Adoni-Bezek said, "Seventy kings, with thumbs and big toes cut off, used to lick up food scraps under my table. God has repaid me for what I did to them." They brought him to Jerusalem, where he died.

The men of Judah attacked the Canaanites living in Hebron. (Hebron used to be called Kiriath Arba.) They killed Sheshai, Ahiman, and Talmai.

From there they attacked the people of Debir. (Debir used to be called Kiriath Sepher.)

When the men of Joseph spied out Bethel (it used to be called Luz),

These were the nations the Lord permitted to remain so he could use them to test Israel -- he wanted to test all those who had not experienced battle against the Canaanites.

Gideon said to God, "If you really intend to use me to deliver Israel, as you promised, then give me a sign as proof.

Look, I am putting a wool fleece on the threshing floor. If there is dew only on the fleece, and the ground around it is dry, then I will be sure that you will use me to deliver Israel, as you promised."

Gideon used all this to make an ephod, which he put in his hometown of Ophrah. All the Israelites prostituted themselves to it by worshiping it there. It became a snare to Gideon and his family.

They paid him seventy silver shekels out of the temple of Baal-Berith. Abimelech then used the silver to hire some lawless, dangerous men as his followers.

But the olive tree said to them, 'I am not going to stop producing my oil, which is used to honor gods and men, just to sway above the other trees!'

He said to her, "If they tie me tightly with brand new ropes that have never been used, I will become weak and be just like any other man."

When he gave back to his mother the eleven hundred pieces of silver, his mother said, "I solemnly dedicate this silver to the Lord. It will be for my son's benefit. We will use it to make a carved image and a metal image."

They named it Dan after their ancestor, who was one of Israel's sons. But the city's name used to be Laish.