"I want this blessing from you," she replied. "Since you've given me land in the Negev, give me water springs, too." So Caleb gave her both the upper and lower springs.

The descendants of the Kenites, the tribe from which Moses' father-in-law came, accompanied the descendants of Judah from the city of the palms to the Judean wilderness, which is in the desert area south of Arad, and lived with the people there.

They gave Hebron to Caleb, just as Moses had promised, and he drove out the three sons of Anak from there.

The Amorite border extended upward from the Akrabbim Ascent, that is, from Sela.

Some time later, the angel of the LORD came up from Gilgal to Bochim and announced to Israel, "I brought you up from Egypt and led you into the land that I promised to your ancestors. I had told them, "I'll never breach my covenant with you.

They abandoned the LORD God of their ancestors, who had brought them out of the land of Egypt. They followed other gods from among the gods of the nations who surrounded them. They bowed down in worship of them, and by doing so angered the LORD.

Then the LORD raised up leaders, who delivered Israel from domination by their marauders.

But they didn't listen to their leaders, because they were committing spiritual immorality by following other gods and worshiping them. They quickly turned away from the road on which their ancestors had walked in obedience to the commands of the LORD. They didn't follow their example.

As a result, whenever the LORD raised up leaders for them, the LORD remained present with their leader, delivering Israel from the control of their enemies during the lifetime of that leader. The LORD was moved with compassion by their groaning that had been caused by those who were oppressing and persecuting them.

He had turned away from the idols that were at Gilgal. So he told Eglon, "I have a secret message for you, king." King Eglon responded "Silence!" and all of his attendants left him.

Ehud approached him while he was sitting by himself in the cool roof chamber of his palace. He said, "I have a message from God for you!" So when Eglon got up from his seat,

Ehud used his left hand to take the sword from his right thigh and then plunged it into Eglon's abdomen.

The hilt also penetrated along with the sword blade, and Eglon's fat closed in over the blade. Because he did not withdraw the sword from Eglon's abdomen, the sword point exited from Eglon's entrails.

When he arrived there, he sounded a trumpet in the mountainous region of Ephraim. While the Israeli army accompanied Ehud from the mountainous regions,

She sent word to Abinoam's son Barak from Kedesh-naphtali, summoning him. She asked him, "The LORD God of Israel has commanded you, hasn't he? He told you, "Go out, march to Mount Tabor, and take 10,000 men with you from the tribes of Naphtali and Zebulun.

Meanwhile, Heber the Kenite had been separated from the Kenites, the descendants of Moses' father-in-law Hobab. He had pitched his tents far away, near the Elon-bezaanannim.

So Sisera gathered his iron chariots together from Harosheth-haggoyim all 900 of them, along with all the people who were assigned to them and they assembled at the Kishon River.

But Heber's wife Jael grabbed a tent peg in one hand and a hammer in the other, crept up to him quietly, and drove the tent peg right through his temple into the ground below after he had fallen sound asleep from exhaustion. That's how he died.

LORD, when you left Seir, when you marched out from the grain field of Edom, the earth quaked and the heavens poured out rain; indeed, the clouds poured out water.

From the sound of those who divide their work loads at the watering troughs, there they will retell the righteous deeds of the LORD, the righteous victories for his rural people in Israel." Then the people of the LORD went down to the gates.

Some came from Ephraim who had been harassed by Amalek, followed by Benjamin with your people. Some commanders came from Machir, along with some from Zebulun who carry a badge of office.

The officials of Issachar were with Deborah, as was the tribe of Issachar and Barak. They rushed out into the valley at his heels along with divisions from Reuben's army. Great was their resolve of heart!

The stars fought from heaven; they fought against Sisera from their orbits.

Then loud was the beat of the horses' hooves from the galloping, galloping war steeds!

Whenever the Israelis sowed their crops, the Midianites, the Amalekites, and certain groups from the east would come up and invade them.

the LORD sent a man who was a prophet to the Israelis and told them, "This is what the LORD God of Israel says: "I was the one who brought you up from the land of Egypt, delivering you from the house of servitude.

I delivered you from the domination of Egypt and from the domination of all of your oppressors, expelling them right in front of you and giving their land to you.

After this, the angel of the LORD arrived and sat down in the shade of the oak tree in Ophrah that belonged to Joash, a descendant of Abiezer, while his son Gideon was threshing wheat in a wine press in order to safeguard it from the Midianites.

But Gideon replied, "Right" Sir, if the LORD is with us, then why has all of this happened to us? And where are all of his miraculous works that our ancestors recounted to us when they said, "The LORD brought us up from Egypt, didn't he?' But now the LORD has abandoned us and given us over to Midian!"

The LORD looked straight at him and replied, "Go with this determination of yours and deliver Israel from Midian's domination. I've directed you, haven't I?"

So Gideon asked him, "Please, if I have received favor from you, then do a miracle for me that shows that you're making this promise to me.

Then Gideon went and prepared a young goat and unleavened bread from an ephah of flour. He put the meat in a basket and poured the broth into a pot, and brought them to the angel right under the oak tree. Then he made his offering.

The angel of the LORD extended the tip of the staff that was in his hand and touched the meat and unleavened bread. Fire broke out from inside the boulder, consuming the meat and unleavened bread. Then the angel of the LORD vanished in front of him.

and build an altar to the LORD your God on top of this stronghold in an orderly manner. Then take the second bull and offer it as a burnt offering using the wood from the Asherah that you'll be cutting down."

Then all the Midianites, Amalekites, and certain groups from the east gathered together, crossed the Jordan River, and set up camp in the Jezreel Valley.

And that is what happened: When he got up early the next morning, he wrung out the fleece to drain the dew from it and extracted a bowl full of water.

That's why you're to ask in full view of the soldiers, "Whoever is afraid or is trembling may go back from Mount Gilead and return home." So 22,000 soldiers left and 10,000 remained.

So he brought his soldiers down to the water, and the LORD told Gideon, "You are to cull out everyone who laps up water with his tongue like a dog from everyone who kneels to drink."

The Midianites, the Amalekites, and certain groups from the east lay encamped in the valley, as thick as locusts. The number of their camels couldn't be calculated they seemed as numerous as the sand on the seashore.

Then his friend replied, "Can this be anything else than the sword of Joash's son Gideon, that man from Israel? God must have given Midian and the entire encampment into his control!"

Israeli soldiers were called out from the territories of Naphtali, Asher, and throughout Manasseh, and they chased after the Midianites.

They captured two Midianite leaders, Oreb and Zeeb. While they were pursuing the Midianites, they executed Oreb at Oreb's Rock and Zeeb at Zeeb's Winepress, and then they carried the heads of Oreb and Zeeb to Gideon from the east bank of the Jordan River.

"What have I accomplished compared to you?" he responded. "Isn't what's left from Ephraim's harvest better than the best vintage of Abiezer?

So Gideon responded, "Okay then, but when the LORD has turned over Zebah and Zalmunna into my control, I'm going to whip you with thorns and briers from the desert!"

Then he left there to go to Penuel and asked the same thing from them, but the men of Penuel responded the same way the men of Succoth did.

Now Zebah and Zalmunna were in Karkor, along with their armies, about 15,000 men who survived from the entire army of the group from the east, since 120,000 swordsmen had already fallen.

Then Joash's son Gideon returned from the battle along the Heres Ascent.

He caught a young man from Succoth and interrogated him. He wrote out for Gideon a list of the 77 officials of Succoth, including its elders.

So he took the elders of the city and disciplined the men of Succoth with thorns and briers from the desert.

Gideon replied, "They were my brothers sons from my own mother. As the LORD lives, if you had let them live, I wouldn't be killing you."

Then the men of Israel asked Gideon, "Rule over us you, your son, and your grandsons because you have delivered us from Midian's domination."

But Gideon also added, "I would like to ask that each of you give me a ring from his war booty" because, as Ishmaelites, the Midianites had been wearing gold rings.

They responded, "We'll be happy to give them." So they laid out a garment, and each of them contributed a ring from his war booty.

The Israelis did not remember the LORD their God, who continually delivered them from the domination of their enemies who surrounded them on every side.

and they gave him 70 silver coins from the temple that they had built to Baal-berith. Abimelech hired some worthless and useless men, who followed him

All the men from Shechem and Beth-millo gathered together and set up Abimelech as king near the pillar erected in Shechem.

Then the bramble bush replied to the trees, "If you really are consecrating me to rule you, come and put your confidence in my shade; but if not, may fire spring out from the bramble bush and burn up the cedars of Lebanon"'

because my father fought on your behalf, throwing away all concern for his own life, and delivered you from Midian's domination.

But if not, may fire spring out from Abimelech and consume the "lords" of Shechem and Beth-millo, and may fire spring out from the "lords" of Shechem and Beth-millo to consume Abimelech."

When Gaal saw the army, he observed to Zebul, "Look there! People are coming down from the top of the mountains." But Zebul replied to him, "You're looking at morning shadows cast by the mountains. They just look like men to you."

Gaal spoke up again to say, "Look! People are coming down from the highest part of the land, and there's a company approaching from the diviner's oak tree."

Abimelech chased him, and Gaal ran away from him. Many fell wounded right up to the entrance to the city gate.

So he took his army, divided it into three separate companies, and laid in ambush out in the field. When Abimelech noticed the people coming out from the city, his army attacked them and killed them.

So he went up to Mount Zalmon, accompanied by his entire army. Abimelech had an axe in his hand, so he cut down a branch from a tree, lifted it up, and laid it on his shoulder. Then he told the army that had accompanied him, "You've seen what I just did. Hurry up! Do the same thing!"

A man from the tribe of Issachar, Puah's son Tola, grandson of Dodo, arose to save Israel. He lived in Shamir, in the mountainous region of Ephraim.

The LORD replied to the Israelis, "Aren't you away from the Egyptians, the Amorites, the Ammonites, and the Philistines?

And when the Sidonians, the Amalekites, and the Maonites harassed you, you cried out to me, and I delivered you from under their domination.

So Jephthah escaped from his brothers and lived in the territory of Tob, where worthless men gathered themselves around him and went out on raiding parties with him.

The king of the Ammonites answered the messengers of Jephthah, "We're here because Israel took away my land from the Arnon River as far as the Jabbok River and as far as the Jordan River when they came up from Egypt! So restore it as a gesture of good will."

"Israel didn't seize the land of Moab nor the land of the Ammonites. Here's what happened: When Israel came up from Egypt, passed through the desert to the Red Sea, and arrived at Kadesh,

They took possession of the entire territory of the Amorites from the Arnon River as far as the Jabbok River and from the desert as far as the Jordan River.

The Spirit of the LORD came on Jephthah, so he swept through Gilead and the territory of Manasseh, then swept through Mizpah in Gilead, and from Mizpah in Gilead he proceeded toward where the Ammonites were encamped.

then if I return from the Ammonites without incident, whatever comes out the doors of my house to meet me will become the LORD's, and I will offer it up as a burnt offering."

He attacked them from Aroer to the entrance of Minnith twenty cities in all even as far as Abel-keramim. As a result, the Ammonites were subdued right in front of the Israelis.

But Jephthah replied to them, "My army and I were engaged in a serious fight with the Ammonites. I called for you, but you didn't deliver me from their control.

The descendants of Gilead seized control of the Jordan River's fords along the border of Ephraim's territory. Later on, when any fugitive from Ephraim asked them, "Let me cross over," the men from Gilead would ask him, "Are you an Ephraimite?" If he said "No,"

After he died, Ibzan from Bethlehem governed Israel for ten years.

There was one man from Zorah, from the family of the descendants of Dan, whose name was Manoah. Since his wife was infertile, she hadn't borne children.

because surprise! you're going to conceive and give birth to a son! Don't put a razor to his head, because the young man will be a Nazirite, dedicated to God from inside the womb. He will begin to deliver Israel from domination by the Philistines."

Then the woman went to tell her husband. She said, "A man of God appeared to me. He looked like what an angel of God would look like very frightening. I didn't ask him where he had come from and he didn't tell me his name.

He told me, "Surprise! you're going to conceive and give birth to a son!' and as for you, "Be sure that you don't drink wine or anything intoxicating, and don't eat anything unclean,' "because the young man will be a Nazirite dedicated to God from inside the womb' until the day he dies."

She must not consume anything extracted from grape vines, including wine or anything intoxicating, and she must not eat anything unclean, doing everything that I commissioned her to do."

When the burnt offering was engulfed in flames that sprang up from the altar toward heaven, the angel of the LORD ascended in the flame that came from the altar. When Manoah and his wife observed this, they collapsed on their faces to the ground.

But his wife replied to him, "If the LORD had intended to kill us, he wouldn't have accepted a burnt offering and a grain offering from us, he wouldn't have shown us all these things, and he wouldn't have permitted us to hear things like this, now would he?"

His father and mother asked him, "Isn't there a woman suitable among the daughters of your relatives or among all of our people, since you're going to get your wife from the uncircumcised Philistines?"

But Samson retorted to his father, "Get her for me, since she looks fine to me." Meanwhile, his father and mother did not know that she was from the LORD, because he had been seeking a favorable opportunity concerning the Philistines, since the Philistines were dominating Israel at that time.

So he scraped some out into his hands and went on his way, eating all the while. When he met his father and mother, he gave some to them, and they ate it, too. But he didn't inform them that he had scraped the honey from the carcass of the lion.

So he told them: From the eater came something edible; from the strong something sweet. For three days they couldn't solve the riddle.

In response, 3,000 soldiers from the tribe of Judah went down to the caves of the rock of Etam and asked Samson, "Don't you know that the Philistines have us in their control? What have you done to us?" "I did to them what they did to me," he answered.

So they said, "No, we won't. But we're going to tie you up securely and transfer you to their custody. But we won't kill you." Then they bound him with two ropes and brought him up from the caves.

He happened upon a jawbone from a putrefying donkey, reached out to grab it, and killed 1,000 men with it.

Then Samson declared, "With a jawbone from the donkey here a heap, there a pair of heaps with the jawbone of the donkey I've killed 1,000 men."

So Delilah grabbed some new ropes and tied him up. Then she told him, "The Philistines are attacking you, Samson!" because some kidnappers were hiding inside an inner room. But he snapped the ropes from his arms like thread.

So Delilah took the seven locks on his head and wove them into the loom while he slept. She fastened his hair with a peg and then told him, "The Philistines are attacking you, Samson!" But he woke up from his nap and pulled the pin from the loom and the weaving.

So she enticed him to fall asleep on her lap, called for a man to shave off his seven locks of hair from his head, and so began to humiliate him. Then his strength abandoned him.

When she cried out, "The Philistines are attacking you, Samson!" he woke from his sleep and told himself, "I'll go out like I did at other times like this and shake myself free." But he didn't know that the LORD had abandoned him.

Because they all got good and drunk, they ordered, "Go get Samson, so he can entertain us." So they called for Samson from the prison, and he entertained them while they made him stand between the pillars.

He told his mother, "Do you remember those 1,100 silver coins that were stolen from you and about which you uttered a curse when I could hear it? Well, I have the silver. I took it." So she replied, "May my son be blessed by the LORD."

Her son gave back the 1,100 silver coins to his mother, and she said, "I'm totally giving this silver from my hand to the LORD so my son can make a carved image and a cast image. So I'm returning it to you."

A young male descendant of Levi happened to be visiting there from Bethlehem in the territory of Judah.