And Judah went unto the Cananites that dwelt in Hebron, which before time was called Kiriatharba. And slew Sheshai, Ahiman and Talmai.

The army of Judah then proceeded to attack the inhabitants of Debir, which used to be known as Kiriath-sepher.

The sons of [Jethro] the Kenite, Moses’ father-in-law, went up from the City of Palms (Jericho) with the sons of Judah, to the wilderness of Judah which is in the Negev (South country) near Arad; and they went and lived with the people.

The army of the tribe of Joseph scouted out Bethel, which had been formerly named Luz.

The man went into the land of the Hittites and built a city and named it Luz, which is its name to this day.

Now the Angel of the Lord came up from Gilgal to Bochim. And he said, “I brought you up from Egypt and led you to the land which I swore [to give] to your fathers; and I said, ‘I will never break My covenant with you,

and saith, 'I cause you to come up out of Egypt, and bring you in unto the land which I have sworn to your fathers, and say, I do not break My covenant with you to the age; and ye -- ye make no covenant with the inhabitants of this land -- their altars ye break down; and ye have not hearkened to My voice -- what is this ye have done?

Now on hearing these words which the angel of the Lord said to all the children of Israel, the people gave themselves up to loud crying and weeping.

which is why they named the place Bochim. And there they sacrificed to the LORD.

The people served the Lord all the days of Joshua and all the days of the elders who outlived Joshua, who had seen all the great work of the Lord which He had done for Israel.

Also, all [the people of] that generation were gathered to their fathers [in death]; and another generation arose after them who did not know (recognize, understand) the Lord, nor even the work which He had done for Israel.

And the children of Israel did that which was evil in the sight of Jehovah, and served the Baalim;

And they forsook the LORD God of their fathers, which brought them out of the land of Egypt, and followed other gods, of the gods of the people that were round about them, and bowed themselves unto them, and provoked the LORD to anger.

Nevertheless the LORD raised up judges, which delivered them out of the hand of those that spoiled them.

Yet they did not listen to their judges, for they played the prostitute after other gods and they bowed down to them. They quickly turned aside from the way in which their fathers had walked in obeying the commandments of the Lord; they did not do as their fathers.

And when the LORD raised up judges unto them, the LORD was with the judge, and delivered them out of the hands of their enemies all the days of the judge: for the LORD had compassion over their sorrowings which they had by the reason of them that oppressed them and vexed them.

So the anger of the Lord burned against Israel, and He said, “Because this nation has transgressed (violated) My covenant (binding agreement) which I commanded their fathers, and has not listened to My voice,

I also will no longer drive out before them any of the nations which Joshua left [to be conquered] when he died,

Now these are the nations which the Lord left [in order] to test Israel by them (that is, all [the people of Israel] who had not [previously] experienced any of the wars in Canaan;

Only, for the learning of the generation of the children of Israel, which before knew nothing of war,

They were [allowed to remain] for the testing of Israel, to determine whether Israel would listen to and obey the commandments of the Lord, which He had commanded their fathers (ancestors) through Moses.

And the children of Israel did that which was evil in the sight of Jehovah, and forgat Jehovah their God, and served the Baalim and the Asheroth.

And the children of Israel again did that which was evil in the sight of Jehovah: and Jehovah strengthened Eglon the king of Moab against Israel, because they had done that which was evil in the sight of Jehovah.

Now Ehud made for himself a sword a cubit long, which had two edges, and he bound it on his right thigh under his robe.

But he himself turned back from the idols which were at Gilgal, and said, “I have a secret message for you, O king.” And he said, “Keep silence.” And all who attended him left him.

And Ehud came unto him; and he was sitting in a summer parlour, which he had for himself alone. And Ehud said, I have a message from God unto thee. And he arose out of his seat.

And after him was Shamgar the son of Anath, which slew of the Philistines six hundred men with an ox goad: and he also delivered Israel.

And the children of Israel again did that which was evil in the sight of Jehovah, when Ehud was dead.

And the LORD sold them into the hand of Jabin king of Canaan, that reigned in Hazor; the captain of whose host was Sisera, which dwelt in Harosheth of the Gentiles.

And she will say, Going, I will go with thee: but yet it shall not be thine honor upon the way which thou goest; for Jehovah will sell Sisera into the hand of a woman. And Deborah will rise and will go with Barak to Kadesh.

Now Heber the Kenite, which was of the children of Hobab the father in law of Moses, had severed himself from the Kenites, and pitched his tent unto the plain of Zaanaim, which is by Kedesh.

And Sisera will call together all his chariots, nine hundred chariots of iron, and all the people which are with him from Harosheth of the nations, to the torrent of Kishon.

And Deborah said unto Barak, Up; for this is the day in which the LORD hath delivered Sisera into thine hand: is not the LORD gone out before thee? So Barak went down from mount Tabor, and ten thousand men after him.

And the children of Israel did that which was evil in the sight of Jehovah: and Jehovah delivered them into the hand of Midian seven years.

And the hand of Midian prevailed against Israel: and because of the Midianites the children of Israel made them the dens which are in the mountains, and caves, and strong holds.

That the LORD sent a prophet unto the children of Israel, which said unto them, Thus saith the LORD God of Israel, I brought you up from Egypt, and brought you forth out of the house of bondage;

And saying to you, I am Jehovah your God; ye shall not fear the Gods of the Amorites which ye will dwelll in their land: and ye heard not to my voice.

And there came an angel of the LORD, and sat under an oak which was in Ophrah, that pertained unto Joash the Abiezrite: and his son Gideon threshed wheat by the winepress, to hide it from the Midianites.

And Gideon said unto him, Oh my Lord, if the LORD be with us, why then is all this befallen us? and where be all his miracles which our fathers told us of, saying, Did not the LORD bring us up from Egypt? but now the LORD hath forsaken us, and delivered us into the hands of the Midianites.

Then Gideon went in and made ready a young goat, and with an ephah of meal he made unleavened cakes: he put the meat in a basket and the soup in which it had been cooked he put in a pot, and he took it out to him under the oak-tree and gave it to him there.

And the messenger of Jehovah will stretch forth the extremity of the staff which in his hand, and will touch upon the flesh and on the unleavened; and fire will rise up from the rock and will consume the flesh and the unleavened. And the messenger of Jehovah went from his eyes.

Then Gideon built an altar there to the Lord and named it The Lord is Peace. To this day it is still in Ophrah, of the Abiezrites.

Now on the same night the Lord said to him, “Take your father’s bull and a second bull seven years old, and pull down the altar of Baal which belongs to your father, and cut down the Asherah that is beside it;

And build an altar unto the LORD thy God upon the top of this rock, in the ordered place, and take the second bullock, and offer a burnt sacrifice with the wood of the grove which thou shalt cut down.

Early the next morning when the men of the city got up, they discovered that the altar of Baal was torn down, and the Asherah which was beside it was cut down, and the second bull was offered on the altar which had been built.

Then the men of the city said to Joash, “Bring out your son, that he may die, for he has torn down the altar of Baal, and indeed, he has cut down the Asherah which was beside it.”

Thus, on that day he was called Jerub-Baal, {which means}, "Let Baal contend against him," because he had pulled down his altar.

and sent messengers throughout all Manasseh and called them up to follow him also. And he sent messengers unto Asher, Zebulun and Naphtali, which came also to meet him.

And Jehovah will say to Gideon, The people many which are with thee for me to give Midian into their hand, lest Israel shall glory before me, saying, My hand saved me.

And Jehovah will say to Gideon, Yet the people many; bring them down to the waters, and I will purify them for thee there; and it shall be of whom saying to thee, This shall go with thee, he shall go with thee; and all which saying to thee, This shall not go with thee, he shall not go.

And he will bring down the people to the waters: and Jehovah will say to Gideon, Every one which shall lap with his tongue from the waters as the dog will lap, thou shalt put him alone; and all which shall bend upon his knees to drink

And thou heardest what they shall speak: and afterward thy hands shall be strengthened, and go down to the camp. And he will go down, he and Phurah his boy to the extremity of the brave which in the camp.

And Midain and Amalek, and all the sons of the east, encamping in the valley, as the locust for multiude; and to their camels no number, as the sand which is upon the lip of the sea for multitude.

When Gideon came there, a man was giving his friend an account of his dream, saying, See, I had a dream about a cake of barley bread which, falling into the tents of Midian, came on to the tent, overturning it so that it was stretched out flat on the earth.

Then Gideon, hearing the story of the dream and the sense in which they took it, gave worship; then he went back to the tents of Israel, and said, Up! for the Lord has given the army of Midian into your hands.

Then separating the three hundred men into three bands, he gave every man a horn, and a vessel in which was a flaming branch.

And Gideon cometh -- and the hundred men who are with him -- into the extremity of the camp, at the beginning of the middle watch (it hath only just confirmed the watchmen), and they blow with trumpets -- dashing in pieces also the pitchers which are in their hand;

And the three companies blew the trumpets, and broke the pitchers, and held the torches in their left hands, and the trumpets in their right hands with which to blow. And they cried out, The sword of LORD and of Gideon.

And he said to them, What have I done in comparison with you? Is not that which Ephraim took up after the grape-cutting better than all the grapes which Abiezer got in from the grape-cutting?

Zebah and Zalmunna were in Karkor and their hosts with them, upon a fifteen thousand, which were all that were left of all the hosts of them of the east. And they that were slain were a hundred and twenty thousand men that drew swords.

Then he came unto the men of Succoth and said, "Behold, Zebah and Zalmunna, with which ye cast me in the teeth saying, 'Are the hands of Zebah and Zalmunna already in thine hand, that we should give bread unto thy fainty men?'"

And he will say to Zebah and Zalmunna, Whose the men which ye killed in Tabor? and they will say, As thou, so they; one according to the form of the sons of the king.

Zebah and Zalmunna said to Gideon, "Come on, you strike us, for a man is judged by his strength." So Gideon killed Zebah and Zalmunna, and he took the crescent-shaped ornaments which were on the necks of their camels.

The weight of the gold earrings that he requested was 1,700 shekels of gold, besides the crescent ornaments and the pendants and the purple robes which were on the kings of Midian, and besides the neck bands that were on their camels’ necks.

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.

And his concubine which is in Shechem, she will bear to him a son, and she will set his name Abimelech.

Later, Joash's son Gideon died at a ripe old age and was buried in the tomb of his father Joash at Ophrah, which belonged to the descendants of Abiezer.

and thought not on the LORD their God which had delivered them out of the hands of all their enemies on every side.

Neither shewed they kindness to the house of Jerubbaal, namely, Gideon, according to all the goodness which he had shewed unto Israel.

Speak, I pray you, in the ears of all the men of Shechem, Whether is better for you, either that all the sons of Jerubbaal, which are threescore and ten persons, reign over you, or that one reign over you? remember also that I am your bone and your flesh.

And they gave him threescore and ten pieces of silver out of the house of Baalberith, wherewith Abimelech hired vain and light persons, which followed him.

All the men of Shechem and all Beth-millo assembled together, and they went and made Abimelech king, by the oak of the pillar which was in Shechem.

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!'

But the grapevine said to them, 'I am not going to stop producing my wine, which makes gods and men so happy, just to sway above the other trees!'

in which my father fought for you and much endangered his life, and delivered you out of the hand of Midian.

That the cruelty done to the threescore and ten sons of Jerubbaal might come, and their blood be laid upon Abimelech their brother, which slew them; and upon the men of Shechem, which aided him in the killing of his brethren.

And the citizens of Shechem set men to lay await for him in the top of the mountains, which men robbed all that came along the way by them. And it was told Abimelech.

And now, rise up by night, thou and the people which are with thee, and lie in wait in the field:

And it was in the morning when the sun rose, thou shalt rise early and invade upon the city: and behold, he and the people which with him coming forth against thee; and do thou to him as thy hand shall find.

And Abimelech will rise, and all the people which are with him, by night, and they will lie in wait against Shechem in four heads.

Then Zebul said to him, “Where is your boasting now with which you said, ‘Who is Abimelech that we should serve him?’ Is this not the people whom you despised? Go out now and fight with them!”

And Abimelech and the heads which are with him will invade, and they will stand at the door of the gate of the city: and two heads will invade upon all which are in the field, and they will smite them.

And Abimelech fought against the city all that day; and he will take the city, and the people which in it he killed, and he will tear down the city, and will sow it with salt.

And Abimelech will go up to mount Zalmon, he and all the people that with him; and Abimelech will take axes in his hand, and he will cut boughs of the trees, and will lift up and will put upon his shoulder, and he will say to the people which are with him, What ye saw I did, hasten, do like me.

But in the middle of the town there was a strong tower, to which all the men and women of the town went in flight and, shutting themselves in, went up to the roof of the tower.

In this way God repaid the wickedness of Abimelech, which he had done to his father [Jerubbaal] by killing his seventy brothers.

After Abimelech there arose, to defend Israel, one Tola, the son of Puah, the son of Dodo, a man of Issachar, which dwelt in Shamir in mount Ephraim.

And after him arose Jair a Gileadite, which judged Israel twenty two years.

He had thirty sons who rode on thirty donkeys, and they had thirty towns in the land of Gilead that are called Havvoth-jair (towns of Jair) to this day.

And the children of Israel again did that which was evil in the sight of Jehovah, and served the Baalim, and the Ashtaroth, and the gods of Syria, and the gods of Sidon, and the gods of Moab, and the gods of the children of Ammon, and the gods of the Philistines; and they forsook Jehovah, and served him not.

and they oppressed and crushed Israel that year. For eighteen years they oppressed all the Israelites who were beyond the Jordan in the land of the Amorites, which is in Gilead.

Go and cry unto the gods which ye have chosen; let them deliver you in the time of your tribulation.

The rulers of Gilead said to one another, “Which man will lead the fight against the Ammonites? He will be the leader of all the inhabitants of Gilead.”

And there was one Jephthah a Gileadite, a strong man, which was the son of a harlot: Howbeit Gilead begat Jephthah.

But Gilead's wife bare him sons, which when they were come to age, thrust out of Jephthah, and said unto him, "Thou shalt not inherit in our father's house, for thou art the son of a strange woman."

The Ammonites’ king replied to the messengers of Jephthah, “It is because Israel took away my land when they came up from Egypt, from the [river] Arnon as far as the Jabbok and [east of] the Jordan; so now, return those lands peaceably.”

Wilt not thou possess that which Chemosh thy god giveth thee to possess? So whomsoever the LORD our God shall drive out from before us, them will we possess.

In Israel's dwelling in Heshbon and her daughters and in Aroer and her daughters, and in all the cities which are upon the hands of Arnon, three hundred years? and why took ye not them away in that time?

Howbeit the king of the children of Ammon hearkened not unto the words of Jephthah which he sent him.

And it was, that coming forth which shall come forth from the doors of my house to my meeting in my turning back in peace from the sons of Ammon, and it was to Jehovah; and I brought it up a burnt-offering.