The Book of Judges

Chapter 1
1 It came to be after the death of Joshua that the sons of Israel asked Yahweh, saying, Which of us shall march up at the start against the Canaanite and fight with him?
2 Yahweh replied, Let Judah march up; behold, I will give the land into his hands.
3 Then Judah said to his brother Simeon, Come up with me into my lot, and let me fight the Canaanite thus. As for me, moreover, I will also go with you into your lot. So Simeon went with him.
4 When Judah marched up, Yahweh delivered the Canaanite and the Perizzite into their hand, and at Bezek they smote ten thousand men of them.
5 At Bezek they came upon Adoni-bezek; they fought with him and smote the Canaanite and the Perizzite.
6 Adoni-bezek fled; but they pursued after him, took hold of him and cut away the thumbs of his hands and the big toes of his feet.
7 And Adoni-bezek said, Seventy kings with the thumbs of their hands and the big toes of their feet cut away used to pick up scraps underneath my table. Just as I have done, so has Elohim made repayment to me. They brought him to Jerusalem, and he died there.
8 The sons of Judah fought against Jerusalem and seized it; they smote it with the edge of the sword and sent the city up in fire.
9 Thereafter the sons of Judah went down to fight with the Canaanite dwelling in the hill country, the Negeb and the low foothills.
10 Judah also marched against the Canaanite dwelling in Hebron; now the name of Hebron had previously been Kiriath-arba. And they smote Sheshai, Ahiman and Talmai.
11 From there they went against the dwellers of Debir; now the name of Debir had previously been Kiriath-sepher.
12 Caleb said, Whoever smites Kiriath-sepher and seizes it, to him I will give my daughter Achsah as wife.
13 Caleb’s kinsman Othniel son of Kenaz (who was younger than him) seized it, and he gave him his daughter Achsah as wife.
14 It occurred when she came to him that she incited him to request a field from her father. When she came down off the donkey, Caleb asked her, What would you have?
15 She replied to him, Do grant me a blessing gift; since you have set me in the land of the Negeb, give me also springs of water. So Caleb gave her the upper springs and the lower springs.
16 The sons of the Kenite, the father-in-law of Moses, went up with the sons of Judah from the city of palm trees to the wilderness of Judah which is in the Negeb near Arad. This people went and dwelt among the people there.
17 Then Judah marched with his brother Simeon, and they smote the Canaanite dwelling in Zephath. They doomed it, and one called the name of the city Hormah.
18 Judah seized Gaza and its territory, Ashkelon and its territory, and Ekron and its territory.
19 Yahweh was with Judah, and he took over the hill country since they were not able to evict the dwellers of the coastal plain, for they had chariots of iron.
20 Then they gave Hebron to Caleb, just as Moses had promised; and he evicted from there the three sons of Anak.
21 As for the Jebusite dwelling in Jerusalem, the sons of Benjamin did not evict him, so the Jebusite dwells with the sons of Benjamin in Jerusalem until this day.
22 The house of Joseph also went up; they now marched against Bethel, and Yahweh was with them.
23 The name of the city had previously been Luz. When the house of Joseph explored Bethel,
24 the observers saw a man coming forth from the city and said to him, Oh show us an entrance into the city, and we will treat you kindly.
25 So he showed them an entrance into the city, and they smote the city with the edge of the sword; but they let the man go with his whole family.
26 The man went to the land of the Hittites, built a city and called its name Luz; this has been its name until this day.
27 Manasseh did not evict those of Beth-shean and its outskirts, or of Taanach and its outskirts, or the dwellers of Dor and its outskirts, or the dwellers of Ibleam and its outskirts, or the dwellers of Megiddo and its outskirts, since the Canaanite was disposed to dwell in this area.
28 When it came to be that Israel was steadfast, then it put the Canaanite under tributary service. Yet Israel did not evict, yea evict him.
29 Neither did Ephraim evict the Canaanite dwelling in Gezer; so the Canaanite dwelt among them in Gezer.
30 Zebulun did not evict the dwellers of Kitron or the dwellers of Nahalol, so the Canaanite dwelt among them, but came under tributary service.
31 Asher did not evict the dwellers of Acco or the dwellers of Sidon, Ahlab, Achzib, Helbah, Aphik and Rehob.
32 So the Asherite dwelt among the Canaanite dwellers of the land, for they did not evict them.
33 Naphtali did not evict the dwellers of Beth-shemesh or the dwellers of Beth-anath, but dwelt among the Canaanite dwellers of the land; and the dwellers of Beth-shemesh and Beth-anath came under tributary service to them.
34 The Amorite pressed the sons of Dan close into the hill country; they would not allow them to come down to the valley plain.
35 And the Amorite were disposed to dwell in Har-heres, in Aijalon and in Shaalbim, but the hand of the house of Joseph was heavy, and they came under tributary service.
36 The boundary of the Amorite ran from the ascent of Akrabbim, from Sela and upward.

Chapter 2
1 A messenger of Yahweh came up from Gilgal to Bochim and said to them: Thus says Yahweh: I brought you up from Egypt, and I brought you into the land which I had sworn to your fathers. And I said, I shall not annul My covenant with you for the eon.
2 As for you, you shall not contract a covenant with the dwellers of this land; and you shall break down their altars. But you have not hearkened to My voice. What is this you have done?
3 So I now say: I shall not drive them out from before you, and they will become a scourge against your sides. As for their elohim, they shall be a trap to you.
4 Now it came to be, as the messenger of Yahweh spoke these words to all the sons of Israel, that the people lifted up their voices and lamented.
5 So they called the name of that place Bochim; and they sacrificed there to Yahweh.
6 When Joshua dismissed the people, the sons of Israel went, each to his allotment, to tenant the land.
7 The people served Yahweh all the days of Joshua and all the days of the elders who outlived Joshua in the days thereafter and who had seen all the great deeds of Yahweh that He had done for Israel.
8 Joshua son of Nun, the servant of Yahweh, died, a hundred and ten years old.
9 They entombed him within the territory of his allotment, at Timnath-heres in the hill country of Ephraim north of Mount Gaash.
10 However, when that whole generation was gathered to their fathers, another generation arose after them, who did not know Yahweh or the deeds that He had done for Israel.
11 Then the sons of Israel did what was evil in the eyes of Yahweh and served the Baalim.
12 They forsook Yahweh Elohim of their fathers, Who had brought them forth from the land of Egypt. They went after other elohim, from among the elohim of the peoples round about them, and they bowed themselves down to them and provoked Yahweh to vexation.
13 When they forsook Yahweh and served Baal and Ashtaroth,
14 the anger of Yahweh grew hot against Israel, and He gave them into the hand of robbers who robbed them; He sold them into the hand of their enemies round about, and no longer were they able to withstand before their enemies.
15 Wherever they went forth, the hand of Yahweh was against them for their evil, just as Yahweh had spoken and just as Yahweh had sworn to them; and it was exceedingly distressing to them.
16 Then Yahweh raised up judges who saved them from the hand of their robbers.
17 Yet even to their judges they did not hearken, for they prostituted after other elohim and bowed down to them. They withdrew quickly from the way in which their fathers had walked who had hearkened to the instructions of Yahweh. Yet they did not do so.
18 When Yahweh raised up judges for them, then Yahweh was with the judge and saved them from the hand of their enemies all the days of the judge, for Yahweh would be merciful on their moaning at the presence of their oppressors and their jostlers.
19 Yet at the death of the judge it occurred that they backslid and became even more corrupt than their fathers, going after other elohim, serving them, and bowing down to them; they did not discard any of their practices or their obstinate ways.
20 So the anger of Yahweh grew hot against Israel, and He said, Because this nation has transgressed My covenant that I enjoined upon their fathers and has not hearkened to My voice,
21 I too, for My part, shall not continue to evict anyone from before them, any of the nations that Joshua left when he died.
22 In order to probe Israel by them to see whether or not they would observe the ways of Yahweh and walk in them just as their fathers had observed them,
23 Yahweh left those nations so as not to evict them quickly, and had not delivered them into the hand of Joshua.

Chapter 3
1 These are the nations that Yahweh had left to probe by them all those of Israel who had not known any of the wars of Canaan,
2 so that the generations of the sons of Israel might become skilled by teaching them warfare, that is, only those who had not known it previously:
3 the five chieftains of the Philistines, and all the Canaanite, the Sidonian, and the Hivite dwelling on Mount Lebanon from Mount Baal-hermon as far as Lebo-hamath.
4 They were there to probe Israel by them, to know whether they might hearken to the instructions of Yahweh that He had enjoined on their fathers by means of Moses.
5 So the sons of Israel dwelt among the Canaanite, the Hittite, the Amorite, the Perizzite, the Hivite and the Jebusite.
6 They took their daughters as their wives and gave their own daughters to their sons, and they served their elohim.
7 The sons of Israel did what was evil in the eyes of Yahweh. When they forgot Yahweh their Elohim and served the Baalim and the Asheroth,
8 the anger of Yahweh grew hot against Israel, and He sold them into the hand of Cushan-rishathaim king of Aram-naharaim; and the sons of Israel served Cushan-rishathaim for eight years.
9 But when the sons of Israel cried out to Yahweh, then Yahweh raised up a saviour for the sons of Israel who brought them salvation: Othniel son of Kenaz, Caleb’s kinsman who was younger than him.
10 The spirit of Yahweh came to be upon him; and he judged Israel. When he went forth to war, Yahweh delivered Cushan-rishathaim king of Aram into his hand; and his hand prevailed over Cushan-rishathaim.
11 So the land had quietness for forty years, until Othniel son of Kenaz died.
12 Then the sons of Israel did again what was evil in the eyes of Yahweh. So Yahweh encouraged Eglon king of Moab to prevail over Israel because they did what was evil in the eyes of Yahweh.
13 Eglon gathered the sons of Ammon and Amalek to join him; then he went and smote Israel. They took over the city of palm trees,
14 and the sons of Israel served Eglon king of Moab for eighteen years.
15 But when the sons of Israel cried out to Yahweh, then Yahweh raised up a saviour for them: Ehud son of Gera, a Benjamite man, hampered in his right hand. By means of him the sons of Israel sent a tributary present to Eglon king of Moab.
16 Ehud had made for himself a sword; it had two edges, its length being a short cubit. And he had girded it underneath his coats on his right thigh.
17 So he offered the tributary present to Eglon king of Moab; now Eglon was a very plump man.
18 And it came to be, when Ehud had finished offering the tributary present, that he dismissed the people who had carried the tributary present.
19 But at the carvings near Gilgal he himself turned back and said, I have a word of secrecy for you, O king. Eglon commanded, Hist! So all those standing by him went forth out from him.
20 Then Ehud came to him as he was sitting in the cool upper chamber that he had to himself. Now Ehud said, I have a word from Elohim for you. At that Eglon arose from the covered seat.
21 And Ehud stretched out his left hand, took the sword off his right thigh and plunged it into Eglon’s belly.
22 Even the hilt entered after the cutting-blade, and the fat closed about the cutting-blade which came forth behind, for he did not draw the sword out of his belly.
23 Then Ehud went forth to the colonnade, closed the doors of the upper chamber about him and bolted them.
24 When he had escaped forth, Eglon’s courtiers came and looked; and behold, the doors of the upper chamber remained bolted. So they said, Surely he is overshadowing his feet in the cool chamber.
25 They waited until they were ashamed to delay any longer. Since he did not open the doors of the upper chamber, they took the key and unlocked them. And behold, their lord had fallen to the earth, dead!
26 Ehud escaped while they were dallying; he passed the carvings and escaped to Seirah.
27 It came to be when he entered that he had the trumpet blown in the hill country of Ephraim, and the sons of Israel descended with him from the hill country, he being before them.
28 He said to them, Follow me in pursuit! For Yahweh has delivered your enemies, Moab, into your hand. So they descended after him and seized the fords of the Jordan against Moab and did not allow anyone to cross over.
29 At that time they smote about ten thousand men of Moab, all the stout and all the able men among them, and not one escaped.
30 On that day Moab submitted under the hand of Israel; and the land had quietness for eighty years.
31 After him came Shamgar son of Anath, who smote six hundred men of the Philistines with an oxgoad; he too saved Israel.

Chapter 4
1 The sons of Israel did again what was evil in the eyes of Yahweh now that Ehud was dead.
2 So Yahweh sold them into the hand of Jabin king of Canaan who reigned in Hazor. The chief of his military host was Sisera; he dwelt in Harosheth-goim.
3 The sons of Israel cried out to Yahweh, for he had nine hundred chariots of iron, and he had oppressed the sons of Israel with unyielding force for twenty years.
4 There was a woman, Deborah, a prophetess, the wife of Lappidoth; she was judging Israel at that time.
5 She used to sit under the palm tree of Deborah, between Ramah and Bethel in the hill country of Ephraim; and the sons of Israel would come up to her for judgment.
6 She sent word and called for Barak son of Abinoam of Kedesh in Naphtali and said to him: Behold, Yahweh Elohim of Israel has given this instruction: Go, draw out to Mount Tabor and take with you ten thousand men from the sons of Naphtali and from the sons of Zebulun.
7 I will draw Sisera, Jabin’s chief of the military host, with his chariots and his throng toward you to Wadi Kishon. And I will deliver him into your hand.
8 At this, Barak replied to her, If you go with me, I will go. But if you do not go with me, I shall not go.
9 She answered, I shall go, yea go with you. Only know that there shall be no beauteous glory for you on the road you follow, for Yahweh shall sell off Sisera by the hand of a woman. So Deborah arose and went with Barak toward Kedesh.
10 Then Barak called Zebulun and Naphtali for a convocation at Kedesh; ten thousand men marched up in his footsteps, and Deborah went up with him.
11 Now Heber the Kenite, having parted from the Kenite, from the sons of Moses’ father-in-law Hobab, pitched his tent at the oak in Zaanannim, which is near Kedesh.
12 Then they told Sisera that Barak son of Abinoam had gone up to Mount Tabor.
13 So Sisera convoked all his charioteers of nine hundred chariots of iron and the entire force that was with him, to proceed from Harosheth-goim to Wadi Kishon.
14 Then Deborah said to Barak, Arise! For this is the day in which Yahweh will deliver Sisera into your hand. Has not Yahweh gone forth before you? Barak charged down from Mount Tabor with ten thousand men behind him.
15 And Yahweh discomfited Sisera and all the chariotry and the entire fighting force so as to fall by the edge of the sword before Barak. Sisera got down off his chariot and fled on foot.
16 As for Barak, he pursued the chariotry and the fighting force as far as Harosheth-goim; all of Sisera’s fighting force fell by the edge of the sword; not even one remained.
17 As for Sisera, he fled on foot to the tent of Jael, wife of Heber the Kenite, since there was peace between Jabin king of Hazor and the house of Heber the Kenite.
18 And Jael went forth to meet Sisera and said to him, Do turn in, my lord, do turn in with me, do not fear. So he turned in with her into the tent, and she covered him with a rug.
19 He said to her, Oh give me a little water to drink, for I am thirsty. So she opened the skin bottle of milk, gave him a drink and covered him.
20 Then he told her, Stand at the opening of the tent. If it should happen that anyone comes and asks you, saying, Is there a man here? then you will say, There is no one.
21 But Jael wife of Heber took a tent peg and put the hammer into her hand. While he was stupefied, she came to him with stealth and plunged the peg through his temple until it came down into the earth. He twitched convulsively and died.
22 And behold, there was Barak in pursuit of Sisera, and Jael went forth to meet him. She said to him, Come, and I shall show you the man whom you are seeking. So he entered with her, and behold: Sisera fallen dead with the peg through his temple.
23 On that day Elohim made Jabin king of Canaan submissive before the sons of Israel.
24 And the hand of the sons of Israel got continuously harder on Jabin king of Canaan, until they had cut off Jabin king of Canaan.

Chapter 5
1 On that day Deborah and Barak son of Abinoam sang, saying:
2 For the commanders taking command in Israel, For the people who willingly offer themselves Give blessing to Yahweh!
3 Hear, kings! Give ear, chancellors! I, for my part, to Yahweh will I sing, I shall make melody to Yahweh Elohim of Israel.
4 O Yahweh, at Your going forth from Seir, At Your march from the fields of Edom, The earth quaked. Indeed, the heavens dropped, And the thick clouds too, they dropped water.
5 The mountains flowed at the presence of Yahweh; Sinai was in commotion at the presence of Yahweh Elohim of Israel.
6 In the days of Shamgar son of Anath, In the days of Jael, caravans had left off, And wayfarers of access-ways went on tortuous paths.
7 The villagers in Israel had left off. They left off until when Deborah arose, When a mother in Israel arose.
8 One chose new elohim; Then fighting was in the gates. No shield or lance was to be seen Among forty thousand in Israel!
9 My heart is with Israel’s statute-makers, With the people who willingly offer themselves Give blessing to Yahweh!
10 You riders on grey jennies, You who sit on the adjudication seat, You wayfarers on the road, meditate!
11 By the voice of those dividing water at bailing-places, There they sound forth the righteous deeds of Yahweh, The righteous acts of His villagers in Israel. Then the people of Yahweh marched down to the gates.
12 Rouse! Rouse, Deborah! Rouse! Rouse! Utter a song! Arise, Barak! Take captive your captives, son of Abinoam!
13 Then down came Israel with the noble ones, Yahweh’s people came down to me with the masterful ones.
14 Some from Ephraim were rooting out those in the vale; Following you was Benjamin among your peoples. From Machir came down the statute-makers, And from Zebulun those privileged with the tool of the scribe.
15 The chiefs in Issachar were with Deborah; And Issachar was also with Barak; Into the vale was he sent forth in his footsteps. Among the distributions of Reuben, Great were the delineations of heart.
16 Why did you stay between the campfires? To hear the piping for the droves? For the distributions of Reuben Great was the investigating of heart.
17 Gilead tabernacled in Transjordan. And Dan, why did he sojourn by the ships? Asher stayed at the shore of the seas And tabernacled by his coves.
18 Yet the people of Zebulun risked their soul to death; So did Naphtali on the heights of the battlefield.
19 Kings came; they fought: It was then That the kings of Canaan fought In Taanach by the waters of Megiddo They took no gain of silver.
20 From the heavens the stars fought, From their orbits they fought against Sisera.
21 Wadi Kishon shook its fist at them A wadi from aforetime, Wadi Kishon. You are treading them down, my soul, with strength!
22 Then the heels of the horses hammered From the galloping, the galloping of his sturdy ones.
23 Curse Meroz, said the messenger of Yahweh; Curse, yea curse its dwellers, For they did not come to the help of Yahweh, To the help of Yahweh with their masterful ones.
24 Most blessed of women shall be Jael, Wife of Heber the Kenite. Among women in the tent she shall be most blessed.
25 Water he asked; milk she gave. In a jorum of noble ones she offered clotted cream.
26 Her left hand to the peg stretched forth, And her right hand to the hammer of the toilers. Then she battered Sisera, bashed his head, Transfixed and cut up his temple.
27 At her feet he bowed and fell; there he lay. At her feet he bowed and fell. Where he bowed, there he fell, devastated.
28 About the window gazed Sisera’s mother, About the latticed oriel she fretted. For what reason is his chariotry tardy in coming? What reason makes the clatter of his chariots delay?
29 The wisest of her chief ladies answer her: Indeed she replies with her own sayings to herself:
30 Are they not finding and apportioning the loot? A wench, two wenches for each head master? Loot of dyed cloths for Sisera, Loot of dyed cloths, embroidered, Two lengths of dyed embroidering Round every neck as loot.
31 So may all Your enemies perish, O Yahweh! But may those loving Him be as the sun going forth in its mastery! And the land had quietness for forty years.

Chapter 6
1 Then the sons of Israel did what was evil in the eyes of Yahweh, and Yahweh delivered them into the hand of Midian for seven years.
2 The hand of Midian was strong upon Israel; and because of Midian, the sons of Israel made for themselves the dens in the mountains and the caves and the fastnesses.
3 For whenever Israel had sown their seed, it would occur that Midian came up against them; and Amalek and the sons of the east came up too.
4 They would encamp against them and ruin the crop of the land, until you come to Gaza. They let not remain any livelihood in Israel, or a flockling, or bull, or donkey.
5 For they would come up with their cattle and their tents. They would come as numerous as an infestation of locusts; both they and their camels were without number. Thus they would invade the land and ruin it.
6 Israel was exceedingly impoverished because of Midian, and the sons of Israel cried out to Yahweh.
7 So it came to be when the sons of Israel cried out to Yahweh on account of Midian,
8 that Yahweh sent a man to the sons of Israel, a prophet who said to them, Thus speaks Yahweh Elohim of Israel: It was I Who brought you up from Egypt and brought you forth from the house of servants.
9 I rescued you from the hand of Egypt and from the hand of all your oppressors; I drove them out before you and gave you their land.
10 And I did say to you, I, Yahweh, am your Elohim. You should not fear the elohim of the Amorite in whose land you are dwelling. Yet you did not hearken to My voice.
11 A messenger of Yahweh came and sat under the terebinth at Ophrah which belonged to Joash the Abiezrite. His son Gideon was then flailing wheat in the winetrough, alert for flight because of Midian.
12 The messenger of Yahweh appeared to him and said to him, Yahweh is with you, master of valor.
13 Gideon replied to him, O! my lord, but if Yahweh really is with us, then why does all this trouble come upon us? And where are all His marvelous works which our fathers related to us, saying, Did not Yahweh bring us up from Egypt? Yet now Yahweh has abandoned us and delivered us into the clutches of Midian.
14 Then Yahweh turned toward him and said, Go in this vigor of yours and save Israel from the clutches of Midian! Have I not sent you?
15 Yet he replied to Him, O! Yahweh, With what shall I save Israel? Behold, my contingent is the weakest in Manasseh, and I am the most inferior in my father’s house.
16 Yahweh answered to him, But I shall come to be with you, and you will smite Midian as one man.
17 Now Gideon said to Him, I pray, should I find grace in Your eyes, then give me a sign that it is You Who are speaking to me.
18 I pray, do not remove Yourself from here until I come back and bring forth my approach present to You and leave it before You. And He said, As for Me, I shall stay until you return.
19 So Gideon went in and prepared a kid of the goats and unleavened bread from an ephah of meal flour. The meat he put on a tray, and the broth he put in a kettle. Then he brought both forth to Him, under the terebinth, and brought them close.
20 Now the messenger of Elohim said to him, Take the meat and the unleavened bread, leave them on this crag, and pour out the broth. And he did so.
21 The messenger of Yahweh stretched out the end of the support-staff that was in his hand and touched the meat and the unleavened bread. Fire came up from the rock and devoured the meat and the unleavened bread, while the messenger of Yahweh departed from his eyes.
22 Then Gideon discerned that he was a messenger of Yahweh; and Gideon said, Alas, my Lord Yahweh, for the reason that I have seen a messenger of Yahweh face to face .
23 But Yahweh said to him, Peace be to you! Do not fear; you shall not die.
24 Then Gideon built there an altar to Yahweh and called it Yahweh-shalom. Until this day it still is in Ophrah of the Abiezrite.
25 It came to be in that night that Yahweh said to him, Take the young bull, the bull that belongs to your father, that is, the second-born young bull of seven years; demolish the altar of Baal that belongs to your father, and cut down the Asherah pole beside it.
26 Then build an altar to Yahweh your Elohim on the summit of this stronghold in the proper arrangement. Take the second-born young bull and offer it up as an ascent offering with the wood of the Asherah pole that you shall cut down.
27 So Gideon took ten men of his servants and did just as Yahweh had told him; that is, he worked at night because he feared his father’s household and the people of the city too much to do it by day.
28 When the people of the city rose early in the morning, behold, the altar of Baal had been broken down and the Asherah pole beside it had been cut down, and the second-born young bull had been offered up on the newly built altar.
29 They said, each to his associate, Who did this thing? They inquired and discovered and said, Gideon son of Joash, he did this thing.
30 Then the people of the city demanded of Joash, Bring forth your son, for he must die because he broke down the altar of Baal and because he cut down the Asherah pole beside it.
31 But Joash replied to all who stood against him, Do you have to contend for Baal, or must you keep him in safety? Whoever contends for him shall be put to death by morning. If he is an elohim, let him contend for himself when someone breaks down his altar.
32 So one called him Jerub-baal that day, saying, Let the Baal contend against him, since he broke down his altar.
33 All Midian, Amalek, and the sons of the east gathered together; they crossed over and encamped in the vale of Jezreel.
34 Then the spirit of Yahweh clothed Gideon; he blew the trumpet, and Abiezer was convoked after him.
35 He also sent messengers through all of Manasseh, and they too were convoked after him. He then sent messengers through Asher and Zebulun and Naphtali, and they came up to meet them.
36 Gideon said to the One, Elohim, Should You really mean to save Israel by my hand just as You have promised,
37 behold, I am putting a fleece of wool on the threshing-site. Should night mist come to be on the fleece alone while there is dryness all over the earth, then I will know that You shall save Israel by my hand just as You have promised.
38 And it became so. He rose early on the morrow and pressed out the fleece; and he wrung out the night mist from the fleece, a jorum full of water.
39 Then Gideon said to the One, Elohim, Let Your anger not grow hot against me; let me speak only once more. Let me try, I pray, but once more with the fleece. Let the dryness now be on the fleece alone, and may there be night mist all over the earth.
40 And Elohim did so that night; there was dryness on the fleece alone, while there was night mist all over the earth.

Chapter 7
1 Then Jerub-baal, that is, Gideon, rose early, and all the people who were with him. They encamped beside the spring of Harod; and the camp of Midian was in the vale north of him, below the hill of Moreh.
2 Yahweh said to Gideon, The people with you are too many for Me to deliver Midian into their hand, lest Israel might vaunt himself against Me, saying, My own hand has saved me.
3 So now call out into the ears of the people, saying, Anyone fearful and trembling may return and scurry from Mount Gilead. Twenty-two contingents of the people returned, and ten contingents remained.
4 Yet Yahweh said to Gideon, The people are still too many; take them down to the water, and I shall sift them out for you there. It will come to be, anyone of whom I tell you, This one shall go with you, he shall go with you; but anyone of whom I tell you, This one shall not go with you, he shall not go.
5 So he took the people down to the water; and Yahweh said to Gideon, Anyone who laps with his tongue from the water, just as a dog laps, you shall put him aside, also anyone who crouches on his knees to drink.
6 The number of those lapping with their hand to their mouth was three hundred men; as for all the rest of the people, they crouched on their knees to drink water.
7 Then Yahweh said to Gideon, With the three hundred men who were lapping I shall save you, and I will deliver Midian into your hand; let all the other people go, each to his own place.
8 They took the jars of the people from their hand and their trumpets, and he dismissed all the men of Israel, each to his tents; yet to the three hundred men he held fast. As for the camp of Midian, it was below him in the vale.
9 It was in that night that Yahweh said to him, Arise, charge down against the camp, for I have delivered it into your hand.
10 But should you be fearful to descend, go down to the camp, you and your lad Purah,
11 and you will hear what they are saying. Thereafter your hands shall be steadfast, and you will charge down against the camp. So he descended with his lad Purah to the outposts of the fivefold deployment in the camp.
12 Now Midian, Amalek, and all the sons of the east were in the vale, fallen in as numerous as locusts; and their camels were without number, as numerous as the sand on the seashore.
13 When Gideon came down, behold, a man was relating a dream to his associate, saying, Behold, I dreamed a dream; there was a round loaf of barley bread tumbling into the camp of Midian. It came to the tent and smote it so that it fell; it turned it over, and the tent fell flat.
14 And his associate answered, saying, This is no other than the sword of Gideon son of Joash, a man of Israel; into his hand the One, Elohim, has delivered Midian and the entire camp.
15 It came to be when Gideon heard the tale of the dream and its explication that he worshiped Yahweh. He returned to the camp of Israel and said, Arise, for Yahweh has delivered the camp of Midian into your hand.
16 He divided the three hundred men into three bands and put trumpets into the hands of all of them, and empty jars, with torches inside the jars.
17 Then he told them, Watch me, and do likewise. Behold, when I come to the outposts of the camp, then it must occur that just as I shall do, you shall do likewise.
18 When I blow the trumpet, I and all who are with me, then you also blow the trumpets round about the entire camp and shout, A sword for Yahweh and for Gideon!
19 So Gideon and the hundred men who were with him, came to the outposts of the camp at the beginning of the middle vigil, when they had just performed the setting up of the guards. So they blew the trumpets and shattered the jars in their hands.
20 Then the three bands blew the trumpets and broke the jars. They held fast in their left hand the torches, and in their right hand the trumpets to blow; and they called out, A sword for Yahweh and for Gideon!
21 While each man stood in his place, round about the camp, the entire force awoke; they shouted and took to flight.
22 For when the three hundred blew the trumpets, Yahweh set the sword of each man against his associate throughout the camp; and the force fled as far as Beth-shittah toward Zererah, as far as the ridge of Abel-meholah by Tabbath.
23 Now the men of Israel were summoned from Naphtali and Asher and all Manasseh; and they pursued after Midian.
24 Gideon also sent messengers throughout the hill country of Ephraim, saying, Come down to meet Midian, and seize the waters against them along the Jordan as far as Beth-barah. Now all the men of Ephraim were summoned, and they seized the waters along the Jordan as far as Beth-barah.
25 They seized two chiefs of Midian, Oreb and Zeeb; they killed Oreb at the rock of Oreb, and Zeeb they killed at the winevat of Zeeb, as they pursued after Midian. They brought the heads of Oreb and Zeeb to Gideon across the Jordan.

Chapter 8
1 The men of Ephraim said to him, Why have you done this thing to us, not to call us when you went to fight against Midian? And they contended with him unyieldingly.
2 But he answered them, What have I accomplished now compared to you? Are not the clean-gleanings of Ephraim better than the vintage of Abiezer?
3 Into your hand Elohim delivered the chiefs of Midian, Oreb and Zeeb. And what was I able to accomplish compared to you? Then their spirit slackened toward him when he spoke this word.
4 Gideon had come to the Jordan and had crossed over; he and the three hundred men with him were faint with hunger, yet still in pursuit.
5 So he said to the men of Succoth, Please give some loaves of bread to the people who are in my footsteps, for they are faint with hunger; and I am in pursuit after Zebah and Zalmunna, the kings of Midian.
6 But the chiefs of Succoth replied, Is the palm of Zebah and Zalmunna now in your hand, that we should give bread to your militia host?
7 At this Gideon said, For that, when Yahweh delivers Zebah and Zalmunna into my hand, I will thresh your flesh with thorns of the wilderness and with brambles.
8 From there he went up to Penuel and spoke to them in this same manner; but the men of Penuel answered him just as the men of Succoth had answered.
9 So he declared to the men of Penuel as well, saying, When I return unharmed, I shall break down this tower.
10 Zebah and Zalmunna were in Karkor and had their forces with them, about fifteen thousand, all who were left of the entire force of the sons of the east; for a hundred and twenty thousand men who drew the sword had fallen.
11 Gideon went up the road of the tent tabernaclers east of Nobah and Jogbehah; and he smote the camp force while the force was unsuspecting.
12 Zebah and Zalmunna fled, but he pursued after them and seized the two kings of Midian, Zebah and Zalmunna; and the whole camp force he put to the sword.
13 When Gideon son of Joash returned from the battle at the ascent of Heres,
14 he seized a lad of the men of Succoth and questioned him; and he listed for him the chiefs of Succoth and its elders, seventy-seven men.
15 Then he came to the men of Succoth and said, Here are Zebah and Zalmunna, about whom you challenged me, saying, Is the palm of Zebah and Zalmunna now in your hand, that we should give bread to your men who are faint with hunger?
16 And he took the elders of the city, and thorns of the wilderness and brambles, and with them he threshed the men of Succoth.
17 As for Penuel, he broke down the tower and killed the men of the city.
18 Then he asked Zebah and Zalmunna, What about the men whom you killed at Tabor? They answered, They were like you, each one shapely as the sons of a king.
19 He replied, They were my brothers, the sons of my mother. As Yahweh lives! O that you had let them live! Then I would not have to kill you.
20 And he said to Jether, his firstborn, Get up, kill them! But the youth did not draw his sword, for he was fearful since he was still a youth.
21 At this Zebah and Zalmunna said, Get up yourself and come on us; for as a man is, so is his mastery. So Gideon got up and killed Zebah and Zalmunna, and he took the crescents that were on the necks of their camels.
22 Then the men of Israel said to Gideon, Rule over us, both you and your son, and your son’s son, for you have saved us from the hand of Midian.
23 Yet Gideon replied to them, I shall not rule over you myself, nor shall my son rule over you; Yahweh alone, He shall rule over you.
24 Then Gideon said to them, Let me make a request of you. Give me, each of you, a pendant from his loot. (For they had gold pendants, since they were Ishmaelites.)
25 They responded, We shall give, yea give. So they spread out a piece of raiment, and every man flung onto it a pendant of his loot.
26 The weight of the gold pendants that he had requested came to 1,700 gold shekels; aside from the crescents and the drops and the purple cloaks that were on the kings of Midian, and aside from the necklaces on the necks of their camels.
27 Gideon made an ephod of it and put it in his city, in Ophrah. There all Israel prostituted themselves after it, and it became a trap to Gideon and his household.
28 Thus Midian submitted before the sons of Israel and did not lift its head again; and the land had quietness for forty years in the days of Gideon.
29 Jerub-baal son of Joash went to dwell in his house.
30 Gideon came to have seventy sons, offspring from his thigh, for he came to have many wives.
31 As for his concubine who was in Shechem, she too bore a son for him, and he called his name Abimelech.
32 Gideon son of Joash died at a good greyhaired age, and was entombed in the tomb of his father Joash in Ophrah of the Abiezrite.
33 It came to be, as soon as Gideon had died, that the sons of Israel backslid and prostituted themselves after the Baalim, and they set up Baal-berith as their elohim.
34 The sons of Israel did not remember Yahweh their Elohim Who had rescued them from the hand of all their enemies round about;
35 nor did they deal in kindness with the house of Jerubbaal-Gideon, according to all the good that he had done for Israel.

Chapter 9
1 Abimelech son of Jerub-baal went to Shechem to his mother’s brothers and spoke to them and to all family members of the house of his mother’s father, saying,
2 Speak now into the ears of all the headmen of Shechem: Which is better for you, the rule over you of seventy men, all sons of Jerub-baal, or the rule over you of one man? Now you will remember that I am your bone and your flesh.
3 So his mother’s brothers spoke all these words on his behalf into the ears of all the headmen of Shechem; and their hearts were won over to follow Abimelech, for they said, He is our brother.
4 They gave him seventy silver shekels from the house of Baal-berith, and with them Abimelech hired inane and ebullient men who went following him.
5 When he came to his father’s house at Ophrah, he killed his brothers, the sons of Jerub-baal, seventy men on one stone. But Jotham, the youngest son of Jerub-baal, was left, for he had hidden himself.
6 Then all the headmen of Shechem and all Beth-millo were gathered together; they went and made Abimelech reign as king, at the propped-up oak in Shechem.
7 When they told this to Jotham, he went and stood on the summit of Mount Gerizim; he lifted up his voice and called out to them, saying, Hearken to me, headmen of Shechem, so that Elohim may hearken to you:
8 Once the trees went forth to anoint a king over themselves. So they said to the olive tree, Do reign over us.
9 But the olive tree replied to them, Should I leave off my richness, I through whom Elohim and men are glorified, that I should go to sway over the trees?
10 Then the trees said to the fig tree, You come! Reign over us!
11 But the fig tree replied to them, Should I leave off my sweetness and my good produce, that I should go to sway over the trees?
12 Then the trees said to the vine, You come! Reign over us!
13 But the vine replied to them, Should I leave off my grape juice which makes Elohim and men rejoice, that I should go to sway over the trees?
14 Then all the trees said to the boxthorn, You come! Reign over us!
15 At this the boxthorn replied to the trees, Should you, in truth, anoint me as king over you, then come and take refuge in my shade; but should you not, may fire go forth from the boxthorn and devour the cedars of Lebanon!
16 Now then, if you acted in truth and flawlessness, when you made Abimelech king, and if you dealt well with Jerub-baal and his house, and if you did to him in requital for his handiwork
17 whereas my father fought for you and flung his soul straight in front when he rescued you from the hand of Midian;
18 yet today you have arisen against my father’s house, killed his sons, seventy men on one stone, and made Abimelech, the son of his maidservant, king over the headmen of Shechem because he is your brother
19 now if you have acted this day in truth and flawlessness toward Jerub-baal and his house, rejoice in Abimelech, and may he too rejoice in you.
20 But if not, may fire come forth from Abimelech and devour the headmen of Shechem and Beth-millo, and may fire come forth from the headmen of Shechem and from Beth-millo, and devour Abimelech!
21 Then Jotham fled; he ran away and went to Beer and dwelt there because of his brother Abimelech.
22 Abimelech had control over Israel for three years.
23 Then Elohim sent an evil spirit between Abimelech and the headmen of Shechem, and the headmen of Shechem dealt treacherously with Abimelech,
24 so that the violence against Jerub-baal’s seventy sons, even their blood, might come down and be laid on their brother Abimelech who had killed them, and on the headmen of Shechem who had made his hands steadfast for the killing of his brothers.
25 So the headmen of Shechem set ambushers against him on the tops of the hills; they pillaged everyone who passed by them on the road; and it was told to Abimelech.
26 Then Gaal son of Ebed and his brothers came and crossed over to Shechem, and the headmen of Shechem put their trust in him.
27 They went forth into the field, picked grapes at their vineyards, trod them and held praise festivals. They entered the house of their elohim where they ate and drank and maledicted Abimelech.
28 Gaal son of Ebed said, Who is Abimelech and who are we in Shechem that we should serve him? Is he not the son of Jerub-baal, and is not Zebul his supervisor? Serve the men of Hamor, father of Shechem! For what reason should we serve him?
29 O that this people were under my hand! I would certainly get rid of Abimelech! And I would say to Abimelech, Increase your military host, and do come forth!
30 When Zebul, the chief of the city, heard the words of Gaal son of Ebed, his anger grew hot.
31 By a ruse he sent messengers to Abimelech, saying, Behold, Gaal son of Ebed and his brothers have come to Shechem. And behold, they are alienating the city against you.
32 Set out therefore by night, you and the force with you, and lie in ambush in the fields.
33 It must come to pass in the morning when the sun rises, then you should rise early and emerge against the city. When he and the force with him are coming forth toward you, then you may do to him whatever your hand finds to do.
34 So Abimelech and all the force with him set out by night, and four bands lay in ambush by Shechem.
35 When Gaal son of Ebed came forth and stood at the opening of the city gate, Abimelech and the force with him set out from the ambush.
36 Gaal saw the force and said to Zebul, Behold, people are descending from the tops of the hills. Yet Zebul replied to him, The shadow of the hills you see as men.
37 But Gaal proceeded again to speak, saying, Behold, people are descending from the center of the hill country, and one band comes from the direction of the cloud consulters’ oak.
38 Zebul replied to him, Where, indeed, is your mouth now, you who said, Who is Abimelech that we should serve him? Is this not the force that you rejected? Do go forth now and fight with it!
39 And Gaal went forth before the headmen of Shechem and fought Abimelech.
40 Yet Abimelech pursued him when he fled from his presence, and many fell slain, all the way to the opening of the gate.
41 Then Abimelech stayed in Arumah, while Zebul drove Gaal and his brothers out from dwelling in Shechem.
42 It was on the morrow, and people went forth into the fields. So they told Abimelech.
43 Hence he took his force, divided it into three bands, and lay in ambush in the fields. When he saw how people came forth from the city, he set out against them and smote them.
44 Abimelech and the bands with him emerged and stood at the opening of the city gate; then two of the bands emerged on all who were in the fields, and smote them.
45 Abimelech fought against the city all that day. He seized the lower city and killed the people in it; then he broke down the city and sowed it with salt.
46 All the headmen of the tower of Shechem heard of this and entered the vaulted tunnel of the house of El-berith.
47 When Abimelech was told that all the headmen of the tower of Shechem had come together there,
48 then Abimelech went up to Mount Zalmon, he and all the force with him. Abimelech took a hatchet in his hand, cut off some brush wood, lifted it up, put it on his shoulder, and said to the force with him, What you have seen me do, quick! do like me!
49 So, of the entire force, each man also cut his brush; then they marched behind Abimelech and placed them against the vaulted tunnel. And over them they ravaged the vaulted tunnel with fire, so that all the people of the tower of Shechem also died, about a thousand men and women.
50 Then Abimelech went to Thebez; he encamped at Thebez and seized it.
51 There was a strong tower in the midst of the city to which all the men and the women and all the headmen of the city fled. They locked themselves in and went up to the rooftop of the tower.
52 Abimelech advanced toward the tower and fought against it. When he came close to the portal of the tower to burn it with fire,
53 then a certain woman flung the rider section of a millstone on Abimelech’s head and fractured his skull.
54 Hastily he called to his lad, his gear-bearer, and said to him, Draw your sword and put me to death lest they say of me, A woman killed him. So his lad stabbed him, and he died.
55 When the men of Israel saw that Abimelech was dead, they walked away, each man to his own place.
56 Thus Elohim paid back the evil of Abimelech that he had done to his father by killing his seventy brothers.
57 And all the evil of the men of Shechem Elohim brought back on their head. Thus the malediction of Jotham son of Jerub-baal came upon them.

Chapter 10
1 After Abimelech, Tola son of Puah son of Dodo, a man of Issachar, arose to save Israel. He dwelt in Shamir in the hill country of Ephraim.
2 He judged Israel for twenty-three years; then he died and was entombed at Shamir.
3 After him arose Jair the Gileadite; he judged Israel for twenty-two years.
4 He came to have thirty sons; they rode on thirty colts and had thirty cities in the land of Gilead. They call them Havvoth-jair to this day.
5 Then Jair died and was entombed at Kamon.
6 The sons of Israel again did what was evil in the eyes of Yahweh. They served the Baalim and the Ashtaroth, and the elohim of Aram, the elohim of Sidon, the elohim of Moab, the elohim of the sons of Ammon, and the elohim of the Philistines; they forsook Yahweh and did not serve Him.
7 So the anger of Yahweh grew hot against Israel, and He sold them into the hand of the Philistines, and into the hand of the sons of Ammon.
8 In that year they harried and maltreated the sons of Israel for eighteen years all the sons of Israel in Transjordan, in the former land of the Amorite in Gilead.
9 The sons of Ammon also crossed the Jordan to fight against Judah and Benjamin and the house of Ephraim. It was exceedingly distressing to Israel.
10 Then the sons of Israel cried out to Yahweh, saying, We have sinned against You, for we have forsaken our Elohim and served the Baalim.
11 But Yahweh said to the sons of Israel: Was it not from Egypt, from the Amorite, from the sons of Ammon, from the Philistines,
12 the Sidonians, Amalek and Maon who oppressed you, that I saved you from their hand when you cried out to Me?
13 Yet you have forsaken Me and served other elohim. Therefore I shall not continue further to save you.
14 Go and cry out to the elohim that you have chosen! Let them bring you salvation in your time of distress!
15 But the sons of Israel said to Yahweh, We have sinned. You do to us whatever is good in Your eyes! Only, we pray, rescue us this day!
16 Then they put away the foreign elohim from among them and served Yahweh; and His soul felt pity for Israel in their misery.
17 When the sons of Ammon were summoned and encamped in Gilead, the sons of Israel were gathered and encamped at Mizpah.
18 The chiefs of the force of Gilead said, each to his associate, Whoever be the man who starts off with fighting the sons of Ammon, he shall become the head over all the dwellers of Gilead.

Chapter 11
1 Jephthah the Gileadite was a master of valor; he was the son of a prostitute woman; and Gilead had begotten Jephthah.
2 Gilead’s wife also bore sons for him, and when the wife’s sons grew up, they drove Jephthah out. They said to him, You shall have no allotment in our father’s house, for you are the son of another woman.
3 So Jephthah ran away from the presence of his brothers and dwelt in the land of Tob, where inane men collected themselves unto Jephthah and went forth with him.
4 After awhile it came about that the sons of Ammon made war on Israel.
5 And it occurred just as the sons of Ammon fought with Israel, that the elders of Gilead went to take Jephthah back from the land of Tob.
6 They said to Jephthah, Come and be our captain, and let us fight the sons of Ammon.
7 Jephthah replied to the elders of Gilead, Did not you hate me so that you drove me out from my father’s house? For what reason do you come to me now when you are in distress?
8 The elders of Gilead said to Jephthah, This is why now we have turned back to you: You must come with us and fight the sons of Ammon, and you will become our head over all the dwellers of Gilead.
9 Jephthah replied to the elders of Gilead, If you bring me back to fight the sons of Ammon, and Yahweh routs them before me, I, for my part, shall become your head.
10 And the elders of Gilead answered Jephthah, Yahweh Himself shall become the Hearer between us: Assuredly shall we do according to your word.
11 So Jephthah went with the elders of Gilead, and the people set him over them as head and as captain. And Jephthah repeated all his words before Yahweh at Mizpah.
12 Then Jephthah sent messengers to the king of the sons of Ammon, saying, What have you against me that you have come to me to make war on my land?
13 The king of the sons of Ammon replied to Jephthah’s messengers, When Israel came up from Egypt, they took my land from the Arnon to the Jabbok as far as the Jordan. So now do restore it in peace.
14 Jephthah again sent messengers to the king of the sons of Ammon.
15 He said to him, Thus says Jephthah: Israel did not take the land of Moab or the land of the sons of Ammon.
16 For when they came up from Egypt Israel went through the wilderness to the Sea of Weeds and came to Kadesh.
17 Israel then sent messengers to the king of Edom, saying, Let me pass, if you please, through your land. But the king of Edom did not hearken. They sent also to the king of Moab, but he was not willing. So Israel stayed at Kadesh.
18 Then they went on around the land of Edom and the land of Moab through the wilderness adjoining the land of Moab from the sunrise; thus they advanced and encamped across the Arnon and never entered the territory of Moab since the Arnon was the boundary of Moab.
19 Then Israel sent messengers to Sihon king of the Amorite, the king of Heshbon. Israel said to him, Let us pass, if you please, through your land to our own place.
20 But Sihon was not willing and refused to let Israel pass through his territory. So Sihon gathered his entire force together; they encamped at Jahaz, and he fought with Israel.
21 But Yahweh Elohim of Israel delivered Sihon and his entire force into the hand of Israel. They smote them, and Israel took over all the land of the Amorite who dwelt in that area.
22 Thus they took over all the territory of the Amorite from the Arnon to the Jabbok and from the wilderness to the Jordan.
23 Now since Yahweh Elohim of Israel has evicted the Amorite from before His people Israel, why should you tenant it?
24 What Chemosh your elohim let you take over, do you not tenant it? So all that Yahweh our Elohim evicted from before us, we shall tenant it.
25 Now, are you any better, yea better than Balak son of Zippor, king of Moab? Did he contend a contention with Israel, or fight a battle against them?
26 While Israel dwelt in Heshbon and in its outskirts, in Aroer and in its outskirts, and in all the cities alongside the Arnon for three hundred years, for what reason did you not try to reclaim them in that era?
27 As for me, I have not sinned against you; yet you are treating me badly by making war on me. Yahweh, the Judge, shall judge today between the sons of Israel and the sons of Ammon.
28 But the king of the sons of Ammon did not hearken to the communications of Jephthah that he had sent him.
29 Then the spirit of Yahweh came to be on Jephthah, and he passed through Gilead and Manasseh, by Mizpah of Gilead, and advanced against the sons of Ammon from Mizpah of Gilead
30 where Jephthah vowed a vow to Yahweh and said, Should You deliver, yea deliver the sons of Ammon into my hand,
31 then it will occur, whatever comes forth from the doors of my house, coming forth to meet me at my return in peace from the sons of Ammon, it will become Yahweh’s, and I will offer it up as an ascent offering.
32 When Jephthah advanced against the sons of Ammon to fight them, Yahweh delivered them into his hand,
33 and he smote them from Aroer until you come to Minnith, twenty cities, and as far as Abel-keramim, in a very large smiting. So the sons of Ammon submitted because of the presence of the sons of Israel.
34 When Jephthah came back to his house in Mizpah, behold, his daughter came forth to meet him with tambourines and choruses. She was his one and only child; apart from her he had no son or daughter.
35 And it came to pass, when he saw her, that he tore his clothes and said, Alas! my daughter, you make me bow down, yea bow down; you have become my troubler! For I have opened my mouth wide to Yahweh, and I can not retract.
36 She replied to him, My father, since you have opened your mouth wide to Yahweh, do to me according to what has gone forth from your mouth, inasmuch as Yahweh has taken vengeance for you on your enemies, the sons of Ammon.
37 She further said to her father, Let this request be granted to me: Hold back from me for two months; do let me go, me and my associates, that I may descend on the hills and lament over my virginity.
38 Go, he replied, and he dismissed her for two months. So she went, she and her associates, and lamented over her virginity on the hills.
39 It came to be at the end of two months, that she returned to her father, and he did to her according to his vow that he had vowed. As for her, she had never known a man. Then it became a statute in Israel:
40 From days to days the daughters of Israel should go to make their plaint for the daughter of Jephthah the Gileadite, for four days in the year.

Chapter 12
1 The men of Ephraim were summoned and crossed over to Zaphon. They said to Jephthah, For what reason did you march to fight against the sons of Ammon, and did not call on us to go with you? We shall burn your house over you with fire.
2 Jephthah replied to them, I was the man, I and my people, who had a controversy with the sons of Ammon, and they humbled me exceedingly. So I cried out for you, yet you did not save me from their hand.
3 When I saw that you would not bring salvation, then I did take my soul in my own palm and did march against the sons of Ammon. And Yahweh delivered them into my hand. Why then have you come up to me this day? To fight against me?
4 Jephthah mustered all the men of Gilead and fought against Ephraim. And the men of Gilead smote Ephraim who had said, You Gileadites are renegades from Ephraim in the midst of Ephraim, in the midst of Manasseh.
5 Then Gilead seized the fords of the Jordan and held them against Ephraim. Now it came to be when any Ephraimite, delivered from slaughter, said, Let me cross over, the men of Gilead asked him, Are you an Ephraimite? When he answered, I am not,
6 they replied to him, Now say shibboleth.'' If he saidsibboleth,” because he was not able to pronounce it correctly, then they took hold of him and slew him at the fords of the Jordan. There fell at that time forty-two contingents from Ephraim.
7 Jephthah judged Israel for six years. Then Jephthah the Gileadite died and was entombed in his city in Gilead.
8 After him, Ibzan of Bethlehem judged Israel.
9 He came to have thirty sons; thirty daughters he let go away into marriage outside his clan, and for his sons he brought in thirty daughters from outside. He judged Israel for seven years.
10 Then Ibzan died and was entombed in Bethlehem.
11 After him, Elon the Zebulunite judged Israel; he judged Israel for ten years.
12 Then Elon the Zebulunite died and was entombed in Aijalon, in the land of Zebulun.
13 After him, Abdon son of Hillel the Pirathonite judged Israel.
14 He came to have forty sons and thirty grandsons, riding on seventy colts. He judged Israel for eight years.
15 Then Abdon son of Hillel the Pirathonite died and was entombed in Pirathon, in the land of Ephraim, in the hill country of the Amalekite.

Chapter 13
1 Again the sons of Israel did what was evil in the eyes of Yahweh; so Yahweh delivered them into the hand of the Philistines for forty years.
2 There was a certain man from Zorah, of the families of the Danite; his name was Manoah, and his wife was barren and had borne no child.
3 A messenger of Yahweh appeared to the woman and said to her: Behold, you are barren and have borne no child; but you will become pregnant and you will bear a son.
4 Therefore do be on guard. Do not drink wine or intoxicant, and do not eat anything unclean,
5 for, behold, you will be pregnant and bear a son. No razor blade shall come upon his head, for the lad shall be a Nazirite to Elohim from the womb on. He shall start off with saving Israel from the hand of the Philistines.
6 Then the woman came and told her husband, saying, A man of the One, Elohim, came to me, and his appearance was as the appearance of a messenger of the One, Elohim, very fear inspiring. I did not ask him from where he came, and he did not tell me his name.
7 He said to me: Behold, you will be pregnant and bear a son. Now do not drink wine or intoxicant, and do not eat anything unclean, for the lad shall be a Nazirite to Elohim from the womb to the day of his death.
8 Then Manoah entreated Yahweh, saying, O! my Lord, the man of the One, Elohim, whom You sent, let him, I pray, come again to us so that he may direct us what we should do for the lad, the one who will be born.
9 The One, Elohim, heard the voice of Manoah, and the messenger of Elohim came to the woman again, while she was sitting in the field; yet her husband Manoah was not with her.
10 The woman ran in haste to tell her husband; she said to him, Behold, he has appeared to me, the man who came to me on that day.
11 At that Manoah got up and went following his wife. When he came to the man, he said to him, Are you the man who spoke to my wife? He replied, I am.
12 Then Manoah said, Now let your words come true. What shall become customary for the lad and his doing?
13 The messenger of Yahweh replied to Manoah, From all that I stated to the woman she should guard herself.
14 Nothing at all that comes forth from the grapevine should she eat; let her not drink wine or intoxicant, and let her not eat anything unclean! All that I enjoined on her she should observe.
15 Then Manoah said to the messenger of Yahweh, I pray, let us restrain you and present before you a kid of the goats.
16 But the messenger of Yahweh replied to Manoah, If you restrain me, I shall not eat of your bread. Yet should you make an ascent offering, offer it up to Yahweh. (For Manoah did not know that he was a messenger of Yahweh.)
17 So Manoah said to the messenger of Yahweh, What is your name that, should your words come true, we may glorify you?
18 The messenger of Yahweh replied to him, Why then do you ask for my name, when it is a marvelous one?
19 So Manoah took a kid of the goats and the cereal approach present and offered them up on the rock to Yahweh. Then a marvelous thing happened while Manoah and his wife looked on.
20 It came to be when the blaze above the altar went up toward the heavens, that the messenger of Yahweh ascended in the blaze of the altar while Manoah and his wife looked on. At once they fell on their faces to the earth.
21 (The messenger of Yahweh never appeared again to Manoah and to his wife.)Manoah then realized that he had been a messenger of Yahweh.
22 And Manoah said to his wife, We shall die, yea die, for it is Elohim we have seen.
23 But his wife said to him, Suppose Yahweh had desired to put us to death, He would not have taken from our hand the ascent offering and the cereal approach present, He would not have shown us all these things, and at this time, He would not have let us hear this.
24 The woman bore a son and called his name Samson; and the lad grew up and Yahweh blessed him.
25 Then the spirit of Yahweh started to agitate him in the encampment of Dan, between Zorah and Eshtaol.

Chapter 14
1 Once Samson went down toward Timnah, and while in Timnah, he saw a woman among the daughters of the Philistines.
2 Then he came up and told his father and his mother, saying, While in Timnah, I have seen a woman among the daughters of the Philistines. Now take her for me as my wife.
3 His father and his mother replied to him, Is there no woman among the daughters of your kinsmen and among all my people, that you are going to take a wife from the uncircumcised Philistines? Yet Samson said to his father, Take her for me, for she is upright in my eyes.
4 As for his father and his mother, they did not realize that this was from Yahweh: He was seeking a pretext against the Philistines, for at that time the Philistines were ruling over Israel.
5 So Samson and his father and his mother went down toward Timnah. When they had come as far as the vineyards of Timnah, behold, a sheltered lioness came roaring to meet him.
6 At that the spirit of Yahweh prospered on him, and he cleaved it as though cleaving a kid; and there was nothing whatsoever in his hand! But he told neither his father nor his mother what he had done.
7 Then he went down and spoke to the woman, and she was upright in Samson’s eyes.
8 When he returned after awhile to take her, he withdrew to see the fallen lioness. And behold, a swarm of bees, and honey as well, was in the body of the lioness.
9 So he reached down for it with his palms and went on eating as he walked. When he came to his father and to his mother, he gave some to them, and they ate too. Yet he did not tell them that he had reached down for the honey out of the body of the lioness.
10 So his father went down to the woman, and there Samson made a feast, for thus the men in their prime used to do.
11 Now it came to be, when they saw him, that they took thirty associates to be with him.
12 Samson said to them, Oh do let me propound an enigma to you. Should you unravel, yea unravel it to me and find it out during the seven days of the feast, then I will give you thirty shirts and thirty changes of garments.
13 But should you be unable to unravel it for me, then you must give to me thirty shirts and thirty changes of garments. They replied to him, Do propound your enigma, and let us hear it.
14 So he said to them: Out of the eater comes forth food, And out of the strong one comes forth sweetness. For three days they were unable to unravel the enigma.
15 It came to be on the fourth day that they said to Samson’s wife, Entice your husband to unravel for us the enigma; otherwise we shall burn you and your father’s house with fire. Have you invited us hither that we become destitute?
16 So Samson’s wife wept over him and said, Surely you dislike me; you do not love me! You have propounded an enigma to the sons of my people, and for me you have not unraveled it. He replied to her, Behold, I did not unravel it for my father and for my mother, so why should I unravel it for you?
17 But she wept over him until the seven days of the feast ended for them; and it was on the seventh day, that he unraveled it for her because she had constrained him. Then she unraveled the enigma for the sons of her people;
18 and on the seventh day, ere he came toward the bridal chamber, the men of the city said to him: What is sweeter than honey? And what is stronger than a lion? He replied to them: Unless you had plowed with my heifer, you would not have found out my enigma.
19 Then the spirit of Yahweh prospered on him. So he went down to Ashkelon, smote thirty of their men, took their outfits, and gave the changes to the unravelers of the enigma. Yet his anger was hot when he went up to his father’s house.
20 Samson’s wife became his associate’s who had been his groomsman.

Chapter 15
1 It was after awhile, in the days of the wheat harvest, that Samson visited his wife with a kid of the goats. He said, Do let me go into the chamber to my wife. But her father would not allow him to enter.
2 Her father said, I thought, yea thought that you disliked, yea disliked her, so I gave her to your associate. Is not her younger sister better looking than she? Let her become yours now instead of her.
3 At that Samson replied to them, This time I will be blameless regarding the Philistines, though I am dealing out evil to them.
4 So Samson went and seized three hundred foxes, took torches, and facing tail to tail, he placed one torch in the middle between the two tails.
5 Then he set fire to consume the torches, let the foxes go into the raised grain of the Philistines, and caused all to be consumed, from the shocks to the raised grain, to the vineyards and olive groves.
6 Then the Philistines asked, Who did this? They were told, It was Samson, the son-in-law of the Timnite, because he had taken his wife and had given her to his groomsman. So the Philistines came up and burned her and her father’s house with fire.
7 At that Samson said to them, Since you act like this, I will rather avenge myself upon you; and afterward I shall leave off.
8 So he smote them leg on thigh, a great smiting. Then he went down and dwelt in an overhang of the crag of Etam.
9 The Philistines came up, encamped in Judah and were deployed at Lehi.
10 When the men of Judah asked, Why have you come up against us? they replied, We came up to bind Samson, to do to him just as he did to us.
11 Then three thousand men from Judah went down to the overhang of the crag of Etam and said to Samson, Do you not know that the Philistines are ruling over us? What then is this you have done to us? He replied to them, Just as they did to me, so I did to them.
12 They told him, We have come down to bind you and to deliver you into the hand of the Philistines. Then Samson said to them, Swear fealty to me, lest you too come upon me.
13 They replied to him, saying, We will not, for we shall only bind, yea bind you, and we will give you into their hand; yet to death, we shall not put you to death. So they bound him with two new ropes and brought him up from the crag.
14 When he came as far as Lehi, the Philistines shouted in triumph at meeting him. Then the spirit of Yahweh prospered on him, and the ropes on his arms became like flax that has been consumed with fire; so his bonds melted off his hands.
15 When he found a raw jawbone of a donkey, he stretched forth his hand, took it, and smote with it a thousand men.
16 Then Samson said: With the jawbone of the donkey To rub out, I rubbed them out. With the jawbone of the donkey I smote a thousand men.
17 And it came about, as he finished speaking, that he flung the jawbone away, out of his hand; and he called that place Ramath-lehi.
18 Since he was very thirsty he called to Yahweh, saying, You Yourself have given this great salvation by Your servant’s hand; yet now I might die of thirst, and I would fall into the hand of the uncircumcised.
19 So Elohim split open the mortar-shaped hole at Lehi, and water came forth from it. When he drank, his spirit returned, and he revived. Therefore he called its name En-hakkore, that is at Lehi until this day.
20 He judged Israel in the days of the Philistines for twenty years.

Chapter 16
1 Once Samson went to Gaza; he saw there a prostitute woman and came in to her.
2 When it was reported to the Gazites, saying, Samson has come hither, they surrounded the place and lay in ambush for him all night at the city gate. Yet they kept themselves silent all night, saying, At the morning light we will kill him.
3 Now Samson lay down until the middle of the night. Then he got up at midnight and took hold of the doors of the city gate and of the two jambs; he pulled them up along with the bar and placed them on his shoulders. He brought them up to the summit of the hill overlooking Hebron.
4 Afterward it came about that he fell in love with a woman at Wadi Sorek; her name was Delilah.
5 The chieftains of the Philistines came up to her and said to her, Entice him and see in what his great vigor lies and with what we might prevail against him and bind him to make him helpless. And we, for our part, shall each give you 1,100 silver shekels.
6 Then Delilah said to Samson, Do tell me, please, In what lies your great vigor, and with what might you be bound to make you helpless?
7 So Samson replied to her, If they should bind me with seven smooth gut strings that had not been dried-up, then I would become powerless; I would become like any other man.
8 At that the chieftains of the Philistines brought up to her seven smooth gut strings that had not been dried-up; and she bound him with them,
9 while an ambush was sitting in her inner chamber. Then she said to him, Philistines are on you, Samson! But he pulled the gut strings apart just as a twist of tow is pulled apart when it smells of fire. And the cause of his vigor was not made known.
10 Delilah said to Samson, Behold, you trifled with me; you spoke lies to me. Now do tell me, please, with what you might be bound.
11 So he replied to her, If they should bind me, yea bind me with new ropes with which no work has been done, then I would become powerless; I would become like any other man.
12 Now Delilah took new ropes and bound him with them. Then, while an ambush was sitting in the inner chamber, she said to him, Philistines are on you, Samson! But he pulled them away, off his arms, like a thread.
13 Then Delilah said to Samson, Hitherto you trifled with me; you spoke lies to me. Do tell me with what you might be bound. So he replied to her, If you should weave the seven plaits of my head into the web and fasten them with the peg into the sidewall, then I would become powerless; I would become like any other man.
14 When she had fastened them with the peg into the sidewall, she said to him, Philistines are on you, Samson! At that he awoke from his sleep and pulled up the peg and the weaver’s beam and the web.
15 Then she said to him, How can you say, I love you, when your heart is not with me? These three times you trifled with me; you did not tell me in what your great vigor lies.
16 And it came about that she constrained him with her words all the days; she pestered him, and his soul was upset to death.
17 So he told her all his heart; he said to her, A razor blade has never come upon my head, for I have been a Nazirite to Elohim from my mother’s womb on. If I were shaved, then my vigor would withdraw from me; I would become powerless; I would become like any other man.
18 When Delilah saw that he had told her all his heart, she sent and called for the chieftains of the Philistines, saying, Come up at once, for he has told me all his heart. So the chieftains of the Philistines went up to her, and they brought up the silver in their hand.
19 After she had made him sleep on her knees, she called for a man and had him shave the seven plaits of his head. Thus she started to make him helpless, and his vigor withdrew from him.
20 Then she said, Philistines are on you, Samson. At that he awoke from his sleep and thought, I shall go forth as at other times and shall shake myself free. But he did not know that Yahweh had withdrawn from him.
21 Then the Philistines took hold of him, gouged out his eyes and brought him down to Gaza. They bound him with two bronze fetters, and he was set to grinding grain in the house of the prisoners.
22 But the hair of his head, after it had been shaved, started to sprout.
23 As for the chieftains of the Philistines, they were gathered to sacrifice a great sacrifice to Dagon, their elohim, and for a rejoicing. So they chanted, Our elohim has delivered into our hand Samson, our enemy.
24 The people, when they saw him, praised their elohim, chanting, Our elohim has delivered into our hand Our enemy, the waster of our land Who multiplied our slain.
25 When their heart became cheerful, they said, Call for Samson, and let him make sport for us. So they called for Samson from the house of prisoners, and he was made fun before them. When they made him stand between the columns,
26 Samson said to the lad who held fast his hand, Do permit me and let me feel the columns on which the house is established, that I may lean on them.
27 Now the house was full of men and women; all the chieftains of the Philistines were there, and about three thousand men and women on the rooftop, watching while Samson made sport.
28 Then Samson called on Yahweh and said, My Lord Yahweh, remember me, I pray, and fortify me now, only this once. O You, the One, Elohim! Let me avenge myself on the Philistines with one vengeance for my two eyes.
29 And Samson thrust against the two middle columns on which the house was established and by which it was supported, one at his right and one at his left.
30 Then Samson said, May my soul die with the Philistines! And he stretched out with vigor, and the house fell on the chieftains and on all the people who were in it. So the dead whom he put to death at his death were more than those whom he had put to death in his life.
31 His brothers and all his father’s house came down, lifted him and brought him up. They entombed him between Zorah and Eshtaol in the tomb of his father Manoah. As for him, he had judged Israel for twenty years.

Chapter 17
1 There was a man of the hill country of Ephraim; his name was Micah.
2 He said to his mother, The 1,100 silver shekels that were taken from you, concerning which you imprecated and even said it in my ears behold, the silver is with me. I took it. His mother replied, Blessed be my son by Yahweh!
3 And he returned the 1,100 silver shekels to his mother; but his mother said, I will sanctify, yea sanctify the silver to Yahweh from my hand for my son to make a carving and molten image. I therefore return it to you.
4 So when he returned the silver to his mother, his mother took two hundred silver shekels and gave it to a refiner. He made it into a carving and molten image, and it came to be in Micah’s house.
5 As for the man Micah, he had a house of elohim; and he provided an ephod and the teraphim. He ordained one of his sons who became a priest for him.
6 In those days there was no king in Israel. Each man did what was upright in his own eyes.
7 Now there was a lad from Bethlehem in Judah, from the family seat of Judah; he was a Levite, and he was of Gershom.
8 The man departed from the city of Bethlehem in Judah to sojourn in whatever place he might find. While making his own way, he came to the house of Micah in the hill country of Ephraim.
9 Micah said to him, From where do you come? He replied to him, I am a Levite from Bethlehem in Judah, and I am going to sojourn in whatever place I may find.
10 Then Micah said to him, Dwell with me, and be a father and a priest for me. As for me, I shall give you ten silver shekels for a year’s days, an array of clothes and your living. So the Levite went in;
11 the Levite was disposed to dwell with the man, and the lad became to him like one of his sons.
12 Micah ordained the Levite, and the lad became a priest for him and served in Micah’s house.
13 Micah thought, Now I know that Yahweh shall bring good to me, for the Levite has become a priest for me.

Chapter 18
1 In those days there was no king in Israel; and in those days the Danite tribe was seeking to dwell in its allotment, for up to that day no territory had fallen to its allotment in the midst of the tribes of Israel.
2 So the sons of Dan sent five men of their whole number, from their family seat at Zorah and at Eshtaol men who were sons of valor to spy out the area and to investigate it. They told them, Go, investigate the area. When they had advanced into the hill country of Ephraim as far as Micah’s house, they lodged there.
3 While they were near Micah’s household, they recognized the accent of the lad, the Levite; so they turned in there and asked him, Who brought you hither? What are you doing in this place, and what have you here?
4 He replied to them, Thus and thus Micah did for me; he hired me, and I became a priest for him.
5 Then they said to him, Please ask Elohim that we may know whether our journey on which we are going shall be prosperous.
6 The priest replied to them, Go in peace; before Yahweh is your journey on which you are going.
7 So the five men went on and came to Laish. They observed the people who were within it dwelling unawares, after the custom of the Sidonians, quiet and unsuspecting. There was not anything in the land to mortify them through a tenancy of restraint. They were far from the Sidonians, and there was no communication for them with Syria.
8 When they came back to their kinsmen at Zorah and Eshtaol, their kinsmen asked them, What do you report?
9 They replied, Do arise and let us go up against them, for we have seen the land, and behold, it is very good. And you are hesitant! Do not be slothful! Go and invade and take over the land!
10 When you set out, you shall come to an unsuspecting people; and the land is wide in expanse. Yea, Elohim has delivered it into your hand, a place where there is no lack of anything on earth.
11 So they journeyed from there, from the family seat of the Danite, from Zorah and from Eshtaol, six hundred men girded with implements of war.
12 They went up and encamped at Kiriath-jearim in Judah. Therefore they call that place Mahaneh-dan to this day. Behold, it is west of Kiriath-jearim.
13 From there they passed on to the hill country of Ephraim and came to Micah’s house.
14 Here the five men who had gone to spy out the country of Laish remarked to their kinsmen, saying, Do you know that there are in these houses an ephod and teraphim, a carving and a molten image? Now you know what you should do!
15 So they turned in there, entered the home of the youthful Levite at Micah’s house and asked after his accomplishment.
16 The six hundred men of the sons of Dan, girded with their implements of war, had stationed themselves at the opening of the gate.
17 The five men who had gone to spy out the land, went up, entered there and took the carving, the ephod, the teraphim and the molten image. The priest had stationed himself at the opening of the gate with the six hundred men, girded with implements of war,
18 while those five entered Micah’s house and took the carving, the ephod, the teraphim and the molten image. So the priest said to them, What are you doing?
19 They replied to him, Keep silent! Put your hand on your mouth! Come with us and become a father and a priest for us! Is it better for you to be priest for one man’s household, or for you to become priest for a tribe and a family in Israel?
20 The heart of the priest felt good, so he took the ephod, the teraphim and the carving and came to be among the people.
21 Then they turned around and departed, placing the little ones, the cattle and the heavy things before them.
22 When they had gone far from Micah’s house, then the men in the houses near Micah’s house were convoked, and they followed hard after the sons of Dan.
23 Then they called out to the sons of Dan, who turned their faces around and said to Micah, What happened to you that you have been convoked?
24 He replied, You have taken my elohim that I made, and my priest, and you departed. So what do I have left? Now how dare you ask me, What happened to you?
25 But the sons of Dan said to him, Do not let your voice be heard close to us, lest men of bitter soul should come up on you and you would terminate your soul and the souls of those in your household.
26 So the sons of Dan went on their way. When Micah saw that they were more courageous than he, then he turned around and got back to his house.
27 As for them, they took what Micah had made and the priest who had belonged to him. They advanced against Laish, against a people quiet and unsuspecting; they smote them with the edge of the sword and burned the city with fire.
28 There was no rescuer, for it was far from Sidon, and there was no communication for them with Syria; it lay in the vale which belongs to Beth-rehob. They rebuilt the city and dwelt in it.
29 They called the name of the city Dan, after the name of their father Dan who had been born to Israel, although the name of the city was formerly Laish.
30 The sons of Dan set up the carving for themselves, and Jonathan son of Gershom son of Moses, he and his sons, they became priests for the tribe of the Danite until the day of deportation from the land.
31 They kept the carving of Micah, that he had made, set up for themselves all the days while the house of the One, Elohim, was in Shiloh.

Chapter 19
1 It came to be in those days when there was no king in Israel, that a Levite man was sojourning in the remote parts of the hill country of Ephraim. He had taken himself a woman from Bethlehem in Judah as a concubine.
2 Yet his concubine had prostituted against him and had gone away from him to her father’s house at Bethlehem in Judah; and she stayed there a full four months.
3 Then her husband got up and went after her, to speak to her heart and to bring her back. With him were his lad and a team of donkeys. She had him come into her father’s house; and when the maiden’s father saw him, he rejoiced to meet him.
4 Now his father-in-law, the maiden’s father, encouraged him, and he stayed with him three days. So they ate and drank, and he lodged there.
5 It was on the fourth day when they rose early in the morning and he arose to go, that the maiden’s father said to his son-in-law, Brace your heart with a morsel of bread, and thereafter you may go.
6 So both of them sat down and ate and feasted together. Then the maiden’s father said to the man, Now be disposed and lodge but a night and let your heart feel good.
7 When the man arose to go, his father-in-law urged him, and he lodged there again.
8 Then he rose early in the morning on the fifth day to go. But the maiden’s father said, Brace your heart now. And they dallied until the decline of the day, while both of them were eating.
9 Then the man arose again to go, he and his concubine and his lad. Yet his father-in-law, the maiden’s father, said to him, Behold now, the day has waned toward evening. Lodge now; behold, the day is settling down. Lodge here, and let your heart feel good. You may rise early tomorrow and go on your journey to your tent.
10 But the man would not lodge again. He arose and departed and came as far as over against Jebus, that is, Jerusalem. He had with him a team of saddled donkeys, and his concubine was with him.
11 They were near Jebus when the day descended very fast. So the lad said to his lord, Do come now and let us withdraw to this city of the Jebusite that we may lodge in it.
12 His lord replied to him, We shall not withdraw to a city of foreigners who are not sons of Israel; but we will pass on to Gibeah.
13 And he ordered his lad, Do come on and let us approach one of these places; we will lodge in Gibeah or in Ramah.
14 They passed on and went along while the sun set upon them beside Gibeah which belongs to Benjamin.
15 So they turned in there to enter and lodge in Gibeah. When he came to the city square, he sat down; but there was no man inviting them to gather and to lodge in his house.
16 Then, behold, an old man came back from his work in the evening, from the field. The man was from the hill country of Ephraim; yet he sojourned in Gibeah, though the men of the place were Benjamite.
17 When he lifted up his eyes and saw the man, the traveler, in the city square, the old man said, Whither are you going, and from where did you come?
18 He replied to him, We are passing from Bethlehem in Judah to the remote parts of the hill country of Ephraim. From there I came, and I went as far as Bethlehem in Judah; now I am going to the house of Yahweh. Yet there is no man inviting me to gather in his house.
19 Our donkeys have both crushed straw and provender. And there is both bread and wine for me, for your maidservant and for the lad who is with your servant. There is no lack of anything.
20 The old man replied, Peace be to you! Now let all your lack be on me; only do not lodge in the square.
21 So he brought him to his house and mixed fodder for his donkeys. Then they washed their feet and ate and drank.
22 They were making their heart feel good when men of the city, men who were sons of decadence, surrounded the house, shoving themselves against the door. They called to the man, the old possessor of the house, saying, Bring forth the man who came to your house, that we may know him.
23 Then the man, the possessor of the house, went forth to them and said to them, Do not, my brothers, oh do not do evil. Inasmuch as this man has come to my house, do not commit this decadence.
24 Behold, my virgin daughter and his concubine. Let me bring them forth now; humiliate them and do with them what seems good in your eyes. Yet to this man you must not do this decadent thing.
25 But the men would not hearken to him; so the man took fast hold on his concubine and brought her forth to them outside. And they got to know her and abused her all the night until the morning; then they let her go at the ascending of the dawn.
26 So the woman came back just before morning and fell at the entrance opening of the man’s house where her lord was, until it was daylight.
27 When her lord rose up in the morning, he opened the doors of the house and went forth to go on his way; and there was the woman, his concubine, fallen at the entrance opening of the house, with her hands on the threshold.
28 He said to her, Get up, let us go. Yet there was no response, for she was dead. So he took her up on the donkey. Then the man arose and went to his place.
29 When he came to his house, he took a knife, took fast hold of his concubine and cut her in pieces, according to her bones, into twelve pieces. He sent them throughout the territory of Israel.
30 And it came to be that everyone seeing them said, A thing like this has never occurred nor been seen from the day the sons of Israel came up from the land of Egypt until this day. Consider it for yourselves; take counsel and speak.

Chapter 20
1 Then all the sons of Israel marched forth, from Dan to Beer-sheba and the land of Gilead; and the congregation was assembled as one man before Yahweh at Mizpah.
2 The cornerstones of all the people, all the tribes of Israel, stationed themselves in the assembly of the people of Elohim, four hundred contingents of men on foot, drawing a sword.
3 ( The sons of Benjamin heard that the sons of Israel had gone up to Mizpah.) The sons of Israel said, Tell us, how was this evil deed committed?
4 And the Levite man, the husband of the murdered woman, answered, saying, I came to lodge at Gibeah, which belongs to Benjamin, I and my concubine.
5 The possessors of Gibeah rose up against me; they surrounded the house against me at night; they meant to kill me; and they humiliated my concubine, so that she died.
6 Then I took hold of my concubine, cut her in pieces and sent them into every field of Israel’s allotment; for they had committed lewdness and decadence in Israel.
7 Now all of you are sons of Israel; grant your plan and counsel here.
8 Now all the people arose as one man, saying, None of us shall go to his tent, and none of us shall withdraw to his house.
9 Now this is the thing that we shall do to Gibeah: Let us go up against it by lot.
10 We will take from all the tribes of Israel ten men to the hundred, a hundred to the thousand, and a thousand to ten thousand to procure provisions for the force, for those coming to requite Gibeah in Benjamin for all the decadence that it committed in Israel.
11 So every man of Israel was gathered against the city, joined as one man.
12 Then the tribes of Israel sent men through the whole tribe of Benjamin, saying, What is this evil deed that was committed among you?
13 Now give up the men, those sons of decadence in Gibeah that we may put them to death. Let us take out the evil from Israel. But the sons of Benjamin would not hearken to the voice of their brothers, the sons of Israel.
14 So the sons of Benjamin were gathered from their cities to Gibeah to march forth to the battle with the sons of Israel.
15 The sons of Benjamin committed themselves on that day, from the cities, twenty-six contingents of men drawing a sword; besides seven hundred chosen men from the dwellers of Gibeah committed themselves.
16 From all these people were seven hundred chosen men hampered in their right hand; every one of these could sling a stone at a hair and not miss.
17 The men of Israel (aside from Benjamin) who had committed themselves, were four hundred contingents of men drawing a sword; all these were men of war.
18 Then they arose, went up to Bethel and inquired of Elohim; the sons of Israel asked, Who shall go up for us at the start to the battle with the sons of Benjamin? Yahweh replied, Judah, at the start.
19 So the sons of Israel arose in the morning and encamped against Gibeah.
20 Then the men of Israel marched forth to the battle with Benjamin; and the men of Israel were arrayed against them in battle order at Gibeah.
21 At that the sons of Benjamin came forth from Gibeah, and on that day they brought twenty-two contingents of Israelite men down to ruin to the earth.
22 Yet the force (the men of Israel) took fast hold of themselves and again arrayed in battle order in the place where they had been arrayed on the first day.
23 For the sons of Israel had gone up and lamented before Yahweh until the evening; and they had inquired of Yahweh, saying, Shall I again come close for battle with my brother, the sons of Benjamin? And Yahweh had replied, Go up against him.
24 So the sons of Israel drew near against the sons of Benjamin on the second day.
25 Yet Benjamin came forth from Gibeah to meet them on the second day and brought eighteen contingents more men of the sons of Israel down to ruin to the earth; all of these had drawn a sword.
26 Then all the sons of Israel, the whole force, went up and came to Bethel, lamented and sat there before Yahweh, fasting on that day until evening and bringing up ascent offerings and peace offerings before Yahweh.
27 Then the sons of Israel inquired of Yahweh (for the coffer of the covenant of Elohim was there in those days,
28 and Phinehas son of Eleazar son of Aaron the priest officiated before it in those days). They asked, Shall I yet again march forth for battle with my brother, the sons of Benjamin? Or should I leave off? Yahweh replied, Go up, for tomorrow I shall deliver him into your hand.
29 Israel then placed ambushers against Gibeah round about.
30 And on the third day the sons of Israel went up against the sons of Benjamin and were arrayed against Gibeah as at the other times.
31 When the sons of Benjamin came forth to meet the force, they were drawn away from the city. They started to smite, as at the other times, some of the force; about thirty Israelite men were slain on the highways, of which one is going up to Bethel and the other to Gibeah in the field.
32 So the sons of Benjamin said, They are being struck down before us as at first. As for the sons of Israel, they said, Let us flee; thus we will draw them away from the city to the highways.
33 While all men of Israel arose from their place and were arrayed at Baal-tamar, the Israelite ambush was rushing forth from its place west of Gibeah.
34 Thus ten contingents of chosen men of all Israel advanced in front of Gibeah, and the fighting was heavy. While they did not realize that evil was touching them,
35 Yahweh struck down Benjamin before Israel; on that day the sons of Israel brought down to ruin twenty-five contingents and one hundred men of Benjamin; everyone of these had drawn a sword.
36 Then the sons of Benjamin discerned that they were struck down. Now the men of Israel had given ground to Benjamin because they trusted in the ambush that they had placed against Gibeah.
37 The one ambush hurried forth and emerged against Gibeah, and the other ambush drew out and smote the whole city with the edge of the sword.
38 The appointed signal between the men of Israel and the ambush was: Increase the beacon of smoke to send up for them from the city;
39 and then the men of Israel should turn in the battle. Benjamin had started to smite Israelite men; about thirty men were slain; hence they had said, Surely they are being struck, yea struck down before us as in the first battle.
40 But when the beacon started to go up from the city as a column of smoke, the Benjaminite turned around behind them; and behold, the holocaust of the city went up toward the heavens.
41 And now the men of Israel turned back; and the men of Benjamin were panicked, for they realized that evil had touched them.
42 So, facing the men of Israel, they turned toward the wilderness road, where the fighting followed hard after them and, in the midst of it, brought those to ruin who came out of the city.
43 They compassed about the Benjaminites; they pursued them from Nohah and trod them down as far as over against Gibeah toward sunrise.
44 From Benjamin’s men fell eighteen contingents; all of these were men of valor.
45 The rest turned around and fled to the wilderness, to the crag of Rimmon. Yet five more contingents of men were plowed down of them on the highways; and the sons of Israel followed hard after them as far as Gidom and smote of them two more contingents of men.
46 Thus all the fallen men of Benjamin came to be twenty-five contingents drawing the sword on that day; all of these were men of valor.
47 Yet six hundred men turned around and fled to the wilderness, to the crag of Rimmon; and they dwelt on the crag of Rimmon for four months.
48 The Israelite men then turned about against the sons of Benjamin and smote them with the edge of the sword, from everything in the city to domestic beasts, to all that was found. Moreover, all the cities they came upon, they sent up in fire.

Chapter 21
1 Now the men of Israel had sworn at Mizpah, saying, None of us shall give his daughter as a wife to a Benjaminite.
2 When the people came to Bethel and sat there until the evening before the One, Elohim, they lifted up their voice and lamented with a great lamentation;
3 and they said, Why, O Yahweh Elohim of Israel, has this happened in Israel, that one tribe is missing today from Israel?
4 It came about on the morrow that the people rose early; and they built there an altar and brought up ascent offerings and peace offerings.
5 Then the sons of Israel asked, Is there anyone of all the tribes of Israel who did not come up to the assembly before Yahweh? For the great oath would apply to him who did not go up to Yahweh at Mizpah, saying, He shall be put to death, yea death.
6 Now the sons of Israel felt regret about their brother Benjamin; they said, Today one tribe was hacked off from Israel!
7 How shall we provide wives for those left? As for us, we swore by Yahweh never to give any of our daughters to them as wives.
8 They inquired, Is there any one of the tribes of Israel who did not come up to Yahweh at Mizpah? And behold, no one from Jabesh-gilead had come to the camp for the assembly.
9 For, when the force was mustered, behold, there was no one there from the dwellers of Jabesh-gilead.
10 So the congregation sent there twelve contingents, men from the sons of valor; and they instructed them, saying, Go and smite the dwellers of Jabesh-gilead with the edge of the sword, along with the women and the little ones.
11 This is the decree you shall enact: Every male, and every woman having known bed with a male, you shall doom. But the virgins you shall keep alive. And they did so.
12 They found among the dwellers of Jabesh-gilead four hundred maidens, virgins who had not known a man (at bed with a male); and they brought them to the camp at Shiloh in the land of Canaan.
13 Then the whole congregation sent word; they spoke to the sons of Benjamin who were on the crag of Rimmon, and proclaimed peace to them.
14 So Benjamin returned at that time, and they gave them the women whom they had kept alive from the women of Jabesh-gilead; yet they had not found enough for them.
15 The people were feeling regret about Benjamin, for Yahweh had made a breach in the tribes of Israel.
16 So the elders of the congregation asked, How shall we provide wives for those left, since the women have been exterminated from Benjamin?
17 For they said, Salvage must be for the tenancy of Benjamin, that a tribe may not be wiped out in Israel.
18 We ourselves are not able to give any of our daughters to them as wives; for the sons of Israel had sworn, saying, Accursed be anyone who gives a wife to a Benjaminite.
19 Then they said, Behold, from days to days, there is the festival of Yahweh at Shiloh, which is north of Bethel, toward sunrise of the highway that goes up from Bethel to Shechem, and south of Lebonah.
20 So they instructed the sons of Benjamin, saying, Go and lie in ambush in the vineyards
21 and watch! Behold! When the daughters of Shiloh come forth to dance to the flute in choruses, then you must rush forth from the vineyards and kidnap for yourselves, each of you his wife, from the daughters of Shiloh; and then you must go back to the land of Benjamin.
22 Now it will occur that their fathers or their brothers shall come to contend with us; then we will say to them, For our sake be generous to them! For we did not procure for each man his wife during the war. Now it was not you who gave wives to them; otherwise you had become guilty now.
23 The sons of Benjamin did so. They obtained wives for their number from the dancers to the flute whom they snatched away. Then they went off and returned to their allotment; they rebuilt their cities and dwelt in them.
24 The sons of Israel dispersed from there at that time, each man to his tribe and to his family; they went forth from there, each man to his allotment.
25 In those days there was no king in Israel; each man did what was upright in his own eyes.