Now I say, I will not drive them out from before you; they will {become as thorns} for you, and their gods will be a trap for you."

Moreover, that entire generation was gathered to their ancestors, and another generation grew up after them who did not know Yahweh or the work he had done for Israel.

in order that the generations of Israel would know war, to teach those {who had not experienced it} before):

They were [left] for testing Israel, to know [whether] they would keep the commands of Yahweh that he commanded their ancestors through the hand of Moses.

Then he presented the tribute to Eglon king of Moab. Now Eglon [was] a very fat man.

And they struck Moab at that time, about ten thousand men, {all strong and able men}; no one escaped.

Now at that time Deborah, a prophetess, the wife of Lappidoth, [was] judging Israel.

She said, "Surely I will go with you; however, there will be no glory for you in {the path you are taking}, for Yahweh will sell Sisera into [the] hand of a woman." And Deborah stood up and went with Barak to Kedesh.

But Barak pursued after the chariots and army as far as Harosheth Haggoyim, and all of Sisera's army fell to {the edge of the sword}; no one was left.

And he said to her, "Stand [at] the doorway of the tent, and if anyone comes and asks you, and says, 'Is there anyone here?' You must answer, 'No.'"

God chose new [leaders], then war [was at the] gates; a small shield or a spear was not seen among forty thousand in Israel.

"The kings came, they fought; then the kings of Canaan fought; at Taanach by the waters of Megiddo, they got no plunder in silver.

They would camp against them and destroy the produce of the land {as far as} Gaza; they left no produce in Israel, or sheep, ox, or donkey.

Gideon said to him, "Excuse me, my lord. [If] Yahweh is with us, why then has all this happened to us? Where are all his wonderful deeds that our ancestors recounted to us, saying, 'Did not Yahweh bring us up from Egypt?' But now Yahweh has forsaken us; he has given us into the palm of Midian."

And Gideon realized that he [was] the angel of Yahweh; and Gideon said, "Oh, my lord Yahweh! For now I have seen the angel of Yahweh face to face."

Now on that same night Yahweh said to him, "Take the bull of the cattle that belongs to your father, and a second bull seven years old, and pull down the altar of Baal that belongs to your father, and cut down the Asherah that is beside it;

I will place a fleece of wool on the threshing floor. If there is dew on the fleece only, and all of the ground [is] dry, I will know that you will deliver Israel by my hand, just as you have said."

Now [the] Midianites, Amalekites, and all the people of [the] east [were] lying in the valley, like a great multitude of locusts; their camels were without number, as numerous as the sand that [is] on the shore of the sea.

And he said to them, "What I have done now in comparison with you? Are not the gleanings of Ephraim better than the grape harvest of Abiezer?

The officials of Succoth said, "Is the hand of Zebah and Zalmunna in your hand now, that we should give bread to your army?"

Now Zebah and Zalmunna [were] in Karkor, and their armies with them, about fifteen thousand men remained from the entire army of the people of [the] east; those that fell [in battle were] one hundred and twenty thousand {swordsmen}.

He came to the men of Succoth, and he said, "Here [is] Zebah and Zalmunna, about whom you taunted me, saying, '[Is] the palm of Zebah and Zalmunna in your hand now, that we should give food to your weary men?'"

Now Gideon had seventy sons, {his own offspring}, for he had many wives.

And Zebul said to him, "Where then {is your boast}, [you] who said, 'Who [is] Abimelech that we should serve him?' [Is] this not the army that you rejected? Please, go out now and fight against them."

Yet you have abandoned me and served other gods. Therefore I will no longer deliver you.

So they removed the foreign gods from their midst and served Yahweh; and {he could no longer bear} the misery of Israel.

Jephthah said to the elders, "Did you not shun me and drive me out from the house of my father? Why do you come to me now when you have trouble?"

And the elders of Gilead said to Jephthah, "That being so, we have now returned to you, that you may go with us {to fight} against the {Ammonites} and become for us as head of all the inhabitants of Gilead."

Then Gilead captured the fords of the Jordan from Ephraim, and whenever a fugitive of Ephraim said, "Let me cross [over]," the men of Gilead said to him, "[Are] you an Ephraimite?" [When] he said, "No,"

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."

And Manoah said to him, "Now {when your words come true}, what will be the boy's {manner of life} and work?"

The angel of Yahweh said to Manoah, "If you keep me, I will not eat your food, but if you prepare a burnt offering for Yahweh, you can offer it (for Manoah did not know that he [was] an angel of Yahweh)."

The angel of Yahweh did not appear again to Manoah and his wife, and then Manoah knew that he [was] a messenger of Yahweh.

But his wife said to him, "If Yahweh wanted to kill us he would not have taken from our hand the burnt offering and the grain offering, or shown us all these things, or now announced to us things such as these."

His father and mother did not know that this [was] from Yahweh; he was seeking for an occasion against [the] Philistines. Now at that time [the] Philistines [were] ruling in Israel.

Then three thousand men from Judah went down to the cleft of the rock of Etam, and they said to Samson, "Do you not know that the Philistines [are] ruling over us? What [is] this [that] you have done to us?" And he said to them, "Just as they did to me, so I have done to them."

They said to him, "No, we will only bind you and give you into their hand; we will certainly not kill you." So they bound him with two new ropes, and they brought him up from the rock.

And he was very thirsty, and he called to Yahweh and said, "You gave this great victory into the hand of your servant, but now I must die of thirst and fall into the hand of the uncircumcised?"

He said to her, "If they tie me tightly with new ropes that have not been used, I will become weak and be like everyone else."

So Delilah took new ropes and tied him up with them, and she said to him, "[The] Philistines [are] upon you, Samson!" (The ambush [was] sitting in an inner room.) But he snapped them from his arms like thread.

And Delilah said to Samson, "Until now you have mocked me and told lies to me. Tell me how you can be bound." And he said to her, "If you weave seven locks of my head with warp-threads."

And she said to him, "[The] Philistines [are] upon you, Samson!" And he woke up from his sleep and said, "I will go out just like every other time and shake myself free," but he did not know that Yahweh had left him.

He returned the eleven hundred pieces of silver to his mother, and his mother thought, "I will certainly consecrate to Yahweh the pieces of silver from my hand for my son to make an idol of cast metal; now then, I will return them to you."

In those days there was no king in Israel, and each one did what was right in his own eyes.

And Micah said, "Now I know Yahweh will make me prosperous, because the Levite has become my priest."

In those days there was no king in Israel. And in those days the tribe of the Danites [was] seeking territory for itself to live in, because until that day it had not been allotted territory among the tribes of Israel.

And they said to him, "Please inquire of God that we may know whether our journey that we [are] going on will be successful."

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.

When you go you will come to an unsuspecting people, and the land {is spread out on all sides}; God has given a place into your hands where there is no lack of anything that [is] on the earth."

And the five men that went out to spy out the land ([that is], Laish) responded and said to their relatives, "Do you know that there are in these houses an ephod, teraphim, and an idol of cast metal? So then, consider what you must do."

He said, "You took away my gods that I had made, and the priest, and then you go [away]. What [is] now left for me? How can you say to me, 'What is the matter?'"

There was no deliverer, because it [was] far from Sidon, and {they had had no dealings with anyone}. It [was] in the valley that belonged to Beth-rehob, and they rebuilt the city and lived in it.

In those days there was no king in Israel; there was a man, a Levite, who dwelled as a foreigner in the remote areas of the hill country of Ephraim. And he took for himself a concubine from Bethlehem in Judah.

And they turned aside there to enter [and] to spend the night at Gibeah. And they went and sat in the open square of the city, but no one {took them in to spend the night}.

And he said to him, "We [are] crossing over from Bethlehem in Judah up to the remote areas of the hill country of Ephraim, where I [am] from. I went to Bethlehem in Judah, but [now] I am going to Yahweh's house, but no one {took me in to spend the night}.

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."

So the man, the owner of the house, went out to them and said to them, "No, my brothers, do not act wickedly; since this man has come into my house, do not do this disgraceful thing.

And he said to her, "Get up, let us go," but there was no answer. So he put her on the donkey, and the man got up and went to his place.

Then ten thousand well-trained men from all Israel came out against Gibeah, and the battle became fierce; they did not know that disaster [was about to] {close in} on them.

Now the appointed time for the men of Israel with the ambush was that they sent up for them a great amount of smoke from the city.

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.

The people were counted, and no one was there from the inhabitants of Jabesh-gilead.

In those days there was no king in Israel; each one did what was right in his own eyes.