It happened after the death of Joshua, the children of Israel asked of Yahweh, saying, "Who should go up for us first against the Canaanites, to fight against them?"

The Lord said, "The men of Judah should take the lead. Be sure of this! I am handing the land over to them."

but you must not make an agreement with the people who live in this land. You should tear down the altars where they worship.' But you have disobeyed me. Why would you do such a thing?

And Jael will go forth to meet Sisera, and will say to him, Turn aside, my lord, turn aside to me; thou shalt not be afraid. And he will turn aside to her to the tent, and she will cover him with a carpet

Again he said unto her, Stand in the door of the tent, and it shall be, when any man doth come and inquire of thee, and say, Is there any man here? that thou shalt say, No.

They chose new gods; then was war in the gates: was there a shield or spear seen among forty thousand in Israel?

The most rewarded of women should be Jael, the wife of Heber the Kenite! She should be the most rewarded of women who live in tents.

And the LORD looked upon him, and said, Go in this thy might, and thou shalt save Israel from the hand of the Midianites: have not I sent thee?

And he answered him, "Oh Lord, wherewith should I save Israel? Behold my kindred is the poorest in Manasseh, and I am the least in my father's house."

And the LORD said unto him, Surely I will be with thee, and thou shalt smite the Midianites as one man.

Now thou shalt not depart from here till my coming to thee, and I brought forth my gift and set it before thee. And he will say, I will remain till thy turning back

And the LORD said unto him, Peace be unto thee; fear not: thou shalt not die.

And it came to pass, on that night, that Yahweh said unto him - Take the young bullock that belongeth to thy father, even the second bullock of seven years, - and throw thou down the altar of Baal, that belongeth to thy father, and, the sacred stem that is by it, shalt thou cut down.

And build an altar unto the LORD thy God upon the top of this rock, in the ordered place, and take the second bullock, and offer a burnt sacrifice with the wood of the grove which thou shalt cut down.

The Lord spoke to Gideon again, "There are still too many men. Bring them down to the water and I will thin the ranks some more. When I say, 'This one should go with you,' pick him to go; when I say, 'This one should not go with you,' do not take him."

So he brought down the people unto the water: and the LORD said unto Gideon, Every one that lappeth of the water with his tongue, as a dog lappeth, him shalt thou set by himself; likewise every one that boweth down upon his knees to drink.

The Lord said to Gideon, "With the three hundred men who lapped I will deliver the whole army and I will hand Midian over to you. The rest of the men should go home."

And if thou shalt fear to go down go down thou and Phurah thy youth to the camp:

And thou shalt hear what they say; and afterward shall thine hands be strengthened to go down unto the host. Then went he down with Phurah his servant unto the outside of the armed men that were in the host.

And the princes of Succoth said, Are the hands of Zebah and Zalmunna now in thine hand, that we should give bread unto thine army?

And he came unto the men of Succoth, and said, Behold Zebah and Zalmunna, with whom ye did upbraid me, saying, Are the hands of Zebah and Zalmunna now in thine hand, that we should give bread unto thy men that are weary?

Speak, I pray you, in the ears of all the owners of Shechem - Which is better for you, that there should rule over you, seventy men, all sons of Jerubbaal, or that there should rule over you, one man? And remember that, your bone and your flesh, am I.

But the olive tree said unto them, Should I leave my fatness, wherewith by me they honour God and man, and go to be promoted over the trees?

But the fig tree said unto them, Should I forsake my sweetness, and my good fruit, and go to be promoted over the trees?

And the vine said unto them, Should I leave my wine, which cheereth God and man, and go to be promoted over the trees?

And Gaal the son of Ebed said, Who is Abimelech, and who is Shechem, that we should serve him? is not he the son of Jerubbaal? and Zebul his officer? serve the men of Hamor the father of Shechem: for why should we serve him?

And it shall be, that in the morning, as soon as the sun is up, thou shalt rise early, and set upon the city: and, behold, when he and the people that is with him come out against thee, then mayest thou do to them as thou shalt find occasion.

Then said Zebul unto him, Where is now thy mouth, wherewith thou saidst, Who is Abimelech, that we should serve him? is not this the people that thou hast despised? go out, I pray now, and fight with them.

And Abimelech dwelt at Arumah: and Zebul thrust out Gaal and his brethren, that they should not dwell in Shechem.

And Gilead's wife bare him sons; and his wife's sons grew up, and they thrust out Jephthah, and said unto him, Thou shalt not inherit in our father's house; for thou art the son of a strange woman.

And the elders of Gilead said unto Jephthah, Therefore are we turned again to thee now, that thou mayest go with us, and fight with the children of Ammon; and thou shalt be our head over all the inhabitants of Gilead.

And now the Lord God of Israel has dispossessed and driven out the Amorites from before His people Israel, so [why] should you possess it?

Shalt thou not inherit what Chemosh thy god will give thee to inherit? and all which Jehovah our God drove out from our face, we will inherit it.

And Jephthah vowed a vow unto the LORD, and said, If thou shalt without fail deliver the children of Ammon into mine hands,

And Jephthah came to Mizpeh unto his house, and, behold, his daughter came out to meet him with timbrels and with dances: and she was his only child; beside her he had neither son nor daughter.

And it became an ordinance in Israel, year by year, that the daughters of Israel should go and lament the daughter of Jephthah the Gileadite, four days in a year.

Now there was a certain man of Zorah of the family of the Danites, and his name was Manoah; and his wife had never given birth to a child.

And the angel of the LORD appeared unto the woman, and said unto her, Behold now, thou art barren, and bearest not: but thou shalt conceive, and bear a son.

And now, watch now, and drink not wine and strong drink, and thou shalt not eat any thing unclean:

For, lo, thou shalt conceive, and bear a son; and no rasor shall come on his head: for the child shall be a Nazarite unto God from the womb: and he shall begin to deliver Israel out of the hand of the Philistines.

But he said unto me, Behold, thou shalt conceive, and bear a son; and now drink no wine nor strong drink, neither eat any unclean thing: for the child shall be a Nazarite to God from the womb to the day of his death.

Then Manoah intreated the LORD, and said, O my Lord, let the man of God which thou didst send come again unto us, and teach us what we shall do unto the child that shall be born.

And Manoah said, Now let thy words come to pass. How shall we order the child, and how shall we do unto him?

The Lord's messenger told Manoah, "Your wife should pay attention to everything I told her.

She should not eat of anything that comes from the vine, or drink wine or strong drink, or eat anything unclean; she should keep all that I commanded."

The Lord's messenger said to Manoah, "If I stay, I will not eat your food. But if you want to make a burnt sacrifice to the Lord, you should offer it." (He said this because Manoah did not know that he was the Lord's messenger.)

The Lord's messenger said to him, "You should not ask me my name, because you cannot comprehend it."

But his wife said to him, If the Lord was purposing our death, he would not have taken our burned offering and our meal offering, or have given us such orders about the child.

And the woman bare a son, and called his name Samson: and the child grew, and the LORD blessed him.

But his father and mother said to him, "Certainly you can find a wife among your relatives or among all our people! You should not have to go and get a wife from the uncircumcised Philistines." But Samson said to his father, "Get her for me, because she is the right one for me."

And Samson's wife wept before him, and she said, "You must hate me; you do not love me. You told the riddle to {my people}, but you have not explained [it] to me." He said to her, "I have not explained [it] to my father and mother. [Why] should I explain it to you?"

And Samson said of them, I shall be more blameless, this time, than the Philistines, - though I should do them a mischief.

And Samson said unto them, "Should ye do so? For I will surely be avenged of you; and then I will cease."

And Delilah will say to Samson, Announce now to me in what is thy great strength, and in what thou shalt be bound to humble thee.

And Samson said unto her, "If men bound me with seven ropes of fresh sinews that were never dried, I should be weak and as another man."

And Delilah will say to Samson, Behold, thou deceivest me, and thou wilt speak to me lies: this time announce to me now in what thou shalt be bound.

And he said, "If I were bound with new ropes that never were occupied, then should I be weak, and as another man."

And Delilah will say to Samson, Till now thou deceivedst me, and thou wilt speak to me lies: announce to me in what thou shalt be bound. And he will say to her, If thou shalt weave the seven braids of my head with the warp.

so he told her all his heart, and said to her - No, razor, hath come on my head, for, one separate unto God, have I been, from my birth, - if I were shaven, then would depart from me my strength, and I should become weak, and be as any other man.

And Micah will say to him, Whence shalt thou come? and the Levite will say to him, I am from the House of Bread, of Judah, and I go to sojourn where I shall find.

They replied, "Let's get going and attack them. We've scouted out the land and look! it's a very good one. Why should we sit still? We can't wait to go back, invade, and take over the land.

The five men who had gone to scout out the land of Laish told their brothers, “Did you know that there are an ephod, household gods, and a carved image overlaid with silver in these houses? Now think about what you should do.”

And the descendants of Dan said to him, "You should not let your voice be heard among us, so that {ill-tempered men} {will not attack you}, {and take your life} and the lives of your household."

And, when the man rose up to go - he and his concubine and his young man, - his father-in-law, the father of the damsel, said to him, Come now, see! the day hath sunk down towards evening, come now! tarry the night; lo! the day goeth down, tarry the night here, and let thy heart be glad, so shall ye rise early to-morrow for your journey, and thou shalt go thy way to thine own home.

But his master said to him, "We should not stop at a foreign city where non-Israelites live. We will travel on to Gibeah."

The old man said, "Peace be with thee, all that thou lackest shalt thou find with me: onely abide not in the streets all night."

The Israelites went up to Bethel and asked God, "Who should lead the charge against the Benjaminites?" The Lord said, "Judah should lead."

The {Israelites} went up and wept before Yahweh until evening and inquired of Yahweh, saying, "Should we again draw near from the battle against the descendants of Benjamin, our relatives?" And Yahweh said, "Go up against them."

and Phinehas son of Eleazar, son of Aaron, [was] standing {before it} [to minister] in those days), saying, "Should we go out once more to battle against the descendants of Benjamin our relatives, or should we stop?" And Yahweh said, "Go up tomorrow; I will give them into your hand."

Now there was an appointed sign between the men of Israel and the liers in wait, that they should make a great flame with smoke rise up out of the city.

the men of Israel should turn in battle. Now Benjamin had begun to smite and kill about thirty men of Israel; they said, "Surely they are smitten down before us, as in the first battle."

And said, O LORD God of Israel, why is this come to pass in Israel, that there should be to day one tribe lacking in Israel?

And the children of Israel asked, "Who are they among all the tribes of Israel that came not with the congregation unto the LORD?" For they had made a great oath concerning them that came not up to the LORD to Mizpeh, saying that they should surely die.

What should we do about wives for the survivors? We’ve sworn to the Lord not to give them any of our daughters as wives.”

This is what you should do: Completely destroy every male, as well as every female who has slept with a man.”

So the elders of the congregation said, "What should we do for the remaining [ones] for wives, since the women from Benjamin have been destroyed?"

The remnant of Benjamin must be preserved. An entire Israelite tribe should not be wiped out.

And it shall be, when their fathers or their brethren come unto us to complain, that we will say unto them, Be favourable unto them for our sakes: because we reserved not to each man his wife in the war: for ye did not give unto them at this time, that ye should be guilty.