife, went to the man and said to him, 'Are you the man who spoke to the woman?' He answered, 'I am.'
12 Manoach asked, 'Now, when what you said comes true, what are the guidelines for raising the child? What should be done for him?'
13 The angel of ADONAI said to Manoach, 'The woman should take care to do everything I said to her.
14 She shouldn't eat anything that comes from a grapevine, she shouldn't drink wine or other intoxicating liquor, and she shouldn't eat anything unclean. She should do everything I ordered her to do.'
15 Manoach said to the angel of ADONAI, 'Please stay with us a bit longer, so that we can cook a young goat for you.'
16 The angel of ADONAI said to Manoach, 'Even if I do stay, I won't eat your food; and if you prepare a burnt offering, you must offer it to ADONAI.' For Manoach did not know that he was the angel of ADONAI.
17 Manoach said to the angel of ADONAI, 'Tell us your name, so that when your words come true we can honor you.'
18 The angel of ADONAI answered him, 'Why are you asking about my name? It is wonderful.'
19 Manoach took the kid and the grain offering and offered them on the rock to ADONAI. Then, with Manoach and his wife looking on, the angel did something wonderful -
20 as the flame went up toward the sky from the altar, the angel of ADONAI went up in the flame from the altar. When Manoach and his wife saw it, they fell to the ground on their faces.
21 But the angel of ADONAI did not appear again to Manoach or his wife. Then Manoach realized it had been the angel of ADONAI.
22 Manoach said to his wife, 'We will surely die, because we have seen God!'
23 But his wife said to him, 'If ADONAI had wanted to kill us, he wouldn't have accepted a burnt offering and a grain offering from us, and he wouldn't have shown us all this or told us such things at this time.'
24 The woman bore a son and called him Shimshon. The child grew, and ADONAI blessed him.
25 The Spirit of ADONAI began to stir him when he was in the Camp of Dan, between Tzor'ah and Eshta'ol.
1 Shimshon went down to Timnah, and in Timnah he saw a woman who was one of the P'lishtim.
2 He came up and told his father and mother, 'I saw a woman in Timnah, one of the P'lishtim. Now get her for me to be my wife.'
3 His father and mother replied, 'Isn't there any woman from the daughters of your kinsmen or among all my people? Must you go to the uncircumcised P'lishtim to find a wife?' Shimshon said to his father, 'Get her for me. I like her.'
4 His father and mother didn't know that all this came from ADONAI, who was seeking grounds for a quarrel with the P'lishtim. (At that time the P'lishtim were ruling Isra'el.)
5 Shimshon went down with his father and mother to Timnah. When they came to the vineyards of Timnah, a young lion roared at him.
6 The Spirit of ADONAI came powerfully upon Shimshon, and barehanded he tore the lion to pieces as easily as if it had been a young goat. But he didn't tell his father or mother what he had done.
7 Then he went down and talked with the woman and found he still liked her.
8 Awhile later, as he was returning to claim his bride, he turned aside to look at the carcass of the lion and saw that there was now a swarm of bees in the body of the lion, and honey.
9 He scraped the honey out into his hands and went on, eating as he went; and when he came to his father and mother, he gave them some; and they ate too. But he didn't tell them that he had scraped the honey out of the body of the lion.
10 His father went down to the woman, and there Shimshon gave a banquet - this is what the young men used to do.
11 When the P'lishtim saw him, they provided thirty companions to be with him.
12 Shimshon said to them, 'Let me present you with a riddle. If you can solve it within the seven days of the banquet and tell me the solution, I will give you thirty linen shirts and thirty changes of good clothes.
13 But if you can't solve it, you give me thirty linen shirts and thirty changes of good clothes.' They answered, 'Tell us the riddle, we want to hear it.'
14 So he said to them, 'Out of the eater came food; out of the strong came sweetness.' Three days passed, and they couldn't solve the riddle.
15 On the seventh day, they said to Shimshon's wife, 'Coax your husband into telling us the solution to the riddle. Otherwise we'll burn down your father's house and you with it. You two called us here to turn us into paupers, didn't you?'
16 Shimshon's wife went to him in tears and said, 'You don't love me, you hate me! You told a riddle to my fellow countrymen, and you haven't told me the answer.' He said to her, 'Look, I haven't even told it to my father and mother! Should I tell you?'
17 But she had been crying throughout the seven days of the banquet; so on the seventh day, because she had kept pressing him, he told her the solution; and she passed it on to her people.
18 Then, before sundown on the seventh day, the men of the city said to him, 'What is sweeter than honey? and what is stronger than a lion?' Shimshon answered, 'If you hadn't plowed with my young cow, you wouldn't have solved my riddle now.'
19 Then the Spirit of ADONAI came over him powerfully. He went down to Ashkelon, killed thirty of their men, took their good clothes, and gave them to the men who had 'solved' the riddle. He was boiling with rage, so he went straight up to his father's house,
20 and his wife was given to the companion who had been best man at the wedding.
1 But after a while, during the wheat-harvest season, Shimshon went to see his wife. He brought a young goat for her and said to her father, 'I want to go to my wife in her room.' But he wouldn't let him.
2 Her father said, 'I really thought you hated her altogether, so I gave her to your best man. But her younger sister - isn't she even prettier? Why not take her instead?'
3 Shimshon said to them, 'This time I'm through with the P'lishtim! I'm going to do something terrible to them!'
4 So Shimshon went and caught three hundred foxes. Then he took torches, tied pairs of foxes to each other by their tails, and put a torch in the knot of every pair of tails.
5 Then he set the torches on fire and let the foxes loose in wheat fields of the P'lishtim. In this way he burned up the harvested wheat along with the grain waiting to be harvested, and the olive orchards as well.
6 The P'lishtim asked, 'Who did this?' They answered, 'Shimshon the son-in-law of the man from Timnah, because he took Shimshon's wife and gave her to his best man.' Then the P'lishtim came up and burned both her and her father to death.
7 Shimshon said to them, 'I will certainly have my revenge on you for doing such a thing; but after I do, I'll stop.'
8 Infuriated, he began killing them right and left; it was a massacre. Then he went down and stayed in the cave at the 'Eitam Rock.
9 The P'lishtim went up, pitched camp in Y'hudah and attacked Lechi.
10 The men of Y'hudah said, 'Why are you attacking us?' They replied, 'To arrest Shimshon, that's why - to treat him the way he treated us.'
11 Then 3,000 men from Y'hudah went down to the cave at the Eitam Rock and said to Shimshon, 'Don't you know that the P'lishtim are our rulers? What are you doing to us?' He answered, 'I've only treated them the way they treated me.'
12 They said to him, 'We've come down to arrest you and hand you over to the P'lishtim.' Shimshon replied, 'Swear to me that you won't fall on me yourselves.'
13 They said to him, 'No, but we will tie you up and hand you over to them. However, we promise not to kill you.' So they tied him up with two new ropes and brought him up from the rock.
14 When he got to Lechi, the P'lishtim came running and shouting at him; and the Spirit of ADONAI came on him powerfully. The ropes on his arms became as weak as burnt flax and fell from his arms.
15 He found a fresh donkey jawbone, took it in his hand, and with it he struck down a thousand men.
16 Shimshon said, 'With the jawbone of a donkey I left heaps piled on heaps! With the jawbone of a donkey I killed a thousand men!'
17 After he finished speaking he threw the jawbone away, and the place came to be called Ramat-Lechi [jawbone heights].
18 Then he felt very thirsty, so he called on ADONAI, saying, 'You accomplished this great rescue through your servant. But am I now to die from thirst and fall into the hands of the uncircumcised?'
19 Then God made a gash in the crater at Lechi, and water came out. When he had drunk, his spirit came back; and he revived. This is why the place was called 'Ein-HaKorei [the spring of him who called], and it is there in Lechi until now.
20 He judged Isra'el in the period of the P'lishtim for twenty years.
1 Shimshon went to 'Azah, where he saw a prostitute and went in to spend the night with her.
2 The people in 'Azah were told that Shimshon had come, so they surrounded the place where he was and also set an ambush for him all night at the city gate. Their plan was to do nothing at night, but to wait until morning and then kill him.
3 However, Shimshon stayed in bed until midnight; then he got up, took hold of the doors of the city gate and the two posts as well, pulled them up, bar and all, hoisted them on his shoulders, and carried them up to the top of the hill overlooking Hevron.
4 After this, he fell in love with a woman who lived in the Sorek Valley, whose name was D'lilah.
5 The chiefs of the P'lishtim went up to her and said, 'Coax him into telling you where his great strength comes from and how we can overcome him, so that we can tie him up and subdue him. If you do, each of us will give you 1,100 pieces of silver.'
6 D'lilah said to Shimshon, 'Please tell me what it is that makes you so strong, and how someone could tie you up and subdue you.'
7 Shimshon replied, 'If they tie me up with seven fresh bowstrings that have never been dried, I will become as weak as any other man.'
8 The chiefs of the P'lishtim brought up to her seven fresh bowstrings which had not been dried, and she tied him up with them.
9 Now she had people lying in wait in the inside room. So she said to him, 'Shimshon! The P'lishtim have come for you!' But he snapped the bowstrings as easily as a piece of straw breaks when it touches fire, and the source of his strength remained unknown.
10 D'lilah said to Shimshon, 'You're making fun of me, telling me lies. Now, come on, tell me what it takes to tie you up.'
11 'All it takes,' he answered, 'is to tie me up with new ropes that haven't been used. Then I'll become weak and be like anyone else.'
12 So D'lilah took new ropes, tied him up, and said to him, 'Shimshon! The P'lishtim have come for you!' (The people lying in wait were in the inside room.) But he broke the ropes from off his arms like a thread.
13 D'lilah said to Shimshon, 'Till now you've been making fun of me and telling me lies. Tell me what it takes to tie you up.' He said, 'If you weave the seven locks of my hair across thread on a loom.'
14 So she fastened her cloth work in the loom with a pin and wove his hair in, then said to him, 'Shimshon! The P'lishtim have come for you!' He awoke from his sleep and pulled away the loom pin and the interwoven cloth.
15 She said to him, 'How can you say you love me when your heart isn't with me? Three times you've made fun of me, and you haven't told me the source of your great strength.'
16 Every day she kept nagging at him and pressing at him, till it bothered him to death,
17 so that he finally told her everything. He said to her, 'No razor has ever touched my head, because I have been a nazir of God since I was born. If someone shaves me, then my strength will leave me; and I will be like any other man.'
18 When D'lilah saw that he had really confided in her, she sent and summoned the chiefs of the P'lishtim with the message, 'Come up this one last time, because he has finally told me the truth.' The chiefs of the P'lishtim went up to her and brought the money with them.
19 She had him go to sleep in her lap and called for a man to shave off his seven locks of hair. Then she began tormenting him, but his strength had gone away.
20 She said, 'Shimshon! The P'lishtim have come for you!' He awoke from his sleep and said, 'I'll get out this time, just as I shook myself loose before.' But he didn't know that ADONAI had left him.
21 So the P'lishtim seized him, gouged out his eyes and took him down to 'Azah. There they bound him with two bronze chains and put him to work grinding grain at the mill in the prison.
22 However, after the hair on his head had been cut off, it began growing back again.
23 The chiefs of the P'lishtim assembled to offer a great sacrifice to their god Dagon. As they celebrated they sang, 'Our god has handed over to us our enemy Shimshon.'
24 Upon seeing him, the people praised their god: 'Our god has handed over to us our enemy, who destroyed our land and killed so many of us.'
25 When they were in high spirits they said, 'Summon Shimshon to amuse us.' So they called Shimshon out of the prison, and he amused them. When they put him between the columns,
26 Shimshon said to the boy holding him by the hand, 'Let me feel the columns supporting the building, so that I can lean on them.'
27 The building was full of men and women; and all the chiefs of the P'lishtim were there; in addition to them, there were about three thousand men and women on the roof, watching, as Shimshon performed.
28 Shimshon called to ADONAI, 'Adonai ELOHIM, just this once, please, think of me, and please, give me strength, so that I can take revenge on the P'lishtim for at least one of my two eyes.'
29 Shimshon got a good hold on the two middle columns supporting the building and leaned on them, on one with his right hand and on the other with his left.
30 Then, crying, 'Let me die with the P'lishtim!' he pushed with all his might; and the building collapsed on the chiefs and on all the people inside. So he killed more at his death than he had killed during his life.
31 His brothers and all his father's family came down, took him, brought him up and buried him between Tzor'ah and Eshta'ol, in the tomb of his father Manoach. He had judged Isra'el twenty years.
1 There was a man from the hills of Efrayim named Mikhay'hu.
2 He said to his mother, 'You know the 1,100 pieces of silver that were taken from you - you pronounced a curse about it, and you told me about it? Well, the money is with me. I took it.' His mother said, 'May ADONAI bless my son,'
3 as he restored the 1,100 pieces of silver to his mother. Then his mother said, 'I solemnly dedicate this money of mine to ADONAI, in order for my son to make a carved image overlaid with silver. So now I'm giving it back to you.'
4 But he returned the money to his mother, and she took 200 pieces of silver and gave them to the metalworker, who made a carved image overlaid with silver which was put in Mikhay'hu's house.
5 This man Mikhah owned a house of God; so he made a ritual vest and household gods and consecrated one of his sons, who became his cohen.
6 At that time there was no king in Isra'el; a man simply did whatever he thought was right.
7 There was a young man from Beit-Lechem in Y'hudah, from the family of Y'hudah, who was a Levi. He had been staying
8 in Beit-Lechem, but he left there to find another place to live and came to the hills of Efrayim, where eventually he made his way to the house of Mikhah.
9 Mikhah asked him, 'Where are you coming from?' He answered, 'I am a Levi from Beit-Lechem in Y'hudah, and I'm looking for a place to live.'
10 Mikhah replied, 'Stay with me, and be a father and cohen for me; I will give you ten pieces of silver a year, in addition to your clothing and food.' So the Levi went in
11 and agreed to stay with the man; the young man became like one of his sons.
12 After Mikhah consecrated the Levi, the young man became his cohen and stayed there in Mikhah's house.
13 Mikhah said, 'Now I know that ADONAI will treat me well, because I have a Levi for a cohen.
1 At that time there was no king in Isra'el, and it was also at that time that the tribe of Dan was looking for a place to claim ownership of and settle in, since they had not yet been given any land of their own among the tribes of Isra'el.
2 The people of Dan sent five leading men from Tzor'ah and Eshta'ol, representing their whole tribe, to spy out and explore the land. They instructed them, 'Go, and explore the land.' They came to the hills of Efrayim, to the house of Mikhah, and stayed there.
3 While they were at Mikhah's house they recognized the accent of the young man, the Levi, so they approached him and said, 'Who brought you here? What are you doing in this place? What is there for you here?'
4 He answered, 'Here's the arrangement Mikhah has made with me: he pays me a wage, and I serve as his cohen.'
5 They said to him, 'Please ask God whether our journey will be successful.'
6 The cohen replied, 'Don't worry. ADONAI is with you on this journey.'
7 The five men left, came to Layish and saw the people there living securely according to the customs of the Tzidonim, quietly and securely; since no one in the land was exercising authority that might shame them in any respect; moreover, they were far away from the Tzidonim and had no dealings with other peoples.
8 When they returned to their kinsmen in Tzor'ah and Eshta'ol, they asked them what they had to report.
9 They said, 'Let's go up and attack them. We've seen the land, and it's excellent. Don't delay; start moving! Go in, and take the land!
10 When you go, you will come to a people who feel safe. There's plenty of land, the place lacks nothing, it has everything there is on earth, and God has given it to you.'
11 So from the tribe of Dan 600 men equipped for war set out from there, from Tzor'ah and Eshta'ol.
12 They went up and camped at Kiryat-Ye'arim, in Y'hudah, which is why that place is called Machaneh-Dan [the camp of Dan] to this day (actually, it's behind Kiryat-Ye'arim).
13 From there they passed on into the hills of Efrayim and came to Mikhah's house.
14 The men who had gone to spy out the land of Layish then said to their kinsmen, 'Are you aware that in these buildings there is a ritual vest, household gods and a carved image overlaid with silver? Decide what you ought to do.'
15 They turned off the road and went to the house of the young Levi, that is, to Mikhah's house, and asked how he was doing.
16 The 600 soldiers from Dan stayed at the gate,
17 while the five who had spied out the land went in and took the idol overlaid with silver, the vest and the household gods. The cohen had stayed with the 600 soldiers by the gate.
18 But when they went into Mikhah's house and took the silver-covered image, the vest and the household gods, the cohen asked them, 'What are you doing?'
19 They replied, 'Be quiet, keep your mouth shut, and come with us. Be a father and a cohen for us. Which is better? To be a cohen in the house of one man or to be cohen to a whole tribe and family in Isra'el?'
20 This made the cohen feel very good; so he took the ritual vest, the household gods and the image and went off with the people.
21 So they turned and left, with their children, cattle and belongings going ahead of them.
22 When they were a good distance from Mikhah's house, the men who lived in the houses near his got together [with him], overtook the people from Dan
23 and began shouting at them. The people from Dan turned and said to Mikhah, 'What's wrong with you, that you've gathered such a crowd?'
24 He answered, 'You've taken away my god, which I made, and gone off with the cohen! What more have I got? How can you ask me, 'What's wrong with you?''
25 The men from Dan replied, 'You had best say no more to us, because some of us might get angry and attack you. You could lose your life, and so might the others in your household.'
26 Then the people from Dan went their way; and when Mikhah saw that they were too strong for him, he turned and went back to his house.
27 So they took what Mikhah had made and his cohen. They came to Layish, to a quiet and trusting people. They attacked, killed them and burned down the city.
28 No one came to rescue them, because it was far from Tzidon, and they had no dealings with other peoples. This was in the valley near Beit-Rechov. Then the people of Dan rebuilt the city and settled there.
29 They named the city Dan, after Dan their ancestor, who was born to Isra'el; although the city had previously been called Layish.
30 The people of Dan set up the image for themselves. Y'honatan the son of Gershom, the son of M'nasheh, and his sons were cohanim for the tribe of the people of Dan until the day of the exile from the land.
31 Thus they erected for themselves Mikhah's idol which he had made, and it remained there as long as the house of God was in Shiloh.
1 In those days, when there was no king in Isra'el, there was a certain Levi living on the far side of the Efrayim hills who took a woman from Beit-Lechem in Y'hudah to be his concubine.
2 But his concubine was unfaithful to him and left him to go to her father's house at Beit-Lechem in Y'hudah, where she stayed for some time, four months.
3 Then her husband went after her to persuade her to return; he had his servant with him and a pair of donkeys. She brought him into her father's house; and when the girl's father saw him, he was glad to meet him.
4 His father-in-law, the girl's father, kept him there; so he remained with him three days; they ate, drank and stayed there.
5 On the fourth day they got up early in the morning, and he prepared to leave. But the girl's father said to his son-in-law, 'You'll feel better if you have a bite of food before you leave.'
6 So the two of them sat down and ate and drank together. Then the girl's father said to the man, 'Please stay one more night, and have a good time.'
7 The man rose to leave, but his father-in-law pressed him, so he stayed there again.
8 The morning of the fifth day, he got up early to leave; but the girl's father said, 'Why don't you have something to eat, and leave this afternoon?' So the two men ate.
9 When the man got up to leave with his concubine and servant, his father-in-law, the girl's father, said to him, 'Look, it's almost evening. Please stay the night - you see that it's getting late. Stay on, enjoy yourself, and tomorrow get going early on your way home.'
10 But the man wouldn't stay that night; so he got up and left with his concubine and his two saddled donkeys; and they arrived at Y'vus, also known as Yerushalayim.
11 By the time they arrived at Y'vus it was nearly evening; and the servant said to his master, 'Why don't we go on into this city of the Y'vusi and stay there?'
12 But his master said to him, 'We won't go into a city of foreigners which doesn't belong to the people of Isra'el. We'll go on across to Giv'ah.'
13 He said to his servant, 'Let's go, and we'll get to one of those places; we'll stay in Giv'ah or Ramah.'
14 So they went on and kept traveling, until the sun set on them near Giv'ah, which belongs to Binyamin.
15 There they turned off the road to go and stay in Giv'ah. He went in and sat down in the city's open space, since no one had offered his home for them to spend the night.
16 In time, at nightfall, an old man came from his work in the field. He was from the Efrayim hills and was staying in Giv'ah, although the residents were of Binyamin.
17 The old man looked up, saw the traveler in the city's open space and said, 'Where are you going, and where are you coming from?'
18 He replied, 'We're crossing from Beit-Lechem in Y'hudah to the far side of the Efrayim hills. That's where I'm from. I went to Beit-Lechem in Y'hudah, and now I'm going to the house of ADONAI; but there's no one here who will let me spend the night in his home.
19 We have straw and food for our donkeys, also bread and wine for me, my concubine and the boy there with your servants; we don't need anything else.'
20 The old man said, 'You're welcome to stay with me. I'll take care of anything you lack; just don't spend the night out in the open.'
21 So he brought him home and gave food to the donkeys. Then they washed their feet, and ate and drank.
22 They were relaxing, when suddenly some men from the city, good-for-nothings, surrounded the house and began beating at the door. 'Send out the man who came home with you!' they demanded of the old man whose house it was. 'We want to have sex with him!'
23 The man whose house it was went out and said to them, 'No, my brothers, please don't do anything as wrong as this. Look, he's just a guest in my house; don't do this degrading thing.
24 Here's my daughter, who's a virgin, and his concubine. I'll bring them out. Mistreat them, do what you want to them, but don't do such a degrading thing to this man.'
25 However, the men wouldn't listen to him; so the man took hold of his concubine and brought her out to them. They raped her and abused her all night long; only at dawn did they let her go.
26 At daybreak the woman came and fell down at the door of the man's house where her husband was, and she was still there when it grew light.
27 When her husband got up, opened the doors of the house, and went out to go on his way, he saw the woman lying there with her hands stretched out toward the door.
28 He said to her, 'Get up! Let's go!' But there was no answer. So he loaded her body on the donkey and began his trip home.
29 On arrival at his house, he got a knife, took hold of his concubine's body, cut her up into twelve pieces, and sent them to all the regions of Isra'el.
30 Everyone who saw it said, 'From the day the people of Isra'el came up from Egypt until now, never has such a thing happened or been seen. What are we going to do about it? Talk it over and decide.'
1 All the people of Isra'el came out, from Dan to Be'er-sheva, including Gil'ad; the community assembled with one accord before ADONAI at Mitzpah.
2 The leaders of all the tribes of Isra'el presented themselves in the assembly of the people of God, 400,000 foot soldiers armed with swords.
3 Now the people of Binyamin heard that the people of Isra'el had gone up to Mitzpah. The people of Isra'el said, 'Tell us, how was this crime committed?'
4 The Levi, the husband of the murdered woman, answered, 'I came to Giv'ah, which belongs to Binyamin, I and my concubine, to stay the night;
5 and the men in Giv'ah attacked me and surrounded the house I was staying in at night. They wanted to kill me, but instead they raped my concubine to death.
6 I took my concubine's body, cut it into pieces and sent them throughout all the territories belonging to Isra'el; because they committed a shockingly obscene and degrading crime in Isra'el.
7 Look, you are all people of Isra'el. So discuss what to do, and give your advice here and now.'
8 All the people stood up in agreement and said, 'None of us will go home to his tent or his house.
9 What we will do now to Giv'ah is this: we'll draw lots,
10 we'll take ten men out of each hundred throughout all the tribes of Isra'el, and a hundred out of a thousand, and a thousand out of ten thousand to collect food for the others. When these come to Giv'ah in Binyamin, they will avenge the crime that was committed.'
11 Thus all the men of Isra'el, joined together in complete agreement, assembled to attack the city.
12 The tribes of Isra'el sent men throughout all the tribe of Binyamin with this message: 'What is this crime committed by some of your people?
13 Turn over these good-for-nothings who are in Giv'ah at once, so that we can execute them and rid Isra'el of such evil.' But the people of Binyamin refused to obey the order of their kinsmen the people of Isra'el.
14 Instead the people of Binyamin gathered themselves together from their cities and went to Giv'ah to fight the people of Isra'el.
15 On that day there were 26,000 men from Binyamin armed with swords, besides the inhabitants of Giv'ah, who numbered 700 specially chosen men.
16 All of these 700 specially picked men were left-handed, and every one could sling a stone at a hair and not miss.
17 The army of Isra'el, apart from Binyamin, numbered 400,000 men with swords; they were all experienced soldiers.
18 The army of Isra'el began by going up to Beit-El, where they asked God, 'Who should go up first to attack the army of Binyamin?' ADONAI said, 'Y'hudah first.'
19 So the army of Isra'el got up in the morning and set up their camp near Giv'ah.
20 Then the army of Isra'el went out to attack Binyamin and set up their battle line in front of Giv'ah.
21 But the army of Binyamin came out of Giv'ah and slaughtered the army of Isra'el; on that day
22 ,000 men fell. 22 The people, the men of Isra'el, restored their morale and again positioned themselves for battle where they had been the first day.
23 Then the army of Isra'el went up and cried before ADONAI until evening. They asked ADONAI, 'Should we attack our kinsmen the people of Binyamin again? ADONAI answered, 'Attack them.'
24 So the army of Isra'el went out to attack the army of Binyamin the second day.
25 But Binyamin went out against them from Giv'ah the second day and slaughtered the army of Isra'el; 18,000 men armed with swords fell.
26 Then the whole army of Isra'el, all the people, went up to Beit-El and cried and sat there in the presence of ADONAI. They fasted that day until evening, offered burnt offerings and peace offerings to ADONAI,
27 and asked ADONAI what to do. The ark for the covenant of God was there at that time;
28 and Pinchas the son of El'azar, the son of Aharon, stood before it at that time. They asked, 'Should we still go out to battle again against our kinsmen the people of Binyamin, or should we stop?' ADONAI answered, 'Attack, because tomorrow I will hand them over to you.'
29 Isra'el hid some men around Giv'ah,
30 and on the third day Isra'el attacked the army of Binyamin and took a position against Giv'ah as they had the other times.
31 Again the army of Binyamin went out against the people. Lured away from the city, they began attacking and killing some of the people, as they had the other times - they killed about thirty men of Isra'el in the countryside and on the roads, one of which goes up to Beit-El and the other to Giv'ah.
32 The army of Binyamin said, 'They're defeated, just as before.' But the army of Isra'el said, 'Let's run off and draw them away from the city onto the roads.'
33 All the men of Isra'el left their places and took up a battle position at Ba'al-Tamar, while the other Isra'el men burst out of their hiding places at Ma'areh-Geva.
34 Ten thousand men chosen out of all Isra'el came over to attack Giv'ah, and the combat was intense. But the army of Binyamin didn't know that they were about to be defeated.
35 For ADONAI routed Binyamin in Isra'el's presence; that day the army of Isra'el destroyed 25,100 men of Binyamin, all of whom carried swords;
36 and the people of Binyamin realized that they had been beaten. The men of Isra'el, trusting the ones they had put in place to ambush Binyamin, gave ground to the men of Binyamin.
37 Then the men who had been lying in wait rushed in on Giv'ah, drew their swords and destroyed the city.
38 The army of Isra'el and the ambushers had agreed that as a signal they would make a huge cloud of smoke rise from the city,
39 at which time the men of Isra'el would turn back. When this happened, Binyamin began to attack. They killed about thirty of Isra'el's men and said, 'Clearly we're defeating them again, as in the first battle.'
40 But when the smoke signal began rising from the city, the men of Binyamin looked behind them and saw the whole city going up to the sky in smoke.
41 Then, as the men of Isra'el reversed direction, those of Binyamin were overcome with terror. When they saw that disaster had come upon them,
42 they turned their backs on the men of Isra'el and made for the road to the desert. But the battle followed them, and those who came out of the city destroyed them from the rear.
43 They surrounded the men of Binyamin, chased them and trampled them down across from Giv'ah on the east.
44 Eighteen thousand men of Binyamin fell, all of them experienced soldiers.
45 They turned and fled toward the desert to the Rock of Rimmon; and 5,000 of them were killed on the roads. They followed them to Gid'om and killed another 2,000.
46 Thus the total number from Binyamin who fell that day was 25,000 experienced, sword-bearing soldiers.
47 But 600 turned and fled toward the desert to the Rock of Rimmon, and lived there four months.
48 The men of Isra'el turned back on the people of Binyamin and killed them with the sword, the entire city, the cattle and everything they found. Moreover, they set on fire all the cities they encountered.
1 The men of Isra'el had sworn in Mitzpah that none of them would let his daughter marry a man from Binyamin.
2 The people came to Beit-El and stayed there before God till evening crying out and weeping.
3 They said: 'ADONAI, why has this come about in Isra'el? Why should there be today in Isra'el one tribe missing?'
4 The next day the people got up early, built an altar and offered burnt offerings and peace offerings.
5 The people of Isra'el asked, 'Who among the tribes of Isra'el did not come up to assemble before ADONAI? For they had made a great oath to put to death whoever didn't come up to ADONAI at Mitzpah.
6 The people of Isra'el became sorry for Binyamin their brother and said, 'Today one tribe has been cut off from Isra'el.
7 How are we going to obtain wives for those who remain alive, since we've sworn by ADONAI that we won't let our daughters marry them?'
8 Then they asked who from the tribes of Isra'el had not come up to ADONAI at Mitzpah and found that none had come from Yavesh-Gil'ad to the camp where the assembly was;
9 since when the people were counted, none of the inhabitants of Yavesh-Gil'ad were found there.
10 So the gathering sent 12,000 warriors there and ordered them, 'Go, and put the people who live in Yavesh-Gil'ad to death with the sword, including women and children.
11 Completely destroy every man and every woman who has had sex with a man.'
12 Among the inhabitants of Yavesh-Gil'ad they found 400 young virgins who had not known a man by lying with him, and they brought them to the camp at Shiloh, which is in the land of Kena'an.
13 Then the whole gathering sent a message proclaiming peace to the people of Binyamin who were at the Rock of Rimmon.
14 So Binyamin returned at that time, and the people of Isra'el gave them the women they had kept alive of the women from Yavesh-Gil'ad. But those weren't enough for them.
15 The people were still sorry for Binyamin because ADONAI had made a division among the tribes of Isra'el.
16 The leaders of the assembly asked, 'What are we to do for those who still don't have wives, inasmuch as all the women of Binyamin have been killed?'
17 They said, 'There has to be a way to help the survivors preserve Binyamin's inheritance, so that a tribe will not be eliminated from Isra'el.
18 Yet we can't give them our daughters as wives.' For the people of Isra'el had sworn, 'Cursed be whoever gives a wife to Binyamin.'
19 Then they said, 'Look, each year there's a festival in honor of ADONAI in Shiloh, north of Beit-El, on the east side of the road that goes up from Beit-El to Sh'khem, and south of Levonah.'
20 They ordered the men of Binyamin, 'Go, hide in the vineyards,
21 and keep watch. If the girls of Shiloh come out to do their dances, then come out of the vineyards, and each of you catch for himself a wife from the Shiloh girls, and go on to the land of Binyamin.
22 When their fathers or brothers come to complain to us, we will say to them, 'Give them as a personal favor to us, because we didn't take wives for each of them in battle. You didn't give them to them; that would have made you guilty of breaking your oath.''
23 So the men of Binyamin did this - they took wives for themselves from the girls who were dancing, as many as they needed. They carried them off, went back to the land of their inheritance, rebuilt the cities and lived in them.
24 The people of Isra'el then left that place, each man returned to his tribe and family, and each man went out from there to the land he had inherited.
25 At that time there was no king in Isra'el; a man simply did whatever he thought was right.