She lived under the palm tree of Deborah between Ramah and Bethel in the hill country of Ephraim: and the children of Israel came up to her for judgment.

She sent and called Barak the son of Abinoam out of Kedesh Naphtali, and said to him, "Hasn't the LORD, the God of Israel, commanded, 'Go and draw to Mount Tabor, and take with you ten thousand men of the children of Naphtali and of the children of Zebulun?

So God subdued on that day Jabin the king of Canaan before the children of Israel.

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.

"Because the leaders took the lead in Israel, because the people offered themselves willingly, be blessed, LORD.

"Hear, you kings. Give ear, you princes. I, even I, will sing to the LORD. I will sing praise to the LORD, the God of Israel.

The mountains quaked at the presence of the LORD, even Sinai, at the presence of the LORD, the God of Israel.

The rulers ceased in Israel. They ceased until I, Deborah, arose; Until I arose a mother in Israel.

They chose new gods. Then war was in the gates. Was there a shield or spear seen among forty thousand in Israel?

My heart is toward the leaders of Israel, who offered themselves willingly among the people. Bless the LORD.

Far from the noise of archers, in the places of drawing water, there they will rehearse the righteous acts of the LORD, the righteous acts of his rule in Israel. "Then the people of the LORD went down to the gates.

And the children of Israel did that which was evil in the sight of the LORD, and the LORD delivered them into the hand of Midian seven years.

And the hand of Midian prevailed against Israel; and because of Midian the children of Israel made them 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 children of the east; they came up against them.

And they encamped against them, and destroyed the increase of the earth, as far as Gaza, and left no sustenance in Israel, as well as sheep, or ox, or donkey.

Israel was brought very low because of Midian; and the children of Israel cried to the LORD.

It happened, when the children of Israel cried to the LORD because of Midian,

that the LORD sent a prophet to the children of Israel, and he said to them, "Thus says the LORD, the God of Israel, 'I brought you up from Egypt, and brought you forth out of the house of bondage;

The LORD looked at him, and said, "Go in this your might, and save Israel from the hand of Midian. Haven't I sent you?"

He said to him, "O Lord, how shall I save Israel? Behold, my family is the poorest in Manasseh, and I am the least in my father's house."

Gideon said to God, "If you will save Israel by my hand, as you have spoken,

behold, I will put a fleece of wool on the threshing floor; if there is dew on the fleece only, and it is dry on all the ground, then shall I know that you will save Israel by my hand, as you have spoken."

The LORD said to Gideon, "The people who are with you 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 food 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.

His friend answered, "This is nothing less than the sword of Gideon the son of Joash, a man of Israel. Into his hand God has delivered Midian, and all the army."

It was so, when Gideon heard the telling of the dream, and its interpretation, that he worshiped, and he returned into the camp of Israel, and said, "Get up, for the LORD has delivered into your hand the army of Midian."

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 over us, both you, and your son, and your son's son also; for you have saved us out of the hand of Midian."

Gideon made an ephod of it, and put it in his city, even in Ophrah: and all Israel prostituted themselves after it there; and it became a snare to Gideon, and to his house.

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.

It happened, as soon as Gideon was dead, that the children of Israel turned again, and played the prostitute after the Baals, and made Baal Berith their god.

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.

Abimelech was prince over Israel three years.

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

After Abimelech there arose to save Israel Tola the son of Puah, the son of Dodo, a man of Issachar; and he lived in Shamir in the hill country of Ephraim.

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

After him arose Jair, the Gileadite; and he judged Israel twenty-two years.

The children of Israel again did that which was evil in the sight of the LORD, and served the Baals, and the Ashtaroth, and the gods of Syria, and the gods of Sidon, and the gods of Moab, and the gods of the children of Ammon, and the gods of the Philistines; and they forsook the LORD, and did not serve him.

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

They troubled and oppressed the children of Israel that year. Eighteen years they oppressed all the children of Israel that were beyond the Jordan in the land of the Amorites, which is in Gilead.

The children of Ammon passed over the Jordan to fight also against Judah, and against Benjamin, and against the house of Ephraim; so that Israel was very distressed.

The children of Israel cried to the LORD, saying, "We have sinned against you, even because we have forsaken our God, and have served the Baals."

The LORD said to the children of Israel, "Did I not save you from the Egyptians, and from the Amorites, from the children of Ammon, and from the Philistines?

The children of Israel said to the LORD, "We have sinned. Do to us whatever seems good to you; only deliver us, please, this day."

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

Then the children of Ammon were gathered together, and encamped in Gilead. The children of Israel assembled themselves together, and encamped at Mizpah.

It happened after a while, that the children of Ammon made war against Israel.

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;

The king of the children 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 it peaceably."

and he said to him, "Thus says Jephthah: 'Israel did not take away the land of Moab, nor the land of the children of Ammon,

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

then Israel sent messengers to the king of Edom, saying, 'Please let me pass through your land.' But the king of Edom did not listen. In the same way, he sent to the king of Moab; but he would not. So Israel stayed in Kadesh.

Israel sent messengers to Sihon king of the Amorites, the king of Heshbon; and Israel said to him, "Please let us pass through your land to our land.'

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

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

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

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

While Israel lived 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 you not recover them within that time?

I therefore have not sinned against you, but you do me wrong by making war against me. The LORD, the Judge, be judge this day between the children of Israel and the children of Ammon."

He struck them from Aroer until you come to Minnith, even twenty cities, and to Abelcheramim, with a very great slaughter. So the children of Ammon were subdued before the children of Israel.

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,

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

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

After him Ibzan of Bethlehem judged 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.

After him Elon the Zebulunite judged Israel; and he judged Israel ten years.

After him Abdon the son of Hillel the Pirathonite judged Israel.

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

The children of Israel again did that which was evil in the sight of the LORD; and the LORD delivered them into the hand of the Philistines forty years.

For behold, you shall conceive, and bear a son; and no razor shall come on 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 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.

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 burial site of Manoah his father. 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 was looking for an inheritance to dwell in; for to that day, their inheritance had not fallen to them among the tribes of Israel.

They said to him, "Hold your peace, lay your hand on your mouth, and go with us, and be to us a father and a priest. Is it better for you to be priest to the house of one man, or to be priest to a tribe and a family in Israel?"

They called the name of the city Dan, after the name of Dan their ancestor, who was born to Israel. However the name of the city was originally Laish.

It happened 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 for himself a concubine from Bethlehem Judah.

His master said to him, "We won't go into the city of a foreigner that is not of the children of Israel, but we will pass over to Gibeah."

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.

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

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

The leaders 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 sword.

(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?"

I took my concubine, and cut her in pieces, and sent her throughout all the territory of the inheritance of Israel; for they have committed wickedness and disgrace in Israel.

Behold, you children of Israel, all of you, give your advice and counsel here."

and we will take ten men of one hundred throughout all the tribes of Israel, and one hundred of one thousand, and a thousand out of ten thousand, to get food for the people, that when they come to Gibeah of Benjamin, they may do to it according to all the disgrace that they have committed in Israel."

So all the men of Israel gathered against the city, united as one man.

The tribes of Israel sent men through all the tribe of Benjamin, saying, "What wickedness is this that has happened among you?

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

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

The men of Israel, besides Benjamin, were numbered four hundred thousand men who drew sword: all these were men of war.

The children 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 children of Benjamin?" The LORD said, "Judah first."

The children of Israel rose up in the morning, and encamped against Gibeah.

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

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.

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

The children of Israel came near against the children of Benjamin the second day.

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