However, the descendants of Benjamin did not expel the Jebusites who lived in Jerusalem, so the Jebusites have lived with the descendants of Benjamin in Jerusalem to this day.

As for you, you must not make any treaties with the inhabitants of this land. Instead, tear down their altars.' But you haven't obeyed me. What have you done?

In his burning anger against Israel, the LORD said, "Because the people have transgressed my covenant that I commanded their ancestors to keep, and because they haven't obeyed me,

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,

"Back at home, out the window Sisera's mother peered, lamenting through the lattice. "Why is his chariot delayed in returning? "Why do the hoof beats of his chariots wait?'

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.

The LORD told Gideon, "You have too many soldiers with you for me to drop Midian into their hands, because Israel would become arrogant and say, "It was my own abilities that delivered me.'

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!"

"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?

But the officials of Succoth replied, "Do you have Zebah and Zalmunna in custody already, so that we should give food to your army?"

Then Gideon approached the men of Succoth and announced, "Here are Zebah and Zalmunna. You criticized me about them when you said, "Do you have Zebah and Zalmunna in custody already, so that we should give food to your weary army?'"

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."

"Now then, if you have been acting in good faith and integrity by making a king out of Abimelech, if you have treated Jerubbaal and his household appropriately by acting toward him as he deserved

He sent messengers to Abimelech in secret and told him, "Look out! Ebed's son Gaal and his family have arrived here in Shechem. Watch out! They're stirring up the city against you.

Then the Israelis cried out to the LORD and told him, "We have sinned against you because we have abandoned our God to serve the Baals."

But you have abandoned me and served other gods. Therefore I will no longer be delivering you.

Go and cry out to the gods that you have chosen for yourselves. Let them deliver you in your time of trouble."

The Israelis replied to the LORD, "We have sinned, so do to us anything that's right to do in your opinion, just please deliver us right now."

Gilead's wife bore two sons through him, but when his wife's sons grew up, they expelled Jephthah and declared to him, "You won't have an inheritance in this house, since you're the son of a different woman."

Also ask yourselves: do you have a better case than Zippor's son Balak, king of Moab? Did he ever have a quarrel with Israel or ever win a fight against them?

When he saw her, he ripped his clothes and cried out, "Oh no! My daughter! You have terribly burdened me! You've joined those who are causing me trouble, because I've given my word to the LORD, and I cannot go back on it.

She told him, "My father, you have given your word to the LORD. Do to me according to what has come out of your own mouth, considering that the LORD has paid back your enemies, the Ammonites."

When I saw that you wouldn't be delivering me, I took my own life in my hands, crossed over to fight the Ammonites, and the LORD gave them into my control. So why have you come here today to fight me?"

So Manoah prayed to the LORD, "Please, Lord, have the man of God whom you sent before come again so he can instruct us what to do on behalf of the child who is to be born."

The angel of the LORD replied to Manoah, "Just have your wife be careful to carry out everything that I told her.

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?"

Then the men of the city answered him just before sunset on the seventh day: "What is sweeter than honey? What are stronger than lions?" Samson responded, "If you hadn't plowed with my heifer, you wouldn't have solved my riddle."

The leading men of Judah asked, "Why have you invaded us?" They replied, "We're here to arrest Samson. Then we're going to do to him what he did to us."

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.

Sometime later, Samson went to Gaza, saw a prostitute there, and went in to have sex with her.

Samson replied, "If I'm tied up with seven green cords that have never been dried out, then I'll become weak and just like any other human being."

He told her, "If I'm tied up securely with new ropes that have never been used, then I'll become weak and just like any other human being."

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."

Back in those days, Israel didn't yet have a king, so each person did whatever seemed right in his own opinion.

As for Micah, he kept saying, "Now I know the LORD will make me rich, because I have a descendant of Levi for a priest!"

Back in those days, Israel didn't have a king yet, and during that time the tribe of Dan had been seeking a territorial inheritance to live in, because up until that time no territory had been allotted to them as a possession among the tribes of Israel.

Micah replied, "You took my gods that I crafted, along with the priest, and left! What do I have left? So what's with this "What's wrong with you?'"

when her husband got up and went after her, intending to speak lovingly to her in order to win her back. He took with him his young man servant and a pair of donkeys. When she brought him into her father's house to see him, her father was happy to have met him.

Meanwhile, we also have straw and fodder for our donkeys, and bread and wine for me, for this young woman servant, and for the young man who is with your servants. We don't need anything else."

While they were enjoying themselves, all of a sudden certain ungodly men who lived in the city surrounded the house, pounded on the door, and ordered the old man who owned the home, "Bring out the man who came to visit your home so we can have sex with him."

So the elders of the congregation asked, "What will we do to obtain wives for the survivors, since the women of Benjamin have been devastated?"

Back in those days, Israel didn't yet have a king, so each person did whatever seemed right in his own opinion.