And Judah went against the Canaanites living in Hebron (the former name of Hebron [was] Kiriath Arba). And they defeated Sheshai, Ahiman, and Talmai.

And from there they went to the inhabitants of Debir (the former name of Debir [was] Kiriath Sepher).

And Yahweh was with Judah, and he took possession of the hill country, but they could not drive out the inhabitants of the plain because they [had] chariots of iron.

Likewise, the house of Joseph went up [against] Bethel, and Yahweh [was] with them.

And the house of Joseph spied out Bethel (the former name of the city was Luz).

the Amorites [were] determined to live in Har-heres, in Aijalon, and in Shaalbim, but the hand of the house of Joseph was heavy [on them], and they became [subjected] to forced labor.

Moreover, that entire generation was gathered to their ancestors, and another generation grew up after them who did not know Yahweh or the work he had done for Israel.

So {the anger of Yahweh was kindled} against Israel, and he gave them into the hand of plunderers; and they plundered them, and he sold them into the hand of their enemies from all sides. They were unable to withstand their enemies any longer.

{Whenever} they went out, the hand of Yahweh was against them to harm [them], just as Yahweh warned, and just as Yahweh had sworn to them. And {they were very distressed}.

And when Yahweh raised leaders for them, Yahweh was with the leader, and he delivered them from the hand of their enemies all the days of the leader, for Yahweh was moved by their groaning because of their persecutors and oppressors.

And {the anger of Yahweh was kindled} against Israel, and he sold them into the hand of Cushan-Rishathaim, the king of Aram Naharaim; and the {Israelites} served Cushan-Rishathaim eight years.

Then he presented the tribute to Eglon king of Moab. Now Eglon [was] a very fat man.

and Ehud came to him [while] he [was] sitting alone in his cool upper room. And Ehud said, "I have a {message from God} for you." So he got up from his seat.

And they waited so long they became embarrassed because he did not open the doors of the upper room. So they took the key and opened [the doors], and there their lord was lying on the ground dead.

And Moab was subdued on that day under the hand of Israel. And the land rested eighty years.

So Yahweh sold them into the hand of Jabin king of Canaan, who reigned in Hazor. The commander of his army [was] Sisera, and he [was] living in Harosheth Haggoyim.

Now at that time Deborah, a prophetess, the wife of Lappidoth, [was] judging Israel.

And Heber the Kenite [was] separated from [the other] Kenites, [that is], from the descendants of Hobab the father-in-law of Moses. And {he was encamped} at Elon-bezaanannim, which [is] near Kedesh.

Sisera summoned all his chariots--all nine hundred chariots of iron--and the entire army that [was] with him from Harosheth Haggoyim to the wadi of Kishon.

But Barak pursued after the chariots and army as far as Harosheth Haggoyim, and all of Sisera's army fell to {the edge of the sword}; no one was left.

Sisera fled on foot to the tent of Jael, the wife of Heber the Kenite, because [there was] peace between Jabin king of Hazor and the house of Heber the Kenite.

But Jael, the wife of Heber the Kenite, took in her hand a tent peg and a hammer, and she went softly to him and drove the peg into his temple, and it went through into the ground; he [was] fast asleep since he was exhausted, and he died.

And behold, Barak [was] pursuing Sisera, and Jael went out to meet him, and she said to him, "Come, and I will show you the man whom you [are] seeking." And he came with her and saw that Sisera was lying dead with the peg in his temple.

God chose new [leaders], then war [was at the] gates; a small shield or a spear was not seen among forty thousand in Israel.

And the chiefs in Issachar [were] with Deborah; and Issachar likewise [was with] Barak; into the valley {he was sent to get him from behind}. Among the clans of Reuben [were] great {decisions of the heart}.

Israel was very poor because of the presence of the Midianites, and the {Israelites} cried out to Yahweh.

The angel of Yahweh came and sat under the oak that [was] at Ophrah that belonged to Jehoash [the] Abiezrite; and Gideon his son [was] threshing wheat in the winepress to hide [it] from the Midianites.

Then the angel of Yahweh reached out the tip of the staff that [was] in his hand, and he touched the meat and the unleavened cakes; and fire went up from the rock and consumed the meat and the unleavened cakes. And the angel of Yahweh went {from his sight}.

And Gideon realized that he [was] the angel of Yahweh; and Gideon said, "Oh, my lord Yahweh! For now I have seen the angel of Yahweh face to face."

Gideon took ten men from his servants, and he did just as Yahweh told him; and because he was too afraid of his {father's family} and the men of the city to do [it during] the day, he did [it during] night.

When the men of the city got up early in the morning, look, the altar of Baal and the Asherah that [was] beside it [were] cut down, and the second bull was offered on the altar that had been built.

And the men of the city said to Jehoash, "Bring out your son so that he may die, for he has pulled down the altar of Baal and cut down the Asherah that [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 it was so. He arose early the next day and squeezed the fleece, and he wrung out dew from the fleece, a full drinking bowl of water.

And God did so that night; only the fleece was dry, and dew was on all the ground.

Then Jerub-Baal (that [is], Gideon) rose early, and all the army that [was] with him. They were camped beside the spring of Harod; the camp of Midian was north of the hill of Moreh, in the valley.

The number of those lapping up [the water] with their hand to their mouth was three hundred men; all the rest of the troops kneeled to drink the water.

So they took their provisions and their trumpets into their hand, and he sent all the men of Israel, each one, to his tent; but three hundred of the men he kept; the camp of Midian was below him in the valley.

When Gideon came, a man [was] recounting a dream to his friend, and he said, "Behold, {I had a dream}; a round loaf of barley bread [was] tumbling into the camp of Midian, and it came up to the tent, it struck it, and it fell and turned it upside down so that the tent fell."

And Gideon went up the route of those who dwell in tents on the east of Nobah and Jogbehah, and he attacked the army when it was off its guard.

And he said to Jether, his firstborn, "Get up, kill them." But the boy did not draw his sword, for he was afraid because he [was] still a boy.

The weight of the ornamental rings of gold that he requested [was] one thousand seven hundred [shekels of] gold, apart from the crescents, pendants, and purple garments that [were] on the kings of Midian, and apart from the pendants that [were] on the necks of their camels.

And Midian was subdued before the {Israelites}, and they did not again lift up their head, and the land rested for forty years in the days of Gideon.

His concubine who [was] in Shechem also bore for him a son, and {he named him} Abimelech.

And Gideon son of Joash died at a good old age, and he was buried in the tomb of Jehoash his father, in Ophrah [of] the Abiezrites.

And the lords of Shechem set for him ambushes on the top of the mountains, and they robbed all who passed by them along the road; and it was reported to Abimelech.

So Abimelech and all the army that [was] with him got up [by] night, and they lay in ambush against Shechem [in] four divisions.

Gaal son of Ebed went out and stood [at] the entrance of the city gate, and Abimelech and the army that [was] with him got up from the ambush.

On the next day the people went out [to] the field; and it was reported to Abimelech,

It was told to Abimelech that all the lords of the tower of Shechem had gathered.

So Abimelech went up Mount Zalmon, he and all his army that [were] with him, and Abimelech took the ax in his hand and cut down a bundle of brushwood, and he lifted it and put [it] on his shoulder. And he said to the army that [was] with him, "What you have seen me do, quickly do also."

But there was a strong tower in the middle of the city, and all the men, women, and lords of the city fled there and shut themselves in; and they went up to the roof of the tower.

When the men of Israel saw that Abimelech was dead, each one went to his home.

After Abimelech, Tola son of Puah son of Dod, a man of Issachar, rose up to deliver Israel; and he [was] living at Shamir in the hill country of Ephraim.

And he judged Israel twenty-three years. And he died and was buried in Shamir.

And Jair died and was buried in Kamon.

The {Ammonites} crossed the Jordan to fight also against Judah, Benjamin, and the house of Ephraim; and Israel was very distressed.

Jephthah the Gileadite was a mighty warrior; he was the son of a prostitute, and {Gilead was his father}.

Israel sent messengers to the king of Edom, saying, "Please let us cross through your land," but the king of Edom would not listen. And they also sent [messengers] to the king of Moab, but he was not willing. So Israel stayed in Kadesh.

Then they traveled through the wilderness, went around the land of Edom and Moab, and came to {the east} side of the land of Moab, and they encamped beyond [the] Arnon; and they did not go into the territory of Moab because [the] Arnon [was] the border of Moab.

Jephthah came to Mizpah, to his house, and behold his daughter came out to meet him with tambourines and dancing. She [was] his only child; he did not have a son or daughter except her.

Jephthah judged Israel six years. Then Jephthah the Gileadite died, and he was buried in [one of] the cities of Gilead.

Then Ibzan died and was buried in Bethlehem.

Then Elon the Zebulunite died and was buried in Aijalon in the land of Zebulun.

Then Abdon the son of Hillel the Pirathonite died and was buried in Pirathon, in the land of Ephraim in the hill country of the Amalekites.

There was a certain man from Zorah, from the tribe of the Danites, and his name [was] Manoah; his wife [was] infertile and did not bear children.

And the woman came and told her husband, saying, "A man of God came to me, and his appearance [was] like the appearance of an angel of God, very awesome. I did not ask him from where he [came], and he did not tell me his name.

And God listened to the voice of Manoah, and an angel of God came again to the woman; she [was] sitting in the field, but Manoah her husband was not with her.

The angel of Yahweh said to Manoah, "If you keep me, I will not eat your food, but if you prepare a burnt offering for Yahweh, you can offer it (for Manoah did not know that he [was] an angel of Yahweh)."

The angel of Yahweh did not appear again to Manoah and his wife, and then Manoah knew that he [was] a messenger of Yahweh.

His father and mother did not know that this [was] from Yahweh; he was seeking for an occasion against [the] Philistines. Now at that time [the] Philistines [were] ruling in Israel.

And the Spirit of Yahweh rushed upon him, and he tore the lion apart as one might tear apart a male kid goat ({he was bare-handed}). But he did not tell his father and mother what he had done.

And he returned after awhile {to marry her}, and he turned aside to see the carcass of the lion, and there [was] a swarm of wild honey bees in the body of the lion, and honey.

When it was the fourth day, they said to Samson's wife, "Entice your husband and tell us the riddle, or we will burn you and your father's house with fire. Have you invited us to rob us?"

And the Spirit of Yahweh rushed on him, and he went down to Ashkelon. He killed thirty men from them, and he took their belongings, and he gave festal garments to the ones that explained the riddle. {He was angry}, and he went up to his father's house.

And Samson's wife was [given] to his companion who [was] his best man.

And he was very thirsty, and he called to Yahweh and said, "You gave this great victory into the hand of your servant, but now I must die of thirst and fall into the hand of the uncircumcised?"

So God split the hollow place that [is] at Lehi, and water came out from it; and he drank, and his spirit returned, and he was revived. Thus he called its name {The Spring of Ha-Qore}, which [is] at Lehi to this day.

After this he fell in love [with] a woman in the wadi of Sorek, and her name [was] Delilah.

The ambush [was] sitting [in wait] for her in an inner room. And she said to him, "[The] Philistines [are] upon you Samson!" And he snapped the bowstrings just as flax fiber snaps when it comes close to fire. And [the secret of] his strength remained unknown.

So Delilah took new ropes and tied him up with them, and she said to him, "[The] Philistines [are] upon you, Samson!" (The ambush [was] sitting in an inner room.) But he snapped them from his arms like thread.

Then Samson said to the servant who was holding him by his hand, "Position me so that I can touch the pillars on which the house rests, so I can lean on them."

And the house was full of men and women, and all of the rulers of [the] Philistines [were] there--about three thousand men and women were on the roof watching the performance of Samson.

And Samson reached out and held two of the middle pillars on which the house [was] resting, and he leaned on them, one on his right and one on his left.

There was a man from the hill country of Ephraim; his name [was] Micah.

When he returned the pieces of silver to his mother, his mother took two hundred pieces of silver, and she gave it to the smith, and he made it [into] an idol of cast metal; and it was in the house of Micah.

In those days there was no king in Israel, and each one did what was right in his own eyes.

There was a young man from Bethlehem in Judah, from the clan of Judah; he [was] a Levite and [was] dwelling as a foreigner there.

So Micah {appointed the Levite}, and the young man became a priest for him; and he was in the house of Micah.

In those days there was no king in Israel. And in those days the tribe of the Danites [was] seeking territory for itself to live in, because until that day it had not been allotted territory among the tribes of Israel.

And the five men that went to spy out the land went up, and they entered there [and] took the carved divine image, ephod, teraphim, and the molten image. The priest [was] standing [at] the entrance of the gate [with] the six hundred men armed [with] the weapons of war.

There was no deliverer, because it [was] far from Sidon, and {they had had no dealings with anyone}. It [was] in the valley that belonged to Beth-rehob, and they rebuilt the city and lived in it.

And they called the name of the city Dan, after Dan their ancestor, who was born to Israel; but the former name of the city [was] Laish.

So they set up for themselves the carved divine image that Micah had made, all the days that the house of God [was] in Shiloh.

In those days there was no king in Israel; there was a man, a Levite, who dwelled as a foreigner in the remote areas of the hill country of Ephraim. And he took for himself a concubine from Bethlehem in Judah.

But his concubine felt repugnance toward him, and she left him and went to her father's house, to Bethlehem in Judah; she was there some four months.

So her husband set out, and he went after her to speak {tenderly to her}, to bring her back. He took with him his servant and a pair of donkeys. And she brought him [to] her father's house, and the father of the young woman saw him and was glad to meet him.

But the man was not willing to spend the night, and he got up and went; and he arrived opposite Jebus (that is, Jerusalem). [He had] with him a pair of saddled donkeys and his concubine.

They [were] near Jebus, and {the day was far spent}, and the servant said to his master, "Please, come, let us turn aside to this city of the Jebusites, and let us spend the night in it."

Then behold, an old man [was] coming from his work from the field in the evening, and the man [was] from the hill country of Ephraim, and he [was] dwelling as a foreigner in Gibeah. (The people of the place [were] descendants of Benjamin.)