Bible in 90 Days Plan

¹Then Joshua gathered all the tribes of Israel at Shechem, and called for the elders of Israel, their heads, their judges, and their officers; and they presented themselves before God.

²Joshua said to all the people, “This is what the LORD, the God of Israel says: ‘From ancient times your fathers lived beyond the Euphrates River, namely, Terah, the father of Abraham and the father of Nahor, and they served other gods.

³Then I took your father Abraham from beyond the Euphrates River and led him through all the land of Canaan, and multiplied his descendants and gave him Isaac.

⁴To Isaac I gave Jacob and Esau, and to Esau I gave Mount Seir, to possess it; but Jacob and his sons went down to Egypt.

⁵Then I sent Moses and Aaron, and I plagued Egypt by what I did in its midst; and afterward I brought you out.

⁶So I brought your fathers out of Egypt, and you came to the sea; and Egypt pursued your fathers with chariots and horsemen to the Red Sea.

⁷But when they cried out to the LORD, He put darkness between you and the Egyptians, and brought the sea upon them and covered them; and your own eyes saw what I did in Egypt. And you lived in the wilderness for a long time.

⁸Then I brought you into the land of the Amorites, who lived beyond the Jordan, and they fought with you; but I handed them over to you, and you took possession of their land when I eliminated them before you.

⁹Then Balak the son of Zippor, king of Moab, rose up and fought against Israel, and he sent messengers and summoned Balaam the son of Beor to curse you.

¹⁰But I was not willing to listen to Balaam. So he had to bless you, and I saved you from his hand.

¹¹You crossed the Jordan and came to Jericho; and the citizens of Jericho fought against you, and the Amorite, the Perizzite, the Canaanite, the Hittite, the Girgashite, the Hivite, and the Jebusite. Therefore I handed them over to you.

¹²Then I sent the hornet before you and it drove out the two kings of the Amorites from you—not by your sword nor your bow.

¹³And I gave you a land on which you had not labored, and cities which you had not built, and you have lived in them; you are eating of vineyards and olive groves which you did not plant.’

¹⁴“Now, therefore, fear the LORD and serve Him in sincerity and truth; and do away with the gods which your fathers served beyond the Euphrates River and in Egypt, and serve the LORD.

¹⁵But if it is disagreeable in your sight to serve the LORD, choose for yourselves today whom you will serve: whether the gods which your fathers served, which were beyond the Euphrates River, or the gods of the Amorites in whose land you are living; but as for me and my house, we will serve the LORD.”

¹⁶The people answered and said, “Far be it from us that we would abandon the LORD to serve other gods;

¹⁷for the LORD our God is He who brought us and our fathers up out of the land of Egypt, from the house of slaves, and did these great signs in our sight and watched over us through all the way in which we went and among all the peoples through whose midst we passed.

¹⁸The LORD drove out from before us all the peoples, even the Amorites who lived in the land. We also will serve the LORD, for He is our God.”

¹⁹Then Joshua said to the people, “You will not be able to serve the LORD, for He is a holy God. He is a jealous God; He will not forgive your wrongdoing or your sins.

²⁰If you abandon the LORD and serve foreign gods, then He will turn and do you harm and destroy you after He has done good to you.”

²¹And the people said to Joshua, “No, but we will serve the LORD.”

²²So Joshua said to the people, “You are witnesses against yourselves that you have chosen for yourselves the LORD, to serve Him.” And they said, “We are witnesses.”

²³“Now then, do away with the foreign gods which are in your midst, and incline your hearts to the LORD, the God of Israel.”

²⁴And the people said to Joshua, “We will serve the LORD our God and obey His voice.”

²⁵So Joshua made a covenant with the people that day, and made for them a statute and an ordinance in Shechem.

²⁶And Joshua wrote these words in the Book of the Law of God; and he took a large stone and set it up there under the oak that was by the sanctuary of the LORD.

²⁷Then Joshua said to all the people, “Behold, this stone shall be a witness against us, because it has heard all the words of the LORD which He spoke to us; so it shall be a witness against you, so that you do not deny your God.”

²⁸Then Joshua dismissed the people, each to his inheritance.

²⁹Now it came about after these things that Joshua the son of Nun, the servant of the LORD, died, being 110 years old.

³⁰And they buried him in the territory of his inheritance, in Timnath-serah, which is in the hill country of Ephraim, on the north of Mount Gaash.

³¹Israel served the LORD all the days of Joshua and all the days of the elders who survived Joshua, and had known every deed of the LORD which He had done for Israel.

³²Now they buried the bones of Joseph, which the sons of Israel brought up from Egypt, at Shechem, in the plot of land which Jacob had bought from the sons of Hamor the father of Shechem for a hundred pieces of money; and they became the inheritance of Joseph’s sons.

³³And Eleazar the son of Aaron died; and they buried him at Gibeah, the town of his son Phinehas, which was given to him in the hill country of Ephraim.

¹Now it came about after the death of Joshua that the sons of Israel inquired of the LORD, saying, “Who shall go up first for us against the Canaanites, to fight against them?”

²The LORD said, “Judah shall go up; behold, I have handed the land over to him.”

³Then Judah said to his brother Simeon, “Go up with me into the territory allotted me, and let’s fight the Canaanites; and I in turn will go with you into the territory allotted you.” So Simeon went with him.

⁴Judah went up, and the LORD handed over to them the Canaanites and the Perizzites, and they defeated ten thousand men at Bezek.

⁵They found Adoni-bezek in Bezek and fought against him, and they defeated the Canaanites and the Perizzites.

⁶But Adoni-bezek fled; and they pursued him and caught him, and cut off his thumbs and big toes.

⁷And Adoni-bezek said, “Seventy kings with their thumbs and their big toes cut off used to gather up scraps under my table; as I have done, so God has repaid me.” So they brought him to Jerusalem, and he died there.

⁸Then the sons of Judah fought against Jerusalem and captured it, and struck it with the edge of the sword, and set the city on fire.

⁹Afterward, the sons of Judah went down to fight against the Canaanites living in the hill country, and in the Negev, and in the lowland.

¹⁰So Judah went against the Canaanites who lived in Hebron (the name of Hebron was previously Kiriath-arba); and they struck Sheshai, Ahiman, and Talmai.

¹¹Then from there he went against the inhabitants of Debir (the name of Debir was previously Kiriath-sepher).

¹²And Caleb said, “Whoever attacks Kiriath-sepher and captures it, I will give him my daughter Achsah as a wife.”

¹³Now Othniel the son of Kenaz, Caleb’s younger brother, captured it; so he gave him his daughter Achsah as a wife.

¹⁴Then it happened that when she came to him, she incited him to ask her father for a field. Then later, she dismounted from her donkey, and Caleb said to her, “What do you want?”

¹⁵She said to him, “Give me a blessing: since you have given me the land of the Negev, give me springs of water also.” So Caleb gave her the upper springs and the lower springs.

¹⁶Now the descendants of the Kenite, Moses’ father-in-law, went up from the city of palms with the sons of Judah, to the wilderness of Judah which is in the south of Arad; and they went and lived with the people.

¹⁷Then Judah went with his brother Simeon, and they struck the Canaanites living in Zephath, and utterly destroyed it. So the name of the city was called Hormah.

¹⁸And Judah took Gaza with its territory, Ashkelon with its territory, and Ekron with its territory.

¹⁹Now the LORD was with Judah, and they took possession of the hill country; but they could not drive out the inhabitants of the valley, because they had iron chariots.

²⁰Then they gave Hebron to Caleb, as Moses had promised; and he drove out from there the three sons of Anak.

²¹But the sons of Benjamin did not drive out the Jebusites who lived in Jerusalem; so the Jebusites have lived with the sons of Benjamin in Jerusalem to this day.

²²Likewise the house of Joseph went up against Bethel, and the LORD was with them.

²³The house of Joseph had men spy out Bethel (the name of the city previously was Luz).

²⁴And the spies saw a man coming out of the city, and they said to him, “Please show us the entrance to the city, and we will treat you kindly.”

²⁵So he showed them the entrance to the city, and they struck the city with the edge of the sword, but they let the man and all his family go free.

²⁶Then the man went to the land of the Hittites and built a city, and named it Luz, which is its name to this day.

²⁷But Manasseh did not take possession of Beth-shean and its villages, or Taanach and its villages, or the inhabitants of Dor and its villages, or the inhabitants of Ibleam and its villages, or the inhabitants of Megiddo and its villages; so the Canaanites persisted in living in this land.

²⁸And it came about, when Israel became strong, that they put the Canaanites to forced labor; but they did not drive them out completely.

²⁹And Ephraim did not drive out the Canaanites who were living in Gezer; so the Canaanites lived in Gezer among them.

³⁰Zebulun did not drive out the inhabitants of Kitron, or the inhabitants of Nahalol; so the Canaanites lived among them and became subject to forced labor.

³¹Asher did not drive out the inhabitants of Acco, or the inhabitants of Sidon, or of Ahlab, or of Achzib, Helbah, Aphik, or of Rehob.

³²So the Asherites lived among the Canaanites, the inhabitants of the land; for they did not drive them out.

³³Naphtali did not drive out the inhabitants of Beth-shemesh, or the inhabitants of Beth-anath, but lived among the Canaanites, the inhabitants of the land; and the inhabitants of Beth-shemesh and Beth-anath became forced labor for them.

³⁴Then the Amorites forced the sons of Dan into the hill country, for they did not allow them to come down to the valley;

³⁵yet the Amorites persisted in living on Mount Heres, in Aijalon and Shaalbim; but when the power of the house of Joseph grew strong, they became forced labor.

³⁶The border of the Amorites ran from the ascent of Akrabbim, from Sela and upward.

¹Now the angel of the LORD came up from Gilgal to Bochim. And he said, “I brought you up out of Egypt and led you into the land which I have sworn to your fathers; and I said, ‘I will never break My covenant with you,

²and as for you, you shall not make a covenant with the inhabitants of this land; you shall tear down their altars.’ But you have not obeyed Me; what is this thing that you have done?

³Therefore I also said, ‘I will not drive them out from you; but they will become like thorns in your sides, and their gods will be a snare to you.’ ”

⁴Now when the angel of the LORD spoke these words to all the sons of Israel, the people raised their voices and wept.

⁵So they named that place Bochim; and there they sacrificed to the LORD.

⁶When Joshua had dismissed the people, the sons of Israel went, each one to his inheritance, to take possession of the land.

⁷The people served the LORD all the days of Joshua, and all the days of the elders who survived Joshua, who had seen all the great work of the LORD which He had done for Israel.

⁸Then Joshua the son of Nun, the servant of the LORD, died at the age of 110.

⁹And they buried him in the territory of his inheritance in Timnath-heres, in the hill country of Ephraim, north of Mount Gaash.

¹⁰All that generation also were gathered to their fathers; and another generation rose up after them who did not know the LORD, nor even the work which He had done for Israel.

¹¹Then the sons of Israel did evil in the sight of the LORD and served the Baals,

¹²and they abandoned the LORD, the God of their fathers, who had brought them out of the land of Egypt, and they followed other gods from the gods of the peoples who were around them, and bowed down to them; so they provoked the LORD to anger.

¹³They abandoned the LORD and served Baal and the Ashtaroth.

¹⁴Then the anger of the LORD burned against Israel, and He handed them over to plunderers, and they plundered them; and He sold them into the hands of their enemies around them, so that they could no longer stand against their enemies.

¹⁵Wherever they went, the hand of the LORD was against them for evil, as the LORD had spoken and just as the LORD had sworn to them, so that they were severely distressed.

¹⁶Then the LORD raised up judges who saved them from the hands of those who plundered them.

¹⁷Yet they did not listen to their judges, for they committed infidelity with other gods and bowed down to them. They turned aside quickly from the way in which their fathers had walked in obeying the commandments of the LORD; they did not do the same as their fathers.

¹⁸And when the LORD raised up judges for them, the LORD was with the judge and saved them from the hand of their enemies all the days of the judge; for the LORD was moved to pity by their groaning because of those who tormented and oppressed them.

¹⁹But it came about, when the judge died, that they would turn back and act more corruptly than their fathers, in following other gods to serve them and bow down to them; they did not abandon their practices or their obstinate ways.

²⁰So the anger of the LORD burned against Israel, and He said, “Because this nation has violated My covenant which I commanded their fathers, and has not listened to My voice,

²¹I in turn will no longer drive out from them any of the nations which Joshua left when he died,

²²in order to test Israel by them, whether they will keep the way of the LORD to walk in it as their fathers did, or not.”

²³So the LORD allowed those nations to remain, not driving them out quickly; and He did not hand them over to Joshua.

¹Now these are the nations that the LORD left, to test Israel by them (that is, all the Israelites who had not experienced any of the wars of Canaan;

²only in order that the generations of the sons of Israel might be taught war, those who had not experienced it previously).

³These nations are: the five governors of the Philistines and all the Canaanites and the Sidonians, and the Hivites who lived on Mount Lebanon, from Mount Baal-hermon as far as Lebo-hamath.

⁴They were left to test Israel by them, to find out if they would obey the commandments of the LORD, which He had commanded their fathers through Moses.

⁵The sons of Israel lived among the Canaanites, the Hittites, the Amorites, the Perizzites, the Hivites, and the Jebusites;

⁶and they took their daughters for themselves as wives, and gave their own daughters to their sons, and served their gods.

⁷So the sons of Israel did what was evil in the sight of the LORD, and they forgot the LORD their God and served the Baals and the Asheroth.

⁸Then the anger of the LORD was kindled against Israel, so that He sold them into the hand of Cushan-rishathaim, king of Mesopotamia; and the sons of Israel served Cushan-rishathaim for eight years.

⁹But the sons of Israel cried out to the LORD, and the LORD raised up a deliverer for the sons of Israel to set them free, Othniel the son of Kenaz, Caleb’s younger brother.

¹⁰And the Spirit of the LORD came upon him, and he judged Israel. When he went to war, the LORD handed over to him Cushan-rishathaim king of Mesopotamia, so that he prevailed over Cushan-rishathaim.

¹¹Then the land was at rest for forty years. And Othniel the son of Kenaz died.

¹²Now the sons of Israel again did evil in the sight of the LORD. So the LORD strengthened Eglon the king of Moab against Israel, because they had done evil in the sight of the LORD.

¹³And he gathered to himself the sons of Ammon and Amalek; and he went and defeated Israel, and they took possession of the city of the palm trees.

¹⁴And the sons of Israel served Eglon the king of Moab for eighteen years.

¹⁵But when the sons of Israel cried out to the LORD, the LORD raised up a deliverer for them, Ehud the son of Gera, the Benjaminite, a left-handed man. And the sons of Israel sent tribute by him to Eglon the king of Moab.

¹⁶Now Ehud made himself a sword which had two edges, a cubit in length, and he strapped it on his right thigh under his cloak.

¹⁷Then he presented the tribute to Eglon king of Moab. Now Eglon was a very fat man.

¹⁸And it came about, when he had finished presenting the tribute, that Ehud sent away the people who had carried the tribute.

¹⁹But he himself turned back from the idols which were at Gilgal, and said, “I have a secret message for you, O king.” And the king said, “Silence!” And all who were attending him left him.

²⁰Then Ehud came to him while he was sitting in his cool roof chamber alone. And Ehud said, “I have a message from God for you.” And he got up from his seat.

²¹Then Ehud reached out with his left hand and took the sword from his right thigh, and thrust it into his belly.

²²The hilt of the sword also went in after the blade, and the fat closed over the blade because he did not pull the sword out of his belly; and the refuse came out.

²³Then Ehud went out into the vestibule, and shut the doors of the roof chamber behind him, and locked them.

²⁴When he had left, the king’s servants came and looked, and behold, the doors of the roof chamber were locked; and they said, “Undoubtedly he is relieving himself in the cool room.”

²⁵So they waited until it would have been shameful to wait longer; but behold, he did not open the doors of the roof chamber. So they took the key and opened them, and behold, their master had fallen to the floor dead.

²⁶Now Ehud escaped while they were hesitating, and he passed by the idols and escaped to Seirah.

²⁷And when he arrived, he blew the trumpet in the hill country of Ephraim; and the sons of Israel went down with him from the hill country, and he was leading them.

²⁸Then he said to them, “Pursue them, for the LORD has handed your enemies the Moabites over to you.” So they went down after him and took control of the crossing places of the Jordan opposite Moab, and did not allow anyone to cross.

²⁹They struck and killed about ten thousand Moabites at that time, all robust and valiant men; and no one escaped.

³⁰So Moab was subdued that day under the hand of Israel. And the land was at rest for eighty years.

³¹Now after him came Shamgar the son of Anath, who struck and killed six hundred Philistines with an oxgoad; and he also saved Israel.

¹Then the sons of Israel again did evil in the sight of the LORD, after Ehud died.

²So the LORD sold them into the hand of Jabin king of Canaan, who reigned in Hazor; and the commander of his army was Sisera, who lived in Harosheth-hagoyim.

³The sons of Israel cried out to the LORD; for he had nine hundred iron chariots, and he oppressed the sons of Israel severely for twenty years.

⁴Now Deborah, a prophetess, the wife of Lappidoth, was judging Israel at that time.

⁵She used to sit under the palm tree of Deborah between Ramah and Bethel in the hill country of Ephraim; and the sons of Israel went up to her for judgment.

⁶Now she sent word and summoned Barak the son of Abinoam from Kedesh-naphtali, and said to him, “The LORD, the God of Israel, has indeed commanded, ‘Go and march to Mount Tabor, and take with you ten thousand men from the sons of Naphtali and from the sons of Zebulun.

⁷I will draw out to you Sisera, the commander of Jabin’s army, with his chariots and his many troops to the river Kishon, and I will hand him over to you.’ ”

⁸Then Barak said to her, “If you will go with me, then I will go; but if you will not go with me, I will not go.”

⁹She said, “I will certainly go with you; however, the fame shall not be yours on the journey that you are about to take, for the LORD will sell Sisera into the hand of a woman.” Then Deborah got up and went with Barak to Kedesh.

¹⁰Barak summoned Zebulun and Naphtali to Kedesh, and ten thousand men went up with him; Deborah also went up with him.

¹¹Now Heber the Kenite had separated himself from the Kenites, from the sons of Hobab the father-in-law of Moses, and had pitched his tent as far away as the oak in Zaanannim, which is near Kedesh.

¹²Then they told Sisera that Barak the son of Abinoam had gone up to Mount Tabor.

¹³Sisera summoned all his chariots, nine hundred iron chariots, and all the people who were with him, from Harosheth-hagoyim to the river Kishon.

¹⁴Then Deborah said to Barak, “Arise! For this is the day on which the LORD has handed Sisera over to you; behold, the LORD has gone out before you.” So Barak went down from Mount Tabor with ten thousand men following him.

¹⁵And the LORD routed Sisera and all his chariots and all his army with the edge of the sword before Barak; and Sisera got down from his chariot and fled on foot.

¹⁶But Barak pursued the chariots and the army as far as Harosheth-hagoyim, and all the army of Sisera fell by the edge of the sword; not even one was left.

¹⁷Now Sisera fled on foot to the tent of Jael the wife of Heber the Kenite, because there was peace between Jabin the king of Hazor and the house of Heber the Kenite.

¹⁸And Jael went out to meet Sisera, and said to him, “Turn aside, my master, turn aside to me! Do not be afraid.” So he turned aside to her into the tent, and she covered him with a rug.

¹⁹And he said to her, “Please give me a little water to drink, for I am thirsty.” So she opened a leather bottle of milk and gave him a drink; then she covered him.

²⁰And he said to her, “Stand in the doorway of the tent, and it shall be if anyone comes and inquires of you, and says, ‘Is there anyone here?’ that you shall say, ‘No.’ ”

²¹But Jael, Heber’s wife, took a tent peg and a hammer in her hand, and went secretly to him and drove the peg into his temple, and it went through into the ground; for he was sound asleep and exhausted. So he died.

²²And behold, while Barak was pursuing Sisera, Jael came out to meet him and said to him, “Come, and I will show you the man whom you are seeking.” So he entered with her, and behold, Sisera was lying dead with the tent peg in his temple.

²³So God subdued Jabin the king of Canaan on that day before the sons of Israel.

²⁴And the hand of the sons of Israel pressed harder and harder upon Jabin the king of Canaan, until they had eliminated Jabin the king of Canaan.

¹Then Deborah and Barak the son of Abinoam sang on that day, saying,

²“For the leaders leading in Israel, For the people volunteering, Bless the LORD!

³Hear, you kings; listen, you dignitaries! I myself—to the LORD, I myself will sing, I will sing praise to the LORD, the God of Israel!

⁴LORD, when You went out from Seir, When You marched from the field of Edom, The earth quaked, the heavens also dripped, The clouds also dripped water.

⁵The mountains flowed with water at the presence of the LORD, This Sinai, at the presence of the LORD, the God of Israel.

⁶“In the days of Shamgar the son of Anath, In the days of Jael, the roads were deserted, And travelers went by roundabout ways.

⁷The peasantry came to an end, they came to an end in Israel, Until I, Deborah, arose, Until I arose, a mother in Israel.

⁸New gods were chosen; Then war was in the gates. Not a shield or a spear was seen Among forty thousand in Israel.

⁹My heart goes out to the commanders of Israel, The volunteers among the people; Bless the LORD!

¹⁰You who ride on white donkeys, You who sit on rich carpets, And you who travel on the road—shout in praise!

¹¹At the sound of those who distribute water among the watering places, There they will recount the righteous deeds of the LORD, The righteous deeds for His peasantry in Israel. Then the people of the LORD went down to the gates.

¹²“Awake, awake, Deborah; Awake, awake, sing a song! Arise, Barak, and lead away your captives, son of Abinoam.

¹³Then survivors came down to the nobles; The people of the LORD came down to me as warriors.

¹⁴From Ephraim those whose root is in Amalek came down, Following you, Benjamin, with your peoples; From Machir commanders came down, And from Zebulun those who wield the staff of office.

¹⁵And the princes of Issachar were with Deborah; As was Issachar, so was Barak; Into the valley they rushed at his heels; Among the divisions of Reuben There were great determinations of heart.

¹⁶Why did you sit among the sheepfolds, To hear the piping for the flocks? Among the divisions of Reuben There were great searchings of heart.

¹⁷Gilead remained across the Jordan; And why did Dan stay on ships? Asher sat at the seashore, And remained by its landings.

¹⁸Zebulun was a people who risked their lives, And Naphtali too, on the high places of the field.

¹⁹“The kings came and fought; Then the kings of Canaan fought At Taanach near the waters of Megiddo; They took no plunder in silver.

²⁰The stars fought from heaven, From their paths they fought against Sisera.

²¹The torrent of Kishon swept them away, The ancient torrent, the torrent Kishon. My soul, march on with strength!

²²Then the horses’ hoofs beat From the galloping, the galloping of his mighty stallions.

²³‘Curse Meroz,’ said the angel of the LORD, ‘Utterly curse its inhabitants, Because they did not come to the help of the LORD, To the help of the LORD against the warriors.’

²⁴“Most blessed of women is Jael, The wife of Heber the Kenite; Most blessed is she of women in the tent.

²⁵He asked for water, she gave him milk; In a magnificent bowl she brought him curds.

²⁶She reached out her hand for the tent peg, And her right hand for the workmen’s hammer. Then she struck Sisera, she smashed his head; And she shattered and pierced his temple.

²⁷Between her feet he bowed, he fell, he lay; Between her feet he bowed, he fell; Where he bowed, there he fell dead.

²⁸“Out of the window she looked and wailed, The mother of Sisera through the lattice, ‘Why does his chariot delay in coming? Why do the hoofbeats of his chariots delay?’

²⁹Her wise princesses would answer her, Indeed she repeats her words to herself,

³⁰‘Are they not finding, are they not dividing the spoils? A concubine, two concubines for every warrior; To Sisera a spoil of dyed cloth, A spoil of dyed cloth embroidered, Dyed cloth of double embroidery on the neck of the plunderer?’

³¹May all Your enemies perish in this way, LORD; But may those who love Him be like the rising of the sun in its might.” And the land was at rest for forty years.

¹Then the sons of Israel did what was evil in the sight of the LORD; and the LORD handed them over to Midian for seven years.

²The power of Midian prevailed against Israel. Because of Midian the sons of Israel made for themselves the dens which were in the mountains and the caves and the strongholds.

³For whenever Israel had sown, the Midianites would come up with the Amalekites and the people of the east and march against them.

⁴So they would camp against them and destroy the produce of the earth as far as Gaza, and leave no sustenance in Israel, nor a sheep, ox, or donkey.

⁵For they would come up with their livestock and their tents, they would come in like locusts in number, and both they and their camels were innumerable; and they came into the land to ruin it.

⁶So Israel was brought very low because of Midian, and the sons of Israel cried out to the LORD.

⁷Now it came about, when the sons of Israel cried out to the LORD on account of Midian,

⁸that the LORD sent a prophet to the sons of Israel, and he said to them, “This is what the LORD, the God of Israel says: ‘It was I who brought you up from Egypt, and brought you out of the house of slavery.

⁹And I rescued you from the hands of the Egyptians, and from the hands of all your oppressors, and I drove them out from you and gave you their land,

¹⁰and I said to you, “I am the LORD your God; you shall not fear the gods of the Amorites in whose land you live.” But you have not obeyed Me.’ ”

¹¹Then the angel of the LORD came and sat under the oak that was in Ophrah, which belonged to Joash the Abiezrite, as his son Gideon was beating out wheat in the wine press in order to save it from the Midianites.

¹²And the angel of the LORD appeared to him and said to him, “The LORD is with you, valiant warrior.”

¹³Then Gideon said to him, “O my lord, if the LORD is with us, why then has all this happened to us? And where are all His miracles which our fathers told us about, saying, ‘Did the LORD not bring us up from Egypt?’ But now the LORD has abandoned us and handed us over to Midian.”

¹⁴And the LORD looked at him and said, “Go in this strength of yours and save Israel from the hand of Midian. Have I not sent you?”

¹⁵But he said to Him, “O Lord, how am I to save Israel? Behold, my family is the least in Manasseh, and I am the youngest in my father’s house.”

¹⁶Yet the LORD said to him, “I will certainly be with you, and you will defeat Midian as one man.”

¹⁷So Gideon said to Him, “If now I have found favor in Your sight, then perform for me a sign that it is You speaking with me.

¹⁸Please do not depart from here until I come back to You, and bring out my offering and lay it before You.” And He said, “I will remain until you return.”

¹⁹Then Gideon went in and prepared a young goat and unleavened bread from an ephah of flour; he put the meat in a basket and the broth in a pot, and brought them out to him under the oak and presented them.

²⁰And the angel of God said to him, “Take the meat and the unleavened bread and lay them on this rock, and pour out the broth.” And he did so.

²¹Then the angel of the LORD put out the end of the staff that was in his hand and touched the meat and the unleavened bread; and fire came up from the rock and consumed the meat and the unleavened bread. Then the angel of the LORD vanished from his sight.

²²When Gideon perceived that he was the angel of the LORD, he said, “Oh, Lord GOD! For I have seen the angel of the LORD face to face!”

²³But the LORD said to him, “Peace to you, do not be afraid; you shall not die.”

²⁴Then Gideon built an altar there to the LORD and named it The LORD is Peace. To this day it is still in Ophrah of the Abiezrites.

²⁵Now on the same night the LORD said to him, “Take your father’s bull and a second bull seven years old, and tear down the altar of Baal which belongs to your father, and cut down the Asherah that is beside it;

²⁶and build an altar to the LORD your God on the top of this stronghold in an orderly way, and take a second bull and offer a burnt offering with the wood of the Asherah which you shall cut down.”

²⁷Then Gideon took ten men from his servants and did as the LORD had spoken to him; and because he was too afraid of his father’s household and the men of the city to do it by day, he did it by night.

²⁸When the people of the city got up early in the morning, behold, the altar of Baal had been torn down, and the Asherah which had been beside it had been cut down, and the second bull had been offered on the altar which had been built.

²⁹So they said to one another, “Who did this thing?” And when they searched and inquired, they said, “Gideon the son of Joash did this thing.”

³⁰Then the men of the city said to Joash, “Bring out your son, that he may die, for he has torn down the altar of Baal, and indeed, he has cut down the Asherah which was beside it.”

³¹But Joash said to all who stood against him, “Will you contend for Baal, or will you save him? Whoever will contend for him shall be put to death by morning. If he is a god, let him contend for himself, since someone has torn down his altar!”

³²Therefore on that day he named Gideon Jerubbaal, that is to say, “Let Baal contend against him,” because he had torn down his altar.

³³Then all the Midianites, the Amalekites, and the people of the east assembled together; and they crossed over and camped in the Valley of Jezreel.

³⁴So the Spirit of the LORD covered Gideon like clothing; and he blew a trumpet, and the Abiezrites were called together to follow him.

³⁵And he sent messengers throughout Manasseh, and they also were called together to follow him; and he sent messengers to Asher, Zebulun, and Naphtali, and they came up to meet them.

³⁶Then Gideon said to God, “If You are going to save Israel through me, as You have spoken,

³⁷behold, I am putting 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 I will know that You will save Israel through me, as You have spoken.”

³⁸And it was so. When he got up early the next morning and wrung out the fleece, he wrung the dew from the fleece, a bowl full of water.

³⁹Then Gideon said to God, “Do not let Your anger burn against me, so that I may speak only one more time; please let me put You to the test only one more time with the fleece: let it now be dry only on the fleece, and let there be dew on all the ground.”

⁴⁰And God did so that night; for it was dry only on the fleece, and dew was on all the ground.

¹Then Jerubbaal (that is, Gideon) and all the people who were with him got up early, and camped beside the spring of Harod; and the camp of Midian was on the north side of them by the hill of Moreh in the valley.

²And the LORD said to Gideon, “The people who are with you are too many for Me to hand Midian over to them, otherwise Israel would become boastful, saying, ‘My own power has saved me.’

³Now therefore come, proclaim in the hearing of the people, saying, ‘Whoever is afraid and worried, is to return and leave Mount Gilead.’ ” So twenty-two thousand from the people returned, but ten thousand remained.

⁴Then the LORD said to Gideon, “The people are still too many; bring them down to the water and I will test them for you there. So it shall be that he of whom I say to you, ‘This one shall go with you,’ he shall go with you; but everyone of whom I say to you, ‘This one shall not go with you,’ he shall not go.”

⁵So he brought the people down to the water. Then the LORD said to Gideon, “You shall put everyone who laps the water with his tongue as a dog laps in one group, and everyone who kneels down to drink in another.”

⁶Now the number of those who lapped, putting their hand to their mouth, was three hundred men; but all the rest of the people kneeled down to drink water.

⁷And the LORD said to Gideon, “I will save you with the three hundred men who lapped, and will hand the Midianites over to you; so have all the other people go, each man to his home.”

⁸So the three hundred men took the people’s provisions and their trumpets in their hands. And Gideon dismissed all the other men of Israel, each to his tent, but retained the three hundred men; and the camp of Midian was below him in the valley.

⁹Now on the same night it came about that the LORD said to him, “Arise, go down against the camp, for I have handed it over to you.

¹⁰But if you are afraid to go down, go with Purah your servant down to the camp,

¹¹so that you will hear what they say; and afterward you will have the courage to go down against the camp.” So he went down with Purah his servant to the outposts of the army that was in the camp.

¹²Now the Midianites, the Amalekites, and all the people of the east were lying in the valley as numerous as locusts; and their camels were without number, as numerous as the sand on the seashore.

¹³When Gideon came, behold, a man was relating a dream to his friend. And he said, “Behold, I had a dream; a loaf of barley bread was tumbling into the camp of Midian, and it came to the tent and struck it so that it fell, and turned it upside down so that the tent collapsed.”

¹⁴And his friend replied, “This is nothing other than the sword of Gideon the son of Joash, a man of Israel; God has handed over to him Midian and all the camp.”

¹⁵When Gideon heard the account of the dream and its interpretation, he bowed in worship. Then he returned to the camp of Israel and said, “Arise, for the LORD has handed over to you the camp of Midian!”

¹⁶And he divided the three hundred men into three units, and he put trumpets and empty pitchers into the hands of all of them, with torches inside the pitchers.

¹⁷Then he said to them, “Look at me and do likewise. And behold, when I come to the outskirts of the camp, do as I do.

¹⁸When I and all who are with me blow the trumpet, then you also blow the trumpets around the entire camp and say, ‘For the LORD and for Gideon!’ ”

¹⁹So Gideon and the hundred men who were with him came to the outskirts of the camp at the beginning of the middle night watch, when they had just posted the watch; and they blew the trumpets and smashed the pitchers that were in their hands.

²⁰When the three units blew the trumpets and broke the pitchers, they held the torches in their left hands and the trumpets in their right hands for blowing, and shouted, “A sword for the LORD and for Gideon!”

²¹And each stood in his place around the camp; and all the army ran, crying out as they fled.

²²And when they blew the three hundred trumpets, the LORD set the sword of one against another even throughout the entire army; and the army fled as far as Beth-shittah toward Zererah, as far as the edge of Abel-meholah, by Tabbath.

²³And the men of Israel were summoned from Naphtali, Asher, and all Manasseh, and they pursued Midian.

²⁴Then Gideon sent messengers throughout the hill country of Ephraim, saying, “Come down against Midian and take control of the waters ahead of them, as far as Beth-barah and the Jordan.” So all the men of Ephraim were summoned, and they took control of the waters as far as Beth-barah and the Jordan.

²⁵And they captured the two leaders of Midian, Oreb and Zeeb, and they killed Oreb at the rock of Oreb, and they killed Zeeb at the wine press of Zeeb, while they pursued Midian; and they brought the heads of Oreb and Zeeb to Gideon from across the Jordan.

¹Then the men of Ephraim said to Gideon, “What is this thing that you have done to us, not calling upon us when you went to fight against Midian?” And they quarreled with him vehemently.

²But he said to them, “What have I done now in comparison with you? Is the gleaning of the grapes of Ephraim not better than the vintage of Abiezer?

³God has handed over to you the leaders of Midian, Oreb and Zeeb; and what was I able to do in comparison with you?” Then their anger toward him subsided when he said that.

⁴Then Gideon and the three hundred men who were with him came to the Jordan and crossed over, exhausted yet still pursuing.

⁵And he said to the men of Succoth, “Please give loaves of bread to the people who are following me, for they are exhausted, and I am pursuing Zebah and Zalmunna, the kings of Midian.”

⁶But the leaders of Succoth said, “Are the hands of Zebah and Zalmunna already in your hand, that we should give bread to your army?”

⁷So Gideon said, “For this answer, when the LORD has handed over to me Zebah and Zalmunna, I will thrash your bodies with the thorns of the wilderness and with briers.”

⁸Then he went up from there to Penuel and spoke similarly to them; and the men of Penuel answered him just as the men of Succoth had answered.

⁹So he said also to the men of Penuel, “When I return safely, I will tear down this tower.”

¹⁰Now Zebah and Zalmunna were in Karkor, and their armies with them, about fifteen thousand men, all who were left of the entire army of the people of the east; for the fallen were 120,000 swordsmen.

¹¹Gideon went up by the way of those who lived in tents to the east of Nobah and Jogbehah, and he attacked the camp when the camp was unsuspecting.

¹²When Zebah and Zalmunna fled, he pursued them and captured the two kings of Midian, Zebah and Zalmunna, and routed the entire army.

¹³Then Gideon the son of Joash returned from the battle by the ascent of Heres.

¹⁴And he captured a youth from Succoth and questioned him. Then the youth wrote down for him the leaders of Succoth and its elders, seventy-seven men.

¹⁵And he came to the men of Succoth and said, “Behold Zebah and Zalmunna, about whom you taunted me, saying, ‘Are the hands of Zebah and Zalmunna already in your hand, that we should give bread to your men who are weary?’ ”

¹⁶Then he took the elders of the city, and thorns of the wilderness and briers, and he disciplined the men of Succoth with them.

¹⁷And he tore down the tower of Penuel and killed the men of the city.

¹⁸Then he said to Zebah and Zalmunna, “Where were the men whom you killed at Tabor?” But they said, “You and they were alike, each one resembling the son of a king.”

¹⁹And he said, “They were my brothers, the sons of my mother. As the LORD lives, if only you had let them live, I would not kill you.”

²⁰So he said to Jether his firstborn, “Rise, kill them.” But the youth did not draw his sword, for he was afraid, because he was still a youth.

²¹Then Zebah and Zalmunna said, “Rise up yourself, and attack us; for as the man, so is his strength.” So Gideon arose and killed Zebah and Zalmunna, and took the crescent amulets which were on their camels’ necks.

²²Then the men of Israel said to Gideon, “Rule over us, both you and your son, your son’s son as well, for you have saved us from the hand of Midian!”

²³But Gideon said to them, “I will not rule over you, nor shall my son rule over you; the LORD shall rule over you.”

²⁴Yet Gideon said to them, “I would request of you, that each of you give me an earring from his plunder.” (For they had gold earrings, because they were Ishmaelites.)

²⁵And they said, “We will certainly give them to you.” So they spread out a garment, and every one of them tossed an earring there from his plunder.

²⁶The weight of the gold earrings that he requested was 1,700 shekels of gold, apart from the crescent amulets, the ear pendants, and the purple robes which were on the kings of Midian, and apart from the neck chains that were on their camels’ necks.

²⁷Gideon made it into an ephod, and placed it in his city, Ophrah; but all Israel committed infidelity with it there, and it became a snare to Gideon and his household.

²⁸So Midian was subdued before the sons of Israel, and they did not lift up their heads anymore. And the land was undisturbed for forty years in the days of Gideon.

²⁹Then Jerubbaal the son of Joash went and lived in his own house.

³⁰Now Gideon had seventy sons who were his direct descendants, for he had many wives.

³¹And his concubine who was in Shechem also bore him a son, and he named him Abimelech.

³²And Gideon the son of Joash died at a good old age and was buried in the tomb of his father Joash, in Ophrah of the Abiezrites.

³³Then it came about, as soon as Gideon was dead, that the sons of Israel again committed infidelity with the Baals, and made Baal-berith their god.

³⁴So the sons of Israel did not remember the LORD their God, who had saved them from the hands of all their enemies on every side;

³⁵nor did they show kindness to the household of Jerubbaal (that is, Gideon) in accordance with all the good that he had done for Israel.

¹Now Abimelech the son of Jerubbaal went to Shechem, to his mother’s relatives, and spoke to them and to the entire family of the household of his mother’s father, saying,

²“Speak, now, in the hearing of all the leaders of Shechem, ‘Which is better for you: for seventy men, all the sons of Jerubbaal, to rule over you, or for one man to rule over you?’ Also, remember that I am your bone and your flesh.”

³So his mother’s relatives spoke all these words on his behalf in the hearing of all the leaders of Shechem; and they were inclined to follow Abimelech, for they said, “He is our relative.”

⁴And they gave him seventy pieces of silver from the house of Baal-berith, with which Abimelech hired worthless and reckless men, and they followed him.

⁵Then he went to his father’s house in Ophrah and killed his brothers the sons of Jerubbaal, seventy men, on one stone. But Jotham the youngest son of Jerubbaal was left, because he hid himself.

⁶All the leaders of Shechem and all Beth-millo assembled together, and they went and made Abimelech king, by the oak of the memorial stone which was in Shechem.

⁷Now when they told Jotham, he went and stood on the top of Mount Gerizim, and raised his voice and called out. And he said to them, “Listen to me, you leaders of Shechem, that God may listen to you.

⁸Once the trees went to anoint a king over them, and they said to the olive tree, ‘Reign over us!’

⁹But the olive tree said to them, ‘Shall I give up my fatness with which God and mankind are honored, and go to wave over the trees?’

¹⁰Then the trees said to the fig tree, ‘You, come, reign over us!’

¹¹But the fig tree said to them, ‘Shall I give up my sweetness and my good fruit, and go to wave over the trees?’

¹²Then the trees said to the vine, ‘You, come, reign over us!’

¹³But the vine said to them, ‘Shall I give up my new wine, which cheers God and mankind, and go to wave over the trees?’

¹⁴Then all the trees said to the bramble, ‘You, come, reign over us!’

¹⁵And the bramble said to the trees, ‘If you really are anointing me as king over you, come and take refuge in my shade; but if not, may fire come out of the bramble and consume the cedars of Lebanon.’

¹⁶“Now then, if you have acted with honesty and integrity in making Abimelech king, and if you have dealt well with Jerubbaal and his house, and have dealt with him as he deserved—

¹⁷for my father fought for you, and risked his life and saved you from the hand of Midian;

¹⁸but in fact you have risen against my father’s house today and have killed his sons, seventy men, on one stone, and have made Abimelech, the son of his female slave, king over the leaders of Shechem, because he is your relative—

¹⁹so if you have acted with honesty and integrity toward Jerubbaal and his house this day, be joyful about Abimelech, and may he also be joyful about you.

²⁰But if not, may fire come out of Abimelech and consume the leaders of Shechem and Beth-millo; and may fire come out of the leaders of Shechem and from Beth-millo, and consume Abimelech.”

²¹Then Jotham escaped and fled, and went to Beer; and he stayed there because of his brother Abimelech.

²²Now Abimelech ruled over Israel for three years.

²³Then God sent an evil spirit between Abimelech and the leaders of Shechem; and the leaders of Shechem dealt treacherously with Abimelech,

²⁴so that the violence done to the seventy sons of Jerubbaal would come, and the responsibility for their blood would be placed on their brother Abimelech, who killed them, and on the leaders of Shechem, who encouraged him to kill his brothers.

²⁵The leaders of Shechem set up men in ambush against him on the tops of the mountains, and they robbed everyone who would pass by them on the road; and it was reported to Abimelech.

²⁶Now Gaal the son of Ebed came with his relatives, and crossed over into Shechem; and the leaders of Shechem trusted him.

²⁷So they went out to the field and gathered the grapes of their vineyards and trampled them, and held a festival; and they went into the house of their god, and ate and drank and cursed Abimelech.

²⁸Then Gaal the son of Ebed said, “Who is Abimelech, and who is Shechem, that we should serve him? Is he not the son of Jerubbaal, and is Zebul not his governor? Serve the men of Hamor the father of Shechem; but why should we serve him?

²⁹If only this people were under my authority! Then I would do away with Abimelech.” And he said to Abimelech, “Enlarge your army and come out!”

³⁰When Zebul the leader of the city heard the words of Gaal the son of Ebed, his anger burned.

³¹So using deception, he successfully sent messengers to Abimelech, saying, “Behold, Gaal the son of Ebed and his relatives have come to Shechem; and behold, they are stirring up the city against you.

³²So now, arise by night, you and the people who are with you, and lie in wait in the field.

³³Then in the morning, as soon as the sun is up, you shall rise early and attack the city; and behold, when he and the people who are with him come out against you, you shall do to them whatever you can.”

³⁴So Abimelech and all the people who were with him got up at night, and lay in wait against Shechem, in four units.

³⁵Now Gaal the son of Ebed went out and stood at the entrance of the city gate; and Abimelech and the people who were with him arose from the ambush.

³⁶When Gaal saw the people, he said to Zebul, “Look, people are coming down from the tops of the mountains.” But Zebul said to him, “You are seeing the shadow of the mountains as if they were people.”

³⁷And Gaal spoke yet again and said, “Look, people are coming down from the highest part of the land, and one unit is coming by way of the diviners’ oak.”

³⁸Then Zebul said to him, “Where then is your boasting with which you said, ‘Who is Abimelech that we should serve him?’ Is this not the people whom you rejected? Go out now and fight them!”

³⁹So Gaal went out in the sight of the leaders of Shechem and fought Abimelech.

⁴⁰But Abimelech chased him, and he fled from him; and many fell wounded up to the entrance of the gate.

⁴¹Then Abimelech stayed in Arumah, but Zebul drove out Gaal and his relatives so that they could not stay in Shechem.

⁴²Now it came about the next day, that the people went out to the field, and it was reported to Abimelech.

⁴³So he took his people and divided them into three units, and lay in wait in the field; when he looked and saw the people coming out from the city, he attacked them and killed them.

⁴⁴Then Abimelech and the company who was with him rushed forward and stood at the entrance of the city gate; the other two companies then attacked all who were in the field and killed them.

⁴⁵Abimelech fought against the city that whole day, and he captured the city and killed the people who were in it; then he tore down the city and sowed it with salt.

⁴⁶When all the leaders of the tower of Shechem heard about it, they entered the inner chamber of the temple of El-berith.

⁴⁷And it was reported to Abimelech that all the leaders of the tower of Shechem were gathered together.

⁴⁸So Abimelech went up to Mount Zalmon, he and all the people who were with him; and Abimelech took an axe in his hand and cut down a branch from the trees, and lifted it and put it on his shoulder. Then he said to the people who were with him, “What you saw me do, hurry and do likewise.”

⁴⁹So all the people also cut down, each one, his branch and followed Abimelech, and put them on top of the inner chamber and set the inner chamber on fire over those inside, so that all the people of the tower of Shechem also died, about a thousand men and women.

⁵⁰Then Abimelech went to Thebez, and he camped against Thebez and captured it.

⁵¹But there was a strong tower in the center of the city, and all the men and women with all the leaders of the city fled there and shut themselves in; and they went up on the roof of the tower.

⁵²So Abimelech came to the tower and fought against it, and approached the entrance of the tower to burn it down with fire.

⁵³But a woman threw an upper millstone on Abimelech’s head, crushing his skull.

⁵⁴Then he called quickly to the young man, his armor bearer, and said to him, “Draw your sword and kill me, so that it will not be said of me, ‘A woman killed him.’ ” So the young man pierced him through, and he died.

⁵⁵Now when the men of Israel saw that Abimelech was dead, each left for his home.

⁵⁶So God repaid the wickedness of Abimelech, which he had done to his father in killing his seventy brothers.

⁵⁷God also returned all the wickedness of the men of Shechem on their heads, and the curse of Jotham the son of Jerubbaal came upon them.

¹Now after Abimelech died, Tola the son of Puah, the son of Dodo, a man of Issachar, rose up to save Israel; and he lived in Shamir in the hill country of Ephraim.

²He judged Israel for twenty-three years. Then he died and was buried in Shamir.

³After him, Jair the Gileadite rose up and judged Israel for twenty-two years.

⁴And he had thirty sons who rode on thirty donkeys, and they had thirty cities in the land of Gilead that are called Havvoth-jair to this day.

⁵And Jair died and was buried in Kamon.

⁶Then the sons of Israel again did evil in the sight of the LORD, and they served the Baals and the Ashtaroth, the gods of Aram, the gods of Sidon, the gods of Moab, the gods of the sons of Ammon, and the gods of the Philistines; so they abandoned the LORD and did not serve Him.

⁷And the anger of the LORD burned against Israel, and He sold them into the hands of the Philistines, and into the hands of the sons of Ammon.

⁸And they afflicted and oppressed the sons of Israel that year; for eighteen years they oppressed all the sons of Israel who were beyond the Jordan, in Gilead in the land of the Amorites.

⁹And the sons of Ammon crossed the Jordan to fight also against Judah, Benjamin, and the house of Ephraim, so that Israel was in great difficulty.

¹⁰Then the sons of Israel cried out to the LORD, saying, “We have sinned against You, for indeed, we have abandoned our God and served the Baals.”

¹¹And the LORD said to the sons of Israel, “Did I not save you from the Egyptians, the Amorites, the sons of Ammon, and the Philistines?

¹²And when the Sidonians, the Amalekites, and the Maonites oppressed you, you cried out to Me, and I saved you from their hands.

¹³Yet you abandoned Me and served other gods; therefore I will no longer save you.

¹⁴Go and cry out to the gods which you have chosen; let them save you in the time of your distress.”

¹⁵Then the sons of Israel said to the LORD, “We have sinned, do to us whatever seems good to You; only please save us this day.”

¹⁶So they removed the foreign gods from among them and served the LORD; and He could no longer endure the misery of Israel.

¹⁷Then the sons of Ammon were summoned, and they camped in Gilead. And the sons of Israel gathered together and camped in Mizpah.

¹⁸And the people, the leaders of Gilead, said to one another, “Who is the man who will begin to fight against the sons of Ammon? He shall become head over all the inhabitants of Gilead.”

¹Now Jephthah the Gileadite was a valiant warrior, but he was the son of a prostitute. And Gilead had fathered Jephthah.

²Gilead’s wife bore him sons; and when his wife’s sons grew up, they drove Jephthah out and said to him, “You shall not have an inheritance in our father’s house, for you are the son of another woman.”

³So Jephthah fled from his brothers and lived in the land of Tob; and worthless men gathered around Jephthah, and they went wherever he did.

⁴Now it came about, after a while, that the sons of Ammon fought against Israel.

⁵When the sons of Ammon fought against Israel, the elders of Gilead went to get Jephthah from the land of Tob;

⁶and they said to Jephthah, “Come and be our leader, that we may fight against the sons of Ammon.”

⁷But Jephthah said to the elders of Gilead, “Did you not hate me and drive me from my father’s house? So why have you come to me now when you are in trouble?”

⁸The elders of Gilead said to Jephthah, “For this reason we have now returned to you, that you may go with us and fight the sons of Ammon, and become our head over all the inhabitants of Gilead.”

⁹So Jephthah said to the elders of Gilead, “If you bring me back to fight against the sons of Ammon and the LORD gives them up to me, will I become your head?”

¹⁰And the elders of Gilead said to Jephthah, “The LORD is witness between us; be assured we will do as you have said.”

¹¹Then Jephthah went with the elders of Gilead, and the people made him head and leader over them; and Jephthah spoke all his words before the LORD at Mizpah.

¹²So Jephthah sent messengers to the king of the sons of Ammon, saying, “What conflict do you and I have, that you have come to me to fight against my land?”

¹³And the king of the sons of Ammon said to the messengers of Jephthah, “It is because Israel took my land when they came up from Egypt, from the Arnon as far as the Jabbok and the Jordan; so return them peaceably now.”

¹⁴But Jephthah sent messengers once again to the king of the sons of Ammon,

¹⁵and they said to him, “This is what Jephthah says: ‘Israel did not take the land of Moab nor the land of the sons of Ammon.

¹⁶For when they came up from Egypt, and Israel went through the wilderness to the Red Sea, and came to Kadesh,

¹⁷then Israel sent messengers to the king of Edom, saying, “Please let us pass through your land”; but the king of Edom would not listen. And they also sent messengers to the king of Moab, but he would not consent. So Israel remained at Kadesh.

¹⁸Then they went through the wilderness and around the land of Edom and the land of Moab, and came to the east side of the land of Moab, and they camped beyond the Arnon; but they did not enter the territory of Moab, for the Arnon was the border of Moab.

¹⁹And 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 place.”

²⁰But Sihon did not trust Israel to pass through his territory; so Sihon gathered all his people and camped in Jahaz, and fought with Israel.

²¹And the LORD, the God of Israel, handed Sihon and all his people over to Israel, and they defeated them; so Israel took possession of all the land of the Amorites, the inhabitants of that country.

²²So they possessed all the territory of the Amorites, from the Arnon as far as the Jabbok, and from the wilderness as far as the Jordan.

²³And now the LORD, the God of Israel, has driven out the Amorites from His people Israel; so should you possess it?

²⁴Do you not possess what Chemosh your god gives you to possess? So whatever the LORD our God has dispossessed before us, we will possess it.

²⁵Now then, are you any better than Balak the son of Zippor, king of Moab? Did he ever contend with Israel, or did he ever fight against them?

²⁶While Israel was living in Heshbon and its villages, and in Aroer and its villages, and in all the cities that are on the banks of the Arnon, three hundred years, why did you not recover them within that time?

²⁷So I have not sinned against you, but you are doing me wrong by making war against me. May the LORD, the Judge, judge today between the sons of Israel and the sons of Ammon.’ ”

²⁸But the king of the sons of Ammon disregarded the message which Jephthah sent him.

²⁹Now the Spirit of the LORD came upon Jephthah, and he passed through Gilead and Manasseh; then he passed through Mizpah of Gilead, and from Mizpah of Gilead he went on to the sons of Ammon.

³⁰And Jephthah made a vow to the LORD and said, “If You will indeed hand over to me the sons of Ammon,

³¹then whatever comes out the doors of my house to meet me when I return safely from the sons of Ammon, it shall be the LORD’S, and I will offer it up as a burnt offering.”

³²So Jephthah crossed over to the sons of Ammon to fight against them; and the LORD handed them over to him.

³³He inflicted a very great defeat on them from Aroer to the entrance of Minnith, twenty cities, and as far as Abel-keramim. So the sons of Ammon were subdued before the sons of Israel.

³⁴But Jephthah came to his house at Mizpah, and behold, his daughter was coming out to meet him with tambourines and with dancing. And she was his one and only child; besides her he had no son or daughter.

³⁵So when he saw her, he tore his clothes and said, “Oh, my daughter! You have brought me disaster, and you are among those who trouble me; for I have given my word to the LORD, and I cannot take it back.”

³⁶So she said to him, “My father, you have given your word to the LORD; do to me just as you have said, since the LORD has brought you vengeance on your enemies, the sons of Ammon.”

³⁷And she said to her father, “Let this thing be done for me; allow me two months, so that I may go to the mountains and weep because of my virginity, I and my friends.”

³⁸Then he said, “Go.” So he let her go for two months; and she left with her friends, and wept on the mountains because of her virginity.

³⁹And at the end of two months she returned to her father, who did to her what he had vowed; and she had no relations with a man. And it became a custom in Israel,

⁴⁰that the daughters of Israel went annually to commemorate the daughter of Jephthah the Gileadite for four days in the year.

¹Now the men of Ephraim were summoned, and they crossed to Zaphon; and they said to Jephthah, “Why did you cross over to fight against the sons of Ammon without calling us to go with you? We will burn your house down on you!”

²So Jephthah said to them, “I and my people were in a major dispute with the sons of Ammon; and I did call you, but you did not save me from their hand.

³When I saw that you were no deliverer, I took my life in my hands and crossed over against the sons of Ammon, and the LORD handed them over to me. Why then have you come up to me this day to fight against me?”

⁴Then Jephthah gathered all the men of Gilead and fought Ephraim; and the men of Gilead defeated Ephraim, because they said, “You are survivors of Ephraim, you Gileadites, in the midst of Ephraim and in the midst of Manasseh.”

⁵And the Gileadites took control of the crossing places of the Jordan opposite Ephraim. And it happened whenever any of the survivors of Ephraim said, “Let me cross over,” that the men of Gilead would say to him, “Are you an Ephraimite?” If he said, “No,”

⁶then they would say to him, “Just say, ‘Shibboleth.’ ” But he said, “Sibboleth,” for he was not prepared to pronounce it correctly. Then they seized him and slaughtered him at the crossing places of the Jordan. So at that time forty-two thousand from Ephraim fell.

⁷Jephthah judged Israel for six years. Then Jephthah the Gileadite died and was buried in one of the cities of Gilead.

⁸Now Ibzan of Bethlehem judged Israel after him.

⁹He had thirty sons, and thirty daughters whom he gave in marriage outside the family, and he brought in thirty daughters from outside for his sons. And he judged Israel for seven years.

¹⁰Then Ibzan died and was buried in Bethlehem.

¹¹Now Elon the Zebulunite judged Israel after him; he judged Israel for ten years.

¹²Then Elon the Zebulunite died and was buried at Aijalon in the land of Zebulun.

¹³Now Abdon the son of Hillel the Pirathonite judged Israel after him.

¹⁴He had forty sons and thirty grandsons who rode on seventy donkeys; and he judged Israel for eight years.

¹⁵Then Abdon the son of Hillel the Pirathonite died and was buried at Pirathon in the land of Ephraim, in the hill country of the Amalekites.

¹Now the sons of Israel again did evil in the sight of the LORD, and the LORD handed them over to the Philistines for forty years.

²And there was a man of Zorah, of the family of the Danites, whose name was Manoah; and his wife was infertile and had not given birth to any children.

³Then the angel of the LORD appeared to the woman and said to her, “Behold now, you are infertile and have not given birth; but you will conceive and give birth to a son.

⁴And now, be careful not to drink wine or strong drink, nor eat any unclean thing.

⁵For behold, you will conceive and give birth to a son, and no razor shall come upon his head, for the boy shall be a Nazirite to God from the womb; and he will begin to save Israel from the hands of the Philistines.”

⁶Then the woman came and told her husband, saying, “A man of God came to me, and his appearance was like the appearance of the angel of God, very awesome. So I did not ask him where he came from, nor did he tell me his name.

⁷But he said to me, ‘Behold, you shall conceive and give birth to a son, and now you shall not drink wine or strong drink, nor eat any unclean thing, for the boy shall be a Nazirite to God from the womb to the day of his death.’ ”

⁸Then Manoah pleaded with the LORD and said, “Lord, please let the man of God whom You have sent come to us again so that he may teach us what we are to do for the boy who is to be born.”

⁹And God listened to the voice of Manoah; and the angel of God came again to the woman as she was sitting in the field, but Manoah her husband was not with her.

¹⁰So the woman hurried and ran, and told her husband, “Behold, the man who came the other day has appeared to me!”

¹¹So Manoah got up and followed his wife, and when he came to the man he said to him, “Are you the man who spoke to the woman?” And he said, “I am.”

¹²Then Manoah said, “Now when your words are fulfilled, what shall be the boy’s way of life and his vocation?”

¹³And the angel of the LORD said to Manoah, “The woman shall pay attention to all that I said.

¹⁴She shall not eat anything that comes from the vine nor drink wine or strong drink, nor eat any unclean thing; she shall keep all that I commanded.”

¹⁵Then Manoah said to the angel of the LORD, “Please let us detain you so that we may prepare a young goat for you.”

¹⁶But the angel of the LORD said to Manoah, “Though you detain me, I will not eat your food, but if you prepare a burnt offering, offer it to the LORD.” For Manoah did not know that he was the angel of the LORD.

¹⁷And Manoah said to the angel of the LORD, “What is your name, so that when your words are fulfilled, we may honor you?”

¹⁸But the angel of the LORD said to him, “Why do you ask my name, for it is wonderful?”

¹⁹So Manoah took the young goat along with the grain offering and offered it on the rock to the LORD; and He performed wonders while Manoah and his wife looked on.

²⁰For it came about when the flame went up from the altar toward heaven, that the angel of the LORD ascended in the flame of the altar. When Manoah and his wife saw this, they fell on their faces to the ground.

²¹Now the angel of the LORD did not appear to Manoah or his wife again. Then Manoah knew that he was the angel of the LORD.

²²So Manoah said to his wife, “We will certainly die, for we have seen God.”

²³But his wife said to him, “If the LORD had desired to kill us, He would not have accepted a burnt offering and a grain offering from our hands, nor would He have shown us all these things, nor would He have let us hear things like this at this time.”

²⁴So the woman gave birth to a son, and named him Samson; and the child grew up and the LORD blessed him.

²⁵And the Spirit of the LORD began to stir him when he was in Mahaneh-dan, between Zorah and Eshtaol.