The LORD was with Judah; and drove out the inhabitants of the hill country; for he could not drive out the inhabitants of the valley, because they had chariots of iron.

They gave Hebron to Caleb, as Moses had spoken: and he drove out there the three sons of Anak.

It happened, when Israel had grown strong, that they put the Canaanites to forced labor, and did not utterly drive them out.

Now when Joshua had sent the people away, the children of Israel went every man to his inheritance to possess the land.

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 that he had worked for Israel.

Also all that generation were gathered to their fathers: and there arose another generation after them, who didn't know the LORD, nor yet the work which he had worked for Israel.

Wherever they went out, the hand of the LORD was against them for harm, as the LORD had spoken, and as the LORD had sworn to them: and they were in great distress.

Now these are the nations which the LORD left, to prove Israel by them, even as many of Israel as had not known all the wars of Canaan;

The land had rest forty years. Othniel the son of Kenaz died.

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

Ehud made him a sword which had two edges, a cubit in length; and he girded it under his clothing on his right thigh.

When he had made an end of offering the tribute, he sent away the people who bore the tribute.

It happened, when he had come, that he blew a trumpet in the hill country of Ephraim; and the children of Israel went down with him from the hill country, and he before them.

So Moab was subdued that day under the hand of Israel. And the land had rest eighty years.

The children of Israel cried to the LORD: for he had nine hundred chariots of iron; and twenty years he mightily oppressed the children of Israel.

Now Heber the Kenite had separated himself from the Kenites, even from the children of Hobab the brother-in-law of Moses, and had pitched his tent as far as the oak in Zaanannim, which is by Kedesh.

The hand of the children of Israel prevailed more and more against Jabin the king of Canaan, until they had destroyed Jabin king of Canaan.

"So let all your enemies perish, LORD, but let those who love him be as the sun when it rises forth in its strength." And the land had rest forty years.

And so it was, when Israel had sown, that the Midianites came up, and the Amalekites, and the children of the east; they came up against them.

Then Gideon took ten men of his servants, and did as the LORD had spoken to him: and it came about, because he feared his father's household and the men of the city, so that he could not do it by day, that he did it by night.

When Gideon had come, behold, there was a man telling a dream to his friend; and he said, "Behold, I had a dream, and behold, a cake of barley bread tumbled into the camp of Midian, and came to the tent, and struck it so that it fell, and turned it upside down, so that the tent collapsed."

So Gideon and the hundred men who were with him came to the outermost part of the camp in the beginning of the middle watch, when they had but newly set the watch: and they blew the trumpets, and broke in pieces the pitchers that were in their hands.

God has delivered into your hand the princes of Midian, Oreb and Zeeb; and what was I able to do in comparison with you?" Then their anger subsided toward him, when he had said that.

He went up there to Penuel, and spoke to them in like manner; and the men of Penuel answered him as the men of Succoth had answered.

He said, "They were my brothers, the sons of my mother. As the LORD lives, if you had saved them alive, I would not kill you."

Gideon said to them, "I would make a request of you, that you would give me every man the earrings from his plunder." (For they had golden earrings, because they were Ishmaelites.)

So Midian was subdued before the children of Israel, and did not become a threat again. The land had rest forty years in the days of Gideon.

Gideon had seventy sons conceived from his body; for he had many wives.

The children of Israel did not remember the LORD their God, who had delivered them out of the hand of all their enemies on every side;

neither did they show kindness to the house of Jerubbaal, who is Gideon, according to all the goodness which he had shown to Israel.

He had thirty sons who rode on thirty donkey colts, and they had thirty cities, which are called Havvoth Jair to this day, which are in the land of Gilead.

Jephthah came to Mizpah to his house; and behold, his daughter came out to meet him with tambourines and with dances: and she was his only child; besides her he had neither son nor daughter.

It happened at the end of two months, that she returned to her father, who did with her according to what he had vowed. And she was a virgin. It became a custom in Israel,

He had thirty sons; and thirty daughters he sent abroad, and thirty daughters he brought in from abroad for his sons. He judged Israel seven years.

He had forty sons and thirty grandsons who rode on seventy donkey colts. And he judged Israel eight years.

But his father and his mother did not know that it was of the LORD, for he sought for an opportunity against the Philistines. Now at that time the Philistines had rule over Israel.

And the Spirit of the LORD rushed upon him, and he tore him as he would have torn a young goat. And he had nothing in his hand, but he did not tell his father or his mother what he had done.

He took it into his hands, and went on, eating as he went. And he came to his father and mother, and gave to them, and they ate. But he did not tell them that he had taken the honey out of the body of the lion.

The men of the city said to him on the seventh day before the sun went down, "What is sweeter than honey? What is stronger than a lion?" He said to them, "If you hadn't plowed with my heifer, you wouldn't have found out my riddle."

But Samson's wife was given to his companion, who had been his friend.

Her father said, "I most certainly thought that you had utterly hated her; therefore I gave her to your companion. Isn't her younger sister more beautiful than she is? Please take her, instead."

And when he had set fire to the torches, he let them go into the standing grain of the Philistines, and burnt up both the shocks and the standing grain, and also the olive groves.

It happened, when he had finished speaking, that he cast away the jawbone out of his hand; and that place was called Ramath Lehi.

And God split the hollow place that is at Lehi, and water came out of it. When he had drunk, his spirit came again, and he revived: therefore its name was called En Hakore, which is in Lehi, to this day.

Then the lords of the Philistines brought up to her seven green cords which had not been dried, and she bound him with them.

Now she had an ambush waiting in the inner room. She said to him, "The Philistines are on you, Samson." He broke the cords, as a string of tow is broken when it touches the fire. So his strength was not known.

When Delilah saw that he had told her all his heart, she sent and called for the lords of the Philistines, saying, "Come up this once, for he has told me all his heart." Then the lords of the Philistines came up to her, and brought the money in their hand.

She said, "The Philistines are upon you, Samson." He awoke out of his sleep, and said, "I will go out as at other times, and shake myself free." But he didn't know that the LORD had departed from him.

The man Micah had a house of gods, and he made an ephod, and teraphim, and consecrated one of his sons, who became his priest.

In those days there was no king in Israel. And in those days the tribe of the Danites was looking for an inheritance to dwell in; for to that day, their inheritance had not fallen to them among the tribes of Israel.

Then the five men departed, and came to Laish, and saw the people who were there, and how they lived in security, after the manner of the Sidonians, quiet and secure; for there was no one in the land possessing authority that might trouble them in anyway, and they were far from the Sidonians, and had no dealings with anyone.

They took that which Micah had made, and the priest whom he had, and came to Laish, to a people quiet and secure, and struck them with the edge of the sword; and they burnt the city with fire.

There was no deliverer, because it was far from Sidon, and they had no dealings with anyone, and it was in the valley that lies by Beth Rehob. They built the city, and lived there.

When he had come into his house, he took a knife, and took hold of his concubine and divided her, limb by limb, into twelve pieces, and sent her throughout all the territory of Israel.

(Now the children of Benjamin heard that the children of Israel had gone up to Mizpah.) The children of Israel said, "Tell us, how did this wickedness happen?"

So the children of Benjamin saw that they were defeated; for the men of Israel gave ground to Benjamin, because they trusted the ambushers whom they had set against Gibeah.

The men of Israel turned, and the men of Benjamin were terrified; for they saw that disaster had come on them.

Now the men of Israel had sworn in Mizpah, saying, "There shall not any of us give his daughter to Benjamin as wife."

The children of Israel said, "Who is there among all the tribes of Israel who did not come up in the assembly to the LORD?" For they had made a great oath concerning anyone who did not come up to the LORD to Mizpah, saying, "He shall surely be put to death."

They found among the inhabitants of Jabesh Gilead four hundred young virgins who had never slept with a man; and they brought them to the camp to Shiloh, which is in the land of Canaan.

Benjamin returned at that time; and they gave them the women whom they had saved alive of the women of Jabesh Gilead: and yet so they weren't enough for them.

The people grieved for Benjamin, because the LORD had made a gap in the tribes of Israel.

However we may not give them wives of our daughters, for the children of Israel had sworn, saying, 'Cursed is he who gives a wife to Benjamin.'"