Now after the death of Joshua, the children of Israel made request to the Lord, saying, Who is to go up first to make war for us against the Canaanites?

And whenever Israel became strong, they put the Canaanites to forced work, without driving them out completely.

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.

And Joshua let the people go away, and the children of Israel went, every man to his heritage, to take the land for themselves.

And the people were true to the Lord all the days of Joshua, and all the days of the responsible men who were still living after the death of Joshua, and had seen all the great work of the Lord which he had done for Israel.

And in time death overtook all that generation; and another generation came after them, having no knowledge of the Lord or of the things which he had done for Israel.

And the children of Israel did evil in the eyes of the Lord and became servants to the Baals;

And the wrath of the Lord was burning against Israel, and he gave them up into the hands of those who violently took their property, and into the hands of their haters all round them, so that they were forced to give way before them.

And the wrath of the Lord was burning against Israel, and he said, Because this nation has not been true to my agreement which I made with their fathers, and has not given ear to my voice;

In order to put Israel to the test, and see if they will keep the way of the Lord, walking in it as their fathers did, or not.

Now these are the nations which the Lord kept in the land for the purpose of testing Israel by them, all those who had had no experience of all the wars of Canaan;

Only because of the generations of the children of Israel, for the purpose of teaching them war--only those who up till then had no experience of it;

For the purpose of testing Israel by them, to see if they would give ear to the orders of the Lord, which he had given to their fathers by the hand of Moses.

Now the children of Israel were living among the Canaanites, the Hittites, and the Amorites, and the Perizzites, and the Hivites, and the Jebusites:

And the children of Israel did evil in the eyes of the Lord, and put out of their minds the Lord their God, and became servants to the Baals and the Astartes.

So the wrath of the Lord was burning against Israel, and he gave them up into the hands of Cushan-rishathaim, king of Mesopotamia; and the children of Israel were his servants for eight years.

And when the children of Israel made prayer to the Lord, he gave them a saviour, Othniel, the son of Kenaz, Caleb's younger brother.

And the spirit of the Lord came on him and he became judge of Israel, and went out to war, and the Lord gave up Cushan-rishathaim, king of Mesopotamia, into his hands and he overcame him.

Then the children of Israel again did evil in the eyes of the Lord; and the Lord made Eglon, king of Moab, strong against Israel, because they had done evil in the Lord's eyes.

And Eglon got together the people of Ammon and Amalek, and they went and overcame Israel and took the town of palm-trees.

And the children of Israel were servants to Eglon, king of Moab, for eighteen years.

Then when the children of Israel made prayer to the Lord, he gave them a saviour, Ehud, the son of Gera, the Benjamite, a left-handed man; and the children of Israel sent an offering by him to Eglon, king of Moab.

And when he came there, he had a horn sounded in the hill-country of Ephraim, and all the children of Israel went down with him from the hill-country, and he at their head.

So Moab was broken that day under the hand of Israel. And for eighty years the land had peace.

And after him came Shamgar, the son of Anath, who put to death six hundred Philistines with an ox-stick; and he was another saviour of Israel.

And the children of Israel again did evil in the eyes of the Lord when Ehud was dead.

Then the children of Israel made prayer to the Lord; for he had nine hundred iron war-carriages, and for twenty years he was very cruel to the children of Israel.

Now Deborah, a woman prophet, the wife of Lapidoth, was judge of Israel at that time.

(And she had her seat under the palm-tree of Deborah between Ramah and Beth-el in the hill-country of Ephraim; and the children of Israel came up to her to be judged.)

And she sent for Barak, the son of Abinoam, from Kedesh-naphtali, and said to him, Has not the Lord, the God of Israel, given orders saying, Go and get your force into line in Mount Tabor, and take with you ten thousand men of the children of Naphtali and of the children of Zebulun?

So that day God overcame Jabin, king of Canaan, before the children of Israel.

And the power of the children of Israel went on increasing against Jabin, king of Canaan, till he was cut off.

Because of the flowing hair of the fighters in Israel, because the people gave themselves freely, give praise to the Lord.

Give attention, O kings; give ear, O rulers; I, even I, will make a song to the Lord; I will make melody to the Lord, the God of Israel.

The mountains were shaking before the Lord, before the Lord, the God of Israel.

Country towns were no more in Israel, *** were no more, till you, Deborah, came up, till you came up as a mother in Israel.

They had no one to make arms, there were no more armed men in the towns; was there a body-cover or a spear to be seen among forty thousand in Israel?

Come, you rulers of Israel, you who gave yourselves freely among the people: give praise to the Lord.

Give ear to the women laughing by the water-springs; there they will give again the story of the upright acts of the Lord, all the upright acts of his arm in Israel.

And the children of Israel did evil in the eyes of the Lord; and the Lord gave them up into the hand of Midian for seven years.

And Midian was stronger than Israel; and because of the Midianites, the children of Israel made holes for themselves in the mountains, and hollows in the rocks, and strong places.

And whenever Israel's grain was planted, the Midianites and the Amalekites and the people of the east came up against them;

And put their army in position against them; and they took all the produce of the earth as far as Gaza, till there was no food in Israel, or any sheep or oxen or asses.

And Israel was in great need because of Midian; and the cry of the children of Israel went up to the Lord.

And when the cry of the children of Israel, because of Midian, came before the Lord,

The Lord sent a prophet to the children of Israel, who said to them, The Lord the God of Israel, has said, I took you up from Egypt, out of the prison-house;

And the Lord, turning to him, said, Go in the strength you have and be Israel's saviour from Midian: have I not sent you?

And he said to him, O Lord, how may I be the saviour of Israel? See, my family is the poorest in Manasseh, and I am the least in my father's house.

Then Gideon said to God, If you are going to give Israel salvation by my hand, as you have said,

See, I will put the wool of a sheep on the grain-floor; if there is dew on the wool only, while all the earth is dry, then I will be certain that it is your purpose to give Israel salvation by my hand as you have said.

And his friend in answer said, This is certainly the sword of Gideon, the son of Joash, the men of Israel: into their hands God has given up all the army of Midian.

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.

And the men of Israel came together from Naphtali and from Asher and all Manasseh, and went after Midian.

Then the men of Israel said to Gideon, Be our ruler, you and your son and your son's son after him; for you have been our saviour from the hands of Midian.

And Gideon made an ephod from them and put it up in his town Ophrah; and all Israel went after it there and were false to the Lord; and it became a cause of sin to Gideon and his house.

So Midian was broken before the children of Israel and the Midianites never got back their strength. And the land had peace for forty years, in the days of Gideon.

And after the death of Gideon, the children of Israel again went after the gods of Canaan and were false to the Lord, and made Baal-berith their god.

And the children of Israel did not keep in their minds the Lord their God, who had been their saviour from all their haters on every side;

And they were not kind to the house of Jerubbaal, that is, Gideon, in reward for all the good he had done to Israel.

So Abimelech was chief over Israel for three years.

And when the men of Israel saw that Abimelech was dead, they went away, every man to his place.

Now after Abimelech, Tola, the son of Puah, the son of Dodo, a man of Issachar, became the saviour of Israel; he was living in Shamir in the hill-country of Ephraim.

He was judge over Israel for twenty-three years; and at his death his body was put to rest in the earth in Shamir.

And after him came Jair the Gileadite, who was judge over Israel for twenty-two years.

And again the children of Israel did evil in the eyes of the Lord, worshipping the Baals and Astartes, and the gods of Aram and the gods of Zidon and the gods of Moab and the gods of the children of Ammon and the gods of the Philistines; they gave up the Lord and were servants to him no longer.

And the wrath of the Lord was burning against Israel, and he gave them up into the hands of the Philistines and into the hands of the children of Ammon.

And that year the children of Israel were crushed under their yoke; for eighteen years all the children of Israel on the other side of Jordan, in the land of the Amorites which is in Gilead, were cruelly crushed down.

And the children of Ammon went over Jordan, to make war against Judah and Benjamin and the house of Ephraim; and Israel was in great trouble.

Then the children of Israel, crying out to the Lord, said, Great is our sin against you, for we have given up our God and have been servants to the Baals.

And the Lord said to the children of Israel, Were not the Egyptians and the Amorites and the children of Ammon and the Philistines

And the children of Israel said to the Lord, We are sinners; do to us whatever seems good to you: only give us salvation this day.

So they put away the strange gods from among them, and became the Lord's servants; and his soul was angry because of the sorrows of Israel.

Then the children of Ammon came together and put their army in position in Gilead. And the children of Israel came together and put their army in position in Mizpah.

And the people of Israel said to one another, Who will be the first to make an attack on the children of Ammon? We will make him head over all Gilead.

Now after a time the children of Ammon made war against Israel.

And when the children of Ammon made war against Israel, the responsible men of Gilead went to get Jephthah back from the land of Tob;

And the king of the children of Ammon said to the men sent by Jephthah, Because Israel, when he came up out of Egypt, took away my land, from the Arnon as far as the Jabbok and as far as Jordan: so now, give me back those lands quietly.

And said to him, This is the word of Jephthah: Israel did not take away the land of Moab or the land of the children of Ammon;

But when they came up from Egypt, Israel went through the waste land to the Red Sea and came to Kadesh;

Then Israel sent men to the king of Edom saying, Let me now go through your land; but the king of Edom did not give ear to them. And in the same way he sent to the king of Moab, but he would not; so Israel went on living in Kadesh.

And Israel sent men to Sihon, king of the Amorites, the king of Heshbon; and Israel said to him, Let me now go through your land to my place.

But Sihon would not give way and let Israel go through his land; and Sihon got together all his people, and put his army in position in Jahaz, and made war on Israel.

And the Lord, the God of Israel, gave Sihon and all his people into the hands of Israel, and they overcame them; so all the land of the Amorites, the people of that land, became Israel's.

So now the Lord, the God of Israel, has taken away their land from the Amorites and given it to his people Israel; are you then to have it?

What! are you any better than Balak, the son of Zippor, king of Moab? Did he ever take up a cause against Israel or make war against them?

While Israel was living in Heshbon and its daughter-towns and in Aroer and its daughter-towns and in all the towns which are by the side of the Arnon, for three hundred years, why did you not get them back at that time?

So I have done no wrong against you, but you are doing wrong to me in fighting against me: may the Lord, who is Judge this day, be judge between the children of Israel and the children of Ammon.

And he made an attack on them from Aroer all the way to Minnith, overrunning twenty towns, as far as Abel-cheramim, and put great numbers to the sword. So the children of Ammon were crushed before the children of Israel.

And at the end of two months she went back to her father, who did with her as he had said in his oath: and she had never been touched by a man. So it became a rule in Israel,

Now Jephthah was judge of Israel for six years. And Jephthah the Gileadite came to his death, and his body was put to rest in his town, Mizpeh of Gilead.

And after him, Ibzan of Beth-lehem was judge of Israel.

He had thirty sons, and thirty daughters whom he sent to other places, and he got thirty wives from other places for his sons. And he was judge of Israel for seven years.

And after him, Elon the Zebulonite was judge of Israel; and he was judge of Israel for ten years.

And after him, Abdon, the son of Hillel, the Pirathonite, was judge of Israel.

He had forty sons and thirty sons' sons who went on seventy young asses; and he was judge of Israel for eight years.

And the children of Israel again did evil in the eyes of the Lord; and the Lord gave them into the hands of the Philistines for forty years.

For you are with child and will give birth to a son; his hair is never to be cut, for the child is to be separate to God from his birth; and he will take up the work of freeing Israel from the hands of the Philistines.

Now his father and mother had no knowledge that this was the purpose of the Lord, who had the destruction of the Philistines in mind. Now the Philistines at that time were ruling over Israel.

And he was judge of Israel in the days of the Philistines for twenty years.

Then his brothers and his father's people came down and took him up and put his body to rest in the earth between Zorah and Eshtaol in the resting-place of Manoah his father. And he had been judge of Israel for twenty years.