And Abimelech went up to mount Zalmon, he and all the people that were with him; and Abimelech took an ax in his hand, and cut down a bough from the trees, and took it, and laid it on his shoulder, and said unto the people that were with him, What you have seen me do, make haste, and do as I have done.

And all the people likewise cut down every man his bough, and followed Abimelech, and put them against the stronghold, and set the stronghold on fire over them; so that all the men of the tower of Shechem died also, about a thousand men and women.

Thus God rendered the wickedness of Abimelech, which he did unto his father, in slaying his seventy brethren:

And all the evil of the men of Shechem did God render upon their heads: and upon them came the curse of Jotham the son of Jerubbaal.

And the children of Israel cried unto the LORD, saying, We have sinned against you, both because we have forsaken our God, and also served Baalim.

And the children of Israel said unto the LORD, We have sinned: do you unto us whatsoever seems good unto you; deliver us only, we pray you, this day.

And it was so, that when the children of Ammon made war against Israel, the elders of Gilead went to get Jephthah out of the land of Tob:

And the LORD God of Israel delivered Sihon and all his people into the hand of Israel, and they defeated them: so Israel possessed all the land of the Amorites, the inhabitants of that country.

So now the LORD God of Israel has driven out the Amorites from before his people Israel, and should you possess it?

Will you not possess that which Chemosh your god gives you to possess? So whomsoever the LORD our God shall drive out from before us, them will we possess.

For, lo, you shall conceive, and bear a son; and no razor shall come upon his head: for the child shall be a Nazarite unto God from the womb: and he shall begin to deliver Israel out of the hand of the Philistines.

Then the woman came and told her husband, saying, A man of God came unto me, and his countenance was like the countenance of an angel of God, very awesome: but I asked him not from where he was, neither told he me his name:

But he said unto me, Behold, you shall conceive, and bear a son; and now drink no wine nor strong drink, neither eat any unclean thing: for the child shall be a Nazarite to God from the womb to the day of his death.

Then Manoah entreated the LORD, and said, O my Lord, let the man of God whom you did send come again unto us, and teach us what we shall do unto the child that shall be born.

And God hearkened to the voice of Manoah; and the angel of God came again unto the woman as she sat in the field: but Manoah her husband was not with her.

And Manoah said unto the angel of the LORD, I pray you, let us detain you, until we shall have made ready a kid for you.

So Manoah took a kid with a grain offering, and offered it upon a rock unto the LORD: and the angel did a wondrous thing; and Manoah and his wife looked on.

And Manoah said unto his wife, We shall surely die, because we have seen God.

And he came up, and told his father and his mother, and said, I have seen a woman in Timnah of the daughters of the Philistines: now therefore get her for me as a wife.

Then his father and his mother said unto him, Is there no woman among the daughters of your brethren, or among all my people, that you go to take a wife of the uncircumcised Philistines? And Samson said unto his father, Get her for me; for she pleases me well.

And the Spirit of the LORD came mightily upon him, and he tore him as he would have torn a kid, and he had nothing in his hand: but he told not his father or his mother what he had done.

But it came to pass after a while, in the time of wheat harvest, that Samson visited his wife with a kid; and he said, I will go in to my wife into the chamber. But her father would not allow him to go in.

But God split a hollow place that was in the jaw, and there came water out of it; and when he had drunk, his spirit came again, and he revived: therefore he called the name thereof Enhakkore, which is in Lehi unto this day.

And it was told the Gazites, saying, Samson has come here. And they surrounded the place, and laid wait for him all night in the gate of the city, and were quiet all the night, saying, In the morning, when it is day, we shall kill him.

And Samson lay till midnight, and arose at midnight, and took the doors of the gate of the city, and the two posts, and went away with them, bar and all, and put them upon his shoulders, and carried them up to the top of a hill that is before Hebron.

That he told her all his heart, and said unto her, There has not come a razor upon my head; for I have been a Nazarite unto God from my mother's womb: if I be shaven, then my strength will go from me, and I shall become weak, and be like any other man.

Then the lords of the Philistines gathered themselves together to offer a great sacrifice unto Dagon their god, and to rejoice: for they said, Our god has delivered Samson our enemy into our hand.

And when the people saw him, they praised their god: for they said, Our god has delivered into our hands our enemy, and the destroyer of our country, who slew many of us.

And Samson called unto the LORD, and said, O Lord GOD, remember me, I pray you, and strengthen me, I pray you, only this once, O God, that I may be avenged of the Philistines for my two eyes.

Then said Micah, Now know I that the LORD will do me good, seeing I have a Levite as my priest.

And they said unto him, Ask counsel, we pray you, of God, that we may know whether our way which we go shall be prosperous.

Then the five men departed, and came to Laish, and saw the people that were there, how they dwelt safely, after the manner of the Zidonians, quiet and secure; and there was no magistrate in the land, that might shame them in anything; and they were far from the Zidonians, and had no business with any man.

And they said, Arise, that we may go up against them: for we have seen the land, and, behold, it is very good: and are you still here? be not slothful to go, and to enter to possess the land.

When you go, you shall come unto a people secure, and to a large land: for God has given it into your hands; a place where there is no lack of any thing that is in the earth.

And the six hundred men armed with their weapons of war, who were of the children of Dan, stood by the entrance of the gate.

And the five men that went to spy out the land went up, and came in there, and took the graven image, and the ephod, and the household gods, and the molten image: and the priest stood in the entrance of the gate with the six hundred men that were armed with weapons of war.

And when they were a good way from the house of Micah, the men that were in the houses near to Micah's house were gathered together, and overtook the children of Dan.

And they took the things which Micah had made, and the priest that he had, and came unto Laish, unto a people that were quiet and secure: and they struck them with the edge of the sword, and burnt the city with fire.

And they set them up Micah's graven image, which he made, all the time that the house of God was in Shiloh.

And when the man rose up to depart, he, and his concubine, and his servant, his father-in-law, the young woman's father, said unto him, Behold, now the day draws toward evening, I pray you tarry all night: behold, the day grows to an end, lodge here, that your heart may be merry; and tomorrow get you early on your way, that you may go home.

Behold, here is my daughter a maiden, and his concubine; them I will bring out now, and humble you them, and do with them what seems good unto you: but unto this man do not so vile a thing.

And he said unto her, Up, and let us be going. But there was no answer. Then the man took her up upon a donkey, and the man rose up, and got himself unto his place.

And the chief of all the people, even of all the tribes of Israel, presented themselves in the assembly of the people of God, four hundred thousand footmen that drew sword.

And I took my concubine, and cut her in pieces, and sent her throughout all the country of the inheritance of Israel: for they have committed lewdness and abomination in Israel.

And the children of Israel arose, and went up to the house of God, and asked counsel of God, and said, Who of us shall go up first to the battle against the children of Benjamin? And the LORD said, Judah shall go up first.

And the children of Benjamin came forth out of Gibeah, and cut down to the ground of the Israelites that day twenty and two thousand men.

And Benjamin went forth against them out of Gibeah the second day, and cut down to the ground of the children of Israel again eighteen thousand men; all these drew the sword.

Then all the children of Israel, and all the people, went up, and came unto the house of God, and wept, and sat there before the LORD, and fasted that day until evening, and offered burnt offerings and peace offerings before the LORD.

And the children of Israel inquired of the LORD, (for the ark of the covenant of God was there in those days,

And the children of Benjamin went out against the people, and were drawn away from the city; and they began to strike the people, and kill, as at other times, in the highways, by which one goes up to the house of God, and the other to Gibeah in the field, about thirty men of Israel.

And they turned and fled toward the wilderness unto the rock of Rimmon: and they cut down of them in the highways five thousand men; and pursued hard after them unto Gidom, and slew two thousand men of them.

And the people came to the house of God, and abode there till evening before God, and lifted up their voices, and wept greatly;

And said, O LORD God of Israel, why is this come to pass in Israel, that there should be today one tribe lacking in Israel?

And the children of Israel grieved for Benjamin their brother, and said, There is one tribe cut off from Israel this day.

And Ruth said, Entreat me not to leave you, or to return from following after you: for where you go, I will go; and where you lodge, I will lodge: your people shall be my people, and your God my God:

The LORD recompense your work, and a full reward be given you of the LORD God of Israel, under whose wings you have come to trust.

And Naomi said unto Ruth her daughter-in-law, It is good, my daughter, that you go out with his maidens, that they encounter you not in any other field.

Wash yourself therefore, and anoint yourself, and put your best clothes upon you, and get down to the floor: but make not yourself known unto the man, until he shall have finished eating and drinking.

Then went Boaz up to the gate, and sat down there: and, behold, the kinsman of whom Boaz spoke came by; unto whom he said, Ho, such a one! turn aside, sit down here. And he turned aside, and sat down.

Moreover Ruth the Moabitess, the wife of Mahlon, have I purchased to be my wife, to raise up the name of the dead through his inheritance, that the name of the dead be not cut off from among his brethren, and from the gate of this place: you are witnesses this day.

And all the people that were at the gate, and the elders, said, We are witnesses. The LORD make the woman that is come into your house like Rachel and like Leah, which two did build the house of Israel: and may you do worthily in Ephrathah, and be famous in Bethlehem:

Then Eli answered and said, Go in peace: and the God of Israel grant you your petition that you have asked of him.

And Elkanah her husband said unto her, Do what seems to you good; tarry until you have weaned him; only the LORD establish his word. So the woman abode, and nursed her son until she weaned him.

There is none holy as the LORD: for there is none beside you: neither is there any rock like our God.

Talk no more so very proudly; let not arrogance come out of your mouth: for the LORD is a God of knowledge, and by him actions are weighed.

Moreover his mother made him a little coat, and brought it to him from year to year, when she came up with her husband to offer the yearly sacrifice.

Nay, my sons; for it is no good report that I hear: you make the LORD's people to transgress.

And there came a man of God unto Eli, and said unto him, Thus says the LORD, Did I plainly appear unto the house of your father, when they were in Egypt in Pharaoh's house?

Therefore the LORD God of Israel says, I said indeed that your house, and the house of your father, should walk before me forever: but now the LORD says, Be it far from me; for them that honor me I will honor, and they that despise me shall be lightly esteemed.

Behold, the days come, that I will cut off your arm, and the arm of your father's house, that there shall not be an old man in your house.

And you shall see an enemy in my habitation, in all the wealth which God shall give Israel: and there shall not be an old man in your house forever.

And any man of yours, whom I shall not cut off from my altar, shall consume your eyes, and grieve your heart: and all the increase of your house shall die in the flower of their age.

And before the lamp of God went out in the temple of the LORD, where the ark of God was, and Samuel was lying down to sleep;

And he said, What is the thing that the LORD has said unto you? I pray you hide it not from me: God do so to you, and more also, if you hide anything from me of all the things that he said unto you.

And Samuel told him everything, and hid nothing from him. And he said, It is the LORD: let him do what seems to him good.

So the people sent to Shiloh, that they might bring from there the ark of the covenant of the LORD of hosts, who dwells between the cherubim: and the two sons of Eli, Hophni and Phinehas, were there with the ark of the covenant of God.

And the Philistines were afraid, for they said, God has come into the camp. And they said, Woe unto us! for there has not been such a thing before this.

And the ark of God was taken; and the two sons of Eli, Hophni and Phinehas, were slain.

And when he came, lo, Eli sat upon a seat by the wayside watching: for his heart trembled for the ark of God. And when the man came into the city, and told it, all the city cried out.

And the messenger answered and said, Israel has fled before the Philistines, and there has been also a great slaughter among the people, and your two sons also, Hophni and Phinehas, are dead, and the ark of God is taken.

And it came to pass, when he made mention of the ark of God, that he fell from off the seat backward by the side of the gate, and his neck broke, and he died: for he was an old man, and heavy. And he had judged Israel forty years.

And his daughter-in-law, Phinehas' wife, was with child, near to be delivered: and when she heard the tidings that the ark of God was taken, and that her father-in-law and her husband were dead, she bowed herself and travailed; for her pains came upon her.

And she named the child Ichabod, saying, The glory is departed from Israel: because the ark of God was taken, and because of her father-in-law and her husband.

And she said, The glory is departed from Israel: for the ark of God is taken.

And the Philistines took the ark of God, and brought it from Ebenezer unto Ashdod.

When the Philistines took the ark of God, they brought it into the house of Dagon, and set it by Dagon.

And when they arose early the next day morning, behold, Dagon was fallen upon his face to the ground before the ark of the LORD; and the head of Dagon and both the palms of his hands were cut off upon the threshold; only the stump of Dagon was left to him.

And when the men of Ashdod saw that it was so, they said, The ark of the God of Israel shall not abide with us: for his hand is heavy upon us, and upon Dagon our god.

They sent therefore and gathered all the lords of the Philistines unto them, and said, What shall we do with the ark of the God of Israel? And they answered, Let the ark of the God of Israel be carried about unto Gath. And they carried the ark of the God of Israel there.

Therefore they sent the ark of God to Ekron. And it came to pass, as the ark of God came to Ekron, that the Ekronites cried out, saying, They have brought about the ark of the God of Israel to us, to slay us and our people.

So they sent and gathered together all the lords of the Philistines, and said, Send away the ark of the God of Israel, and let it go again to its own place, that it slay us not, and our people: for there was a deadly destruction throughout all the city; the hand of God was very heavy there.

And they said, If you send away the ark of the God of Israel, send it not empty; but by all means return him a trespass offering: then you shall be healed, and it shall be known to you why his hand is not removed from you.

Therefore you shall make images of your tumors, and images of your mice that mar the land; and you shall give glory unto the God of Israel: perhaps he will lighten his hand from off you, and from off your gods, and from off your land.

And the men of Bethshemesh said, Who is able to stand before this holy LORD God? and to whom shall it go up from us?

And the children of Israel said to Samuel, Cease not to cry unto the LORD our God for us, that he will save us out of the hand of the Philistines.

And he said unto him, Behold now, there is in this city a man of God, and he is an honorable man; all that he says comes surely to pass: now let us go there; perhaps he can show us our way that we should go.

Then said Saul to his servant, But, behold, if we go, what shall we bring the man? for the bread is gone from our sacks, and there is not a present to bring to the man of God: what have we?

And the servant answered Saul again, and said, Behold, I have here at hand the fourth part of a shekel of silver: that will I give to the man of God, to tell us our way.

(Formerly in Israel, when a man went to inquire of God, thus he spoke, Come, and let us go to the seer: for he that is now called a Prophet was formerly called a Seer.)

Then said Saul to his servant, Well said; come, let us go. So they went unto the city where the man of God was.