Now after the death of Joshua it came to pass, that the children of Israel asked the LORD, saying, Who shall go up for us against the Canaanites first, to fight against them?

And Adonibezek said, Threescore and ten kings, having their thumbs and their great toes cut off, gathered scraps under my table: as I have done, so God has requited me. And they brought him to Jerusalem, and there he died.

And afterward the children of Judah went down to fight against the Canaanites, that dwelt in the mountain, and in the south, and in the valley.

And Caleb said, He that strikes Kiriathsepher, and takes it, to him will I give Achsah my daughter as wife.

And it came to pass, when she came to him, that she moved him to ask of her father a field: and she got down from her donkey; and Caleb said unto her, What do you want?

And the children of the Kenite, Moses' father-in-law, went up out of the city of palm trees with the children of Judah into the wilderness of Judah, which lies to the south of Arad; and they went and dwelt among the people.

And the children of Benjamin did not drive out the Jebusites that inhabited Jerusalem; but the Jebusites dwell with the children of Benjamin in Jerusalem until this day.

And the house of Joseph sent to spy out Bethel. (Now the name of the city before was Luz.)

And the man went into the land of the Hittites, and built a city, and called the name thereof Luz: which is its name until this day.

And it came to pass, when Israel was strong, that they put the Canaanites to forced labor, and did not utterly drive them out.

And the Amorites forced the children of Dan into the mountain: for they would not allow them to come down to the valley:

And the angel of the LORD came up from Gilgal to Bochim, and said, I made you to go up out of Egypt, and have brought you unto the land which I swore unto your fathers; and I said, I will never break my covenant with you.

And it came to pass, when the angel of the LORD spoke these words unto all the children of Israel, that the people lifted up their voices, and wept.

And when Joshua had let the people go, the children of Israel went every man unto his inheritance to possess the land.

And they forsook the LORD God of their fathers, who brought them out of the land of Egypt, and followed other gods, the gods of the people that were round about them, and bowed themselves unto them, and provoked the LORD to anger.

And it came to pass, when the judge was dead, that they returned, and corrupted themselves more than their fathers, in following other gods to serve them, and to bow down unto them; they ceased not from their own doings, nor from their stubborn way.

That through them I may test Israel, whether they will keep the way of the LORD to walk therein, as their fathers did keep it, or not.

Now these are the nations which the LORD left, to test Israel by them, even as many of Israel as had not known all the wars of Canaan;

Only that the generations of the children of Israel might know, to teach them war, at least those who before knew nothing thereof;

And they were to test Israel by them, to know whether they would hearken unto the commandments of the LORD, which he commanded their fathers by the hand of Moses.

And they took their daughters to be their wives, and gave their daughters to their sons, and served their gods.

And when the children of Israel cried unto the LORD, the LORD raised up a deliverer to the children of Israel, who delivered them, even Othniel the son of Kenaz, Caleb's younger brother.

And the spirit of the LORD came upon him, and he judged Israel, and went out to war: and the LORD delivered Chushanrishathaim king of Mesopotamia into his hand; and his hand prevailed against Chushanrishathaim.

But Ehud made himself a dagger which had two edges, a cubit in length; and he did gird it under his clothes upon his right thigh.

And it came to pass, when he had come, that he blew a trumpet in the mountain of Ephraim, and the children of Israel went down with him from the mount, and he was before them.

And he said unto them, Follow after me: for the LORD has delivered your enemies the Moabites into your hand. And they went down after him, and took the fords of Jordan toward Moab, and allowed not a man to pass over.

So Moab was subdued that day under the hand of Israel. And the land had rest fourscore years.

And she dwelt under the palm tree of Deborah between Ramah and Bethel in mount Ephraim: and the children of Israel came up to her for judgment.

And she said, I will surely go with you: nevertheless the journey that you take shall not be for your honor; for the LORD shall sell Sisera into the hand of a woman. And Deborah arose, and went with Barak to Kedesh.

And Barak called Zebulun and Naphtali to Kedesh; and he went up with ten thousand men at his feet: and Deborah went up with him.

And they showed Sisera that Barak the son of Abinoam was gone up to mount Tabor.

And Sisera gathered together all his chariots, even nine hundred chariots of iron, and all the people that were with him, from Harosheth of the nations to the river of Kishon.

And Deborah said unto Barak, Up; for this is the day in which the LORD has delivered Sisera into your hand: is not the LORD gone out before you? So Barak went down from mount Tabor, and ten thousand men after him.

However Sisera fled away on foot to the tent of Jael the wife of Heber the Kenite: for there was peace between Jabin the king of Hazor and the house of Heber the Kenite.

And Jael went out to meet Sisera, and said unto him, Turn in, my lord, turn in to me; fear not. And when he had turned in unto her into the tent, she covered him with a rug.

And he said unto her, Give me, I pray you, a little water to drink; for I am thirsty. And she opened a skin of milk, and gave him a drink, and covered him.

And, behold, as Barak pursued Sisera, Jael came out to meet him, and said unto him, Come, and I will show you the man whom you seek. And when he came into her tent, behold, Sisera lay dead, and the peg was in his temples.

So God subdued on that day Jabin the king of Canaan before the children of Israel.

Then sang Deborah and Barak the son of Abinoam on that day, saying,

Hear, O you kings; give ear, O you princes; I, even I, will sing unto the LORD; I will sing praise to the LORD God of Israel.

They that are delivered from the noise of archers in the places of drawing water, there shall they rehearse the righteous acts of the LORD, even the righteous acts toward the inhabitants of his villages in Israel: then shall the people of the LORD go down to the gates.

Why abode you among the sheepfolds, to hear the bleatings of the flocks? For the divisions of Reuben there were great searchings of heart.

Curse you Meroz, said the angel of the LORD, Curse you bitterly the inhabitants thereof; because they came not to the help of the LORD, to the help of the LORD against the mighty.

She put her hand to the tent peg, and her right hand to the workmen's hammer; and with the hammer she struck Sisera, she crushed his head, when she had pierced and stricken through his temples.

Her wise ladies answered her, yea, she returned answer to herself,

Have they not sped? have they not divided the spoil; to every man a young woman or two; to Sisera a spoil of many colors, a spoil of many colors of needlework, of many colors of needlework on both sides, suitable for the necks of them that take the spoil?

For they came up with their cattle and their tents, and they came as grasshoppers for multitude; for both they and their camels were without number: and they entered into the land to destroy it.

And it came to pass, when the children of Israel cried unto the LORD because of the Midianites,

And there came an angel of the LORD, and sat under an oak which was in Ophrah, that pertained unto Joash the Abiezrite: and his son Gideon threshed wheat by the winepress, to hide it from the Midianites.

And when Gideon perceived that he was an angel of the LORD, Gideon said, Alas, O Lord GOD! for I have seen an angel of the LORD face to face.

And the LORD said unto him, Peace be unto you; fear not: you shall not die.

Then Gideon built an altar there unto the LORD, and called it Jehovahshalom: unto this day it is yet in Ophrah of the Abiezrites.

And it came to pass the same night, that the LORD said unto him, Take your father's young bullock, even the second bullock of seven years old, and throw down the altar of Baal that your father has, and cut down the idol pole that is by it:

Then Gideon took ten men of his servants, and did as the LORD had said unto him: and so it was, because he feared his father's household, and the men of the city, that he could not do it by day, that he did it by night.

And they said one to another, Who has done this thing? And when they inquired and asked, they said, Gideon the son of Joash has done this thing.

Then the men of the city said unto Joash, Bring out your son, that he may die: because he has cast down the altar of Baal, and because he has cut down the idol pole that was by it.

And Joash said unto all that stood against him, Will you plead for Baal? will you save him? he that will plead for him, let him be put to death while it is yet morning: if he be a god, let him plead for himself, because one has cast down his altar.

Therefore on that day he called him Jerubbaal, saying, Let Baal plead against him, because he has thrown down his altar.

And he sent messengers throughout all Manasseh; who also was gathered after him: and he sent messengers unto Asher, and unto Zebulun, and unto Naphtali; and they came up to meet them.

Behold, I will put a fleece of wool in the floor; and if the dew be on the fleece only, and it be dry upon all the earth beside it, then shall I know that you will save Israel by my hand, as you have said.

And it was so: for he rose up early the next day, and squeezed the fleece together, and wrung the dew out of the fleece, a bowl full of water.

And Gideon said unto God, Let not your anger be hot against me, and I will speak but this once: let me test, I pray you, but this once with the fleece; let it now be dry only upon the fleece, and upon all the ground let there be dew.

And God did so that night: for it was dry upon the fleece only, and there was dew on all the ground.

And the LORD said unto Gideon, The people that are with you are too many for me to give the Midianites into their hands, lest Israel vaunt themselves against me, saying, my own hand has saved me.

Now therefore go to, proclaim in the ears of the people, saying, Whosoever is fearful and afraid, let him return and depart early from mount Gilead. And there returned of the people twenty and two thousand; and there remained ten thousand.

And the LORD said unto Gideon, The people are yet too many; bring them down unto the water, and I will test them for you there: and it shall be, that of whom I say unto you, This one shall go with you, the same shall go with you; and of whomsoever I say unto you, This one shall not go with you, the same shall not go.

So he brought down the people unto the water: and the LORD said unto Gideon, Every one that laps the water with his tongue, as a dog laps, him shall you set by himself; likewise every one that bows down upon his knees to drink.

And the number of them that lapped, putting their hand to their mouth, were three hundred men: but all the rest of the people bowed down upon their knees to drink water.

And it came to pass the same night, that the LORD said unto him, Arise, get you down unto the host; for I have delivered it into your hand.

But if you fear to go down, go with Phurah your servant down to the host:

And you shall hear what they say; and afterward shall your 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 he said unto them, Look on me, and do likewise: and, behold, when I come to the outside of the camp, it shall be that, as I do, so shall you do.

And the three hundred blew the trumpets, and the LORD set every man's sword against his fellow, even throughout all the host: and the host fled to Bethshittah in Zererath, and to the border of Abelmeholah, unto Tabbath.

And they took two princes of the Midianites, Oreb and Zeeb; and they slew Oreb upon the rock Oreb, and Zeeb they slew at the winepress of Zeeb, and pursued Midian, and brought the heads of Oreb and Zeeb to Gideon on the other side of Jordan.

And the men of Ephraim said unto him, Why have you served us thus, that you called us not, when you went to fight with the Midianites? And they did argue with him sharply.

And he said unto them, What have I done now in comparison to you? Is not the gleaning of the grapes of Ephraim better than the vintage of Abiezer?

God has delivered into your hands the princes of Midian, Oreb and Zeeb: and what was I able to do in comparison to you? Then their anger was abated toward him, when he had said that.

And Gideon came to the Jordan, and passed over, he, and the three hundred men that were with him, faint, yet pursuing them.

And he went up there to Penuel, and spoke unto them likewise: and the men of Penuel answered him as the men of Succoth had answered him.

And when Zebah and Zalmunna fled, he pursued after them, and took the two kings of Midian, Zebah and Zalmunna, and routed all the host.

And Gideon made an ephod of it, and put it in his city, even in Ophrah: and all Israel went there and played the harlot with it: which thing became a snare unto Gideon, and to his house.

And it came to pass, as soon as Gideon was dead, that the children of Israel turned again, and played the harlot after Baalim, and made Baalberith their god.

Neither showed they kindness to the house of Jerubbaal, namely, Gideon, according to all the goodness which he had showed unto Israel.

And Abimelech the son of Jerubbaal went to Shechem unto his mother's brethren, and spoke with them, and with all the family of the house of his mother's father, saying,

And his mother's brethren spoke of him in the ears of all the men of Shechem all these words: and their hearts inclined to follow Abimelech; for they said, He is our brother.

And when they told it to Jotham, he went and stood in the top of mount Gerizim, and lifted up his voice, and cried, and said unto them, Hearken unto me, you men of Shechem, that God may hearken unto you.

The trees went forth once to anoint a king over them; and they said unto the olive tree, Reign you over us.

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

And the trees said to the fig tree, Come you, and reign over us.

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 cheers God and man, and go to be promoted over the trees?

Now therefore, if you have done truly and sincerely, in that you have made Abimelech king, and if you have dealt well with Jerubbaal and his house, and have done unto him according to the deserving of his hands;

And you are risen up against my father's house this day, and have slain his sons, threescore and ten persons, upon one stone, and have made Abimelech, the son of his maidservant, king over the men of Shechem, because he is your brother;)

If you then have dealt truly and sincerely with Jerubbaal and with his house this day, then rejoice you in Abimelech, and let him also rejoice in you:

And Jotham ran away, and fled, and went to Beer, and dwelt there, for fear of Abimelech his brother.

That the cruelty done to the threescore and ten sons of Jerubbaal might come, and their blood be laid upon Abimelech their brother, who slew them; and upon the men of Shechem, who aided him in the killing of his brethren.

And Gaal the son of Ebed came with his brethren, and went over to Shechem: and the men of Shechem put their confidence in him.

And would to God this people were under my hand! then would I remove Abimelech. And he said to Abimelech, Increase your army, and come out.

And he sent messengers unto Abimelech secretly, saying, Behold, Gaal the son of Ebed and his brethren are come to Shechem; and, behold, they fortify the city against you.

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