Judges 6-17

Contemporary English Version

6 ¹ Then once again the Israelites started disobeying the Lord, so he let the nation of Midian control Israel for seven years. ² The Midianites were so cruel that many Israelites ran to the mountains and hid in caves.

³ Every time the Israelites planted crops, the Midianites invaded Israel together with the Amalekites and other eastern nations. ^4-5 They rode in on their camels, set up their tents, and then let their livestock eat the crops as far as the town of Gaza. The Midianites stole food, sheep, cattle, and donkeys. Like a swarm of locusts,^[a] they could not be counted, and they ruined the land wherever they went.

^6-7 The Midianites took almost everything that belonged to the Israelites, and the Israelites begged the Lord for help. ^8-9 Then the Lord sent a prophet to them with this message:

I am the Lord God of Israel, so listen to what I say. You were slaves in Egypt, but I set you free and led you out of Egypt into this land. And when nations here made life miserable for you, I rescued you and helped you get rid of them and take their land. ¹⁰ I am your God, and I told you not to worship Amorite gods, even though you are living in the land of the Amorites. But you refused to listen.

The Lord Chooses Gideon

¹¹ One day an angel from the Lord went to the town of Ophrah and sat down under the big tree that belonged to Joash, a member of the Abiezer clan. Joash's son Gideon was nearby, threshing grain in a shallow pit, where he could not be seen by the Midianites.

¹² The angel appeared and spoke to Gideon, “The Lord is helping you, and you are a strong warrior.”

¹³ Gideon answered, “Please don't take this wrong, but if the Lord is helping us, then why have all of these awful things happened? We've heard how the Lord performed miracles and rescued our ancestors from Egypt. But those things happened long ago. Now the Lord has abandoned us to the Midianites.”

¹⁴ Then the Lord himself said, “Gideon, you will be strong, because I am giving you the power to rescue Israel from the Midianites.”

¹⁵ Gideon replied, “But how can I rescue Israel? My clan is the weakest one in Manasseh, and everyone else in my family is more important than I am.”

¹⁶ “Gideon,” the Lord answered, “you can rescue Israel because I am going to help you! Defeating the Midianites will be as easy as beating up one man.”

¹⁷ Gideon said, “It's hard to believe that I'm actually talking to the Lord. Please do something so I'll know that you really are the Lord. ¹⁸ And wait here until I bring you an offering.”

“All right, I'll wait,” the Lord answered.

¹⁹ Gideon went home and killed a young goat, then started boiling the meat. Next, he opened a big sack of flour and made it into thin bread.^[b] When the meat was done, he put it in a basket and poured the broth into a clay cooking pot. He took the meat, the broth, and the bread and placed them under the big tree.

²⁰ God's angel said, “Gideon, put the meat and the bread on this rock, and pour the broth over them.” Gideon did as he was told. ²¹ The angel was holding a walking stick, and he touched the meat and the bread with the end of the stick. Flames jumped from the rock and burned up the meat and the bread.

When Gideon looked, the angel was gone. ²² Gideon realized that he had seen one of the Lord's angels. “Oh!” he moaned. “Now I'm going to die.”^[c]

²³ “Calm down!” the Lord told Gideon. “There's nothing to be afraid of. You're not going to die.”

²⁴ Gideon built an altar for worshiping the Lord and called it “The Lord Calms Our Fears.” It still stands there in Ophrah, a town in the territory of the Abiezer clan.

Gideon Tears Down Baal's Altar

²⁵ That night the Lord spoke to Gideon again:

Get your father's second-best bull, the one that's seven years old. Use it to pull down the altar where your father worships Baal and cut down the sacred pole^[d] next to the altar. ²⁶ Then build an altar for worshiping me on the highest part of the hill where your town is built. Use layers of stones for my altar, not just a pile of rocks. Cut up the wood from the pole, make a fire, kill the bull, and burn it as a sacrifice to me.

²⁷ Gideon chose ten of his servants to help him, and they did everything God had said. But since Gideon was afraid of his family and the other people in Ophrah, he did it all at night.

²⁸ When the people of the town got up the next morning, they saw that Baal's altar had been knocked over, and the sacred pole next to it had been cut down. Then they noticed the new altar covered with the remains of the sacrificed bull.

²⁹ “Who could have done such a thing?” they asked. And they kept on asking, until finally someone told them, “Gideon the son of Joash did it.”

³⁰ The men of the town went to Joash and said, “Your son Gideon knocked over Baal's altar and cut down the sacred pole next to it. Hand him over, so we can kill him!”

³¹ The crowd pushed closer and closer, but Joash replied, “Are you trying to take revenge for Baal? Are you trying to rescue Baal? If you are, you will be the ones who are put to death, and it will happen before another day dawns. If Baal really is a god, let him take his own revenge on someone who tears down his altar.”

³² That same day, Joash changed Gideon's name to Jerubbaal, explaining, “He tore down Baal's altar, so let Baal take revenge himself.”^[e]

Gideon Defeats the Midianites

³³ All the Midianites, Amalekites, and other eastern nations got together and crossed the Jordan River. Then they invaded the land of Israel and set up camp in Jezreel Valley.

³⁴ The Lord's Spirit took control of Gideon, and Gideon blew a trumpet as a signal for the men in the Abiezer clan to follow him. ³⁵ He also sent messengers to the tribes of Manasseh, Asher, Zebulun, and Naphtali, telling the men of these tribes to come and join his army. Then they set out toward the enemy camp.

^36-37 Gideon prayed to God, “I know that you promised to help me rescue Israel, but I need proof. Tonight I'll spread a sheep skin on the stone floor of that threshing-place over there. If you really will help me rescue Israel, then tomorrow morning let there be dew on the skin, but let the stone floor be dry.”

³⁸ And that's just what happened. Early the next morning, Gideon got up and checked the sheep skin. He squeezed out enough water to fill a bowl. ³⁹ But Gideon prayed to God again. “Don't be angry with me,” Gideon said. “Let me try this just one more time, so I'll really be sure you'll help me. Only this time, let the skin be dry and the stone floor be wet.”

⁴⁰ That night, God made the stone floor wet with dew, but he kept the sheep skin dry.

7 Early the next morning, Gideon and his army got up and moved their camp to Fear Spring.^[f] The Midianite camp was to the north, in the valley at the foot of Moreh Hill.^[g]

² The Lord said, “Gideon, your army is too big. I can't let you win with this many soldiers. The Israelites would think that they had won the battle all by themselves and that I didn't have anything to do with it. ^3 (A) So call your troops together and tell them that anyone who is really afraid can leave Mount Gilead^[h] and go home.”

Twenty-two thousand men returned home, leaving Gideon with only 10,000 soldiers.

⁴ “Gideon,” the Lord said, “you still have too many soldiers. Take them down to the spring and I'll test them. I'll tell you which ones can go along with you and which ones must go back home.”

⁵ When Gideon led his army down to the spring, the Lord told him, “Watch how each man gets a drink of water. Then divide them into two groups—those who lap the water like a dog and those who kneel down to drink.”

⁶ Three hundred men scooped up water in their hands and lapped it, and the rest knelt to get a drink. ⁷ The Lord said, “Gideon, your army will be made up of everyone who lapped the water from their hands. Send the others home. I'm going to rescue Israel by helping you and your army of 300 defeat the Midianites.”

⁸ Then Gideon gave these orders, “You 300 men stay here. The rest of you may go home, but leave your food and trumpets with us.”

Gideon's army camp was on top of a hill overlooking the Midianite camp in the valley.

⁹ That night, the Lord said to Gideon. “Get up! Attack the Midianite camp. I am going to let you defeat them, ¹⁰ but if you're still afraid, you and your servant Purah should sneak down to their camp. ¹¹ When you hear what the Midianites are saying, you'll be brave enough to attack.”

Gideon and Purah worked their way to the edge of the enemy camp, where soldiers were on guard duty. ¹² The camp was huge. The Midianites, Amalekites, and other eastern nations covered the valley like a swarm of locusts.^[i] And it would be easier to count the grains of sand on a beach than to count their camels. ¹³ Gideon overheard one enemy guard telling another, “I had a dream about a flat^[j] loaf of barley bread that came tumbling into our camp. It hit the headquarters tent,^[k] and the tent flipped over and fell to the ground.”

¹⁴ The other soldier answered, “Your dream must have been about Gideon, the Israelite commander. It means God will let him and his army defeat the Midianite army and everyone else in our camp.”

¹⁵ As soon as Gideon heard about the dream and what it meant, he bowed down to praise God. Then he went back to the Israelite camp and shouted, “Let's go! The Lord is going to let us defeat the Midianite army.”

¹⁶ Gideon divided his little army into three groups of 100 men, and he gave each soldier a trumpet and a large clay jar with a burning torch inside. ^17-18 Gideon said, “When we get to the enemy camp, spread out and surround it. Then wait for me to blow a signal on my trumpet. As soon as you hear it, blow your trumpets and shout, ‘Fight for the Lord! Fight for Gideon!’ ”

¹⁹ Gideon and his group reached the edge of the enemy camp a few hours after dark, just after the new guards had come on duty.^[l] Gideon and his soldiers blew their trumpets and smashed the clay jars that were hiding the torches. ²⁰ The rest of Gideon's soldiers blew the trumpets they were holding in their right hands. Then they smashed the jars and held the burning torches in their left hands. Everyone shouted, “Fight with your swords for the Lord and for Gideon!”

²¹ The enemy soldiers started yelling and tried to run away. Gideon's troops stayed in their positions surrounding the camp ²² and blew their trumpets again. As they did, the Lord made the enemy soldiers pull out their swords and start fighting each other.

The enemy army tried to escape from the camp. They ran to Acacia Tree Town, toward Zeredah,^[m] and as far as the edge of the land that belonged to the town of Abel-Meholah near Tabbath.^[n]

²³ Gideon sent word for more Israelite soldiers to come from the tribes of Naphtali, Asher, and both halves of Manasseh^[o] to help fight the Midianites. ²⁴ He also sent messengers to tell all the men who lived in the hill country of Ephraim, “Come and help us fight the Midianites! Put guards at every spring, stream, and well, as far as Beth-Barah before the Midianites can get to them. And guard the Jordan River.”

Troops from Ephraim did exactly what Gideon had asked, ²⁵ and they even helped chase the Midianites on the east side of the Jordan River. These troops captured Raven and Wolf,^[p] the two Midianite leaders. They killed Raven at a large rock that has come to be known as Raven Rock, and they killed Wolf near a wine-pit that has come to be called Wolf Wine-Pit.^[q]

The men of Ephraim brought the heads of the two Midianite leaders to Gideon. 8 ¹ But the men were really upset with Gideon and complained, “When you went to war with Midian, you didn't ask us to help! Why did you treat us like that?”

² Gideon answered:

Don't be upset! Even though you came later, you were able to do much more than I did. It's just like the grape harvest: The grapes your tribe doesn't even bother to pick are better than the best grapes my family can grow. ^3 (B) Besides, God chose you to capture Raven and Wolf. I didn't do a thing compared to you.

By the time Gideon had finished talking, the men of Ephraim had calmed down and were no longer angry with him.

Gideon Finishes Destroying the Midianite Army

⁴ After Gideon and his 300 troops had chased the Midianites across the Jordan River, they were exhausted. ⁵ The town of Succoth was nearby, so he went there and asked, “Please give my troops some food. They are worn out, but we have to keep chasing Zebah and Zalmunna, the two Midianite kings.”

⁶ The town leaders of Succoth answered, “Why should we feed your army? We don't know if you really will defeat Zebah and Zalmunna.”

⁷ “Just wait!” Gideon said. “After the Lord helps me defeat them, I'm coming back here. I'll make a whip out of thorns and rip the flesh from your bones.”

⁸ After leaving Succoth, Gideon went to Penuel and asked the leaders there for some food. But he got the same answer as he did at Succoth. ⁹ “I'll come back safe and sound,” Gideon said, “but when I do, I'm going to tear down your tower!”^[r]

¹⁰ Zebah and Zalmunna were in Karkor^[s] with an army of 15,000 troops. They were all that was left of the army of the eastern nations, because 120,000 of their warriors had been killed in the battle.

¹¹ Gideon reached the enemy camp by going east along Nomad^[t] Road past Nobah and Jogbehah. He made a surprise attack, ¹² and the enemy panicked. Zebah and Zalmunna tried to escape, but Gideon chased and captured them.

¹³ After the battle, Gideon set out for home. As he was going through Heres Pass, ¹⁴ he caught a young man who lived in Succoth. Gideon asked him who the town officials of Succoth were, and the young man wrote down 77 names.

¹⁵ Gideon went to the town officials and said, “Here are Zebah and Zalmunna. Remember how you made fun of me? You said, ‘We don't know if you really will defeat those two Midianite kings. So why should we feed your worn-out army?’ ”

¹⁶ Gideon made a whip from thorn plants and used it to beat the town officials. ¹⁷ Afterwards he went to Penuel, where he tore down the tower and killed all the town officials.^[u]

¹⁸ Then Gideon said, “Zebah and Zalmunna, tell me about the men you killed at Tabor.”

“They were a lot like you,” the two kings answered. “They were dignified, almost like royalty.”

¹⁹ “They were my very own brothers!” Gideon said. “I swear by the living Lord that if you had let them live, I would let you live.”

²⁰ Gideon turned to Jether, his oldest son. “Kill them!” Gideon said.

But Jether was young,^[v] and he was too afraid to even pull out his sword.

²¹ “What's the matter, Gideon?” Zebah and Zalmunna asked. “Do it yourself, if you're not too much of a coward!”

Gideon jumped up and killed them both. Then he took the gold ornaments from the necks of their camels.

The Israelites Ask Gideon To Be Their King

²² After the battle with the Midianites, the Israelites said, “Gideon, you rescued us! Now we want you to be our king. Then after your death, your son and then your grandson will rule.”

²³ “No,” Gideon replied, “I won't be your king, and my son won't be king either. Only the Lord is your ruler. ²⁴ But I will ask you to do one thing: Give me all the earrings you took from the enemy.”

The enemy soldiers had been Ishmaelites,^[w] and they wore gold earrings.

²⁵ The Israelite soldiers replied, “Of course we will give you the earrings.” Then they spread out a robe on the ground and tossed the earrings on it. ²⁶ The total weight of this gold was nearly 20 kilograms. In addition, there was the gold from the camels' ornaments and from the beautiful jewelry worn by the Midianite kings. Gideon also took their purple robes.

^27-29 Gideon returned to his home in Ophrah and had the gold made into a statue, which the Israelites soon started worshiping. They were unfaithful to God, and even Gideon and his family were trapped into worshiping the statue.^[x]

The Midianites had been defeated so badly that they were no longer strong enough to attack Israel. And so Israel was at peace for the remaining 40 years of Gideon's life.

Gideon Dies

³⁰ Gideon had many wives and 70 sons. ³¹ He even had a wife^[y] who lived at Shechem.^[z] They had a son, and Gideon named him Abimelech.

³² Gideon lived to be an old man. And when he died, he was buried in the family tomb in his hometown of Ophrah, which belonged to the Abiezer clan.

³³ Soon after Gideon's death, the Israelites turned their backs on God again. They set up idols of Baal and worshiped Baal Berith^[aa] as their god. ³⁴ The Israelites forgot that the Lord was their God, and that he had rescued them from the enemies who lived around them. ³⁵ Besides all that, the Israelites were unkind to Gideon's family, even though Gideon had done so much for Israel.

Abimelech Tries To Be King

9 Abimelech the son of Gideon^[ab] went to Shechem. While there, he met with his mother's relatives ² and told them to say to the leaders of Shechem, “Do you think it would be good to have all 70 of Gideon's sons ruling us? Wouldn't you rather have just one man be king? Abimelech would make a good king, and he's related to us.”

³ Abimelech's uncles talked it over with the leaders of Shechem who agreed, “Yes, it would be better for one of our relatives to be king.” ⁴ Then they gave Abimelech 70 pieces^[ac] of silver from the temple of their god Baal Berith.^[ad]

Abimelech used the silver to hire a gang of rough soldiers who would do anything for money. ⁵ Abimelech and his soldiers went to his father's home in Ophrah and brought out Gideon's other sons to a large rock, where they murdered all 70 of them. Gideon's youngest son Jotham hid from the soldiers, but he was the only one who escaped.

⁶ The leaders of Shechem, including the priests and the military officers,^[ae] met at the tree next to the sacred rock^[af] in Shechem to crown Abimelech king. ⁷ Jotham heard what they were doing. So he climbed to the top of Mount Gerizim and shouted down to the people who were there at the meeting:

After Jotham had finished telling this story, he said:

^16-18 My father Gideon risked his life for you when he fought to rescue you from the Midianites. Did you reward Gideon by being kind to his family? No, you did not! You attacked his family and killed all 70 of his sons on that rock.

And was it right to make Abimelech your king? He's merely the son of my father's slave girl.^[ah] But just because he's your relative, you made him king of Shechem.

¹⁹ So, you leaders of Shechem, if you treated Gideon and his family the way you should have, then I hope you and Abimelech will make each other very happy. ²⁰ But if it was wrong to treat Gideon and his family the way you did, then I pray that Abimelech will destroy you with fire, and I pray that you will do the same to him.

²¹ Jotham ran off and went to live in the town of Beer, where he could be safe from his brother Abimelech.

Abimelech Destroys Shechem

²² Abimelech had been a military commander of Israel for three years, ^23-24 when God decided to punish him and the leaders of Shechem for killing Gideon's 70 sons.

So God turned the leaders of Shechem against Abimelech. ²⁵ Then they sent some men to hide on the hilltops and watch for Abimelech and his troops, while they sent others to rob everyone that went by on the road. But Abimelech found out what they were doing.

²⁶ One day, Gaal son of Ebed went to live in Shechem. His brothers moved there too, and soon the leaders of Shechem started trusting him.

²⁷ The time came for the grape harvest, and the people of Shechem went into their vineyards and picked the grapes. They gathered the grapes and made wine. Then they went into the temple of their god and threw a big party. There was a lot of eating and drinking, and before long they were cursing Abimelech.

²⁸ Gaal said:

Hamor was the founder of Shechem, and one of his descendants should be our ruler. But Abimelech's father was Gideon, so Abimelech isn't really one of us. He shouldn't be our king, and we shouldn't have to obey him or Zebul, who rules Shechem for him. ²⁹ If I were the ruler of Shechem, I'd get rid of that Abimelech. I'd tell him, “Get yourself an even bigger army, and we will still defeat you.”

³⁰ Zebul was angry when he found out what Gaal had said. ³¹ And so he sent some messengers to Abimelech. But they had to pretend to be doing something else, or they would not have been allowed to leave Shechem.^[ai] Zebul told the messengers to say:

Gaal the son of Ebed has come to Shechem along with his brothers, and they have persuaded the people to let Gaal rule Shechem instead of you. ³² This is what I think you should do. Lead your army here during the night and hide in the fields. ³³ Get up the next morning at sunrise and rush out of your hiding places to attack the town. Gaal and his followers will come out to fight you, but you will easily defeat them.

³⁴ So one night, Abimelech led his soldiers to Shechem. He divided them into four groups, and they all hid near the town.

³⁵ The next morning, Gaal went out and stood in the opening of the town gate. Abimelech and his soldiers left their hiding places, ³⁶ and Gaal saw them. Zebul was standing there with Gaal, and Gaal remarked, “Zebul, that looks like a crowd of people coming down from the mountaintops.”

“No,” Zebul answered, “it's just the shadows of the mountains. It only looks like people moving.”

³⁷ “But Zebul, look over there,” Gaal said. “There's a crowd coming down from the sacred mountain,^[aj] and another group is coming along the road from the tree where people talk with the spirits of the dead.”

³⁸ Then Zebul replied, “What good is all of your bragging now? You were the one who said Abimelech shouldn't be the ruler of Shechem. Out there is the army that you made fun of. So go out and fight them!”

³⁹ Gaal and the leaders of Shechem went out and fought Abimelech. ⁴⁰ Soon the people of Shechem turned and ran back into the town. However, Abimelech and his troops were close behind and killed many of them along the way.

⁴¹ Abimelech stayed at Arumah,^[ak] and Zebul forced Gaal and his brothers out of Shechem.

⁴² The next morning, the people of Shechem were getting ready to work in their fields as usual, but someone told Abimelech about it. ⁴³ Abimelech divided his army into three groups and set up an ambush in the fields near Shechem. When the people came out of the town, he and his army rushed out from their hiding places and attacked. ⁴⁴ Abimelech and the troops with him ran to the town gate and took control of it, while two other groups attacked and killed the people who were in the fields. ⁴⁵ He and his troops fought in Shechem all day, until they had killed everyone in town. Then he and his men tore down the houses and buildings and scattered salt^[al] everywhere.

⁴⁶ Earlier that day, the leaders of the temple of El Berith^[am] at Shechem had heard about the attack. So they went into the temple fortress, ⁴⁷ but Abimelech found out where they were. ⁴⁸ He led his troops to Mount Zalmon, where he took an ax and chopped off a tree branch. He lifted the branch onto his shoulder and shouted, “Hurry! Cut off a branch just as I did.”

⁴⁹ When they all had branches, they followed Abimelech back to Shechem. They piled the branches against the fortress and set them on fire, burning down the fortress and killing about 1,000 men and women.

⁵⁰ After destroying Shechem, Abimelech went to Thebez. He surrounded the town and captured it. ⁵¹ But there was a tall fortress in the middle of the town, and the town leaders and everyone else went inside. Then they barred the gates and went up to the flat roof.

⁵² Abimelech and his army rushed to the fortress and tried to force their way inside. Abimelech himself was about to set the heavy wooden doors on fire, ^53 (C) when a woman on the roof dropped a large rock^[an] on his head and cracked his skull. ⁵⁴ The soldier who carried his weapons was nearby, and Abimelech told him, “Take out your sword and kill me. I don't want people to say that I was killed by a woman!”

So the soldier ran his sword through Abimelech. ⁵⁵ And when the Israelite soldiers saw that their leader was dead, they went back home.

⁵⁶ That's how God punished Abimelech for killing his brothers and bringing shame on his father's family. ⁵⁷ God also punished the people of Shechem for helping Abimelech.^[ao] Everything happened just as Jotham's curse said it would.

Tola

10 Tola was the next person to rescue Israel. He belonged to the Issachar tribe, but he lived in Shamir, a town in the hill country of Ephraim. His father was Puah, and his grandfather was Dodo. ² Tola was a leader^[ap] of Israel for 23 years, then he died and was buried in Shamir.

Jair

³ The next leader^[aq] of Israel was Jair, who lived in Gilead. He was a leader for 22 years. ⁴ He had 30 sons, and each son had his own mule^[ar] and was in charge of one town in Gilead. Those 30 towns are still called The Settlements of Jair.^{[as] 5} When he died, he was buried in the town of Kamon.

Israel Is Unfaithful to God

⁶ Before long, the Israelites began disobeying the Lord by worshiping Baal, Astarte, and gods from Syria, Sidon, Moab, Ammon, and Philistia.

⁷ The Lord was angry with Israel and decided to let Philistia and Ammon conquer them. ⁸ So the same year that Jair died, Israel's army was crushed by these two nations. For 18 years, Ammon was cruel to the Israelites who lived in Gilead, the region east of the Jordan River that had once belonged to the Amorites. ⁹ Then the Ammonites began crossing the Jordan and attacking the tribes of Judah, Benjamin, and Ephraim. Life was miserable for the Israelites. ¹⁰ They begged the Lord for help and confessed, “We were unfaithful to you, our Lord. We stopped worshiping you and started worshiping idols of Baal.”

^11-12 The Lord answered:

In the past when you came crying to me for help, I rescued you. At one time or another I've rescued you from the Egyptians, the Amorites, the Ammonites, the Philistines, the Sidonians, the Amalekites, and the Maonites.^{[at] 13-14} But I'm not going to rescue you any more! You've left me and gone off to worship other gods. If you're in such big trouble, go and cry to them for help!

¹⁵ “We have been unfaithful to you,” the Israelites admitted. “If we must be punished, do it yourself, but please rescue us from the Ammonites.”

¹⁶ Then the Israelites got rid of the idols of the foreign gods, and they began worshiping only the Lord. Finally, there came a time when the Lord could no longer stand to see them suffer.

The Ammonites Invade Gilead

¹⁷ The rulers of Ammon called their soldiers together and led them to Gilead, where they set up camp.

The Israelites gathered at Mizpah^[au] and set up camp there. ¹⁸ The leaders of Gilead asked each other, “Who can lead an attack on the Ammonites?” Then they agreed, “If we find someone who can lead the attack, we'll make him the ruler of Gilead.”

Jephthah

11 ^1-5 The leaders of the Gilead clan decided to ask a brave warrior named Jephthah son of Gilead to lead the attack against the Ammonites.

Even though Jephthah belonged to the Gilead clan, he had earlier been forced to leave the region where they had lived. Jephthah was the son of a prostitute, but his half brothers were the sons of his father's wife.

One day his half brothers told him, “You don't really belong to our family, so you can't have any of the family property.” Then they forced Jephthah to leave home.

Jephthah went to the country of Tob, where he was joined by a number of men who would do anything for money.

So the leaders of Gilead went to Jephthah and said, ⁶ “Please come back to Gilead! If you lead our army, we will be able to fight off the Ammonites.”

⁷ “Didn't you hate me?” Jephthah replied. “Weren't you the ones who forced me to leave my family? You're only coming to me now because you're in trouble.”

⁸ “But we do want you to come back,” the leaders said. “And if you lead us in battle against the Ammonites, we will make you the ruler of Gilead.”

⁹ “All right,” Jephthah said. “If I go back with you and the Lord lets me defeat the Ammonites, will you really make me your ruler?”

¹⁰ “You have our word,” the leaders answered. “And the Lord is a witness to what we have said.”

¹¹ So Jephthah went back to Mizpah^[av] with the leaders of Gilead. The people of Gilead gathered at the place of worship and made Jephthah their ruler. Jephthah also made promises to them.

¹² After the ceremony, Jephthah sent messengers to say to the king of Ammon, “Are you trying to start a war? You have invaded my country, and I want to know why!”

¹³ The king of Ammon replied, “Tell Jephthah that the land really belongs to me, all the way from the Arnon River in the south, to the Jabbok River in the north, and west to the Jordan River. When the Israelites came out of Egypt, they stole it. Tell Jephthah to return it to me, and there won't be any war.”

¹⁴ Jephthah sent the messengers back to the king of Ammon, ¹⁵ and they told him that Jephthah had said:

Israel hasn't taken any territory from Moab or Ammon. ¹⁶ When the Israelites came from Egypt, they traveled across the desert to the Red Sea^[aw] and then to Kadesh. ^17 (D) They sent messengers to the king of Edom and said, “Please, let us go through your country.” But the king of Edom refused. They also sent messengers to the king of Moab, but he wouldn't let them cross his country either. And so the Israelites stayed at Kadesh.

^18 (E) A little later, the Israelites set out into the desert, going east of Edom and Moab, and camping on the eastern side of the Arnon River gorge. The Arnon is the eastern border of Moab, and since the Israelites didn't cross it, they didn't even set foot in Moab.

^19 (F) The Israelites sent messengers to the Amorite King Sihon of Heshbon. “Please,” they said, “let our people go through your country to get to our own land.”

²⁰ Sihon didn't think the Israelites could be trusted, so he called his army together. They set up camp at Jahaz, then they attacked the Israelite camp. ²¹ But the Lord God helped Israel defeat Sihon and his army. Israel took over all of the Amorite land where Sihon's people had lived, ²² from the Arnon River in the south to the Jabbok River in the north, and from the desert in the east to the Jordan River in the west.

²³ The messengers also told the king of Ammon that Jephthah had said:

The Lord God of Israel helped his nation get rid of the Amorites and take their land. Now do you think you're going to take over that same territory? ²⁴ If Chemosh your god^[ax] takes over a country and gives it to you, don't you have a right to it? And if the Lord takes over a country and gives it to us, the land is ours!

^25 (G) Are you better than Balak the son of Zippor? He was the king of Moab, but he didn't quarrel with Israel or start a war with us.

²⁶ For 300 years, Israelites have been living in Heshbon and Aroer and the nearby villages, and in the towns along the Arnon River gorge. If the land really belonged to you Ammonites, you wouldn't have waited until now to try to get it back.

²⁷ I haven't done anything to you, but it's certainly wrong of you to start a war. I pray that the Lord will show whether Israel or Ammon is in the right.

²⁸ But the king of Ammon paid no attention to Jephthah's message.

²⁹ Then the Lord's Spirit took control of Jephthah, and Jephthah went through Gilead and Manasseh, raising an army. Finally, he arrived at Mizpah in Gilead, where ³⁰ he promised the Lord, “If you will let me defeat the Ammonites ³¹ and come home safely, I will sacrifice to you whoever comes out to meet me first.”

³² From Mizpah, Jephthah attacked the Ammonites, and the Lord helped him defeat them.

³³ Jephthah and his army destroyed the 20 towns between Aroer and Minnith, and others as far as Abel-Keramim. After that, the Ammonites could not invade Israel any more.

Jephthah's Daughter

³⁴ When Jephthah returned to his home in Mizpah, the first one to meet him was his daughter. She was playing a tambourine and dancing to celebrate his victory, and she was his only child.

^35 (H) “Oh no!” Jephthah cried. Then he tore his clothes in sorrow and said to his daughter, “I made a sacred promise to the Lord, and I must keep it. Your coming out to meet me has broken my heart.”

³⁶ “Father,” she said, “you made a sacred promise to the Lord, and he let you defeat the Ammonites. Now, you must do what you promised, even if it means I must die. ³⁷ But first, please let me spend two months, wandering in the hill country with my friends. We will cry together, because I can never get married and have children.”

³⁸ “Yes, you may have two months,” Jephthah said.

She and some other girls left, and for two months they wandered in the hill country, crying because she could never get married and have children. ³⁹ Then she went back to her father. He did what he had promised, and she never got married.

That's why ⁴⁰ every year, Israelite girls walk around for four days, weeping for^[ay] Jephthah's daughter.

The Ephraim Tribe Fights Jephthah's Army

12 The men of the Ephraim tribe got together an army and went across the Jordan River to Zaphon to meet with Jephthah. They said, “Why did you go to war with the Ammonites without asking us to help? Just for that, we're going to burn down your house with you inside!”

² “But I did ask for your help,” Jephthah answered. “That was back when the people of Gilead and I were having trouble with the Ammonites, and you wouldn't do a thing to help us. ³ So when we realized you weren't coming, we risked our lives and attacked the Ammonites. And the Lord let us defeat them. There's no reason for you to come here today to attack me.”

⁴ But the men from Ephraim said, “You people of Gilead are nothing more than refugees from Ephraim. You even live on land that belongs to the tribes of Ephraim and Manasseh.”^[az]

So Jephthah called together the army of Gilead, then they attacked and defeated the army from Ephraim. ⁵ The army of Gilead also posted guards at all the places where the soldiers from Ephraim could cross the Jordan River to return to their own land.

Whenever one of the men from Ephraim would try to cross the river, the guards would say, “Are you from Ephraim?”

“No,” the man would answer, “I'm not from Ephraim.”

⁶ The guards would then tell them to say “Shibboleth,” because they knew that people of Ephraim could say “Sibboleth,” but not “Shibboleth.”

If the man said “Sibboleth,” the guards would grab him and kill him right there. Altogether, 42,000 men from Ephraim were killed in the battle and at the Jordan.

⁷ Jephthah was a leader^[ba] of Israel for six years, before he died and was buried in his hometown Mizpah^[bb] in Gilead.

Ibzan

⁸ Ibzan, the next leader^[bc] of Israel, came from Bethlehem. ⁹ He had 30 daughters and 30 sons, and he let them all marry outside his clan.

Ibzan was a leader for seven years, ¹⁰ before he died and was buried in Bethlehem.

Elon

¹¹ Elon from the Zebulun tribe was the next leader^[bd] of Israel. He was a leader for ten years, ¹² before he died and was buried in Aijalon that belonged to the Zebulun tribe.

Abdon

^13-15 Abdon the son of Hillel was the next leader^[be] of Israel. He had 40 sons and 30 grandsons, and each one of them had his own donkey.^[bf] Abdon was a leader for eight years, before he died and was buried in his hometown of Pirathon, which is located in the part of the hill country of Ephraim where Amalekites used to live.

Samson Is Born

13 Once again the Israelites started disobeying the Lord. So he let the Philistines take control of Israel for 40 years.

² Manoah from the tribe of Dan lived in the town of Zorah. His wife was not able to have children, ^3-5 (I) but one day an angel from the Lord appeared to her and said:

You have never been able to have any children, but very soon you will be pregnant and have a son. He will belong to God^[bg] from the day he is born, so his hair must never be cut. And even before he is born, you must not drink any wine or beer or eat any food forbidden by God's laws.

Your son will begin to set Israel free from the Philistines.

⁶ She went to Manoah and said, “A prophet who looked like an angel of God came and talked to me. I was so frightened, that I didn't even ask where he was from. He didn't tell me his name, ⁷ but he did say that I'm going to have a baby boy. I'm not supposed to drink any wine or beer or eat any food forbidden by God's laws. Our son will belong to God for as long as he lives.”

⁸ Then Manoah prayed, “Our Lord, please send that prophet again and let him tell us what to do for the son we are going to have.”

⁹ God answered Manoah's prayer, and the angel went back to Manoah's wife while she was resting in the fields. Manoah wasn't there at the time, ¹⁰ so she found him and said, “That same man is here again! He's the one I saw the other day.”

¹¹ Manoah went with his wife and asked the man, “Are you the one who spoke to my wife?”

“Yes, I am,” he answered.

¹² Manoah then asked, “When your promise comes true, what rules must he obey and what will be his work?”

¹³ “Your wife must be careful to do everything I told her,” the Lord's angel answered. ¹⁴ “She must not eat or drink anything made from grapes. She must not drink wine or beer or eat anything forbidden by God's laws. I told her exactly what to do.”

¹⁵ “Please,” Manoah said, “stay here with us for just a little while, and we'll fix a young goat for you to eat.” ¹⁶ Manoah didn't realize that he was really talking to one of the Lord's angels.

The angel answered, “I can stay for a little while, although I won't eat any of your food. But if you would like to offer the goat as a sacrifice to the Lord, that would be fine.”

¹⁷ Manoah said, “Tell us your name, so we can honor you after our son is born.”

¹⁸ “No,” the angel replied. “You don't need to know my name. And if you did, you couldn't understand it.”

¹⁹ So Manoah took a young goat over to a large rock he had chosen for an altar, and he built a fire on the rock. Then he killed the goat, and offered it with some grain as a sacrifice to the Lord. But then an amazing thing happened. ²⁰ The fire blazed up toward the sky, and the Lord's angel went up toward heaven in the fire. Manoah and his wife bowed down low when they saw what happened.

²¹ Although the angel didn't appear to them again, they realized he was one of the Lord's angels. ²² Manoah said, “We have seen an angel.^[bh] Now we're going to die.”^[bi]

²³ “The Lord isn't going to kill us,” Manoah's wife responded. “The Lord accepted our sacrifice and grain offering, and he let us see something amazing. Besides, he told us that we're going to have a son.”

²⁴ Later, Manoah's wife did give birth to a son, and she named him Samson. As the boy grew, the Lord blessed him. ²⁵ Then, while Samson was staying at Dan's Camp^[bj] between the towns of Zorah and Eshtaol, the Spirit of the Lord took control of him.

Samson Gets Married

14 One day, Samson went to Timnah, where he saw a Philistine woman. ² When he got back home, he told his parents, “I saw a Philistine woman in Timnah, and I want to marry her. Get her for me!”^[bk]

³ His parents answered, “There are a lot of women in our clan and even more in the rest of Israel. Those Philistines are pagans. Why would you want to marry one of their women?”

“She looks good to me,” Samson answered. “Get her for me!”

⁴ At that time, the Philistines were in control of Israel, and the Lord wanted to stir up trouble for them. That's why he made Samson desire that woman.

⁵ As Samson and his parents reached the vineyards near Timnah, a fierce young lion suddenly roared and attacked Samson. ⁶ But the Lord's Spirit took control of Samson, and with his bare hands he tore the lion apart, as though it had been a young goat. His parents didn't know what he had done, and he didn't tell them.

⁷ When they got to Timnah, Samson talked to the woman, and he was sure that she was the one for him.

⁸ Later,^[bl] Samson returned to Timnah for the wedding. And when he came near the place where the lion had attacked, he left the road to see what was left of the lion. He was surprised to see that bees were living in the lion's skeleton, and that they had made some honey. ⁹ He scooped up the honey in his hands and ate some of it as he walked along. When he got back to his parents, he gave them some of the honey, and they ate it too. But he didn't tell them he had found the honey in the skeleton of a lion.^[bm]

¹⁰ While Samson's father went to make the final arrangements with the bride and her family, Samson threw a big party,^[bn] as grooms^[bo] usually did. ¹¹ When the Philistines saw what Samson was like, they told 30 of their young men to stay with him at the party.

¹² Samson told the 30 young men, “This party will last for seven days. Let's make a bet: I'll tell you a riddle, and if you can tell me the answer before the party is over, I'll give each of you a shirt and a full change of clothing. ¹³ But if you can't tell me the answer, then each of you will have to give me a shirt and a full change of clothing.”

“It's a bet!” the Philistines said. “Tell us the riddle.”

¹⁴ Samson said:

Three days went by, and the Philistine young men had not come up with the right answer. ¹⁵ Finally, on the seventh^[bp] day of the party they went to Samson's bride and said, “You had better trick your husband into telling you the answer to his riddle. Have you invited us here just to rob us? If you don't find out the answer, we will burn you and your family to death.”

¹⁶ Samson's bride went to him and started crying in his arms. “You must really hate me,” she sobbed. “If you loved me at all, you would have told me the answer to your riddle.”

“But I haven't even told my parents the answer!” Samson replied. “Why should I tell you?”

¹⁷ For the entire seven days of the party, she had been whining and trying to get the answer from him. But that seventh day she put so much pressure on Samson that he finally gave in and told her the answer. She went straight to the young men and told them.

¹⁸ Before sunset that day, the men of the town went to Samson with this answer:

Samson replied,

¹⁹ Then the Lord's Spirit took control of Samson. He went to Ashkelon,^[bq] where he killed 30 men and took their clothing. Samson then gave it to the 30 young men at Timnah and stormed back home to his own family.

²⁰ The father of the bride made Samson's wife marry one of the 30 young men that had been at Samson's party.^[br]

15 Later, during the wheat harvest, Samson went to visit the young woman he thought was still his wife.^[bs] He brought along a young goat as a gift and said to her father, “I want to go into my wife's bedroom.”

“You can't do that,” he replied. ² “When you left the way you did, I thought you were divorcing^[bt] her. So I arranged for her to marry one of the young men who were at your party. But my younger daughter is even prettier, and you can have her as your wife.”

³ “This time,” Samson answered, “I have a good reason for really hurting some Philistines.”

Samson Takes Revenge

⁴ Samson went out and caught 300 foxes and tied them together in pairs with oil-soaked rags around their tails. ⁵ Then Samson took the foxes into the Philistine wheat fields that were ready to be harvested. He set the rags on fire and let the foxes go. The wheat fields went up in flames, and so did the stacks of wheat that had already been cut. Even the Philistine vineyards and olive orchards burned.

⁶ Some of the Philistines started asking around, “Who could have done such a thing?”

“It was Samson,” someone told them. “He married the daughter of that man in Timnah, but then the man gave Samson's wife to one of the men at the wedding.”

The Philistine leaders went to Timnah and burned to death Samson's wife and her father.^[bu]

⁷ When Samson found out what they had done, he went to them and said, “You killed them! And I won't rest until I get even with you.” ⁸ Then Samson started hacking them to pieces with his sword.^[bv]

Samson left Philistia and went to live in the cave at Etam Rock. ⁹ But it wasn't long before the Philistines invaded Judah^[bw] and set up a huge army camp at Jawbone.^[bx]

¹⁰ The people of Judah asked, “Why have you invaded our land?”

The Philistines answered, “We've come to get Samson. We're going to do the same things to him that he did to our people.”

¹¹ Three thousand men from Judah went to the cave at Etam Rock and said to Samson, “Don't you know that the Philistines rule us, and they will punish us for what you did?”

“I was only getting even with them,” Samson replied. “They did the same things to me first.”

¹² “We came here to tie you up and turn you over to them,” said the men of Judah.

“I won't put up a fight,” Samson answered, “but you have to promise not to hurt me yourselves.”

^13-14 “We promise,” the men said. “We will only tie you up and turn you over to the Philistines. We won't kill you.” Then they tied up his hands and arms with two brand-new ropes and led him away from Etam Rock.

When the Philistines saw that Samson was being brought to their camp at Jawbone, they started shouting and ran toward him. But the Lord's Spirit took control of Samson, and Samson broke the ropes, as though they were pieces of burnt cloth. ¹⁵ Samson glanced around and spotted the jawbone of a donkey. The jawbone had not yet dried out, so it was still hard and heavy. Samson grabbed it and started hitting Philistines—he killed 1,000 of them! ¹⁶ After the fighting was over, he made up this poem about what he had done to the Philistines:

¹⁷ Samson tossed the jawbone on the ground and decided to call the place Jawbone Hill.^[bz] It is still called that today.

¹⁸ Samson was so thirsty that he prayed, “Our Lord, you helped me win a battle against a whole army. Please don't let me die of thirst now. Those heathen Philistines will carry off my dead body.”

¹⁹ Samson was tired and weary, but God sent water gushing from a rock.^[ca] Samson drank some and felt strong again.

Samson named the place Caller Spring,^[cb] because he had called out to God for help. The spring is still there at Jawbone.

²⁰ Samson was a leader^[cc] of Israel for 20 years, but the Philistines were still the rulers of Israel.

Samson Carries Off the Gates of Gaza

16 One day while Samson was in Gaza, he saw a prostitute and went to her house to spend the night. ² The people who lived in Gaza found out he was there, and they decided to kill him at sunrise. So they went to the city gate and waited all night in the guardrooms on each side of the gate.^[cd]

³ But Samson got up in the middle of the night and went to the town gate. He pulled the gate doors and doorposts out of the wall and put them on his shoulders. Then he carried them all the way to the top of the hill that overlooks Hebron,^[ce] where he set the doors down, still closed and locked.

Delilah Tricks Samson

⁴ Some time later, Samson fell in love with a woman named Delilah, who lived in Sorek Valley. ⁵ The Philistine rulers^[cf] went to Delilah and said, “Trick Samson into telling you what makes him so strong and what can make him weak. Then we can tie him up so he can't get away. If you find out his secret, we will each give you 1,100 pieces of silver.”^[cg]

⁶ The next time Samson was at Delilah's house, she asked, “Samson, what makes you so strong? How can I tie you up so you can't get away? Come on, you can tell me.”

⁷ Samson answered, “If someone ties me up with seven new bowstrings that have never been dried,^[ch] it will make me just as weak as anyone else.”

^8-9 The Philistine rulers gave seven new bowstrings to Delilah. They also told some of their soldiers to go to Delilah's house and hide in the room where Samson and Delilah were. If the bowstrings made Samson weak, they would be able to capture him.

Delilah tied up Samson with the bowstrings and shouted, “Samson, the Philistines are attacking!”

Samson snapped the bowstrings, as though they were pieces of scorched string. The Philistines had not found out why Samson was so strong.

¹⁰ “You lied and made me look like a fool,” Delilah said. “Now tell me. How can I really tie you up?”

¹¹ Samson answered, “Use some new ropes. If I'm tied up with ropes that have never been used, I'll be just as weak as anyone else.”

¹² Delilah got new ropes, and again some Philistines hid in the room. Then she tied up Samson's arms and shouted, “Samson, the Philistines are attacking!”

Samson snapped the ropes as if they were threads.

¹³ “You're still lying and making a fool of me,” Delilah said. “Tell me how I can tie you up!”

“My hair is in seven braids,” Samson replied. “If you weave my braids into the threads on a loom and nail the loom^[ci] to a wall, then I will be as weak as anyone else.”

¹⁴ While Samson was asleep, Delilah wove his braids into the threads on a loom and nailed the loom to a wall.^[cj] Then she shouted, “Samson, the Philistines are attacking!”

Samson woke up and pulled the loom free from its posts in the ground and from the nails in the wall. Then he pulled his hair free from the woven cloth.

¹⁵ “Samson,” Delilah said, “you claim to love me, but you don't mean it! You've made me look like a fool three times now, and you still haven't told me why you are so strong.” ¹⁶ Delilah started nagging and pestering him day after day, until he couldn't stand it any longer.

¹⁷ Finally, Samson told her the truth. “I have belonged to God^[ck] ever since I was born, so my hair has never been cut. If it were ever cut off, my strength would leave me, and I would be as weak as anyone else.”

¹⁸ Delilah realized that he was telling the truth. So she sent someone to tell the Philistine rulers, “Come to my house one more time. Samson has finally told me the truth.”

The Philistine rulers went to Delilah's house, and they brought along the silver they had promised her. ¹⁹ Delilah had lulled Samson to sleep with his head resting in her lap. She signaled to one of the Philistine men as she began cutting off Samson's seven braids. And by the time she was finished, Samson's strength was gone. Delilah tied him up ²⁰ and shouted, “Samson, the Philistines are attacking!”

Samson woke up and thought, “I'll break loose and escape, just as I always do.” He did not realize that the Lord had stopped helping him.

²¹ The Philistines grabbed Samson and poked out his eyes. They took him to the prison in Gaza and chained him up. Then they put him to work, turning a millstone to grind grain. ²² But they didn't cut his hair any more, so it started growing back.

²³ The Philistine rulers threw a big party and sacrificed a lot of animals to their god Dagon. The rulers said:

^24-25 Everyone there was having a good time, and they shouted, “Bring out Samson—he's still good for a few more laughs!”

The rulers had Samson brought from the prison, and when the people saw him, this is how they praised their god:

They made fun of Samson for a while, then they told him to stand near the columns that supported the roof. ²⁶ A young man was leading Samson by the hand, and Samson said to him, “I need to lean against something. Take me over to the columns that hold up the roof.”

²⁷ The Philistine rulers were celebrating in a temple packed with people and with 3,000^[cl] more on the flat roof. They had all been watching Samson and making fun of him.^[cm]

²⁸ Samson prayed, “Please remember me, Lord God. The Philistines poked out my eyes, but make me strong one last time, so I can take revenge for at least one of my eyes!”^[cn]

²⁹ Samson was standing between the two middle columns that held up the roof. He felt around and found one column with his right hand, and the other with his left hand. ³⁰ Then he shouted, “Let me die with the Philistines!” He pushed against the columns as hard as he could, and the temple collapsed with the Philistine rulers and everyone else still inside. Samson killed more Philistines when he died than he had killed during his entire life.

³¹ His brothers and the rest of his family went to Gaza and took his body back home. They buried him in his father's tomb,^[co] which was located between Zorah and Eshtaol.

Samson was a leader^[cp] of Israel for 20 years.

Micah Makes Idols and Hires a Priest

17 Micah^[cq] belonged to the Ephraim tribe and lived in the hill country. ² One day he told his mother, “Do you remember those 1,100 pieces of silver^[cr] that were stolen from you? I was there when you put a curse on whoever stole them. Well, I'm the one who did it.”

His mother answered, “I pray that the Lord will bless^[cs] you, my son.”

^3-4 Micah returned the silver to his mother, and she said, “I give this silver to the Lord, so my son can use it to make an idol.” Turning to her son, she said, “Micah, now the silver belongs to you.”

But Micah handed it back to his mother. She took 200 pieces^[ct] of the silver and gave them to a silver worker, who made them into an idol.^[cu] They kept the idol in Micah's house. ⁵ He had a shrine for worshiping God there at his home, and he had made some idols and a sacred priestly vest. Micah chose one of his own sons to be the priest for his shrine.

^6 (J) This was before kings ruled Israel, so all the Israelites did whatever they thought was right.

^7-8 One day a young Levite came to Micah's house in the hill country of Ephraim. He had been staying with one of the clans of Judah in Bethlehem, but he had left Bethlehem to find a new place to live^[cv] where he could be a priest.^[cw]

⁹ “Where are you from?” Micah asked.

“I am a Levite from Bethlehem in Judah,” the man answered, “and I'm on my way to find a new place to live.”

¹⁰ Micah said, “Why don't you stay here with me? You can be my priest and tell me what God wants me to do. Every year I'll give you ten pieces of silver and one complete set of clothes, and I'll provide all your food.”

The young man went for a walk, ^11-12 then he agreed to stay with Micah and be his priest. He lived in Micah's house, and Micah treated him like one of his own sons. ¹³ Micah said, “I have a Levite as my own priest. Now I know that the Lord will be kind to me.”