These [are] the nations that Yahweh left, to test Israel by them ([that is, to test] all those who {had not experienced} any of the wars of Canaan,

She said, "Surely I will go with you; however, there will be no glory for you in {the path you are taking}, for Yahweh will sell Sisera into [the] hand of a woman." And Deborah stood up and went with Barak to Kedesh.

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.

'Are they not finding and dividing the plunder? {A bedmate or two bedmates for every man}; colorful garments for Sisera, plunder of colorful garments, beautifully finished colorful garments, on the neck of the plunderer?'

So may all your enemies perish, O Yahweh, but those who love him are like the rising sun at its brightest." And the land had rest for forty years.

And I said to you, 'I [am] Yahweh your God; do not fear the gods of the Amorites, in whose land you [are] living.' But you have not listened to my voice."

Gideon said to him, "Excuse me, my lord. [If] Yahweh is with us, why then has all this happened to us? Where are all his wonderful deeds that our ancestors recounted to us, saying, 'Did not Yahweh bring us up from Egypt?' But now Yahweh has forsaken us; he has given us into the palm of Midian."

And Yahweh said to him, "But I will be with you, and you will defeat Midian {as if they are one man}."

And he said to him, "Please, if I have found favor in your eyes, {show me a sign} that you [are] speaking with me.

And Yahweh said to Gideon, "The troops that [are] with you [are] too many for me to give Midian into their hands; Israel will boast, saying, 'My hand has delivered me.'

And Yahweh said to Gideon, "There [are] still too many troops; bring them down to the water, and I will sift through them for you there. For whomever I say to you, 'This [one] will go with you,' he will go with you; and for all whom I say to you, 'This [one] will not go with you,' he will not go."

But if you [are] afraid, go down to the camp with Purah your servant,

When I and all who [are] with me blow on the trumpet, you must also blow on the trumpets and surround the camp, and you must say, 'To Yahweh and to Gideon!'"

And he said to them, "What I have done now in comparison with you? Are not the gleanings of Ephraim better than the grape harvest of Abiezer?

He said to the men of Succoth, "Please give loaves of bread to the people who [are] {following me}, for they [are] weary, and I am pursuing Zebah and Zalmunna, the kings of Midian."

And the olive tree replied, 'Should I stop [producing] my oil, which by me gods and men are honored, to go sway over the trees?'

And the thornbush said to the trees, 'If in good faith you [are] anointing me as king over you, then come and take refuge in my shade; if not, may fire go out from the thornbush and devour the cedars of Lebanon.'

Then Gaal son of Ebed said, "Who [is] Abimelech, and who [are we of] Shechem that we should serve him? Is he not the son of Jerub-Baal, and [is not] Zebul his chief officer? Serve the men of Hamor the father of Shechem. Why should we serve him?

and he sent messengers to Abimelech in Tormah, saying, "Look, Gaal son of Ebed and his relatives [are] coming to Shechem, and they [are] stirring up the city against you.

And in the morning at sunrise, get up and rush the city; and look, when he and the troops who [are] with him come out to you, {you must act according to whatever opportunity offers itself}.

When Gaal saw the army, he said to Zebul, "Look, people [are] coming down from the top of the mountains!" And Zebul said to him, "{The shadows of the mountains look like people to you}."

{And Gaal spoke again} and said, "Look, people [are] coming down from Tabbur-erez, and one division [is] coming from the direction of Elon-meonenim."

And he had thirty sons who would ride on thirty donkeys, and they had thirty towns that [are] in the land of Gilead that they called Havvoth Jair until this day.

Gilead's wife also bore for him sons; and the sons of [his] wife grew up and drove Jephthah away, and they said to him, "You will not inherit the house of our father because you [are] the son of another woman."

So then, [are] you any better than Balak son of Zippor, king of Moab? Did he ever quarrel with Israel, or did he ever make war against them?

When Israel lived in Heshbon and its villages, and in Aroer and its villages, and in all the towns that [are] {along the Arnon}, for three hundred years, why did you not recover [them] at that time?

I have not sinned against you; but you [are] the one who is doing wrong by making war against me. {Let Yahweh judge} today between the {Israelites} and the {Ammonites}."

Jephthah gathered all the men of Gilead, and he made war with Ephraim; and the men of Gilead defeated Ephraim because they said, "You [are] fugitives of Ephraim, you Gileadites, in the midst of Ephraim and Manasseh."

Then Gilead captured the fords of the Jordan from Ephraim, and whenever a fugitive of Ephraim said, "Let me cross [over]," the men of Gilead said to him, "[Are] you an Ephraimite?" [When] he said, "No,"

And an angel of Yahweh appeared to the woman, and he said to her, "Behold, you [are] infertile and have not borne [children], but you will conceive and bear a son.

So Manoah got up and went after his wife, and he came to the man and said to him, "[Are] you the man that spoke to the woman?" And he said, "I [am]."

But if you are unable to explain it to me, you must give me thirty linen garments and thirty festal garments." So they said to him, "Tell your riddle; let us hear it."

And Samson said to them, "This time, as far as the Philistines are concerned, when I do something evil I am without blame."

Then three thousand men from Judah went down to the cleft of the rock of Etam, and they said to Samson, "Do you not know that the Philistines [are] ruling over us? What [is] this [that] you have done to us?" And he said to them, "Just as they did to me, so I have done to them."

Samson said to her, "If you tie me up with seven fresh bowstrings that are not dried up, I will become weak like everyone else."

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.

She fastened [it] with the pin and said to him, "[The] Philistines [are] upon you, Samson!" And Samson woke up from his sleep and tore loose the loom pin of the web and the warp-threads.

And she said to him, "[The] Philistines [are] upon you, Samson!" And he woke up from his sleep and said, "I will go out just like every other time and shake myself free," but he did not know that Yahweh had left him.

And he said to his mother, "The eleven hundred [pieces] of silver that were taken from you, and about which you also pronounced a curse {in my hearing}, are with me; I took it." And his mother said, "Blessed be my son by Yahweh."

While they [were] with the house of Micah, they recognized the voice of the young Levite, and they turned aside there and said to him, "Who brought you here? What [are] you doing in this place, and {what is your business here}?"

And they said to him, "Please inquire of God that we may know whether our journey that we [are] going on will be successful."

And the five men that went out to spy out the land ([that is], Laish) responded and said to their relatives, "Do you know that there are in these houses an ephod, teraphim, and an idol of cast metal? So then, consider what you must do."

When these went to Micah's house, they took the divine carved image, ephod, the teraphim, and the molten image, and the priest asked them, "What [are] you doing?"

But his master said to him, "We will not turn aside to the city of foreigners, who [are] not from the {Israelites}; we will cross over up to Gibeah."

And the old man raised his eyes and saw the traveler in the open square of the city, and he said, "Where are you going, and from where do you come?"

And he said to him, "We [are] crossing over from Bethlehem in Judah up to the remote areas of the hill country of Ephraim, where I [am] from. I went to Bethlehem in Judah, but [now] I am going to Yahweh's house, but no one {took me in to spend the night}.

So then, hand over the men, {the perverse lot}, who [are] in Gibeah, so that we may kill them and purge [this] wickedness from Israel." But the descendants of Benjamin were not willing to listen to the voice of their relatives, the {Israelites}.

And the descendants of Benjamin thought, "They [are] being defeated before us {as previously}," and the {Israelites} said, "Let us flee and lure them away from the city to the main roads."