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.

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

"They're busy finding and dividing the war booty, aren't they? A girl or two for each valiant warrior, and some dyed materials for Sisera perhaps dyed, embroidered war booty or some detailed embroidery for my neck as the booty of war!

After this, the angel of the LORD arrived and sat down in the shade of the oak tree in Ophrah that belonged to Joash, a descendant of Abiezer, while his son Gideon was threshing wheat in a wine press in order to safeguard it from the Midianites.

Then Gideon went and prepared a young goat and unleavened bread from an ephah of flour. He put the meat in a basket and poured the broth into a pot, and brought them to the angel right under the oak tree. Then he made his offering.

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

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!"

Afterwards, he asked Zebah and Zalmunna, "What were the men like whom you killed at Tabor?" They answered, "Like you, each one like the son of a king""

But Gideon also added, "I would like to ask that each of you give me a ring from his war booty" because, as Ishmaelites, the Midianites had been wearing gold rings.

They responded, "We'll be happy to give them." So they laid out a garment, and each of them contributed a ring from his war booty.

"Ask all the "lords" of Shechem, "What's better for you? That 70 men, each of them Jerubbaal's sons, rule over you? Or that one man rule over you?' Keep in mind that I'm like your own close relative."

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."

Then his entire army also cut down a branch for each soldier, followed Abimelech to the inner chamber, and set fire to it while they were inside. As a result, all the men of the tower of Shechem died, including about a thousand men and women.

When the men of Israel noticed that Abimelech was dead, they each left for home.

"Let me tell you a riddle," Samson told them. "If you can solve it during this week-long festival, I'll give you 30 linen garments and 30 formal garments.

So Samson went out, caught 300 foxes, grabbed some torches, tied the foxes together in pairs at their tails, and fastened a torch between each pair of tails.

When the Gazites were informed, "Samson has come here!" they surrounded him, intending to lay in wait for him at the city gate throughout the entire night. They kept quiet all night, telling each other, "At first light, let's kill him!"

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."

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."

Meanwhile, some kidnappers were hiding inside an inner room, waiting for her signal. So she told him, "The Philistines are attacking you!" But he snapped the cords as one might break a burned candle wick. So his secret remained undiscovered.

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."

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.

So he finally disclosed everything. He told her, "A razor has never touched my head, because I've been a Nazirite for God before I was born. If I am shaved, then my strength will abandon me and I will become weak like every human being."

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.

Out of all these soldiers, 700 of them were left-handed and each one could sling a stone at a hair and never miss.

Watch when the unmarried women from Shiloh come out to participate in the dances. Then come out of the vineyards and each of you grab a wife from the unmarried women from Shiloh. Then go back home to the territory of Benjamin.

The Israelis left there at that time, each man to his tribe and family, and each of them went down from there to his territorial allotment.

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