Now it came about after the death of Joshua that the sons of Israel inquired of the Lord, saying, “Who shall go up first for us against the Canaanites, to fight against them?”

Then it came about when she came to him, that she persuaded him to ask her father for a field. Then she alighted from her donkey, and Caleb said to her, “What do you want?”

and the house of Joseph cause men to spy about Beth-El (and the name of the city formerly is Luz),

It came about when Israel became strong, that they put the Canaanites to forced labor, but they did not drive them out completely.

and they abandoned the Lord, the God of their fathers, who brought them out of the land of Egypt. They followed other gods from the gods of the peoples who were around them, and they bowed down to them, and offended and provoked the Lord to anger.

So the anger of the Lord burned against Israel, and He gave them into the hands (power) of plunderers who robbed them; and He sold them into the hands of their surrounding enemies, so that they could no longer stand [in opposition] before their enemies.

But it came about when the judge died, that they would turn back and act more corruptly than their fathers, in following other gods to serve them and bow down to them; they did not abandon their practices or their stubborn ways.

It came about when he had finished presenting the tribute, that he sent away the people who had carried the tribute.

and he himself turned back from the idols at Gilgal, and caused to say thus: "I have a secret thing to tell thee, O king." And the king commanded to keep silence, and all they that stood about him went out from him.

It came about when he had arrived, that he blew the trumpet in the hill country of Ephraim; and the sons of Israel went down with him from the hill country, and he was in front of them.

He said to them, "Follow me, for the Lord is about to defeat your enemies, the Moabites!" They followed him, captured the fords of the Jordan River opposite Moab, and did not let anyone cross.

That day they killed about ten thousand Moabites -- all strong, capable warriors; not one escaped.

“I will go with you,” she said, “but you will receive no honor on the road you are about to take, because the Lord will sell Sisera into a woman’s hand.” So Deborah got up and went with Barak to Kedesh.

In the days of Shamgar the son of Anath and in the days of Jael, the highways were unoccupied. And they that walked by paths, went by ways that set compasses about.

The riders of white female donkeys, [those] sitting on saddle blankets, and [those] going on [the] way, talk about it!

The men of Zebulun were not concerned about their lives; Naphtali charged on to the battlefields.

Now it came about when the sons of Israel cried to the Lord on account of Midian,

Yea and I said to you, - I, Yahweh, am your God, Ye must not fear the gods of the Amorites, in whose land ye are about to dwell, - But ye have not hearkened unto my voice.

Gideon said to him, "Pardon me, but if the Lord is with us, why has such disaster overtaken us? Where are all his miraculous deeds our ancestors told us about? They said, 'Did the Lord not bring us up from Egypt?' But now the Lord has abandoned us and handed us over to Midian."

And the same night the LORD said unto him, "Take an ox of thy father's and another of seven years old, and destroy the altar of Baal that belongeth unto thy father, and cut down the grove that is about it,

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

When the men of the city were up early in the morning: Behold the altar of Baal was broken, and the grove that stood about it cut down. And the second ox offered upon the altar that was made.

They said to one another, “Who did this thing?” And when they searched about and inquired, they said, “Gideon the son of Joash did this thing.”

Then the men of the city said unto Joash, "Bring out thy son that he may die, because he hath broken the altar of Baal, and cut down the grove that was about it."

And Gideon said unto God, - If thou art about to bring salvation, by my hand, unto Israel, as thou hast spoken,

And Gideon said unto God, "Be not angry with me, that I speak once more; let me prove only once again with the fleece. Let it be dry only upon the fleece, and dew upon all the ground about."

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

Then the Lord said to Gideon, “There are too many people with you for Me to hand over Midian to them, otherwise Israel will boast [about themselves] against Me, saying, ‘My own power has rescued me.’

And now, call now in the ears of the people, saying, Who being afraid and trembling shall turn back and turn about from mount Gilead. And there will turn back from the people twenty and two thousand; and ten thousand were left

Then the Lord said to Gideon, “There are still too many people. Take them down to the water, and I will test them for you there. If I say to you, ‘This one can go with you,’ he can go. But if I say about anyone, ‘This one cannot go with you,’ he cannot go.”

Now the same night it came about that the Lord said to him, “Arise, go down against the camp, for I have given it into your hands.

where you will hear what they're talking about. That way, you'll be encouraged to attack the encampment." So he and his servant Purah went down to the perimeter outposts of the encamped army.

When Gideon arrived, he heard a man telling another man about a dream he had. The man said, "Look! I had a dream. I saw a stale cake of barley bread rolling into the Midianite camp. It hit a tent so hard it knocked it over and turned it upside down. The tent just collapsed."

And I struck upon the trumpet, I and all that are with me, and ye struck upon the trumpets, also ye round about all the camp, and say, For Jehovah and for Gideon.

And they stood every man in his place round about the camp: and all the host ran, and cried, and fled.

God has given into your hands the chiefs of Midian, Oreb and Zeeb; what have I been able to do in comparison with you? And when he said this, their feeling about him became kinder.

And Gideon came towards the Jordan, being about to pass over - he, and the three hundred men who were with him, faint yet pursuing.

Now Zebah and Zalmunna were in Karkor with their armies. There were about fifteen thousand survivors from the army of the eastern peoples; a hundred and twenty thousand sword-wielding soldiers had been killed.

He came to the men of Succoth and said, “Look here, Zebah and Zalmunna, about whom you taunted me, saying, ‘Are Zebah and Zalmunna now in your hand, that we should give bread to your men who are exhausted?’”

And the weight of the golden earrings that he requested was a thousand and seven hundred shekels of gold; beside ornaments, and collars, and purple raiment that was on the kings of Midian, and beside the chains that were about their camels' necks.

Then it came about, as soon as Gideon was dead, that the sons of Israel again played the harlot with the Baals, and made Baal-berith their god.

And the sons of Israel did not remember Jehovah their God, delivering them out of the hand of all their enemies from round about.

His mother’s relatives spoke all these words about him in the presence of all the lords of Shechem, and they were favorable to Abimelech, for they said, “He is our brother.”

When Jotham was informed about this, he went out, took his stand on top of Mount Gerizim, and cried out loudly, "Listen to me, you "lords" of Shechem, and God will listen to you.

And the olive will say to them, Left I my fatness which by me they will honor God and men, and went I to wander about over the trees?

And the fig tree will say to them, Left I my sweetness, and my good produce, and went I to wander about over the trees?

And the vine will say to them, Left I my new wine-making, rejoicing God and men, and went I to wander about over the trees?

And the bramble said unto the trees, If, in truth, ye are about to anoint me to be king over you, come, take refuge in my shade, - but, if not, there shall come forth fire out of the bramble, and devour the cedars of Lebanon.

The leaders of Shechem rebelled against Abimelech by putting bandits in the hills, who robbed everyone who traveled by on the road. But Abimelech found out about it.

and it shall be, in the morning, about sunrise, thou shalt get up early, and spread thyself out against the city, - when lo! he and the people that are with him coming out against thee, so shalt thou do unto him as thy hand shall find opportunity.

The next day the Shechemites came out to the field. When Abimelech heard about it,

So each of his men also cut off a branch and followed Abimelech. They put the branches against the stronghold and set fire to it. All the people of the Tower of Shechem died -- about a thousand men and women.

He quickly called his armor-bearer and said to him, “Draw your sword and kill me, or they’ll say about me, ‘A woman killed him.’” So his armor-bearer thrust him through, and he died.

So Jephthah fled from his brothers and lived in the land of Tob; and worthless fellows gathered themselves about Jephthah, and they went out with him.

It came about after a while that the sons of Ammon fought against Israel.

At the end of two months, she returned to her father, and he kept the vow he had made about her. And she had never been intimate with a man. Now it became a custom in Israel

One day the angel of the LORD presented himself to the woman. "Hello!" he greeted her. "Though you are infertile at this time and haven't borne a child, you're about to conceive and give birth to a son.

for lo! thou, art about to conceive and bear a son, and no, razor, shall come on his head, for, one separate unto God, shall the boy be from his birth, - and, he, shall begin to save Israel out of the hand of the Philistines.

Then the woman came in, and said to her husband, A man came to me, and his form was like the form of a god, causing great fear; I put no question to him about where he came from, and he did not give me his name;

But he said unto me, Lo! thou art about to conceive, and bear a son, - now, therefore, do not drink wine or strong drink, nor eat anything unclean, for, one separate unto God, shall the boy be, from his birth until the day of his death.

But the angel of the Lord said to him, Why are you questioning me about my name, seeing that it is a wonder?

So Manoah took the kid, and the meal-offering, and caused them to ascend upon the rock unto Yahweh, who was about to do, wondrously, while Manoah and his wife were looking on.

For it came about when the flame went up from the altar toward heaven, that the angel of the Lord ascended in the flame of the altar. When Manoah and his wife saw this, they fell on their faces to the ground.

But his wife said to him, If the Lord was purposing our death, he would not have taken our burned offering and our meal offering, or have given us such orders about the child.

Then it came about on the fourth day that they said to Samson’s wife, “Entice your husband, so that he will tell us the riddle, or we will burn you and your father’s house with fire. Have you invited us to impoverish us? Is this not so?”

And it was told the Gazites, that Samson was come thither. And they went about and laid a wait for him all night in the gate of the city, but were still all the night, saying, "Tarry till the morning that it be day, and then let us kill him."

After this it came about that he loved a woman in the valley of Sorek, whose name was Delilah.

It came about when she pressed him daily with her words and urged him, that his soul was annoyed to death.

Now the house was full of men and women; all the Philistine lords were there, and on the flat roof were about three thousand men and women who looked on while Samson was entertaining them.

He said to his mother, "You know the eleven hundred pieces of silver which were stolen from you, about which I heard you pronounce a curse? Look here, I have the silver. I stole it, but now I am giving it back to you." His mother said, "May the Lord reward you, my son!"

They replied, "Go ask God, please, about whether or not we'll be successful in this journey."

The five men who had gone to scout out the land of Laish told their brothers, “Did you know that there are an ephod, household gods, and a carved image overlaid with silver in these houses? Now think about what you should do.”

The descendants of Dan answered him, "You had better not talk to us about this, or else these bad guys here will attack you. You will lose your life, along with the lives of your whole household."

Now it came about in those days, when there was no king in Israel, that there was a certain Levite staying in the remote part of the hill country of Ephraim, who took a concubine for himself from Bethlehem in Judah.

His concubine was unfaithful to him and went away from him to her father's house in Bethlehem of Judah, and was there about four months.

Now as they were making their hearts merry, behold, the men of the city, certain sons of Belial, beset the house round about, and beat at the door, and spake to the master of the house, the old man, saying, Bring forth the man that came into thine house, that we may know him.

All the witnesses said, "Nothing has happened or has been seen like this from the day the Israelis came here from the land of Egypt to this day! Think about it, get some advice about it, and then speak up about it!"

And the men of Gibeah rose against me, and beset the house round about upon me by night, and thought to have slain me: and my concubine have they forced, that she is dead.

Here you all are, you children of Israel; give now your suggestions about what is to be done.

And Israel set liers in wait round about Gibeah.

The Benjaminites attacked the army, leaving the city unguarded. They began to strike down their enemy just as they had done before. On the main roads (one leads to Bethel, the other to Gibeah) and in the field, they struck down about thirty Israelites.

Then 10,000 choice men from all Israel made a frontal assault against Gibeah, and the battle was fierce, but the Benjaminites did not know that disaster was about to strike them.

the Israelites counterattacked. Benjamin had begun to strike down the Israelites; they struck down about thirty men. They said, "There's no doubt about it! They are totally defeated as in the earlier battle."

And the men of Israel had made a turn about, and the men of Benjamin were overcome with fear, for they saw that evil had overtaken them.

Thus they inclosed the Benjamites round about, and chased them, and trode them down with ease over against Gibeah toward the sunrising.

They said, “Why, O Lord, God of Israel, has this come about in Israel, so that one tribe should be missing today in Israel?”

It came about the next day that the people arose early and built an altar there and offered burnt offerings and peace offerings.

What should we do about wives for the survivors? We’ve sworn to the Lord not to give them any of our daughters as wives.”

The elders of the congregation said, “What should we do about wives for those who are left, since the women of Benjamin have been destroyed?”

When their fathers or brothers come and protest to us, we'll say to them, "Do us a favor and let them be, for we could not get each one a wife through battle. Don't worry about breaking your oath! You would only be guilty if you had voluntarily given them wives.'"