Judges Chapters

1 | •  ¹After the death of Joshua, the Israelites consulted the Lord, “Who among us shall be the first to fight against the Canaanites?” ²The Lord answered: “The tribe of Judah shall go up first, and I will give the land into their hands.” ³So the people of Judah said to their brothers from the tribe of Simeon, “Help us conquer the part of the land that is allotted to us, and then we will conquer with you the region that is yours.” So, they joined forces for the war.

⁴When the tribe of Judah attacked the Canaanites and the Perizzites, the Lord gave them into their hands; in Bezek, they defeated ten thousand men.

⁵In Bezek, they encountered the lord of Bezek and fought against him. ⁶The lord of Bezek fled, but they pursued him. They captured him and cut off his thumbs and his big toes. ⁷The lord of Bezek said, “Seventy kings whose thumbs and big toes I cut off used to pick scraps under my table; now God has done to me according to what I have done.” They brought him to Jerusalem, and he died there.

⁸The tribe of Judah attacked the city of Jerusalem. After killing its inhabitants, they burned the city. ⁹ Afterwards, they went down from Jerusalem to attack the Canaanites who lived in the mountains, in the Negeb, and the plains. ¹⁰They also attacked the Canaanites who were in Hebron (Hebron was also called Kiriath-Arba at that time). They defeated Sheshai, Ahiman, and Talmai. ¹¹ From there, they marched against the inhabitants of Debir. This city was also called Kiriath-Sepher. ¹²Then Caleb made this promise, “To the one who takes Kiriath-Sepher, I will give my daughter Achsah as wife.” ¹³It was Othniel who took the city; he was the son of Kenaz, Caleb’s younger brother, and Caleb gave him Achsah, his daughter, as wife.

¹⁴When Achsah came to Othniel, she urged him to ask her father for a field. She alighted from her ass, and Caleb asked her, “What do you want?” ¹⁵She answered, “What a gift this Negeb wilderness is! Give me also springs of water.” And Caleb gave her the upper springs and the lower springs.

¹⁶The descendants of Hobad the Kenite, Moses’ father-in-law, also went up with the people of Judah from the city of Palms to that part of the desert of Judah on the boundary of the Negeb near Arad, and they settled there with them.

¹⁷Those from Judah and their brothers from the tribe of Simeon attacked the Canaanites who lived in Zephath, and they sacrificed Zephath in honor of the Lord. For this reason, the city was named “Anathema.” ¹⁸Judah seized Gaza, Ashkelon, and Ekron with their respective territories.

¹⁹Although they conquered the mountainous regions with the help of the Lord, they could not drive out the inhabitants of the plain because they fought with iron chariots. ²⁰Following Moses' orders, they gave the city of Hebron to Caleb, who had cast out the three sons of Anak from there. ²¹But the tribe of Benjamin did not succeed in expelling the Jebusites who lived in Jerusalem; the Jebusites have stayed in Jerusalem until this day.

²²The people of Joseph went up against Bethel with the help of the Lord. ²³They sent men out to spy in Bethel, formerly called Luz, ²⁴and they met a man coming out of the city. They told him, “Tell us how we can enter the city, and we will not kill you.” ²⁵He showed them the way. Then they entered and put the city to the sword, setting that man free with his whole family. ²⁶The man went to the land of the Hittites, where he built a city named Luz, which is its name to this day.

²⁷However, the tribe of Manasseh did not drive out the people of Beth-Shean and Taanach or the inhabitants of Dor, Ibleam, and Megiddo. The Canaanites dwelled in these cities and the towns that depended on them, and they kept their lands. ²⁸But when the Israelites grew stronger, they exacted taxes from the Canaanites who stayed in their place. ²⁹Neither did the tribe of Ephraim expel the Canaanites who lived in Gezer, ³⁰nor did the tribe of Zebulun drive out the inhabitants of Kitron and Nahalol. These Canaanites lived among them but had to pay taxes to them.

³¹Those of Asher did not expel the people of Acco, Sidon, Mahalol, Achzib, Helbah, Aphik, or Rehob.

³²The tribe of Asher had to live amid the Canaanites who occupied their territory, for they could not drive them out of that region. ³³The same happened with the tribe of Naphtali, which failed to drive out the inhabitants of Beth-shemesh and Beth-anath; they had to dwell amid the Canaanites who lived in that region. Nevertheless, the inhabitants of Beth-shemesh and Beth-anath paid taxes to this tribe.

³⁴The Amorites did not allow the descendants of Dan to come down to the plain, so the latter had to live in the mountains. ³⁵The Amorites also remained in Harheres, Aijalon, and Shaalbim, but when the tribe of Joseph grew stronger, they forced the Amorites to pay taxes. ³⁶The territory of the Amorites extended from the slope of Akrabbim to Sela and upward.

2 | •  ¹The angel of the Lord went up from Gilgal to Bochim, where the Israelites were gathered, and he said to them, “I made you go up from Egypt and brought you to the land I had promised your ancestors. I said to them, ‘Never will I break my Covenant with you, ²but you shall not make any Covenant with the Canaanites and shall destroy their altars.’ But you have not obeyed my command. Why did you not obey me? ³Now, I will not drive out these nations before you. They shall be your oppressors, and their gods shall be a trap for you.”

⁴After the angel of the Lord had spoken, all the Israelites began to weep and cry. ⁵For this reason, they named that place Bochim, which means “those who weep,” and offered sacrifices to the Lord.

⁶When Joshua dismissed the Israelites, each went to his inheritance to occupy the land. ⁷The people served the Lord during the lifetime of Joshua and of the leaders who outlived him and who had witnessed all the great works of the Lord for Israel. ⁸Joshua, son of Nun, the servant of Moses, died at the age of one hundred and ten years. ⁹They buried him at the boundary of his inheritance in Timnath-heres, in the mountains of Ephraim, north of the mountain of Gaash. ¹⁰That whole generation died, and another one came, but they did not know the Lord or what he had done for Israel.

Summary of the Book: Unfaithfulness and Punishment

•   ¹¹The Israelites mistreated the Lord, for they served the Baals instead. ¹²They abandoned the Lord, the God of their ancestors who had brought them out of Egypt, and served other gods, the gods of the neighboring peoples. They bowed before those gods and offended the Lord.

¹³When the Lord saw that they had abandoned him to serve Baal and Ashtaroth, ¹⁴he became angry with his people and gave them to plunderers who left them in misery. He sold them to their enemies, who surrounded the Israelites so that these Israelites could no longer withstand them. ¹⁵Whenever they felt strong for an offensive, the Lord would turn against them and send evil upon them, as he had warned them and sworn to do. And this caused much distress and anguish for the Israelites.

¹⁶The Lord raised “judges” (liberators) who saved the Israelites from their exploiters. ¹⁷But neither did they obey those “judges,” for they still prostituted themselves to other gods and worshiped them. They soon left the way of their fathers who obeyed the commandments of the Lord; they did not follow the way of their fathers.

¹⁸When the Lord made a judge appear among his people, the Lord was with him and saved them from their enemies. That lasted as long as the judge lived, for the Lord was moved to pity by the lament of his oppressed and persecuted people. ¹⁹But when the judge died, they again became worse than their ancestors—worshiping and serving other gods. They would not renounce their pagan practices and stubborn ways.

²⁰The Lord was angry and said, “These people broke the Covenant I made with their ancestors, and they refuse to obey me. ²¹I will no longer drive out any nations that Joshua left before them when he died. ²²And I shall test the Israelites through those nations; then I shall know if they will finally follow my ways as their ancestors did.”

²³So the Lord left those nations in their place and did not immediately take the land from them. This is also why he did not give them to Joshua.

3 | ¹These are the nations that the Lord let live to test the Israelites through them, that is to say, all the Israelites who had not known any of the wars in Canaan. ²He let these people live so that the generation of the children of Israel who had not known war before might learn how to fight. ³These people were the five lords of the Philistines and all the Canaanites, the Sidonians, and the Hivites of Mount Lebanon, from the mountain of Baal-Hermon to as far as the entrance of Hamath.

⁴They continued to test Israel to see if they would observe the Lord's commandments to their fathers through Moses. ⁵So the Israelites lived amid the Canaanites, Hittites, Amorites, Perizzites, Hivites, and Jebusites. ⁶The Israelites married the daughters of these people, gave their daughters in marriage to the sons of these people, and served their gods.

Othniel, Ehud, and Shamgar

•   ⁷The Israelites mistreated the Lord; they forgot the Lord, their God, and served the Baals and the Asherahs. ⁸Because of this, the anger of the Lord burned against Israel, and he left them in the hands of Cushan-rishathaim, king of Aram, to whom they were subject for eight years.

⁹Then the Israelites cried to the Lord, and he raised from among them a liberator who saved them—Othniel, the son of Kenaz, Caleb’s younger brother. ¹⁰The spirit of the Lord was upon him, and he led Israel. When Othniel went to war, the Lord gave Cushan-rishathaim, king of Aram, into Othniel’s hands. ¹¹Othniel won over the king, and the land had peace for forty years. Then Othniel, son of Kenaz, died.

¹²The Israelites again did what was evil in the sight of the Lord, so he strengthened Eglon, king of Moab, to attack them because they had mistreated the Lord.

¹³Eglon joined the Ammonites and the Amalekites; they set out and marched together, defeating Israel and taking the City of Palms. ¹⁴The Israelites became subject to Eglon, king of Moab, for eighteen years. ¹⁵But as they cried to the Lord, he gave them a liberator—Ehud, a left-handed man, the son of Gera, from the tribe of Benjamin.

The Israelites entrusted a gift to him to bring to Eglon, king of Moab. ¹⁶So, Ehud made for himself a two-edged dagger, one cubit long, and strapped it on his right thigh under his clothes. ¹⁷He then presented the gift to Eglon, king of Moab. Eglon was an obese man.

¹⁸When Ehud finished offering the present, he dismissed the men who had brought everything. ¹⁹But when he arrived at the place of the Idols, near Gilgal, he returned to the king and said to Eglon, “I have a secret message for you, O king.” Eglon, king of Moab, declared, “Leave me alone!” And so everyone present left the room.

²⁰Then Ehud approached him while the king sat alone in his private roof chamber, which was cool. Ehud told him, “Lord, I have a warning from God for you.” The king rose from his seat. ²¹Then Ehud, with his left hand, took the dagger from his right thigh and thrust it into the king’s belly. ²²The handle even went in with the blade, and the fat closed over the blade, for Ehud did not draw the dagger out of his belly, and the dirt came out. ²³Ehud jumped through the window after having locked the roof doors behind him.

²⁴When he had gone, the servants came and saw that the doors of the upper room were locked. They thought, “He must be relieving himself in the cool room.” ²⁵They waited for some time, but the doors of the roof room remained closed. Finally, they took the keys and opened the doors: their lord lay on the floor dead.

²⁶Ehud had escaped while the servants waited for their king; he had passed through the place of the Idols and reached a safe place in Seirah. ²⁷When he arrived, he had the trumpets sounded in the mountains of Ephraim, and the Israelites went down from the mountains. ²⁸He stood before them and said, “Follow me, for the Lord has given the people of Moab, our enemies, into our hands.” They went down with him, barred the passages of the Jordan towards Moab, and let nobody pass.

²⁹They defeated Moab on that occasion, killing some ten thousand, all strong and brave men. Nobody was spared. ³⁰So, on that day, Moab became subject to Israel, and the land remained peaceful for eighty years.

³¹Then Shamgar, the son of Anath, came; he killed six hundred Philistines with an ox goad. He, too, saved Israel.

Deborah and Barak

4 | • ¹After Ehud died, the Israelites again mistreated the Lord, ²so he left them in the power of Jabin, king of Canaan. Jabin reigned in Hazor, and the commander of his army was Sisera, who lived in Harosheth-ha-goiim.

³Then the Israelites cried to the Lord, for Jabin had nine hundred chariots of war and had kept the Israelites oppressed for twenty years.

⁴At that time, Deborah, a prophetess and wife of Lappidoth, became a judge. ⁵She used to sit under what was called the Palm of Deborah, between Ramah and Bethel, in the land of Ephraim. There, she resolved the complaints that the Israelites presented to her. ⁶And she sent and called for Barak, the son of Abinoam, who was from the town of Kedesh of Naphtali. She said to him, “This is the order of the Lord: Go, gather the people on Mount Tabor and take with you ten thousand men from the tribes of Naphtali and Zebulun, ⁷for I am going to bring Sisera to you at the river Kishon with his chariots and men, and I will give him into your hands.”

⁸Barak answered her, “If you will go, then I shall go, too; but if you do not go, I shall not go.” ⁹Deborah answered, “I will go with you, but if you do it that way, the honor of the victory will not be yours, for Sisera will be killed by a woman.”

In this way, Deborah went with Barak to Kedesh. ¹⁰Barak summoned men from Zebulun and Naphtali, and ten thousand followed him. Deborah also went up with him. ¹²When Sisera came to know that Barak had climbed Mount Tabor, ¹³he gathered all his chariots—nine hundred chariots of war in all—and all his men, and they set out from Harosheth-ha-goiim to the river Kishon.

¹⁴Then Deborah said to Barak, “Rise, for this is the day the Lord shall give Sisera into your hands. Today, the Lord goes before you.”

So, Barak went down from Mount Tabor with his ten thousand men. ¹⁵The Lord made him win over Sisera, his chariots, and his army. Sisera alighted from his chariot and fled, ¹⁶while Barak pursued the chariots and the army to Harosheth-ha-goiim. All of Sisera’s army perished. Nobody was spared.

¹¹At that moment, Heber the Kenite was encamped by the oak of Zaannannim, near Kedesh, after separating from the other Kenite descendants of Hobab, Moses’ father-in-law. ¹⁷There, Sisera took refuge and came running to the tent of Yael, the wife of Heber the Kenite. Peace reigned between the Kenite tribe and the Canaanites of Yabin, king of Hazor.

¹⁸Yael came out to meet Sisera and said to him, “Come this way, my lord, have no fear.” Sisera entered, and Yael hid him under a blanket. ¹⁹He asked her for a bit of water to quench his thirst. The woman opened a skin of milk, gave him a drink, and covered him again with the blanket. ²⁰And he said to her, “Stand at the entrance, and if anyone comes and asks you, tell him there is no one with you.” ²¹Sisera was very tired, so he slept. Then the woman took a hammer and a tent peg, went quietly to him, and drove the peg into his temple till it was fixed into the ground. ²²When Barak arrived, Yael came out to meet him and said, “Come in, and I will show you the man you are looking for.” He entered and saw Sisera dead with a tent peg through his temple.

²³On that day, the Lord humbled Yabin before the Israelites. ²⁴The Israelites did not rest until they destroyed all the Canaanites.

Song of Deborah

5 | •  ¹On that day, Deborah and Barak, the son of Abinoam, sang this song:

²In Israel, the warriors let their hair loose; in Israel, they presented voluntary offerings for the war. Blessed be the Lord!

³Listen, O kings; pay attention, O princes. I will sing and praise the Lord, the God of Israel.

⁴When you went forth from Seir, O Lord, when you came from the camp of Edom, the earth trembled, the heavens reeled, and the clouds poured down rain. ⁵The mountains rocked before the Lord, before the Lord—the God of Israel.

⁶In the days of Shamgar, the son of Anath, in the days of Yael, caravans ceased, and travelers wandered through the byways. ⁷There were no leaders in Israel until I, Deborah, awoke and arose as a mother of Israel.

⁸They went after new gods, and war was upon them. There was hardly a shield or a spear for forty thousand men in Israel!

⁹My heart is with the leaders of Israel, among the people who came willingly. Blessed be the Lord!

¹⁰Those who go riding on white asses, those who walk by the way, meditate! ¹¹Hear the voice of those who divide the plunder near the watering place: they sing the favors God has done to Israel when the people of the Lord march down to the gates.

¹²Wake up, Deborah! Wake up, wake up, and begin to sing. Arise, Barak! And bring your songs, son of Abinoam.

¹³Let the survivors of the people rule over their oppressors! May the Lord be with me, stronger than the valiant! ¹⁴Your roots, O Ephraim, are in Amalek; your brother Benjamin is behind you among your army. From Machir, the commanders marched down; from Zebulun, the leaders bore the brass staff.

¹⁵The leaders of Issachar are with Deborah; Issachar is with Barak; the people rushed forth, following their footsteps into the plain.

The clans of Reuben had long talks. ¹⁶ Why did you choose to remain in your folds, listening to the flute among the flock? The clans of Reuben could not decide.

¹⁷Gilead remained on the other side of the Jordan, and Dan, why did you remain in your ships? Asher has remained on the seacoasts; he is quiet in his ports.

¹⁸Zebulun, in turn, scorned death; Naphtali also went up to the battlefield. ¹⁹The kings came to fight; the kings of Canaan fought at Taanach, near the waters of Megiddo, but they got no silver.

²⁰The stars fought from the heavens; from their orbits, they fought against Sisera. ²¹ The cold torrent Kishon dragged them away. March on without fear, my soul!

²²Hoofs of horses shake the ground: the galloping of his horses. ²³Cursed be Meroz, said the angel of the Lord, cursed be it, cursed be its inhabitants, for it came not to the aid of the Lord, not like the heroes.

²⁴Blessed among women be Yael, wife of Heber the Kenite, among the women who dwell in tents, blessed may you be! ²⁵He asked for water, and she gave him milk; in the cup of honor, she served him cream.

²⁶She put her hand to the peg and, with her right hand, took a workman's hammer. She struck Sisera, crushed his head, pierced and shattered his temple. ²⁷Between her feet, he collapsed, he fell limp and was lifeless; between her feet, he collapsed and fell limp; in the spot he collapsed, there he fell limp—violently murdered!

²⁸Sisera’s mother looks out the window and cries out behind the lattice: Why is his chariot late in coming? Why is his chariot delayed? ²⁹The wisest of her women answers: ³⁰Surely they are dividing the plunder—one captive, two captives for each warrior; colored cloths for Sisera as booty, colored cloths twice adorned with raised embroidery for a scarf.

³¹So may all your enemies perish, O Lord, but may your friends be like the brilliant sun!

And there was peace in the land for forty years.

6 | •  ¹The Israelites mistreated the Lord, and the Lord gave them into the hands of the Midianites for seven years, ²and the hand of the Midianites lay heavily on them.

Because of Midian, the Israelites made passages in the mountains, caves, and shelters for themselves. ³Midian would come with Amalek and the people of the East when the Israelites had sown. They would come up against the Israelites, ⁴encamp in the lands of the Israelites, and destroy all the fields as far as the entrance to Gaza. They would leave no provisions or sheep or ox or ass, ⁵for they would come up like locusts in number, bringing with them their livestock and their tents. They and their camels were many, and they invaded and plundered the land. ⁶In this way, Midian subdued Israel and brought upon it so great a misery that the Israelites cried to the Lord.

⁷When the Israelites cried to the Lord because of Midian, ⁸the Lord sent them a prophet who said, “This is the word of the Lord, the God of Israel: I led you up from Egypt and brought you out of the house of slavery. ⁹I freed you from the hands of the Egyptians and all your oppressors. I drove out before you the inhabitants of these lands and gave their lands to you, ¹⁰and I said to you, ‘I am the Lord, your God. Disregard the gods of the Amorites, in whose land you dwell.’ But you did not listen to me.”

Call of Gideon

¹¹The angel of the Lord came and sat under the sacred tree at Ophrah, which belonged to Joash of the family of Abiezer. Gideon, the son of Joash, was threshing the wheat in the winepress to hide it from the Midianites.

¹²The angel of the Lord said to him, “The Lord be with you, valiant warrior.” ¹³Gideon answered, “Please, my lord, if the Lord is with us, why is all this happening to us? Where are the wonders which our fathers recounted to us? Did they not say that the Lord led them up from Egypt? Why has he abandoned us now and given us into the hands of the Midianites?”

¹⁴The Lord then turned to him, saying, “Go and save Israel from the Midianites with your courage. It is I who send you.” ¹⁵Gideon answered: “Pardon me, Lord, but how can I save Israel? My family is the lowest in my tribe, and I am the least in my father's family.”

¹⁶The Lord told him, “I will be with you, and you shall defeat the people of Midian with one single stroke.” ¹⁷Gideon said, “Please give me a sign that you speak. ¹⁸Do not leave until I return with an offering and present it to you.” The Lord responded, “I will wait for you here.”

¹⁹Gideon prepared a young goat, took a measure of flour, and baked unleavened bread. He put the broth in a pot and the meat in a basket and presented them to the angel under the tree. ²⁰Then the angel of God said to him, “Take the meat and the bread; put them on this rock, and pour the broth over them.” Gideon did so. ²¹At that moment, the angel of the Lord extended the staff he was holding and touched the meat and the bread. Suddenly, fire blazed from the rock. The fire consumed the meat and the bread, and the angel of the Lord disappeared.

²²Gideon realized that he was the angel of the Lord and said, “Alas, O Lord God! I have seen the angel of the Lord face to face.” ²³But the Lord said to him, “Peace be with you. Do not fear, for you shall not die.” ²⁴Gideon built an altar to the Lord in that place and called it Yahweh-Peace. To this day, it is still in Ophrah of Abiezer.

²⁵That night, the Lord told Gideon, “Take ten of your father’s servants and a seven-year-old bull with you. Destroy your father’s altar to Baal and cut the sacred pillar beside it. ²⁶Then build an altar to the Lord on this knoll and sacrifice the bull to me, burning it with the wood from the sacred pillar.”

²⁷So, with the help of his ten servants, Gideon did what the Lord had commanded. But because he feared his family and the people of the town, he did it by night.

²⁸On the following day, the townspeople saw the altar of Baal broken into pieces and the sacred pillar cut down. They also saw that a bull had been sacrificed on the new altar. ²⁹So they asked one another and, as they investigated, found out that it was Gideon who had done it, ³⁰and they went to Joash and said, “Hand your son over to us for he must die; he destroyed the altar of Baal and cut down the sacred pillar.” ³¹But Joash asked the angry crowd, “Are you going to defend Baal and save him? If he is god, let him defend himself when someone destroys his altar.”

³²They called Gideon Jerubbaal that day: “Let Baal defend himself against Gideon, for Gideon destroyed his altar.”

³³All Midian, Amalek, and the people of the East joined forces, crossed the Jordan, and invaded the plains of Jezreel. ³⁴Then the spirit of the Lord clothed Gideon with strength; he blew the trumpet and summoned the men of Abiezer. ³⁵He sent messengers throughout the whole territory of Manasseh, and they joined him. The people of Asher, Zebulun, and Naphtali also went out to meet them.

³⁶Gideon said to God, “If indeed you will save Israel by my hand, as you have said, grant me this favor. ³⁷I am going to spread this woolen fleece on the threshing ground. If the dew falls only on the fleece while all the ground remains dry, then I shall know that you are to save Israel by my hand, as you have promised.”

³⁸So it was: Gideon rose at daybreak, squeezed the fleece, and wrung out the dew, filling a cup with water. ³⁹Gideon again spoke to God and said to him, “Don’t be angry with me if I dare to speak to you again. Let me make another test with the fleece: let it dry only on the fleece and let dew come on all the ground.” ⁴⁰That night, the Lord did so. The fleece remained dry, and dew covered all the ground.

7 | ¹Jerubbaal, that is Gideon, rose early with all the people with him, and they encamped beside the spring of Harod. The Midianite camp was farther north and extended from the hill of Moreb to the plains.

²Then the Lord told Gideon, “There are too many people with you. If I give the Midianites into their hands, the Israelites might think they won over the Midianites by their own strength. ³So summon your men and tell them that whoever is afraid may go home.” So twenty-two thousand men returned, and only ten thousand remained.

•   ⁴The Lord told Gideon, “There are still too many people. Take them down to the water, and I will test them for you. If I say: This one shall go with you, he will go. And if I say: Not this one, he shall not go.” ⁵So Gideon brought them down to the water, and the Lord told him, “Those who lap the water like a dog, you shall place on one side. And you shall place those who kneel down to drink on the other side.”

⁶Three hundred men lapped the water, and the rest knelt down to drink. ⁷Then the Lord told Gideon, “I will help these three hundred men who lapped the water and give the Midianites into your hands. Let the rest return to their homes.” ⁸The three hundred men took the pitchers and the horns of whom Gideon dismissed. Finally, Gideon and his three hundred men faced the Midianites encamped below the valley.

⁹That night, the Lord said to him, “Rise and go down to the camp because I have given it into your hands. ¹⁰But if you are afraid to go down alone, set out for the camp with your servant Purah, ¹¹and listen to what they say there. You shall be strengthened by it, and then you shall attack the camp.” He then went down with his servant Purah to the outposts of the camp guards.

¹²Midian, Amalek, and all the people of the East were in the valley, thick as locusts, and their camels were as countless as the sand on the seashore. ¹³Gideon approached just as a man was recounting his dream to his comrade. Gideon heard him say, “I had a dream: a big loaf of barley bread rolled down into the camp of Midian until it came to a tent, bumped against it, and overturned the tent.” ¹⁴His comrade answered, “This cannot mean anything other than the sword of Gideon, son of Joash, the Israelite. God has given Midian and the whole camp into his hands.” ¹⁵When Gideon heard the dream and its interpretation, he bowed, returned to the camp of Israel, and said, “Arise, for the Lord has given the camp of Midian into your hands.”

¹⁶Gideon divided the three hundred men into three groups. Then he handed the trumpets to all empty pitchers with lighted torches inside. ¹⁷He told them, “Look at me, and do what I do. When I come to the outskirts of the camp, do as I do. ¹⁸When I and those who are with me blow the trumpets, then blow yours all around the camp and shout, ‘For the Lord and Gideon!’”

¹⁹With the hundred men with him, Gideon came to the Midianite camp just as the guards changed shifts at the beginning of the midnight watch. ²⁰Then the Israelites smashed the jars, took the torches in one hand, and blew the trumpets they were holding in the other hand. After blowing the trumpets, the three groups shouted, “For the Lord and Gideon!” ²¹Everyone stood in his place around the camp while the Midianites ran, shouting as they fled. ²²As the three hundred Israelites went on blowing the trumpets, the Lord made the Midianites in the camp kill one another. Those who managed to escape went as far as Beth-shittah toward Zererah and as far as the border of Abel-meholah opposite Tabbath.

²³Then the Israelites from the tribe of Naphtali, Asher, and the whole of Manasseh came to help Gideon, and they pursued Midian. ²⁴Gideon also sent messengers throughout all the mountains of Ephraim to say, “Come down to fight against Midian and block the passages as far as Beth-barah and along the Jordan.” So, all the men of Ephraim came out and occupied the shallow waters as far as Beth-barah and along the Jordan. ²⁵They took the two leaders of Midian, Oreb, and Zeeb, as prisoners. They killed Oreb at the rock of Oreb and Zeeb at the winepress of Zeeb. They pursued Midian and brought the heads of Oreb and Zeeb to Gideon on the other side of the Jordan.

Gideon’s Second Campaign

8 | ¹The people of Ephraim said to Gideon, “Why didn’t you call us when you went to fight against Midian?” They argued with him violently. ²He said, “What have I done compared to what you have done? Are not the grapes of Ephraim better than the vintage of Abiezer? ³The Lord has given the leaders of Midian—Oreb and Zeeb—into your hands. What have I been able to do compared to what you have done?” After hearing this, their anger lessened.

⁴Gideon and his three hundred men came to the Jordan and crossed it. They were exhausted and hungry. ⁵So he said to the people of Succoth, “Please give loaves of bread to the army that follows me, for they are exhausted and hungry, and I am still pursuing Zebah and Zalmunna, the kings of Midian.”

⁶But the elders of Succoth answered, “Have you by chance already restrained the hands of Zebah and Zalmunna? Why should we give bread to your army?” ⁷Gideon answered them, “Well, when the Lord has given Zebah and Zalmunna into my hands, I will skin your flesh with the thorns and thistles of the desert.”

⁸From there, he approached Penuel and made the same request. But they answered him as those of Succoth had. ⁹So Gideon said, “When I return victorious, I will tear down this tower.”

¹⁰Zebah and Zalmunna were in Karkor with their army of about fifteen thousand men, all that were left of the people of the East; a hundred and twenty thousand warriors had died! ¹¹Gideon went up by the road of the nomads, east of Nobah and Jogbehah, and fell upon Zebah and Zalmunna and their army. ¹²Zebah and Zalmunna fled. He pursued them, took the two as prisoners, and scattered all their army.

¹³After the battle, Gideon, the son of Joash, returned through the slope of Heres. ¹⁴He caught a young man of the people of Succoth and questioned him. The young man wrote down the names of Succoth's seventy-seven leaders and elders. ¹⁵Gideon went to the people of Succoth and said to them, “Here are Zebah and Zalmunna about whom you mocked me by saying: ‘Have you by chance already restrained the hands of Zebah and Zalmunna for us to give bread to your hungry troops?’”

¹⁶So he took the town's elders and punished the people of Succoth with thorns and thistles of the desert.

¹⁷He tore down the tower of Penuel and killed the inhabitants of the town. ¹⁸Then he said to Zebah and Zalmunna, “What did the men whom you killed at Tabor look like?” They answered, “They looked like you, like sons of kings.” ¹⁹Gideon answered, “They were my brothers, my mother's sons. As the Lord lives, if you had let them live, I would not kill you.”

²⁰He told Jether, his eldest son, “Courage, kill them!” But the youth did not draw his sword; he did not dare do it, for he was still very young. ²¹So Zebah and Zalmunna said, “Rise and kill us yourself, for as the man is, so is his courage.” Gideon arose and killed them and took the ornaments off their camels’ necks.

Gideon’s Error

•   ²²The Israelites said to Gideon, “Since you have saved us from the Midianites, you shall be our king, and after you, your son and the descendants of your son.”

²³But Gideon answered, “I will not rule over Israel, nor my son, for the Lord is our king!” ²⁴Gideon added, “I will ask something from you. Let each of you give me an earring from your booty.” Gideon said this because these Midianites wore gold earrings like all the Ishmaelites.

²⁵They answered him, “That we will gladly do.” Then Gideon spread out his cloak, and every Israelite threw in an earring from his booty. ²⁶The gold earrings reached one thousand seven hundred pieces of gold, not counting the brooches, the rings, the expensive garments used by the kings of Midian, and the collars of the camels. ²⁷Gideon made an idol with this money and put it in his city of Ophrah. People from all of Israel began to go to that place, turning away from the Lord. That was the trap into which Gideon and his family fell.

²⁸Despite this, the Midianites were humbled so that peace reigned in Israel for forty years during Gideon’s lifetime. ²⁹Gideon returned to Ophrah and remained in his house. ³⁰He had seventy sons of his blood and many wives. ³¹A woman from the city of Shechem also bore him a son whom he named Abimelech.

³²Gideon, the son of Joash, died at a happy old age and was buried in his father's tomb in Ophrah of Abiezer.

³³After the death of Gideon, the Israelites again prostituted themselves to the Baals and took Baal-Berith as a god. ³⁴The Israelites no longer remembered the Lord, their God, who had freed them from the hands of all the enemies who surrounded them. ³⁵Neither were they grateful to the family of Jerubaal-Gideon for all the good things he had done for Israel.

Abimelech

9 | ¹Abimelech, the son of Jerubaal, marched to Shechem, where his mother's brothers were. He said to them and the whole paternal family of his mother, ²“Please ask this of all the lords of Shechem: Which is better for you, that you be governed by all the seventy sons of Jerubaal, or by only one man? Remember that I am of the same blood as you are.”

³The brothers of his mother sent this message to all the lords of Shechem. The lords of Shechem took sides with Abimelech, saying, “He is our brother.” ⁴So they gave him seventy pieces of silver from the temple of Baal-Berith, which Abimelech used to hire wicked mercenaries to set out with him. ⁵Abimelech went with them to the house of his father in Ophrah, and on one stone killed all his brothers, the seventy sons of Jerubaal. Only Jotham, the youngest son of Jerubaal, could escape by hiding himself. ⁶Then all the lords of Shechem and the whole council assembled by the oak at the pillar in Shechem and proclaimed Abimelech king.

⁷When Jotham was told about this, he went to the top of Mount Gerizim and cried to them, “Listen to me, lords of Shechem, that God may listen to you!

•   ⁸The trees once set out to find and anoint a king. They said to the olive tree, ‘Be our king.’ ⁹The olive tree answered, ‘Am I going to renounce the oil by which—thanks to me—gods and people are honored to hold sway over the trees?’

¹⁰The trees said to the fig tree: ‘Come and reign over us.’ ¹¹The fig tree answered them, ‘Am I going to renounce my sweetness and my delicious fruit to hold sway over the trees?’

¹²The trees said to the vine: ‘Come and reign over us.’ ¹³The vine answered, ‘Am I going to renounce my juice, which cheers gods and people to hold sway over the trees?’

¹⁴Then the trees said to the bramble bush: ‘Come, reign over us.’ ¹⁵The bramble bush answered the trees, ‘If you come in sincerity to anoint me as your king, then come near and take shelter in my shade; but if not, let fire break out of the bramble bush to devour even the cedars of Lebanon.’

¹⁶And tell me, have you acted rightly and truthfully in choosing Abimelech king? Have you treated Jerubaal and his family well and given him what he deserves according to his merits?

¹⁷For my father fought for you, risking his life to free you from the hands of Midian. ¹⁸But now, you have risen against the family of my father. You have killed all his seventy sons with one stone and have declared Abimelech, the son of his slave, as king over the lords of Shechem because he is your brother. ¹⁹If you have acted rightly and truthfully toward Jerubaal and his family today, then may Abimelech rejoice in you and him. ²⁰But if not, let fire break forth from Abimelech to devour the lords of Shechem and their council; and let fire break forth from their council to devour Abimelech.”

²¹Jotham fled to the safety of Beer, where he lived far from his brother Abimelech.

²²Abimelech ruled over Israel for three years. ²³But the Lord sent a spirit of discord between Abimelech and the lords of Shechem, and the lords of Shechem betrayed Abimelech. ²⁴ The Lord did this so that the seventy sons of Jerubaal might be avenged. Their blood had to fall back upon their brother Abimelech, who murdered them, and the lords of Shechem, who helped him murder his brothers.

²⁵To do him harm, the lords of Shechem prepared ambushes on the mountaintops against Abimelech and intimidated everyone who passed by the way. Abimelech was informed of this.

²⁶Then Gaal, the son of Ebed, came with his brothers, and he won the confidence of the lords of Shechem. ²⁷One day, they went to the vineyards, gathered grapes, and trod on them. Then they feasted in the temple of their god. While eating and drinking, they cursed Abimelech. ²⁸Then Gaal, the son of Ebed, exclaimed, “Who is Abimelech for the Shechemites that we should serve him? He is only the son of Jerubaal, and Zebul is but his town captain. Let us serve the people of Hamor, the father of Shechem. Why should we serve Abimelech?

²⁹If only these people were in my hands, I would remove Abimelech and say to him: Reinforce your army; come out and fight!”

³⁰When Zebul, the city governor, was informed of the plan of Gaal, the son of Ebed, he was outraged. ³¹He secretly sent messengers to Abimelech to say, “See, Gaal, the son of Ebed, has come with his brothers to Shechem, and he is stirring up the city against you. ³²Therefore, arise you and the men with you and lay an ambush in the field. ³³By early morning at sunrise, go and rush upon the city. When Gaal comes out against you with his men, you may do to him whatever you wish.”

³⁴Abimelech and all his troops rose by night and laid an ambush against Shechem in four groups. ³⁵When Gaal, the son of Ebed, went out and stood at the city's entrance, Abimelech and his troops rose from their hiding place.

³⁶Gaal saw the troops and said to Zebul, “Look, people are coming down from the mountaintops.” But Zebul answered him, “It is the mountain's shadow that you see. You mistake it for men.” ³⁷Gaal said again, “Look, people are coming down from the center of the land, and another group is coming from the Diviners’ Oak.” ³⁸Zebul said, “Did you not say: Who is Abimelech that we should serve him? Are not these men whom you despised? Go now and fight them.”

³⁹Gaal went out and led the people of Shechem in fighting Abimelech. ⁴⁰Abimelech pursued Gaal, who fled, and many fell dead before reaching the gates. ⁴¹Abimelech returned to Arumah, and Zebul drove out Gaal and his brothers and did not let them live in Shechem.

Shechem Destroyed

⁴²The following day, the people went out into the fields. Abimelech was informed about this, ⁴³so he called his troops, divided them into three groups, and laid an ambush in the fields. When he saw the people coming out of the city, he rose against them and killed them. ⁴⁴Abimelech and the group with him attacked and took possession of the entrance to the city gates; other groups rushed upon those in the fields. ⁴⁵Throughout that day, Abimelech attacked the city. He took it and killed all its inhabitants. Then, he destroyed the city and sprinkled salt over it.

⁴⁶When the Tower of Shechem inhabitants heard this, they went to the underground room of the temple of El-Berith. ⁴⁷Abimelech was told that all the inhabitants of the Tower of Shechem were together, ⁴⁸so he went up to Mount Zalmon with all his troops. Taking an ax, he cut down a tree branch, lifted it, and bore it on his shoulders. He told the troops, “You have seen what I have done, so do the same.” ⁴⁹So all his men cut the branches, then followed Abimelech. They piled the branches on top of the underground room and set them on fire over the people inside. So all the inhabitants of the Tower of Shechem—about a thousand men and women—died.

Death of Abimelech

⁵⁰Abimelech went against Thebez, besieged it, and took it. ⁵¹But inside the city was a strong tower in which all the men and women, all the inhabitants of the city, sought refuge. They locked it from within and went up to the tower's roof. ⁵²Abimelech came to the tower to attack them; he approached the door, intending to set it on fire. ⁵³But a woman threw a millstone upon his head and shattered his skull. ⁵⁴He immediately called out to his young armor-bearer and said to him, “Draw your sword and kill me, lest they say of me: ‘A woman killed him.’” So his armor-bearer thrust him through, and he died. ⁵⁵When the people of Israel saw that Abimelech was dead, everyone returned to his home.

⁵⁶In this way, God repaid Abimelech for the evil he had done to his father when he murdered his seventy brothers. ⁵⁷He also made the people of Shechem pay for all their wickedness. So the curse of Jotham, son of Jerubaal, was fulfilled.

Tola, Jair, and Jephthah

10 | •  ¹After Abimelech, Tola, the son of Puah and Dodo, appeared to save Israel. He was from the tribe of Issachar and lived at Shamir, in the mountains of Ephraim. ²He was the judge of Israel for twenty-three years, and when he died, he was buried in Shamir.

³After him rose Jair of Gilead, the judge of Israel for twenty-two years. ⁴He had thirty sons who rode on thirty asses and had thirty cities which are still called the villages of Jair to this day, in the land of Gilead. ⁵When Jair died, he was buried in Kamon.

⁶The Israelites again mistreated the Lord; they served the Baals and the Ashtaroth, the gods of Aram and Sidon, the gods of Moab, the gods of the Ammonites and the Philistines. They abandoned the Lord and no longer served him. ⁷The anger of the Lord burned against Israel, so he gave them into the hands of the Philistines and the Ammonites.

⁸For eighteen years, all the Israelites living on the other side of the Jordan in the Amorite land of Gilead were disturbed and oppressed. ⁹The Ammonites also crossed the Jordan to attack Judah, Benjamin, and the people of Ephraim. Israel was in great distress.

¹⁰In those years, the Israelites called out to the Lord saying, “We have sinned against you, for we have abandoned the Lord, our God, to serve the Baals.” ¹¹The Lord said to the Israelites, “When the Egyptians, the Amorites, the Ammonites, the Philistines, ¹²the Sidonians, Amalek, and Midian oppressed you, and you cried out to me, did I not save you from their hands? ¹³But despite this, you have abandoned me and served other gods. So I will not save you again. ¹⁴Go and cry out to the chosen gods: see if they will save you in your distress.”

¹⁵The Israelites answered the Lord, “We have sinned. Do to us whatever you wish, but save us today.” ¹⁶Then they put away the strange gods and served the Lord. And he could no longer endure the suffering of Israel.

¹⁷The Ammonites assembled and went to encamp in Gilead. The Israelites also assembled, and they encamped at Mizpah. ¹⁸Gilead's people and leaders asked one another, “Who will lead us all to fight against the Ammonites? Whoever he is, we shall make him head of all the inhabitants of Gilead.”

11 | •  ¹Jephthah the Gileadite was a valiant warrior. His mother was a prostitute, and his father was Gilead. ²But Gilead’s wife also bore him sons, and when they grew up, they drove Jephthah out, saying, “You shall not share or inherit anything in the household of our father, for you are the son of another woman.” ³Jephthah fled from his brothers and went to the region of Tob. There, he joined a band of mercenaries who made their raids with him. ⁴The time came when the Ammonites declared war on Israel. ⁵So the elders of Gilead went to Jephthah in the land of Tob ⁶and said to him, “Come and lead our men in fighting the Ammonites.”

⁷Jephthah answered the elders of Gilead, “Didn’t you drive me out of my father’s house because you hated me? Why do you come to me now in your distress?” ⁸The elders answered him, “We come asking you to join us in fighting the Ammonites; we want you to be head of the whole of Gilead.” ⁹Jephthah answered them, “If you ask me to return to fight the Ammonites and the Lord grants me victory, I will be your head.” ¹⁰They said to him, “May the Lord listen to us! Woe to us if we do not do what we just said!”

¹¹So Jephthah returned with the elders of Gilead, and the people made him their head and general. Jephthah repeated all his conditions before the Lord in Mizpah.

¹²Jephthah sent messengers to the king of the Ammonites to say to him, “What happened between us that you come and attack me in my own country?” ¹³The king answered the messengers, “When Israel left Egypt, they seized my country from the Arnon to the Jabbok and the Jordan. So give it back willingly.”

¹⁴Jephthah again sent messengers to the king of the Ammonites, ¹⁵saying, “This is what Jephthah says: Israel has not seized the land of the Ammonites. ¹⁶When they came up from Egypt, Israel went through the desert to the Sea of Reeds and came to Kadesh. ¹⁷Then Israel sent messengers to the king of Edom and said to him, ‘Let us pass through your country.’ But the king of Edom did not listen. They also sent to the king of Moab, and he, too, refused. So Israel remained at Kadesh. ¹⁸Then, journeying through the desert, they went around the country of Edom and Moab and came to the east of the land of Moab. They encamped on the other side of the Arnon, for the Arnon was the boundary of Moab. ¹⁹Israel then sent messengers to Sihon, king of the Amorites, who ruled in Heshbon, and said to him, ‘Let us pass through your country and go to our place.’ ²⁰But Sihon did not trust Israel enough to let them pass through; he gathered all his men encamped at Jahaz and attacked Israel. ²¹The Lord the God of Israel gave Sihon and all his people into the hands of Israel. Israel defeated them and conquered all the land of the Amorites who lived there. ²²So they conquered the whole territory of the Amorites from the Arnon to the Jabbok and from the desert to the Jordan.

²³Since the Lord the God of Israel has taken this land from the Amorites for his people, Israel, can you now take it away from us? ²⁴Do you not hold all that your god Chemosh has given you? In the same way, we hold all that the Lord, our God, has given us. ²⁵Will you do better than Balak, son of Zippor, the king of Moab? Was he able to attack Israel? ²⁶Israel has lived in Heshbon and the cities that depend on it for three hundred years. They have also lived in Aroer, its villages, and all the cities on both sides of Jordan. Why didn’t you recover these within that time? ²⁷I have not offended you, but you are mistreating me by attacking me. Let the Lord, the Judge, decide today between the children of Israel and Ammon.”

²⁸But the king of the Ammonites ignored Jephthah’s message.

Jephthah’s Daughter

•   ²⁹The Spirit of the Lord came upon Jephthah. He went through Gilead and Manasseh, passed through Mizpah of Gilead, and then entered the territory of the Ammonites.

³⁰Jephthah vowed to the Lord: “If you make me victorious, ³¹I shall sacrifice to you whoever first comes out of my house to meet me when I return from battle. He shall be for the Lord, and I shall offer him up through the fire.”

³²Jephthah crossed the territory of the Ammonites to fight against them, and the Lord gave him victory. ³³He pursued them from the city of Aroer to the entrance of Minnith and Abel-keramin, seizing twenty towns. So he defeated the Ammonites.

³⁴When Jephthah returned home to Mizpah, his daughter met him. She was so happy to see her father that she danced to the sound of her tambourine. She was an only child; he had no other daughter or son besides her.

³⁵When Jephthah saw her, he tore his clothes and cried out, “My daughter, you have shattered me; you have brought me misfortune. I have made a foolish vow to the Lord, and now I cannot return it.” ³⁶She answered him, “Father, even if you have made such a foolish vow, you must do to me just as you promised, for the Lord has avenged you and crushed your enemies. ³⁷I beg you to give me two months to live with my companions in the mountains. There, I shall lament because I will never marry.” ³⁸Jephthah said to her, “Go then.” And he sent her away for two months. She and her companions went to the mountains and wept because she would never marry.

³⁹At the end of two months, she returned to her father, and he fulfilled his vow. The young girl had never known a man. From this comes the Israelite custom ⁴⁰that the daughters of Israel go out for four days annually to lament the daughter of Jephthah the Gileadite.

12 | ¹The men of Ephraim gathered, crossed the Jordan northward, and said to Jephthah, “Why did you go and attack the Ammonites without asking us to march with you? For this, we shall burn you inside your house.” ²Jephthah answered them, “My people and I had a great struggle with the Ammonites. I asked for your help, but you did not save me from their hands. ³When I saw that no one had come to help me, I risked my own life and marched against the Ammonites, and the Lord gave them into my hands. Why, then, have you come up today to fight me?”

⁴Then, Jephthah gathered all the men of Gilead and attacked Ephraim. The Gileadites defeated the Ephraimites, who told them, “You, Gileadites, are fugitives who crossed from Ephraim and Manasseh.” ⁵Gilead seized the shallow waters of the Jordan and blocked the way. Whenever a fugitive from Ephraim said, “Let me pass,” the men of Gilead would ask him, “Are you an Ephraimite?” If he responded, “No,” ⁶they would add, “Then say Shibboleth.”

But then he would say, “Shibboleth,” for an Ephraimite who could not pronounce it correctly. So they would seize him and cut his throat by the shallow waters of the Jordan. Forty-two thousand men from Ephraim perished at that time.

⁷Jephthah was the judge in Israel for six years. Then, he died and was buried in his city, Mizpah of Gilead. ⁸After him, Ibzan of Bethlehem was a judge in Israel. ⁹He had thirty sons and thirty daughters. His thirty daughters were given in marriage outside his clan, but he brought in thirty women for his sons. He was the judge in Israel for seven years. ¹⁰When Ibzan died, he was buried in Bethlehem.

¹¹After him, Elon the Zebulunite became the judge in Israel. He governed Israel for ten years. ¹²Then he died and was buried in Aijalon in the land of Zebulun.

¹³After him, Abdon, the son of Hillel of Pirathon, was the judge in Israel. ¹⁴He had forty sons and thirty grandsons who rode on seventy asses. He was the judge in Israel for eight years. ¹⁵Then he died and was buried at Pirathon, in the mountains of Ephraim, in the mountain of the Amorites.

Samson’s Birth Foretold

13 | •  ¹The Israelites again mistreated the Lord, so he gave them into the hands of the Philistines for forty years.

²There was a man of Zorah of the tribe of Dan called Manoah. His wife could not bear children. ³The angel of the Lord appeared to this woman and said to her, “You have not borne children and have not given birth, but see, you are to conceive and give birth to a son. ⁴Because of this, take care not to take wine or any alcoholic drink, nor to eat unclean foods from now on, ⁵for you shall bear a son who shall be a Nazirite of the Lord from the womb of his mother. Never shall his hair be cut, for he is consecrated to the Lord. He shall begin the liberation of the Israelites from the Philistine oppression.”

⁶The woman told her husband, “A messenger of God who bore the majesty of an angel spoke to me. I did not ask him where he came from, nor did he tell me his name.

⁷But he told me: ‘You are to conceive and give birth to a son. Henceforth, you shall not drink wine or fermented drinks, nor eat anything unclean, for your son shall be a Nazirite of God from the womb of his mother until the day of his death.’”

⁸Manoah called upon the Lord and said, “I pray you, Lord, that the man of God whom you have sent may come again to us and teach us how to bring up the boy who is to be born.” ⁹The Lord listened to Manoah, and the angel of the Lord came to the woman seated in the fields. Again, Manoah, her husband, was not with her when the angel came.

¹⁰The woman immediately ran to inform her husband and told him, “Look, the man who came to me the other day is here again.” ¹¹Manoah rose and followed his wife. He came to the man and asked, “Are you the man who has spoken to this woman?”

He answered, “I am.” ¹²Manoah said, “When your word is fulfilled, what rule and direction shall the boy follow?”

¹³The angel of the Lord answered Manoah, “She must abstain from all I have indicated to this woman. ¹⁴She shall not taste anything from the grape, drink wine or fermented drinks, or eat anything unclean, and observe everything I have commanded her.”

¹⁵Manoah then said to the angel of the Lord, “Permit us to detain you and prepare a young goat for you.” (Manoah did not know that the man was the angel of the Lord) ¹⁶But he said to Manoah, “Even if I did stay, I would not taste your food. But if you want to offer a burnt offering, offer it to the Lord.” ¹⁷So Manoah said to the angel of the Lord, “What is your name, that we may honor you when your word comes true.” ¹⁸The angel of the Lord answered him, “Why do you ask my name? It is Wonderful…” ¹⁹Manoah then took the young goat and the cereal offering and offered it upon the rock as a holocaust to the Lord who does wonderful things.

²⁰And something happened as Manoah and his wife looked on. A fire broke forth from the altar, rising toward heaven, and the angel of the Lord ascended in the flame.

When Manoah and his wife saw this, they fell faces downward on the ground. ²¹When the angel of the Lord vanished from the sight of Manoah and his wife, Manoah knew then that he was the angel of the Lord. ²²And he said to his wife, “We shall surely die for we have seen God.” ²³She answered him, “If the Lord had wanted to kill us, he would not have accepted the holocaust or the offering from our hand; he would not have made all these things happen or said what we have just heard.”

²⁴The woman gave birth to a son and named him Samson. The boy grew, and the Lord blessed him. ²⁵Then the Spirit of the Lord began to move him when he was in Mahaneh-dan between Zorah and Eshtaol.

Samson’s Achievements

14 | ¹Samson went down to Timnah and saw a Philistine woman. ²He came up and said to his father and mother, “I have seen a Philistine woman at Timnah; get her for me that she may be my wife.” ³His father and mother said to him, “Is there no one among the daughters of your brothers and among all your people that you should go and take a wife from among those uncircumcised Philistines?”

Samson said to his father, “Get her for me, for I like her.” ⁴His father and mother did not know that this came from the Lord, who was seeking a quarrel with the Philistines; at that time, the Philistines had dominion over Israel.

⁵Samson then went down to Timnah, and when he reached the vineyards at Timnah, a young lion came up roaring toward him. ⁶The Spirit of the Lord then seized Samson. With bare hands, he tore the lion to pieces as he would have done with a young goat. ⁷But he told neither his father nor mother what he had done. ⁸Then he went down and talked to the woman who pleased him.

After some time, he returned to take her. He went out of his way to look at the lion's carcass. He found a swarm of bees and honey in the lion’s carcass. ⁹Samson scraped the honey into his hands and ate it as he walked.

When he reached his parents, he gave them honey, which they ate. But he did not tell them he had taken the honey from the lion’s carcass. ¹⁰Then, Samson’s father went down to the woman, and Samson offered a banquet, which was the custom among the young. ¹¹When he appeared, the Philistines assigned thirty men to accompany him as his wedding companions.

¹²Samson told them, “I will give you a riddle. If you can give me the right solution within the seven days of the feast, I shall give you thirty tunics and thirty linen garments. ¹³But if you can’t tell me the solution, you will give me thirty tunics and thirty linen garments.” They answered, “Tell your riddle; we are listening.”

¹⁴He told them, “From him who eats came what is eaten, and from the strong, sweetness came.” ¹⁵After three days, they had not guessed the riddle. So, on the fourth day, they told Samson’s wife, “Convince your husband to explain the riddle to us, or we will burn you and your father’s family. Did you invite us to rob us?”

¹⁶Samson’s wife began to weep, and she threw herself upon her husband, saying, “You do not like me or love me anymore. You have given a riddle to the young men of my people, but you have not explained it to me.” He told her, “I have not explained it even to my parents; why should I explain it to you?” ¹⁷She cried before him for seven days while the feast lasted. He explained it to her on the seventh day, for he was bored with her crying. She then related it to her villagers.

¹⁸On the seventh day, before the married couple entered the wedding chamber, the city's people said to Samson, “What is sweeter than honey? What is stronger than a lion?” He said to them, “If you had not plowed with my young cow, you would not have guessed my riddle.”

¹⁹Then the Spirit of the Lord seized him. He went down to Ashkelon, killed thirty men, took their plunder, and gave the linen garments to those who had guessed the riddle. Then, in great anger, he approached his father’s house. ²⁰So Samson’s wife was given to one of his wedding companions.

15 | ¹After some time, during the wheat harvest, Samson visited his wife, bringing a young goat with him, and he said, “I want to be with my wife in our room.” But her father would not let him in, ²saying, “I thought that you did not like her anymore, so I gave her to your companion. Is not her younger sister still better? Why don’t you take her instead?” ³Samson replied, “This time, I owe nothing to the Philistines even if I do them harm.”

⁴Samson went out and caught three hundred foxes, took some torches, and tied the animal’s tail to tail. He then placed a torch between every two tails, ⁵set fire to the torches, and turned the foxes loose in the grain fields of the Philistines. In this way, he burned the sheaves, the standing grain, the vineyards, and the olive groves.

⁶The Philistines asked, “Who did this?” And they answered, “Samson, the son-in-law of the man from Timnah, because this man took his wife and gave her to his companion.” So they went up and burned her and her family. ⁷Samson said to them, “Since you did this, I will not rest until I have had my revenge on you.” ⁸So he caused great havoc upon them. Then he went down to live in a cave in the rock of Etam.

⁹The Philistines went up to the mountains of Judah and raided Lehi. ¹⁰The men of Judah asked them, “Why have you come to attack us?” They answered, “We have come to capture Samson and do to him what he did to us.”

¹¹Three thousand men of Judah went down to the cave at the rock of Etam and said to Samson, “Do you not know that the Philistines lord it over us? Now, what have you done to us?” He answered, “What they did to me, I have done to them.” ¹²They said to him, “We have come down to tie you up and hand you over to the Philistines.” Samson said to them, “Swear to me that you will not kill me.” ¹³They answered, “No, we only want to tie you up and hand you over to them, but we will not kill you.” They bound him with two new ropes, bringing him up from the rocks. ¹⁴When they arrived in Lehi, the Philistines ran to him with shouts of victory. But the Spirit of the Lord came upon Samson. The ropes that bound him became like linen flax burned in the fire, and the knots were loosened from his arms. ¹⁵He found a fresh jawbone of an ass, grabbed it, and with it, killed a thousand men. ¹⁶Samson then said, “With the jawbone of an ass, I dealt them a mighty blow; with the jawbone of an ass, I beat a thousand men.”

¹⁷When he finished speaking, he threw away the jawbone, which is why the place was called Ramath-Lehi. ¹⁸ Then he became very thirsty and called out to the Lord, saying, “You have given your servant this great victory. Now am I to die of thirst and fall into the hands of the uncircumcised?”

¹⁹So the Lord opened a hollow in the ground at Lehi, and water gushed forth from it. Samson drank; his strength returned, and he was revived. For this, the fountain, which is still in Lehi today, was named En-hakkore.

²⁰Samson became the judge of Israel for twenty years during the time of the Philistines.

16 | ¹When Samson went to Gaza, he saw a prostitute and entered where she lived. ² When the men of Gaza were notified that Samson had come, they made the rounds and waited for him at the city gates. They kept quiet all night, thinking, “We will wait for him until dawn, and then we will kill him.” ³But Samson slept until midnight. At midnight, he arose, took hold of the door panels of the city gates together with the door case, and pulled them up with the bar. He put them upon his shoulders and carried them to the hilltop opposite Hebron.

Samson and Delilah

•   ⁴After this, Samson fell in love with a woman in the valley of Sorek; she was called Delilah. ⁵The Philistine chiefs said to this woman, “Charm him and find out where he gets such strength and how we can defeat and tie him up. Each of us shall give you eleven hundred pieces of silver.”

⁶So Delilah asked Samson, “Tell me, please, where do you get such strength, and how can others tie you up to subdue you?” ⁷Samson answered her, “If they bind me with seven new and moist bowstrings, then I shall lose my strength and be as any other man.”

⁸The Philistine chiefs sent Delilah seven new bowstrings that had not been dried, and she tied Samson with them. ⁹With men hidden in her dwelling, she shouted, “Samson, here come the Philistines!” Samson broke the bowstrings as if they were burned flax. So, they did not find out where his great strength came from.

¹⁰Then Delilah told Samson, “You made a fool of me and lied to me. Tell me, how can they subdue you?” ¹¹Samson answered her, “If they bind me this time with seven newly-braided ropes which have never been used, then I shall lose my strength and be like any other man.” ¹²So Delilah bound him with seven new braided ropes. But when she shouted, “Here come the Philistines!” he again snapped the ropes around his arms like a thread. ¹³So Delilah said to him, “How long will you deceive me and lie to me? Tell me how they can subdue you.” He answered her, “If you braid the seven locks of my hair in the warp of the loom and tighten it with a pin, then I shall lose my strength.” ¹⁴She lulled him to sleep, then braided the seven locks of his hair in the loom's warp and tightened it with a pin. Then she cried, “Here come the Philistines!” Samson woke up and pulled the warp with the locks of his hair. And so, Delilah did not find out where his great strength came from.

¹⁵Then Delilah said to him, “You say that you love me, but your heart is not with me. Three times, you have deceived me and have not told me from whence your great strength comes.” ¹⁶And as Delilah insisted and bothered him daily with her questions, the time came when Samson felt he would die in disgust. ¹⁷So he told her the truth: “Never has my hair been cut, for I am a Nazirite, consecrated to God from the womb of my mother. If my hair is cut, I shall lose my strength and be like any other man.”

¹⁸Delilah understood that he had told her the truth this time, so she called the Philistine chiefs and said, “Come, because Samson has revealed his secret to me.” They took the money and came to her. ¹⁹Delilah lulled Samson to sleep upon her knees and called a man to cut the seven locks of his hair. She could immediately subdue him, for his strength had left him.

²⁰When Delilah shouted, “Samson, the Philistines!” he awoke and thought that he could still save himself as on other occasions. But he did not know that the Lord was no longer with him. ²¹So the Philistines seized him, gouged out his eyes, and brought him to Gaza. There, they bound him with two bronze chains and made him turn the mill in the prison. ²²The hair on Samson’s head grew as soon as it was cut.

Death of Samson

²³The Philistine chiefs assembled to offer a great sacrifice to their god Dagon and had a great feast, saying, “Our god has given Samson, our enemy, into our hands!” ²⁴When the people saw him, they praised their god, saying, “Our god has handed our enemy over to us, the one who ruined our land and killed so many of us!”

²⁵As they were thrilled, they said, “Bring out Samson that he may amuse us.” They brought him out of prison, and he amused them. Then, they had him placed between the columns. ²⁴ On seeing him, the people praised their god, saying, “Our god has put our enemy into our hands, Samson, who has destroyed our country and killed our men.”

²⁶Samson then said to the boy who held him by the hand, “Lead me where I can touch the pillars on which this house rests so that I may lean on them.” ²⁷The house was full of men and women; all the Philistine chiefs were also there, and on the roof were about three thousand men and women watching Samson for amusement.

²⁸Samson called on the Lord and exclaimed, “Lord God, please remember me and restore my strength only this once, so that I may avenge myself against the Philistines for my eyes.”

²⁹Samson grasped the two middle pillars on which the house rested, leaned on them with his right arm on one pillar and his left on the other, ³⁰and cried out, “Let me die with the Philistines!” He pushed with all his strength, and the house fell upon the chiefs and the people gathered there. Those who joined him in his death were more than those he had killed during his lifetime.

³¹His brothers and his father's whole family went down to get him. They buried him between Zorah and Eshtaol in his father's tomb, Manoah. He had judged Israel for twenty years.

The Story of Micah

17 | • ¹Micah lived in the mountains of Ephraim. ²One day, he said to his mother, “The eleven hundred pieces of silver taken from you and about which you uttered a curse, well, I took that silver. And now, I return it to you.” ³His mother answered, “May the Lord bless my son!” So he returned the eleven hundred pieces of silver to his mother.

But his mother told him, “I had consecrated this money to the Lord with my own hand so that with this money, my son could make a statue cast in metal. So I am giving this silver back to you.”

⁴He, however, returned the silver to his mother, who set aside two hundred pieces for the silversmith, who made a statue cast in metal. ⁵This was placed in the house of Micah so that Micah had a house of God. He also made an ephod to consult the Lord as they cast lots and some small idols and consecrated one of his sons as his priest. ⁶ There was no king in Israel, and each did what seemed right to him.

⁷A young Levite of Bethlehem in Judah, a descendant of Moses who lived there as a foreigner, ⁸left Bethlehem one day and set out to see where he could live as a guest. He came to Micah's house in the mountains of Ephraim, ⁹and Micah asked him, “Where do you come from?” He answered, “I am a Levite, and I have come walking from Bethlehem; I am searching for a place to stay as a guest.” ¹⁰Micah told him, “Stay in my house and be a father and priest to me; I shall give you ten pieces of silver a year, clothing, and food.” So the Levite went into his house.

¹¹The Levite agreed to stay in Micah’s house and became like one of his sons. ¹²Micah consecrated the Levite, and this young man became his priest and remained in Micah's house. 13 And Micah said, “Now I know that the Lord will bestow favors on me, for this Levite has become my priest.”

18 | ¹At that time, there was no king in Israel. The tribe of Dan was looking for a territory to dwell in because, until that day, they had not received a share in the inheritance of the tribes of Israel. ²So the Danites sent five valiant men from Zorah and Eshtaol—all from the Danite tribe—to go around the land and explore it. They said to them, “Go and explore the country.” These men came to the mountains of Ephraim near Micah's house and spent the night there.

³When they were near the house, they recognized the voice of the young Levite, so they went in. They asked him, “Who has brought you here? What are you doing in this place? Why are you here?” ⁴He answered, “Such and such a thing Micah has done for me. He has hired me to become his priest.” ⁵They told him, “Ask God so we may know whether the journey we are making shall be successful or not.” ⁶The priest answered them, “Go in peace; the journey you make is under the eye of the Lord.”

⁷The five men left and came to Laish. They saw that the inhabitants of that place were living in security according to the customs of the Sidonians—quiet and trusting people—with no one creating trouble. They lived far from the Sidonians and had no dealings with anyone else.

⁸Upon their return to their brothers in Zorah and Eshtaol, ⁹they were asked, “What news do you bring?” They answered, “Come on, let us go and attack them, for the country we have seen is an excellent place. But why are you silent? Do not delay in setting out to conquer the land. ¹⁰When you go, you shall meet quiet people; the land is vast, and God has given it into our hands, a place that does not lack anything.”

¹¹So six hundred armed men of the tribe of Dan set out from Zorah and Eshtaol; ¹²they went up and encamped at Kiriath-jearim in Judah. ¹³From there, they passed through the mountains of Ephraim and came to the house of Micah.

¹⁴Then, the five men who had gone to explore the land addressed their brothers and said, “Do you not know that in one of these houses, there is an ephod used to consult the Lord, some small idols, and a statue cast in metal? Now, decide what you have to do.”

¹⁵The troops detoured and entered the house of the young Levite, the house of Micah. They greeted him ¹⁶while the six hundred armed Danites stood at the gate's threshold. ¹⁷Then the five men who had earlier gone up to explore the land went up again, entered Micah’s house ¹⁸and took the statue, the ephod that is used to consult the Lord and the small idols, while the priest stood at the gate with the six hundred armed men. The priest said to them, “What are you doing?” ¹⁹They said to him, “Be quiet! Put your hand on your mouth and come with us. You shall be a father and priest to us. Do you prefer to be a priest in one individual's house or a priest for a tribe of Israel?”

²⁰This made the priest happy, so he took the ephod, the small idols, and the statue and went with the troops.

²¹The Danites went on their way, putting the women, children, livestock, and precious objects in front of them. ²²They were already far from the house of Micah when the people of the neighboring houses started shouting and set out to pursue them. ²³But the Danites turned around and asked Micah, “Why are you shouting?” ²⁴He answered, “You have taken the gods I made, and my priest is going away with you. What else is left to me? And yet you still ask me: ‘What is the matter with you?’” ²⁵The Danites answered him, “Be quiet now lest some ill-tempered men fall upon you and kill you and your household.” ²⁶So the Danites went their way, and Micah, seeing that they were stronger, returned home.

²⁷As for them, they now had the gods Micah had fashioned and the priest he had in his service, and they marched on against Laish, a quiet and trusting people. They put the inhabitants to the sword and burned the city. ²⁸ No one came to help them, for they lived far from Sidon and had no relationship with anyone else. This city was in the valley that extended to Beth-Rehob.

²⁹The Danites rebuilt the city and lived there, and they gave it the name Dan in memory of their ancestor Dan, son of Israel. However, the city was formerly called Laish. ³⁰They set aside a place for the statue, and Jonathan—a descendant of Gershom, son of Moses—and his sons after him became priests of the tribe of Dan until the people were driven out of the land. ³¹They set up Micah's image, and there it remained as long as the house of God was in Shiloh.

The Crime at Gibeah

19 | •  ¹At that time when there was still no king in Israel, a Levite who lived deep in the mountains of Ephraim took a woman from Bethlehem in Judah as a concubine. ²This woman left him and returned to her father’s house in Bethlehem of Judah. She remained there for about four months. ³Her husband set out to visit her and speak to her heart to make her return to his home. He brought with him a servant and two asses.

She welcomed him to her father's house, who was glad to see him. 4 His father-in-law, the girl's father, made him stay, so he remained with him for three days. They ate, drank, and spent the night there. ⁵On the fourth day, they rose early in the morning, and the Levites prepared to leave. But the young maiden's father told his son-in-law, “Eat some bread first so you can regain your strength, then you can go.”

⁶The two sat and began to eat and drink together. Then the father-in-law said, “Please spend the night here and have a good time.” ⁷When the Levite got up to leave, his father-in-law insisted, so he stayed that night.

⁸On the fifth day, he rose early in the morning to go, but the young maiden's father told him, “Have more patience and stay until evening.” So they ate together. ⁹But when the husband, his concubine, and his servant stood up to leave, the father-in-law said to his son-in-law, “Look, it’s already getting dark. Spend the night here and enjoy yourself. You can leave early tomorrow morning and be on your way home.” ¹⁰But the Levite refused to spend the night there, so he got up, left, and arrived opposite Jebus, Jerusalem. He brought with him the two saddled asses, his concubine and his servant.

¹¹It was very late when they came near Jebus. So the servant said to his master, “Let us not go any farther but go into the city of the Jebusites and spend the night there.” ¹²His master answered, “Let us not go to a foreign city where there are no Israelites; we will go to Gibeah.” And he added to his servant, ¹³“Come and let us go near one of those towns. We will spend the night in Gibeah or in Ramah.” ¹⁴So they went their way, and at sunset, they arrived opposite Gibeah of Benjamin. ¹⁵They turned aside and went there to spend the night. ¹⁶Then, an old man came in from work in the fields. He was a man from the mountains of Ephraim and lived as a visitor in Gibeah, for the people of that place were of the tribe of Benjamin. ¹⁷Looking to one side, the old man noticed the visitor in the city square and asked, “Where do you come from, and where are you going?” ¹⁸He answered, “We are passing through, for we come from Bethlehem of Judah, and we are going up to the borders of the mountains of Ephraim where I come from. I went to Bethlehem of Judah, and I am returning home. But here, no one has offered me his house. ¹⁹We have, however, straw and green fodder for our asses, and bread and wine for me, my wife, and the young man who accompanies us. We don’t lack anything.”

²⁰The old man said to him, “Peace be with you. I shall provide you with all that you need. Just don’t spend the night in the square.” ²¹He brought them to his house and gave fodder to the asses. The travelers washed their feet, then ate and drank.

²²As they were relaxing, the wicked men of the city went round the house, pounded on the door, and said to the old man who owned the house, “Bring out the man you have welcomed into your house so we may amuse ourselves with him.” ²³The house owner went out to them and said, “No, my brothers, do not mistreat him. This man has come into my house, so do not do him evil. ²⁴Here is my daughter, a virgin, and my companion’s concubine. I can give her to you if you want. Ravish her and do with her what seems good to you, but not with this man.” ²⁵But those men would not listen to him. So the man took his concubine and brought her outside. They violated and maltreated her the whole night until morning. At dawn, they left her.

²⁶Early in the morning, the woman came and fell at the entrance of the man’s house where her husband was. She lay there until it was day. ²⁷When her husband rose in the morning, opened the house door, and went on his way, he saw the woman, his concubine, lying at the house's entrance, her hands on the threshold. ²⁸He told her, “Get up, and let us go.” But there was no response. So the man put her on his ass and went home.

²⁹When he arrived home, he took a knife and, taking hold of his concubine, he divided her, limb by limb, into twelve pieces and sent them throughout the territory of Israel. ³⁰He gave his messengers this order: “Say this to the Israelites: Until today, have you seen anything like this since the Israelites came up from the land of Egypt? Think about it. Seek counsel and decide.” Everyone who saw it said: “Until today, never has this happened, nor has a thing like this been seen since the Israelites came up from the land of Egypt.”

20 | ¹So all the children of Israel, the whole community from Dan to Beer-sheba, gathered as one man, including the land of Gilead, before the Lord at Mizpah. ²The heads of all the people and all the tribes of Israel came to the assembly of the people of God: four hundred thousand men on foot, all armed with swords.

³The men of the tribe of Benjamin also knew that the Israelites had gone up to Mizpah.

The Israelites said, “Tell us how this crime happened.” ⁴The Levite, the husband of the murdered woman, addressed them and said, “I arrived at Gibeah in Benjamin with my concubine to spend the night there. ⁵By night, the residents of Gibeah showed up and surrounded the house, intending to harm us. They were determined to kill me, and they abused my concubine in such a way that she died. ⁶I then took her, cut her into pieces, one piece to each territory of Israel, because what they have done is a shame for Israel. ⁷Now that you are here, all Israelites, discuss among yourselves and make a decision now.”

⁸All the people rose as one man and said, “None of us shall return to his tent nor go to his house. ⁹This is what we will do with the people of Gibeah: we will draw lots ¹⁰and take from the tribes of Israel ten men for every hundred, a hundred for every thousand, and a thousand for every ten thousand. They shall gather provisions for the troops who will punish Gibeah in Benjamin for the crime its inhabitants have committed in Israel.” ¹¹So all the men of Israel united as one man against the city.

¹²The tribes of Israel sent messengers throughout the whole tribe of Benjamin and said to them: “What is this crime that has been committed among you? ¹³Hand over those wicked men of Gibeah to us, that we may kill them and banish the evil from Israel.” But the Benjaminites did not mind their Israelite brothers.

¹⁴Meanwhile, the Benjaminites also left their cities and gathered at Gibeah to face the Israelites. ¹⁵That day, the Benjaminites from different cities totaled twenty-six thousand men armed with swords, without counting the inhabitants of Gibeah. ¹⁶Among them were seven hundred valiant men, all left-handed and able to sling a stone at a hair’s breadth without missing.

¹⁷The people of Israel also counted their men. Without counting Benjamin, four hundred thousand men could draw the sword, all men of war. ¹⁸So they set out and went up to Bethel, asking God: “Who among us shall go up first to fight the sons of Benjamin?” And the Lord answered, “Judah shall go up first.”

¹⁹The Israelites rose early and encamped opposite Gibeah. ²⁰They went out to fight against Benjamin and drew up the battle line against Gibeah. ²¹But the Benjaminites came out of Gibeah and killed twenty-two thousand Israelites. ²²On the second day, the sons of Israel attacked the Benjaminites.

²³The Israelites then went up to weep before the Lord until evening and asked the Lord, saying, “Shall we fight again with the sons of our brother Benjamin?” The Lord answered, “Go up against them.”

²⁴So the people, the troops of Israel, regained their courage and returned to their former battle line. ²⁵On that day, too, the Benjaminites went out against them and killed eighteen thousand sword-wielding Israelites.

²⁶Then all the Israelites and people went up to Bethel. There they sat weeping before the Lord. They fasted the whole day until evening and presented burnt and peace offerings before the Lord, ²⁷for the Ark of the Covenant was there, ²⁸with Phinehas, son of Eleazar, son of Aaron, as its minister. They asked: “Shall we come out again and fight the sons of our brother Benjamin?” The Lord replied, “Go up tomorrow, and I will give them into your hands.”

²⁹Israel set men in ambush around Gibeah. ³⁰On the third day, the Israelites marched against Gibeah and positioned themselves in the battle line as in previous times. ³¹The sons of Benjamin went out against them, but the Israelites cut off the way that led back to the city. The Benjaminites began as before to attack the men of Israel, killing about thirty men on the roads going up to Bethel and Gibeah. ³²The Benjaminites thought: “We have defeated them again.”

But the Israelites said to themselves: “Let us flee to draw them away from the city and cut off the roads.” ³³All the men of Israel moved from their camp and took up a position at Baal-Tamar, while those in ambush rushed to the west of Gibeah. ³⁴So ten thousand chosen men from all Israel came against Gibeah. The battle was fought hard, and the Benjaminites did not notice the calamity to come upon them. ³⁵The Lord defeated Benjamin before Israel, and on that day, the Israelites killed twenty-five thousand Benjaminites, all sword-wielding men.

³⁶The Benjaminites thought they were victorious, but the men of Israel gave them ground because they relied on the ambush they had set against Gibeah. ³⁷The men in the ambush rushed out and quickly deployed themselves. They attacked Gibeah and put the whole city to the sword. ³⁸The men of Israel had planned with those in ambush that smoke would rise from the city as a signal. At this, the Israelites would then return and fight.

³⁹So the Israelites who pretended to escape returned when the Benjaminites had killed about thirty men and had thought: “Now they are defeated as in the first battle.” ⁴⁰The smoke signal was already rising from the city. When the Benjaminites looked behind, they saw the whole city was on fire, with flames rising to heaven. ⁴¹When the Israelites faced them, the Benjaminites trembled before the calamity which had come upon them. ⁴²They retreated before the men of Israel and fled in the direction leading to the desert. But the Israelites who came out of the city overtook them and destroyed them. ⁴³They surrounded the men of Benjamin, pursued them without rest, and crushed them opposite Gibeah by the east.

⁴⁴Eighteen thousand Benjaminites fell, all valiant men. ⁴⁵The survivors retreated and fled towards the desert to the rock of Rimmon. About five thousand men, however, were killed on the way. They also pursued Benjamin as far as Gideon, killing two thousand men.

⁴⁶On that day, twenty-five thousand sword-wielding Benjaminites died, all valiant men. Of those who fled to the desert to the rock of Rimmon, ⁴⁷six hundred escaped. They remained there for four months. ⁴⁸The troops of Israel turned against the towns of Benjamin and put them to the sword, the people as well as the livestock, and everything in them. They also burned all the cities they found.

21 | ¹The men of Israel swore at Mizpah: “None of us shall give his daughter in marriage to any Benjaminite.”

²The people went to Bethel. They sat before the Lord until evening, calling on him and weeping with great lamentation.

³They said, “The Lord, God of Israel, why has this misfortune happened to Israel, that one of its tribes has perished today?” ⁴On the next day, the people rose early, built an altar there, and offered holocausts and peace offerings. ⁵The Israelites then asked, “Who among all the tribes of Israel did not come to the assembly of the Lord?” They solemnly swore that whoever would not come to Mizpah before the Lord should die.

⁶The sons of Israel had compassion on their brother Benjamin and said, “Today, a tribe of Israel has been cut off. 7 What shall we do to provide wives for those that remain, for we have sworn to the Lord not to give them our daughters in marriage?”

⁸Because of this, they asked, “Did any tribe of Israel not come up to Mizpah before the Lord?” And they discovered that none from Jabesh of Gilead had come to the camp for the assembly. ⁹They made the census and saw no one from Jabesh of Gilead.

¹⁰Then the community sent there twelve thousand of their valiant men with this order: “Go and put to the sword the inhabitants of Jabesh of Gilead, including women and children. ¹¹This is what you shall do: kill every man and every woman who has had a relation with a man, but let the maidens live.” ¹²So they did. They found four hundred young virgins among the inhabitants of Yabesh in Gilead (who had not had any relations with man), and they brought them to the camp at Shiloh in the land of Canaan.

¹³Then the community sent messengers to the Benjaminites who were at the rock of Rimmon to make peace with them, ¹⁴and the Benjaminites returned. The Israelites gave them the women of Yabesh of Gilead they had spared, but there were not enough for all.

¹⁵The people had compassion again on Benjamin, for the Lord had let one of the tribes of Israel perish. ¹⁶So the community elders said, “What can we do to provide wives for those that are left, for the women of Benjamin were killed?” ¹⁷And they added, “How can the survival of Benjamin be assured that a tribe of Israel may not perish? ¹⁸We cannot give them our daughters since we have made this oath: Cursed be he who gives a wife to Benjamin?”

¹⁹But they said, “It is now the feast of the Lord which is celebrated annually at Shiloh, north of Bethel, east of the road that goes up from Bethel to Shechem, and south of Lebonah.” ²⁰So they advised the Benjaminites: “Go and wait in ambush in the vineyards. ²¹Be ready, and when the maidens of Shiloh come dancing in groups, come out of the vineyards, and each man seize a wife and go to the land of Benjamin.

²²If their fathers or brothers come to complain against you, we shall tell them: Try to understand them; see, the war left us with no means of giving a wife to each one of them. You are not the ones who gave them your maidens. Otherwise, you would have broken your vow.”

²³So the Benjaminites did and seized the women they needed. Then they returned to their inheritance, rebuilt their cities, and dwelt in them.

²⁴The Israelites were then marched to their homes by tribes and families.

²⁵At that time, there was no king in Israel, and everyone did what seemed good to him.