Some time later, the angel of the LORD came up from Gilgal to Bochim and announced to Israel, "I brought you up from Egypt and led you into the land that I promised to your ancestors. I had told them, "I'll never breach my covenant with you.

After that whole generation had died, another generation grew up after them that was not acquainted with the LORD or with what he had done for Israel.

Then the LORD raised up leaders, who delivered Israel from domination by their marauders.

As a result, whenever the LORD raised up leaders for them, the LORD remained present with their leader, delivering Israel from the control of their enemies during the lifetime of that leader. The LORD was moved with compassion by their groaning that had been caused by those who were oppressing and persecuting them.

They remained there to test Israel, to reveal if they would obey the commands of the LORD that he issued to their ancestors through Moses.

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.

But when the Israelis cried out to the LORD, the LORD raised up Gera's son Ehud, a left-handed descendant of Benjamin, as a deliverer for them. The Israelis paid tribute through him to king Eglon of Moab.

Ehud approached him while he was sitting by himself in the cool roof chamber of his palace. He said, "I have a message from God for you!" So when Eglon got up from his seat,

She responded, "I will surely go with you, but the road that you're about to take will not lead to honor for you. The LORD will sell Sisera into the hands of a woman." Then Deborah got up and went with Barak toward Kedesh.

He asked her, "Please give me some water to drink, because I'm thirsty." Instead, she opened a leather container of milk, gave him a drink, and then covered him up.

But Heber's wife Jael grabbed a tent peg in one hand and a hammer in the other, crept up to him quietly, and drove the tent peg right through his temple into the ground below after he had fallen sound asleep from exhaustion. That's how he died.

"Speak up, you who ride white donkeys, sitting on cloth saddles while you travel on your way!

"Wake up! Wake up, Deborah! Wake up! Wake up, Deborah! Get up, Barak, and dispose of your captives, you son of Abinoam!

Whenever the Israelis sowed their crops, the Midianites, the Amalekites, and certain groups from the east would come up and invade them.

They set up their military encampments to fight them, destroyed the harvest of the land as far as Gaza, and left nothing in Israel, whether harvested grain, sheep, oxen, or donkeys.

the LORD sent a man who was a prophet to the Israelis and told them, "This is what the LORD God of Israel says: "I was the one who brought you up from the land of Egypt, delivering you from the house of servitude.

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!"

When the leading men of the city got up early the next morning, the altar to Baal had been torn down, along with the Asherah that had stood beside it, and the second bull had been offered on the altar that had been erected.

Then all the Midianites, Amalekites, and certain groups from the east gathered together, crossed the Jordan River, and set up camp in the Jezreel Valley.

And that is what happened: When he got up early the next morning, he wrung out the fleece to drain the dew from it and extracted a bowl full of water.

Then Jerubbaal, also known as Gideon, got up early along with all of his soldiers. They encamped near the Harod Spring. The Midian encampment lay in the valley to their north, near the hill of Moreh.

So he brought his soldiers down to the water, and the LORD told Gideon, "You are to cull out everyone who laps up water with his tongue like a dog from everyone who kneels to drink."

Later that same night, the LORD directed Gideon, "Get up and go down to the Midianite encampment, because I've given it into your control.

There he announced, "Get up! The LORD has given the Midianite army into your control!" Then he separated the 300 men into three companies, gave them each trumpets to carry, along with jars into which he placed lit torches.

They stood up, each soldier in his assigned place surrounding the encampment, and the entire army ran away, sounding the alarm to retreat.

So Gideon responded, "Okay then, but when the LORD has turned over Zebah and Zalmunna into my control, I'm going to whip you with thorns and briers from the desert!"

Gideon went up by a caravan route east of Nobah and Jogbehah and attacked their encampment when they were off guard.

Then he told his firstborn son Jether, "Get up and kill them!" But he was afraid, since he was still only a youngster.

Then Zebah and Zalmunna responded, "Get up and attack us yourself, since a man's valor is only as good as the man himself." So Gideon got up, killed Zebah and Zalmunna, and took away the crescent-shaped necklaces that adorned the necks of their camels.

All the men from Shechem and Beth-millo gathered together and set up Abimelech as king near the pillar erected in Shechem.

Then the bramble bush replied to the trees, "If you really are consecrating me to rule you, come and put your confidence in my shade; but if not, may fire spring out from the bramble bush and burn up the cedars of Lebanon"'

If only authority over this people were given to me. Then I would remove Abimelech!" Then he challenged Abimelech: "Build up your army and then come out and fight!"

He sent messengers to Abimelech in secret and told him, "Look out! Ebed's son Gaal and his family have arrived here in Shechem. Watch out! They're stirring up the city against you.

So get up at night, take your soldiers with you, and wait in ambush out in the field.

Tomorrow morning when the sun is up, get up early and attack the city. When Gaal and his army come out to fight you, do whatever you can to them."

So Abimelech and his entire army got up that night and waited in ambush against Shechem in four separate companies.

Gaal spoke up again to say, "Look! People are coming down from the highest part of the land, and there's a company approaching from the diviner's oak tree."

Abimelech chased him, and Gaal ran away from him. Many fell wounded right up to the entrance to the city gate.

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!"

Later on, Abimelech went to Thebez, set up a siege encampment there, and captured it.

But there was a fortified tower in the center of the city, and all the men, women, and leaders of the city escaped to it, shut themselves in, and went up to the roof of the tower.

Gilead's wife bore two sons through him, but when his wife's sons grew up, they expelled Jephthah and declared to him, "You won't have an inheritance in this house, since you're the son of a different woman."

The king of the Ammonites answered the messengers of Jephthah, "We're here because Israel took away my land from the Arnon River as far as the Jabbok River and as far as the Jordan River when they came up from Egypt! So restore it as a gesture of good will."

"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,

then if I return from the Ammonites without incident, whatever comes out the doors of my house to meet me will become the LORD's, and I will offer it up as a burnt offering."

Then she continued talking with her father, "Do this for me: leave me alone by myself for two months. I'll go up to the mountains and cry there because I'll never marry. My friends and I will go."

So Manoah got up quickly and followed his wife, and when he came to the man he told him, "Are you the man who spoke to my wife?" He replied, "I am."

When the burnt offering was engulfed in flames that sprang up from the altar toward heaven, the angel of the LORD ascended in the flame that came from the altar. When Manoah and his wife observed this, they collapsed on their faces to the ground.

Then he ignited the torches, set the foxes loose into the Philistines' unharvested grain, and burned up both the harvested shocks and the standing grain, along with their vineyards and olive groves.

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.

In response, the Philistines went up, encamped in the territory of Judah, and raided Lehi.

So they said, "No, we won't. But we're going to tie you up securely and transfer you to their custody. But we won't kill you." Then they bound him with two ropes and brought him up from the caves.

Meanwhile, Samson had sex until midnight, then at midnight he got up, grabbed the doors, the two door posts, and the bars of the city gate, and uprooted them. He put them on his shoulders and carried them to the top of the mountain opposite Hebron.

The Philistine officials approached her and told her, "Entice him to discover where his great strength is, and how we can overpower him. We intend to tie him up and torture him. We'll each pay you 1,100 silver coins."

So Delilah asked Samson, "Please tell me the secret to your great strength and how you may be tied up and tortured."

Samson replied, "If I'm tied up with seven green cords that have never been dried out, then I'll become weak and just like any other human being."

Then the Philistine leaders brought her seven green cords that had never been dried, and she tied him up with them.

Some time later, Delilah told Samson, "Look here! You've been mocking me and lying to me. Now please tell me how you can be tied up."

He told her, "If I'm tied up securely with new ropes that have never been used, then I'll become weak and just like any other human being."

So Delilah grabbed some new ropes and tied him up. Then she told him, "The Philistines are attacking you, Samson!" because some kidnappers were hiding inside an inner room. But he snapped the ropes from his arms like thread.

Later on, Delilah told Samson, "You're still mocking me and telling me lies! Tell me how to tie you up!" He answered her, "If you weave the seven locks on my head into a loom and fasten it with a peg, then I will become weak and just like any other human being."

So Delilah took the seven locks on his head and wove them into the loom while he slept. She fastened his hair with a peg and then told him, "The Philistines are attacking you, Samson!" But he woke up from his nap and pulled the pin from the loom and the weaving.

When Delilah realized that he had disclosed everything to her, she sent for the Philistine officials and told them, "Hurry up and come here at once, because he has told me everything." So the Philistine officials went to her and brought their money with them.

Then the Philistines grabbed him, gouged out his eyes, brought him down to Gaza, tied him up in bronze chains, and made him grind grain in their prison.

When he had returned the silver to his mother, his mother took 200 of the silver coins and handed them over to a silversmith. He crafted them into a carved image and into a cast image, and they were set up in Micah's house.

Micah set up the descendant of Levi in ministry, and the young man became his priest while he lived in Micah's house.

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.

They told him, "Shut up and keep quiet. Come with us and be our spiritual father and priest. It's better for you, isn't it, to be a priest to an entire tribe and family in Israel than to be priest to the home of one man?"

The descendants of Dan set up the carved image, and Gershom's son Jonathan, a descendant of Manasseh, served along with his descendants as priests to the tribe of Dan until the land was taken captive.

Micah's carved image, that he himself had crafted, was in place during the entire time that God's tent was set up at Shiloh.

when her husband got up and went after her, intending to speak lovingly to her in order to win her back. He took with him his young man servant and a pair of donkeys. When she brought him into her father's house to see him, her father was happy to have met him.

On the fourth day, they got up early that morning, and the descendant of Levi got ready to leave. Then the young woman's father-in-law told him, "Fortify yourself by eating some food before you go."

The man got up, intending to leave, but his father-in-law urged him to spend the night there again.

On the fifth day, he got up early in the morning, but the young woman's father-in-law told him, "Please, fortify yourself," so they delayed until later that afternoon while both of them ate together.

When the man got up to leave with his mistress and servant, his father-in-law, the young woman's father, told him, "Look now, evening is coming, so please spend another night. See how the daylight is fading, so spend the night here and enjoy yourself. Then tomorrow get up early and leave on your journey home."

Because the man was unwilling to spend the night, he got up, left, and arrived opposite Jebus (now known as Jerusalem). He had with him a pair of saddled donkeys, along with his mistress.

As the old man looked up and saw the traveling man in the public square of the city, he asked, "Now then, where are you headed? And where are you from?"

When her master got up that morning and opened the doors of the house to leave on his way, there was his mistress, fallen dead at the door of the house with her hands grasping the threshold.

He spoke to her, "Get up, and let's go."

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!"

While the descendants of Benjamin were learning that the Israelis had gone up to Mizpah, the Israelis asked, "Somebody tell us how this evil could happen?"

So the descendant of Levi, the husband of the murdered woman, spoke up and replied, "I came to spend the night at Gibeah, which is part of Benjamin, along with my mistress.

So look, all you Israelis! Speak up and give us your advice!"

Then the entire army stood up as a single unit and declared, "Nobody's going back to his tent, and nobody's going home!

But the descendants of Benjamin wouldn't obey the request of their own relatives, the Israelis, so the descendants of Benjamin assembled from the cities of Gibeah to fight the Israelis in battle.

The Israelis mounted up, traveled to Bethel, and asked God what to do. They said, "Who is to lead us in our opening attack against the descendants of Benjamin?" The LORD replied, "Judah is to open the attack."

So the Israelis got up in the morning, encamped near Gibeah,

From there the Israelis went up and wept in the LORD's presence until evening. Then they asked the LORD, "Should we attack the descendants of Benjamin again?" The LORD replied, "Attack them."

All the Israelis, including its army, went up from there to Bethel and wept, remaining there in the LORD's presence, fasting throughout the day until dusk, when they offered burnt offerings and peace offerings in the LORD's presence.

Meanwhile, the army of Israel had arranged to signal their soldiers who had been hiding in ambush by sending up a cloud of smoke from the city.

But then the smoke began to rise from the city in a column. The army of Benjamin observed behind them that the whole city was going up in flames straight into the sky!

To sum up, the soldiers from the tribe of Benjamin who died that day totaled 25,000 men, all of them expert swordsmen and valiant soldiers.

The next day, the people got up early, built an altar, and offered burnt offerings and peace offerings.

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,