The LORD was with the army of Judah, and they captured the hill country, but did not expel the inhabitants of the valley because they were equipped with iron chariots.

However, the descendants of Benjamin did not expel the Jebusites who lived in Jerusalem, so the Jebusites have lived with the descendants of Benjamin in Jerusalem to this day.

The army of the tribe of Manasseh did not conquer Beth-shean and its villages, Taanach and its villages, the inhabitants of Dor and its villages, the inhabitants of Ibleam and its villages, and the inhabitants of Megiddo and its villages. Instead, the Canaanites continued to live in that land.

When Israel had grown strong, they subjected the Canaanites to conscripted labor and never did expel them completely.

The army of the tribe of Ephraim did not expel the Canaanites who were living in Gezer, so the Canaanites lived in Gezer among them.

The army of the tribe of Zebulun did not expel the inhabitants of Kitron or the inhabitants of Nahalol, so the Canaanites lived among them, but were subjected to conscripted labor.

The army of the tribe of Asher did not expel the inhabitants of Acco nor the inhabitants of Sidon, Ahlab, Achzib, Helbah, Aphik, or Rehob.

So the descendants of Asher lived among the Canaanites who continued to inhabit the land, because they did not expel them.

The army of the tribe of Naphtali did not expel the inhabitants of Beth-shemesh and the inhabitants of Beth-anath. Instead, they lived among the Canaanites who inhabited the land. However, the inhabitants of Beth-shemesh and Beth-anath were subjected to conscripted labor.

Later on, the Amorites forced the descendants of Dan into the hill country and did not permit them to come into the valleys of the hills.

But they didn't listen to their leaders, because they were committing spiritual immorality by following other gods and worshiping them. They quickly turned away from the road on which their ancestors had walked in obedience to the commands of the LORD. They didn't follow their example.

That way, I'll use them to demonstrate whether or not Israel will keep the LORD's lifestyle by walking on that road like their ancestors did."

So the LORD caused those nations to remain and did not expel them quickly. He did not give them into Joshua's control.

When the Israelis cried out to the LORD, the LORD raised up Othniel son of Caleb's younger brother Kenaz, to deliver them, and he did.

The hilt also penetrated along with the sword blade, and Eglon's fat closed in over the blade. Because he did not withdraw the sword from Eglon's abdomen, the sword point exited from Eglon's entrails.

he told them, "Attack them, because the LORD has given your enemies the Moabites into your control." So the Israeli army followed after him, seized the fords of the Jordan River opposite Moab, and did not allow anyone to cross.

Why did you sit down among the sheepfolds? To hear the bleating of the flocks? Among the divisions of the army of Reuben there was great searching of heart.

The tribe of Gilead remained on the other side of the Jordan River. As for the tribe of Dan, why did they stay on board their ships? The tribe of Asher sat by the seashore and remained near its harbors.

The tribe of Zebulun did not worry about their lives at the price of death; neither did the tribe of Naphtali also on high places of the field.

But Gideon replied, "Right" Sir, if the LORD is with us, then why has all of this happened to us? And where are all of his miraculous works that our ancestors recounted to us when they said, "The LORD brought us up from Egypt, didn't he?' But now the LORD has abandoned us and given us over to Midian!"

The angel, who was God, replied, "Take the meat and the unleavened bread and lay them on this boulder. Then pour out the broth." So he did that.

So Gideon went with ten men who were his servants and did just what the LORD had told him to do, though he did it at night because he was too afraid of his father's family and the leading men of the city to do it during the day.

They asked each other, "Who did this thing?" When they looked into it and asked around, they concluded, "Joash's son Gideon did it."

And God did it just like that later that night. It was dry only on the fleece, but dew was all around on the ground.

Then he left there to go to Penuel and asked the same thing from them, but the men of Penuel responded the same way the men of Succoth did.

Midian remained subjugated to the Israelis, and they didn't so much as raise their heads anymore, so the land was peaceful for 40 years during the lifetime of Gideon.

The Israelis did not remember the LORD their God, who continually delivered them from the domination of their enemies who surrounded them on every side.

So he went up to Mount Zalmon, accompanied by his entire army. Abimelech had an axe in his hand, so he cut down a branch from a tree, lifted it up, and laid it on his shoulder. Then he told the army that had accompanied him, "You've seen what I just did. Hurry up! Do the same thing!"

That's how God repaid Abimelech for the evil thing he did to his father by killing his 70 brothers.

"Israel didn't seize the land of Moab nor the land of the Ammonites. Here's what happened: When Israel came up from Egypt, passed through the desert to the Red Sea, and arrived at Kadesh,

But Sihon didn't trust Israel to pass through his territory, so he assembled his entire army, encamped in Jahaz, and fought against Israel.

Also ask yourselves: do you have a better case than Zippor's son Balak, king of Moab? Did he ever have a quarrel with Israel or ever win a fight against them?

When Israel was living in Heshbon and its surrounding villages, in Aroer and its surrounding villages, and in all the cities that line the banks of the Arnon River these past three hundred years, why didn't you retake them during that time?

A little while later, the army of Ephraim was mustered, and they crossed to Zaphon. They confronted Jephthah and asked, "Why did you cross over to fight the Ammonites without calling us to accompany you? We're going to burn your house down around you!"

But Jephthah replied to them, "My army and I were engaged in a serious fight with the Ammonites. I called for you, but you didn't deliver me from their control.

Then the woman went to tell her husband. She said, "A man of God appeared to me. He looked like what an angel of God would look like very frightening. I didn't ask him where he had come from and he didn't tell me his name.

The angel of the LORD answered Manoah, "If you detain me, I won't be eating your food, but if you prepare a burnt offering, you'll be making a sacrifice to the LORD." The angel of the LORD said this because Manoah didn't know that he was the angel of the LORD.

The angel of the LORD did not appear again to Manoah or to his wife, and then Manoah knew confidently that the visitor had been the angel of the LORD.

But Samson retorted to his father, "Get her for me, since she looks fine to me." Meanwhile, his father and mother did not know that she was from the LORD, because he had been seeking a favorable opportunity concerning the Philistines, since the Philistines were dominating Israel at that time.

The Spirit of the LORD rushed upon him, and he ripped the lion apart as one might dissect a young goat, even though he carried nothing in his hand. But he didn't tell his father and mother what he had done.

So he scraped some out into his hands and went on his way, eating all the while. When he met his father and mother, he gave some to them, and they ate it, too. But he didn't inform them that he had scraped the honey from the carcass of the lion.

Later on, when his father went down to visit the woman, Samson threw a party there, since young men customarily did this.

Then the Philistines demanded, "Who did this?" Someone said, "Samson, son-in-law of the Timnite, because his father-in-law took Samson's wife and gave her to the best man at Samson's wedding." In retaliation, the Philistines came up and burned her and her father to death.

Samson replied to them, "Because you did this, I'm not going to stop until I get my revenge against you!"

The leading men of Judah asked, "Why have you invaded us?" They replied, "We're here to arrest Samson. Then we're going to do to him what he did to us."

In response, 3,000 soldiers from the tribe of Judah went down to the caves of the rock of Etam and asked Samson, "Don't you know that the Philistines have us in their control? What have you done to us?" "I did to them what they did to me," he answered.

When she cried out, "The Philistines are attacking you, Samson!" he woke from his sleep and told himself, "I'll go out like I did at other times like this and shake myself free." But he didn't know that the LORD had abandoned him.

Back in those days, Israel didn't yet have a king, so each person did whatever seemed right in his own opinion.

Micah asked him, "Where did you come from?" He replied, "I'm a descendant of Levi from Bethlehem in Judah, and I'm going to stay temporarily wherever I can find a place."

Back in those days, Israel didn't have a king yet, and during that time the tribe of Dan had been seeking a territorial inheritance to live in, because up until that time no territory had been allotted to them as a possession among the tribes of Israel.

He answered, "Micah did such and such for me, and has hired me, so I've become his priest."

As 10,000 of Israel's best soldiers came to fight Gibeah, the battle became fierce, but the army of Benjamin didn't know that disaster was close at hand.

The Israelis asked themselves, "Who didn't come up in our assembly in the LORD's presence from among all of the tribes of Israel?" They had taken a solemn oath concerning those who didn't come up to meet with the LORD at Mizpah that "They will certainly be executed."

They asked, "What one group of the tribes of Israel didn't come up to meet the LORD at Mizpah?" It turned out that no one had come to the encampment from Jabesh-gilead,

If their fathers or brothers come complaining to us, we'll tell them "Be generous! Give them to us voluntarily, because we didn't take anyone to be a wife for the men of the tribe of Benjamin as a result of the battle. And you haven't incurred guilt by giving your daughters to them.'"

So the descendants of Benjamin did all of this: they chose and carried away just enough wives from those who danced to meet the number needed, then they left to return to their inheritance, to rebuild their cities, and to live there.

Back in those days, Israel didn't yet have a king, so each person did whatever seemed right in his own opinion.