Then he called hastily to the young man who was his armor-bearer, and said to him, Draw your sword and kill me, so that men may not say of me, A woman killed him! And his young man thrust him through, and he died.

After him came Jair the Gileadite, who judged Israel 22 years.

And he had thirty sons who would ride on thirty donkeys, and they had thirty towns that [are] in the land of Gilead that they called Havvoth Jair until this day.

They crushed and oppressed the {Israelites} in that year; for eighteen years they [crushed] all the {Israelites} who [were] beyond the Jordan, in the land of the Amorites, which [is] in Gilead.

Go and cry out to the gods whom you have chosen; let them deliver you in the time of your trouble."

The people, the ones commanding Gilead, {said to each other}, "Who [is] the man that will begin to fight against the {Ammonites}? He will be as head over all the inhabitants of Gilead."

So Jephthah fled from the face of his brethren, and dwelt in the land of Tob, - and there gathered about Jephthah unemployed men, who went forth with him.

But Jephthah replied to the elders of Gilead, "Weren't you the ones who hated me and drove me out of my father's house? And you come to me now that you're in trouble?"

The leaders of Gilead said to Jephthah, "That may be true, but now we pledge to you our loyalty. Come with us and fight with the Ammonites. Then you will become the leader of all who live in Gilead."

Israel sent messengers to King Sihon, the Amorite king who ruled in Heshbon, and said to him, "Please allow us to pass through your land to our land."

And Jehovah, the God of Israel delivered Sihon and all his people into the hand of Israel, and they struck them. So Israel possessed all the land of the Amorites, who lived in that country.

You have the right to take what Chemosh your god gives you, but we will take the land of all whom the Lord our God has driven out before us.

I have not sinned against you; but you [are] the one who is doing wrong by making war against me. {Let Yahweh judge} today between the {Israelites} and the {Ammonites}."

The Spirit of the Lord came on Jephthah, who traveled through Gilead and Manasseh, and then through Mizpah of Gilead. He crossed over to the Ammonites from Mizpah of Gilead.

When Jephthah arrived at his home in Mizpah surprise! it was his daughter who came out to meet him, playing tambourines and dancing. She was his one and only child. Except for her, he had no other son or daughter.

And it happened when he saw her, he tore his clothes and said, Alas, my daughter! You have brought me very low, and you are one of those who trouble me. For I have opened my mouth to Jehovah, and I cannot go back.

And it came to pass at the end of two months, that she returned unto her father, who did with her according to his vow which he had vowed: and she knew no man. And it was a custom in Israel,

And the Gileadites took the fords of Jordan before the Ephraimites. And it happened that when one of those Ephraimites who had escaped said, Let me go over, the men of Gilead said to him, Are you an Ephraimite? And he said, No.

Ibzan, who was from Bethlehem, judged Israel after Jephthah

And he had thirty sons, and thirty daughters, whom he sent abroad, and took in thirty daughters from abroad for his sons. And he judged Israel seven years.

Elon, who was from Zebulun, judged Israel after Ibzan. He judged Israel 10 years,

After Elon, Abdon son of Hillel, who was from Pirathon, judged Israel.

And he had forty sons and thirty grandsons, who rode on seventy ass colts. And he judged Israel eight years.

because you [will] conceive and bear a son. No razor {will touch} his head, because the boy will be a {Nazirite of God} {from birth}. And it is he who will begin to deliver Israel from [the] hand of [the] Philistines."

Then Manoah prayed to Yahweh and said, "Excuse me, my Lord, please let the man of God whom you sent again come to us and teach us what we should do concerning the boy who will be born."

The woman quickly ran and told her husband, and she said to him, "Look! The man who came to me the [other] day appeared to me."

And Manoah arose and went after his wife, and came to the Man, and said to Him, Are You the Man who spoke to the woman? And He said, I am.

And Manoah took the {young goat} and the grain offering, and he offered [it] to Yahweh on the rock, to the one who performs miracles. And Manoah and his wife [were] watching.

And Manoah said to his wife, Death will certainly be our fate, for it is a god whom we have seen.

A while later, Samson went down to Timnah and observed a woman in Timnah who was of Philistine origin.

Then his father and mother said to him, Is there no woman among the daughters of your relations or among all my people, that you have to go for your wife to the Philistines, who are without circumcision? But Samson said to his father, Get her for me, for she is pleasing to me.

Now his father and mother did not know this was from the Lord, who was seeking an occasion against the Philistines. At that time, the Philistines were ruling over Israel.

When the Philistines saw he had no attendants, they gave him thirty groomsmen who kept him company.

He said to them, "Out of the one who eats came something to eat; out of the strong one came something sweet." They could not solve the riddle for three days.

And the Spirit of Jehovah came upon him, and he went down to Ashkelon and killed thirty men of them, and took their spoil, and gave changes of garments to them who told what the riddle meant. And his anger was kindled, and he went up to his father's house.

But Samson's wife was given to his companion, whom he had used as his friend.

“I was sure you hated her,” her father said, “so I gave her to one of the men who accompanied you. Isn’t her younger sister more beautiful than she is? Why not take her instead?”

Then the Philistines said, Who hath done this? And they answered, Samson, the son in law of the Timnite, because he had taken his wife, and given her to his companion. And the Philistines came up, and burnt her and her father with fire.

After this, he was in great need of water, and crying out to the Lord, he said, You have given this great salvation by the hand of your servant, and now need of water will be my death; and I will be given into the hands of this people who are without circumcision.

And God cleaveth the hollow place which is in Lehi, and waters come out of it, and he drinketh, and his spirit cometh back, and he reviveth; therefore hath one called its name 'The fountain of him who is calling,' which is in Lehi unto this day.

Some time later, he fell in love with a woman named Delilah, who lived in the Sorek Valley.

- unto whom came the lords of the Philistines, and said unto her, "Flatter with him, and see wherein his great strength lieth, and by what means we may have power over him, that we may bind him, to bring him under, and we will give every man eleven hundred silverlings."

And the people saw him, and they praised their god, for they said, "Our god has given into our hand those who hate us, devastate our land, and have {killed many of us}."

Then Samson said to the servant who was holding him by his hand, "Position me so that I can touch the pillars on which the house rests, so I can lean on them."

Now the house was full of men and women. And all the lords of the Philistines were there. And on the roof were about three thousand men and women who watched while Samson made sport.

And Samson said, "Let me die with the Philistines." And he pushed with [all his] strength, and the house fell on the rulers and all of the people who [were] with him. And the dead whom he killed in his death were more than those he killed in his life.

Yet he restored the money unto his mother; and his mother took two hundred shekels of silver, and gave them to the founder, who made thereof a graven image and a molten image: and they were in the house of Micah.

And the man Micah had an house of gods, and made an ephod, and teraphim, and consecrated one of his sons, who became his priest.

And there was a young man out of Bethlehemjudah of the family of Judah, who was a Levite, and he sojourned there.

And the children of Dan sent of their family five men from their coasts, men of valour, from Zorah, and from Eshtaol, to spy out the land, and to search it; and they said unto them, Go, search the land: who when they came to mount Ephraim, to the house of Micah, they lodged there.

When they were by the house of Micah, they knew the voice of the young man the Levite: and they turned in thither, and said unto him, Who brought thee hither? and what makest thou in this place? and what hast thou here?

And the five men went and came to Laish, and they observed the people who [were] living according to the customs of [the] Sidonians, quiet and unsuspecting, and lacking nothing in the land, and possessing restraint. And they [were] far from [the] Sidonians and had no word with anyone.

Then the five men who went to spy out the country of Laish answered and said to their brothers, Did you know that there is in these houses an ephod, and household gods, and an engraved image and a molten image? And now consider what you have to do.

The six hundred men armed with their weapons of war, who were of the children of Dan, stood by the entrance of the gate.

And the five men who went up to spy out the land came in there, and took the engraved image and the ephod and the household gods, and the molten image. And the priest stood at the entrance of the gate with the six hundred men who were dressed with weapons of war.

When they were at a distance from the house, Micah and the men who [were] in the houses that [were] near the house of Micah cried out, and they overtook the descendants of Dan.

And they called to the descendants of Dan, who turned around to face them, and they said to Micah, "What is the matter with you that you assembled together?"

And they took the things which Micah had made, and the priest whom he had, and came to Laish, to a people quiet and feeling safe. And they struck them with the edge of the sword and burned the city with fire.

And they called the name of the city Dan, after the name of Dan their father, who was born unto Israel: howbeit the name of the city was Laish at the first.

And it came to pass in those days, when there was no king in Israel, that there was a certain Levite sojourning on the side of mount Ephraim, who took to him a concubine out of Bethlehemjudah.

But his master said to him, "We will not turn aside to the city of foreigners, who [are] not from the {Israelites}; we will cross over up to Gibeah."

They turned that way to go in to spend the night in Gibeah. And he went in and they sat down in the street of the city; for there was no one who would take them into their house to spend the night.

And behold, there came an old man from his work out of the field at evening, who was also from Mount Ephraim. And he lived in Gibeah, but the men of the place were of Benjamin.

And he said to him, We are passing from Bethlehem-judah to the side of mount Ephraim. I am from there, and I went to Bethlehem-judah, but I am going to the house of Jehovah. And there is no man who receives me into his house.

There is both straw and fodder for our donkeys, and also bread and wine for me, for your servant, and for the young man who is with your servant; there is no lack of anything."

While {they were enjoying themselves}, behold, the men of the city, {the perverse lot}, surrounded the house, pounding on the door. And they said to the old man, the owner of the house, "Bring out the man who came to your house so that {we may have sex with him}."

The man who owned the house went out to talk to them and pleaded with them, "No, my brothers, please don't act so wickedly. This man is my guest! Don't try to do this stupid thing.

All who saw [it] said, "Nothing like this has [ever] been since the {Israelites} went up from the land of Egypt until this day. Take note of it, consider [it], and speak [up]."

The leaders of all the people, even of all the tribes of Israel, presented themselves in the assembly of the people of God, four hundred thousand footmen who drew sword.

(Now the Benjamites [in whose territory the crime was committed] heard that the [other tribes of the] sons of Israel had gone up to Mizpah.) And the sons of Israel said, “How did this evil thing happen?”

And the Levite, the husband of the woman who was slain, answered and said, I came into Gibeah of Benjamin to stay the night, my concubine and I.

So then, hand over the men, {the perverse lot}, who [are] in Gibeah, so that we may kill them and purge [this] wickedness from Israel." But the descendants of Benjamin were not willing to listen to the voice of their relatives, the {Israelites}.

From the cities the descendants of Benjamin were counted on that day twenty-six thousand {sword-wielding men}, besides the inhabitants of Gibeah, who were counted seven hundred well-trained men.

From all these troops [were] seven hundred well-trained men {who were left-handed}; each one could sling with a stone at a hair and not miss.

And the men of Israel, besides Benjamin, were numbered four hundred thousand men who drew sword. All these were men of war.

Then the {Israelites} got up and went up [to] Bethel, and they inquired of God, saying, "Who will go up first for the battle against the descendants of Benjamin?" And Yahweh said, "Judah [will go] first."

And Benjamin went against them out of Gib'e-ah the second day, and felled to the ground eighteen thousand men of the people of Israel; all these were men who drew the sword.

And all the men of Israel rose up out of their place, and set themselves in array at Ba'al-ta'mar; and the men of Israel who were in ambush rushed out of their place west of Geba.

And the LORD defeated Benjamin before Israel; and the men of Israel destroyed twenty-five thousand one hundred men of Benjamin that day; all these were men who drew the sword.

So the children of Benjamin saw that they were defeated; for the men of Israel gave ground to Benjamin, because they trusted the ambushers whom they had set against Gibeah.

Meanwhile, the army of Israel had arranged to signal their soldiers who had been hiding in ambush by sending up a cloud of smoke from the city.

And they retreated from before the men of Israel to the way of the wilderness, but the battle caught up to them, and [those] who [came] from the cities destroyed them in the midst of them.

There were 18,000 men who died from Benjamin; all were warriors.

And turning, they went in flight to the rock of Rimmon in the waste land: and on the highways five thousand of them were cut off by the men of Israel, who, pushing on hard after them to Geba, put to death two thousand more.

So all of Benjamin who fell on that day were twenty-five thousand {sword-wielding men}; all of these [were] {able men}.

But there turned and fled, towards the desert, unto the cliff Rimmon, six hundred men, - who abode in the cliff Rimmon, four months.

And the children of Israel said, Who is there among all the tribes of Israel that came not up with the congregation unto the LORD? For they had made a great oath concerning him that came not up to the LORD to Mizpeh, saying, He shall surely be put to death.

What shall we do for wives for those who are left, since we have sworn by Jehovah that we will not give them of our daughters for wives?

They asked, "Which one is there from the tribes of Israel who did not come up to Yahweh at Mizpah?" And behold, no one came from Jabesh-gilead to the camp, to the assembly.

This is the thing you will do: {you will destroy} every man and {every woman who had sex with a man}."

And they found among the inhabitants of Jabesh-gilead four hundred young virgins who had not {had sex with a man}, and they brought them to the camp at Shiloh, which [is] in the land of Canaan.

Then the congregation sent and spoke all [this] to the descendants of Benjamin who [were] at the rock of Rimmon, and {they assured them they would not be hurt}.

And Benjamin returned at that time, and they gave to them the women whom they kept alive from Jabesh-gilead; but they were not enough for them.

And the elders of the congregation said, What shall we do for wives for those who are left, since the women are destroyed out of Benjamin?

And they said, There must be an inheritance for those of Benjamin who have escaped, so that a tribe may not be destroyed out of Israel.

But we cannot give them wives from our daughters." (For the {Israelites} swore, saying, "Cursed be [anyone] who gives a wife to Benjamin.")

And the children of Benjamin did so, and took them wives, according to their number, of them that danced, whom they caught: and they went and returned unto their inheritance, and repaired the cities, and dwelt in them.