And the hand of Midian prevailed against Israel. And because of Midian the sons of Israel made for themselves the dens which are in the mountains, and the caves, and the strongholds.

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

And they encamped against them, and destroyed the increase of the earth, till thou come to Gaza, and left no sustenance in Israel, neither sheep, nor ox, nor donkey.

And Israel was brought very low because of Midian, and the sons of Israel cried to LORD.

And it came to pass, when the sons of Israel cried to LORD because of Midian,

that LORD sent a prophet to the sons of Israel. And he said to them, Thus says LORD, the God of Israel, I brought you up from Egypt, and brought you forth out of the house of bondage.

And LORD looked upon him, and said, Go in this thy might, and save Israel from the hand of Midian. Have I not sent thee?

And he said to him, Oh, LORD, with what shall I save Israel? Behold, my family is the poorest in Manasseh, and I am the least in my father's house.

And Gideon said to God, If thou will save Israel by my hand, as thou have spoken,

behold, I will put a fleece of wool on the threshing-floor. If there be dew on the fleece only, and it be dry upon all the ground, then I shall know that thou will save Israel by my hand as thou have spoken.

And LORD said to Gideon, The people who are with thee are too many for me to give the Midianites into their hand, lest Israel vaunt themselves against me, saying, My own hand has saved me.

So the people took provision in their hand, and their trumpets. And he sent all the men of Israel every man to his tent, but retained the three hundred men. And the camp of Midian was beneath him in the valley.

And his fellow answered and said, This is nothing else except the sword of Gideon the son of Joash, a man of Israel. Into his hand God has delivered Midian, and all the army.

And it was so, when Gideon heard the telling of the dream, and the interpretation of it, that he worshipped. And he returned into the camp of Israel, and said, Arise, for LORD has delivered the army of Midian into your hand.

And the men of Israel were gathered together out of Naphtali, and out of Asher, and out of all Manasseh, and pursued after Midian.

Then the men of Israel said to Gideon, Rule thou over us, both thou, and thy son, and thy son's son also, for thou have saved us out of the hand of Midian.

And Gideon made an ephod of it, and put it in his city, even in Ophrah. And all Israel played the harlot after it there, and it became a snare to Gideon, and to his house.

So Midian was subdued before the sons of Israel, and they lifted up their heads no more. And the land had rest forty years in the days of Gideon.

And it came to pass, as soon as Gideon was dead, that the sons of Israel turned again, and played the harlot after the Baalim, and made Baal-berith their god.

And the sons of Israel did not remember 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.

And Abimelech was ruler over Israel three years.

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

And after Abimelech there arose Tola the son of Puah, the son of Dodo, a man of Issachar, to save Israel, and he dwelt in Shamir in the hill-country of Ephraim.

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

And after him arose Jair, the Gileadite, and he judged Israel twenty-two years.

And the sons of Israel again did that which was evil in the sight of LORD, 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 sons of Ammon, and the god

And the anger of LORD was kindled against Israel, and he sold them into the hand of the Philistines, and into the hand of the sons of Ammon.

And they vexed and oppressed the sons of Israel that year. Eighteen years [they oppressed] all the sons of Israel who were beyond the Jordan in the land of the Amorites, which is in Gilead.

And the sons of Ammon passed over the Jordan to also fight against Judah, and against Benjamin, and against the house of Ephraim, so that Israel was exceedingly distressed.

And the sons of Israel cried to LORD, saying, We have sinned against thee, even because we have forsaken our God, and have served the Baalim.

And LORD said to the sons of Israel, [Did] not [I save you] from the Egyptians, and from the Amorites, from the sons of Ammon, and from the Philistines?

And the sons of Israel said to LORD, We have sinned. Do thou to us whatever seems good to thee, only deliver us, we pray thee, this day.

And they put away the foreign gods from among them, and served LORD. And his soul was grieved for the misery of Israel.

Then the sons of Ammon were gathered together, and encamped in Gilead. And the sons of Israel assembled themselves together, and encamped in Mizpah.

And it came to pass after a while, that the sons of Ammon made war against Israel.

And it was so, that, when the sons of Ammon made war against Israel, the elders of Gilead went to fetch Jephthah out of the land of Tob.

And the king of the sons of Ammon answered to the messengers of Jephthah, Because Israel took away my land when he came up out of Egypt, from the Arnon even to the Jabbok, and to the Jordan. Now therefore restore those [lands] agai

And he said to him, Thus says Jephthah: Israel did not take away the land of Moab, nor the land of the sons of Ammon,

but when they came up from Egypt, and Israel went through the wilderness to the Red Sea, and came to Kadesh,

then Israel sent messengers to the king of Edom, saying, Let me, I pray thee, pass through thy land, but the king of Edom did not hearken. And in like manner he sent to the king of Moab, but he would not. And Israel abode in Kadesh

And Israel sent messengers to Sihon king of the Amorites, the king of Heshbon. And Israel said to him, Let us pass, we pray thee, through thy land to my place.

But Sihon did not trust Israel to pass through his border, but Sihon gathered all his people together, and encamped in Jahaz, and fought against Israel.

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

So now LORD, the God of Israel, has dispossessed the Amorites from before his people Israel, and should thou possess them?

And now are thou anything better than Balak the son of Zippor, king of Moab? Did he ever strive against Israel, or did he ever fight against them?

While Israel dwelt in Heshbon and its towns, and in Aroer and its towns, and in all the cities that are along by the side of the Arnon, three hundred years, why did ye not recover them within that time?

I therefore have not sinned against thee, but thou do me wrong to war against me. LORD, the Judge, be judge this day between the sons of Israel and the sons of Ammon.

And he smote them from Aroer until thou come to Minnith, even twenty cities, and to Abelcheramim, with a very great slaughter. So the sons of Ammon were subdued before the sons of Israel.

And it came to pass at the end of two months, that she returned to her father, who did with her according to his vow which he had vowed, and she knew no man. And it was a custom in Israel,

that the daughters of Israel went yearly to celebrate the daughter of Jephthah the Gileadite four days in a year.

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

And after him Ibzan of Bethlehem judged Israel.

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

And after him Elon the Zebulunite judged Israel, and he judged Israel ten years.

And after him Abdon the son of Hillel the Pirathonite judged Israel.

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

And the sons of Israel again did that which was evil in the sight of LORD, and LORD delivered them into the hand of the Philistines forty years.

for, lo, thou shall conceive, and bear a son. And no razor shall come upon his head, for the child shall be a Nazirite to God from the womb. And he shall begin to save Israel out of the hand of the Philistines.

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

And he judged Israel in the days of the Philistines twenty years.

Then his brothers and all the house of his father came down, and took him, and brought him up, and buried him between Zorah and Eshtaol in the burying-place of Manoah his father. And he judged Israel twenty years.

In those days there was no king in Israel. Every man did that which was right in his own eyes.

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

And they said to him, Hold thy peace, lay thy hand upon thy mouth, and go with us, and be to us a father and a priest. Is it better for thee to be priest to the house of one man, or to be priest to a tribe and a family in Israel?

And they called the name of the city Dan, after the name of Dan their father who was born to Israel. However the name of the city was Laish at first.

And it came to pass in those days, when there was no king in Israel, that there was a certain Levite sojourning on the farther side of the hill-country of Ephraim, who took to him a concubine out of Bethlehem-judah.

And his master said to him, We will not turn aside into the city of a foreigner that is not of the sons of Israel, but we will pass over to Gibeah.

And when he came into his house, he took a knife, and laid hold on his concubine, and divided her, limb by limb, into twelve pieces, and sent her throughout all the borders of Israel.

And it was so, that all who saw it said, There was no such deed done nor seen from the day that the sons of Israel came up out of the land of Egypt to this day. Consider it, take counsel, and speak.

Then all the sons of Israel went out. And the congregation was assembled as one man, from Dan even to Beersheba, with the land of Gilead, to LORD at Mizpah.

And the chiefs 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 who drew a sword.

(Now the sons of Benjamin heard that the sons of Israel had gone up to Mizpah.) And the sons of Israel said, Tell us, how was this wickedness brought to pass?

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 folly in Israel.

Behold, ye sons of Israel, all of you, give here your advice and counsel.

and we will take ten men of a hundred throughout all the tribes of Israel, and a hundred of a thousand, and a thousand out of ten thousand, to fetch provision for the people, that they may do, when they come to Gibeah of Benjamin,

So all the men of Israel were gathered against the city, knit together as one man.

And the tribes of Israel sent men through all the tribe of Benjamin, saying, What wickedness is this that has come to pass among you?

Now therefore deliver up the men, the base fellows, who are in Gibeah, that we may put them to death, and put away evil from Israel. But Benjamin would not hearken to the voice of their brothers the sons of Israel.

And the sons of Benjamin gathered themselves together out of the cities to Gibeah, to go out to battle against the sons of Israel.

And the men of Israel, besides Benjamin, were numbered four hundred thousand men who drew a sword. All these were men of war.

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

And the sons of Israel rose up in the morning, and encamped against Gibeah.

And the men of Israel went out to battle against Benjamin. And the men of Israel set the battle in array against them at Gibeah.

And the people, the men of Israel, encouraged themselves, and set the battle again in array in the place where they set themselves in array the first day.

And the sons of Israel went up and wept before LORD until evening. And they asked of LORD, saying, Shall I again draw near to battle against the sons of Benjamin my brother? And LORD said, Go up against him.

And the sons of Israel came near against the sons of Benjamin the second day.

And Benjamin went forth against them out of Gibeah the second day, and destroyed down to the ground of the sons of Israel again eighteen thousand men. All these drew the sword.

Then all the sons of Israel, and all the people, went up, and came to Bethel, and wept, and sat there before LORD, and fasted that day until evening, and they offered burnt-offerings and peace-offerings before LORD.

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

And Israel set an ambushment against Gibeah round about.

And the sons of Israel went up against the sons of Benjamin on the third day, and set themselves in array against Gibeah, as at other times.

And the sons of Benjamin said, They are smitten down before us as at the first. But the sons of Israel said, Let us flee, and draw them away from the city to the highways.

And all the men of Israel rose up out of their place, and set themselves in array at Baal-tamar, and the ambushment of Israel broke forth out of their place, even out of Maareh-geba.

And there came opposite Gibeah ten thousand chosen men out of all Israel, and the battle was severe, but they knew not that evil was close upon them.

And LORD smote Benjamin before Israel, and the sons of Israel destroyed of Benjamin that day twenty-five thousand and a hundred men. All these drew the sword.

So the sons of Benjamin saw that they were smitten, for the men of Israel gave place to Benjamin because they trusted to the ambushment whom they had set against Gibeah.

Now the appointed sign between the men of Israel and the ambushment was, that they should make a great cloud of smoke rise up out of the city.

And the men of Israel turned in the battle, and Benjamin began to smite and kill of the men of Israel about thirty persons, for they said, Surely they are smitten down before us as in the first battle.

And the men of Israel turned, and the men of Benjamin were dismayed, for they saw that evil had come upon them.