And Adoni-bezek fled, but they pursued after him; they caught him and cut off {his thumbs and big toes}.

The descendants of Judah fought against Jerusalem, and they captured it, {put it to the sword}, and {set the city on fire}.

And Yahweh was with Judah, and he took possession of the hill country, but they could not drive out the inhabitants of the plain because they [had] chariots of iron.

But the descendants of Benjamin did not drive out the Jebusites who lived in Jerusalem, so the Jebusites have lived among the descendants of Benjamin in Jerusalem to this day.

So he showed them the entrance of the city, and they struck the city with {the edge of the sword}, but they let go the man and all his family.

And it happened, when Israel grew strong, they put the Canaanites to forced labor, but they never totally drove them out.

Naphtali did not drive out the inhabitants of Beth Shemesh or Beth-anath, but lived in the midst of the Canaanites, the inhabitants of the land; the inhabitants of Beth Shemesh and Beth-anath became forced labor for them.

the Amorites [were] determined to live in Har-heres, in Aijalon, and in Shaalbim, but the hand of the house of Joseph was heavy [on them], and they became [subjected] to forced labor.

And [as for] you, do not {make a covenant} with the inhabitants of this land; break down their altars.' But you did not listen to my voice. {Why would you do such a thing}?

But they did not listen to their leaders, but lusted after other gods and bowed down to them. They turned away quickly from the way that their ancestors went, who had obeyed the commandment of Yahweh; they did not do [as their ancestors].

But when the leader died they relapsed and acted corruptly, more than their ancestors, following other gods, serving them, and bowing down to them. They would not give up their deeds or their stubborn ways.

But he turned back from the sculptured stones that [were] near Gilgal, and he said, "I have {a secret message} for you, O king." And he said, "Silence!" So all those standing in his presence went out,

Barak said to her, "If you go with me, I will go; but if you do not go with me, I will not go."

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.

But Jael, the wife of Heber the Kenite, took in her hand a tent peg and a hammer, and she went softly to him and drove the peg into his temple, and it went through into the ground; he [was] fast asleep since he was exhausted, and he died.

"Then the hooves of the horse beat loudly, because of galloping, galloping of his stallions.

So may all your enemies perish, O Yahweh, but those who love him are like the rising sun at its brightest." And the land had rest for forty years.

And I said to you, 'I [am] Yahweh your God; do not fear the gods of the Amorites, in whose land you [are] living.' But you have not listened to my voice."

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 Yahweh said to him, "But I will be with you, and you will defeat Midian {as if they are one man}."

And Gideon went and prepared {a young goat} and unleavened cakes [from] an ephah of flour; he put meat in a basket, and the broth he put in a pot, and he brought [them] to him under the oak and presented [them].

The angel of God said to him, "Take the meat and the unleavened cakes and put [them] on this rock; pour the broth [over it]." And he did so.

But Jehoash said to all who stood against him, "Will you contend for Baal? Will you rescue him? Whoever contends for him will be put to death by the morning. If he [is] a god, let him contend for himself because {his altar has been pulled down}."

So they took their provisions and their trumpets into their hand, and he sent all the men of Israel, each one, to his tent; but three hundred of the men he kept; the camp of Midian was below him in the valley.

But if you [are] afraid, go down to the camp with Purah your servant,

He divided the three hundred men [into] three companies, and he put trumpets and empty jars in everyone's hand, with torches inside the jars.

And he said to Jether, his firstborn, "Get up, kill them." But the boy did not draw his sword, for he was afraid because he [was] still a boy.

But Gideon said to them, "I will not rule over you, and my son will not rule over you; Yahweh will rule over you."

Gideon made an ephod [out of] it, and he put it in his town in Ophrah, and all Israel prostituted [themselves] to it there, and it became a snare to Gideon and his family.

And he went to his father's house at Ophrah, and he killed his brothers, the sons of Jerub-Baal, seventy men, on one stone. But Jotham the youngest son of Jerub-Baal survived, because he hid himself.

But the fig tree said to them, 'Should I stop [producing] my sweetness, and my good crop, to go sway over the trees?'

But the vine said to them, 'Should I stop [producing] my wine that makes the gods and men happy, to go sway over the trees?'

but today you have risen against the house of my father and killed his sons, seventy men on one stone, and you have made Abimelech, the son of his slave woman, a king over the lords of Shechem, because he is your relative--

But if not, let a fire come out from Abimelech and let it devour the lords of Shechem and Beth-Millo; and let a fire come out from the lords of Shechem, and from Beth-Millo, and let it devour Abimelech."

So Abimelech went up Mount Zalmon, he and all his army that [were] with him, and Abimelech took the ax in his hand and cut down a bundle of brushwood, and he lifted it and put [it] on his shoulder. And he said to the army that [was] with him, "What you have seen me do, quickly do also."

So the whole army cut down each one branch for himself and followed Abimelech, and they put [them] against the vault and set the vault ablaze with fire on those [inside], so that all the men of the tower of Shechem died, about a thousand men and women.

But there was a strong tower in the middle of the city, and all the men, women, and lords of the city fled there and shut themselves in; and they went up to the roof of the tower.

But a certain woman threw an upper millstone on Abimelech's head and cracked open his skull.

Israel sent messengers to the king of Edom, saying, "Please let us cross through your land," but the king of Edom would not listen. And they also sent [messengers] to the king of Moab, but he was not willing. So Israel stayed in Kadesh.

But Sihon did not trust Israel to cross through his territory, so Sihon gathered all his people and then encamped at Jahaz; and he made war with Israel.

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}."

But the king of the {Ammonites} did not listen to the message that Jephthah sent to him.

And Jephthah said to them, "I and my people were engaged in great conflict with the {Ammonites}; I called you, but you did not deliver me from their hand.

And an angel of Yahweh appeared to the woman, and he said to her, "Behold, you [are] infertile and have not borne [children], but you will conceive and bear a son.

And God listened to the voice of Manoah, and an angel of God came again to the woman; she [was] sitting in the field, but Manoah her husband was not with her.

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)."

But the angel of Yahweh said to him, "Why do you ask my name? It [is too] wonderful."

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."

But his father and mother said to him, "Is there not a wife among the daughters of your relatives, or among all our people, that you must take a wife from [the] uncircumcised Philistines?" But Samson said to his father, "Take her for me because {she pleases me}."

And the Spirit of Yahweh rushed upon him, and he tore the lion apart as one might tear apart a male kid goat ({he was bare-handed}). But he did not tell his father and mother what he had done.

He scraped it out into his hands, and he went on, eating [it] as he went. And he went to his father and mother and gave [some] to them, and they ate it. But he did not tell them that he had scraped the honey from the body of the lion.

But if you are unable to explain it to me, you must give me thirty linen garments and thirty festal garments." So they said to him, "Tell your riddle; let us hear it."

He said to them, "From the eater came out food, From [the] strong came out sweet." But they were unable to explain the riddle for three days.

And Samson's wife wept before him, and she said, "You must hate me; you do not love me. You told the riddle to {my people}, but you have not explained [it] to me." He said to her, "I have not explained [it] to my father and mother. [Why] should I explain it to you?"

After a while, at the time of the wheat harvest, Samson visited his wife with a {young goat}. He said, "I want to go to my wife's private room." But her father would not allow him to enter.

And Samson went and captured three hundred foxes, and he took torches. He turned [them] tail to tail, and he put one torch between two tails.

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?"

But Samson lay until the middle of the night; he got up in the middle of the night and took hold of the doors of the city gate and the two door posts, tore them loose with the bar, put them on his shoulders, and carried them up to the top of the hill that is {in front of} Hebron.

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 she put him to sleep on her lap; then she called the men and shaved off seven locks of his head. Then she began to subdue him, and his strength went away from him.

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.

But the hair of his head began to grow back after it had been shaved off.

And they said to him, "Keep quiet! Put your hand on your mouth and come with us and be for us a father and a priest. Is it better being a priest for a house of one man or being a priest for a tribe and clan in Israel?"

And they turned and went and put the little children, the livestock, and the valuable property in front of them.

And they took what Micah had made, and his priest, and they came to Laish, to a quiet and unsuspecting people, and {they put them to the sword} and burned the city with fire.

And they called the name of the city Dan, after Dan their ancestor, who was born to Israel; but the former name of the city [was] Laish.

But his concubine felt repugnance toward him, and she left him and went to her father's house, to Bethlehem in Judah; she was there some four months.

On the fourth day, they rose early in the morning, and he prepared to go, but the father of the young woman said to his son-in-law, "{Refresh yourself} [with] a bit of food, and afterward you may go."

The man got up to go, but his father-in-law urged him, and he returned and spent the night there.

And the man got up to go--he, his concubine, and his servant--but his father-in-law, the father of the young woman, said to him, "Please, the day has worn on to evening; please, spend the night, the day has drawn to a close. Spend the night here and {enjoy yourself}. You can rise early tomorrow for your journey and {go to your home}."

But the man was not willing to spend the night, and he got up and went; and he arrived opposite Jebus (that is, Jerusalem). [He had] with him a pair of saddled donkeys and his concubine.

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."

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}.

But the men were not willing to listen to him, and the man seized his concubine and brought [her] out to them; and they had intercourse with her, and they abused her all night until the morning; they let her go at the approach of dawn.

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.

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}.

But the troops, the men of Israel, {encouraged themselves}, and again they arranged [their] battle [lines] in the place where they had arranged themselves the first day.

And the ambush came quickly and advanced against Gibeah, and it {put the whole city to the sword}.

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.

And they turned and fled toward the wilderness, to the rock of Rimmon, but they cut down on the main roads five thousand men; and they pursued after them up to Gidom, and they struck down two thousand men.

But six hundred turned and fled toward the wilderness, to the rock of Rimmon, and they remained at the rock of Rimmon [for] four months.

And the men of Israel returned to the descendants of Benjamin, and they put them to {the edge of the sword}, both the inhabitants of city and [the] animals that were found; they also set on fire all the cities that they found.

And the {Israelites} said, "Who in the assembly has not come up from all the tribes of Israel to Yahweh?" For a solemn oath was [taken] concerning whoever did not come up to Yahweh at Mizpah, saying, "He will certainly be put to death."

But the {Israelites} had compassion for Benjamin, their relatives, and they said, "Today one tribe is cut off from Israel.

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.

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