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Judges 4

    ²So the Lord sold them into the hand of Jabin king of Canaan, who reigned in Hazor. The commander of his army was Sisera, who dwelt in Harosheth-hagoiim [fortress or city of the nations].

    ³Then the Israelites cried to the Lord, for [Jabin] had 900 chariots of iron and had severely oppressed the Israelites for twenty years.

    ⁴Now Deborah, a ^[a]prophetess, the wife of Lappidoth, judged Israel at that time.

    ⁵She sat under the palm tree of Deborah between Ramah and Bethel in the hill country of Ephraim, and the Israelites came up to her for judgment.

    ⁶And she sent and called Barak son of Abinoam from Kedesh in Naphtali and said to him, Has not the Lord, the God of Israel, commanded [you], Go, gather your men at Mount Tabor, taking 10,000 men from the tribes of Naphtali and Zebulun?

    ⁷And I will draw out Sisera, the general of Jabin's army, to meet you at the river Kishon with his chariots and his multitude, and I will deliver him into your hand?

    ⁸And 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.

    ⁹And she said, I will surely go with you; nevertheless, the trip you take will not be for your glory, for the Lord will sell Sisera into the hand of a woman. And Deborah arose and went with Barak to Kedesh. [Fulfilled in Judg. 4:22.]

    ¹⁰And Barak called Zebulun and Naphtali to Kedesh, and he went up with 10,000 men at his heels, and Deborah went up with him.

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

    ¹²When it was told Sisera that Barak son of Abinoam had gone up to Mount Tabor,

    ¹³Sisera gathered together all his chariots, even 900 chariots of iron, and all the men who were with him from Harosheth-hagoiim to the river Kishon.

    ¹⁴And Deborah said to Barak, Up! For this is the day when the Lord has given Sisera into your hand. Is not the Lord gone out before you? So Barak went down from Mount Tabor with 10,000 men following him.

    ¹⁵And the Lord confused and terrified Sisera and all his chariot drivers and all his army before Barak with the sword. And Sisera alighted from his chariot and fled on foot.

    ¹⁶But Barak pursued after the chariots and the army to Harosheth-hagoiim, and all the army of Sisera fell by the sword; not a man was left.

    ¹⁷But Sisera fled on foot to the tent of Jael, the wife of Heber the Kenite, for 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 lord, turn aside to me; have no fear. So he turned aside to her into the tent, and she covered him with a rug.

    ¹⁹And he said to her, Give me, I pray you, a little water to drink for I am thirsty. And she opened a skin of milk and gave him a drink and covered him.

    ²⁰And he said to her, Stand at the door of the tent, and if any man comes and asks you, Is there any man here? Tell him, No.

    ²¹But Jael, Heber's wife, took a tent pin and a hammer in her hand and went softly to him and drove the pin through his temple and into the ground; for he was in a deep sleep from weariness. So he died.

    ²²And behold, as Barak pursued Sisera, Jael came out to meet him and said to him, Come, and I will show you the man you seek. And when he came into her tent, behold, Sisera lay dead, and the tent pin was in his temples.

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

    ²⁴And the hand of the Israelites bore more and more upon Jabin king of Canaan until they had destroyed [him].

Judges 5

    ²For the leaders who took the lead in Israel, for the people who offered themselves willingly, bless the Lord!

    ³Hear, O kings; give ear, O princes; I will sing to the Lord. I will sing praise to the Lord, the God of Israel.

    ⁴Lord, when You went forth out of Seir, when You marched out of the field of Edom, the earth trembled and the heavens also dropped, yes, the clouds dropped water.

    ⁵The mountains quaked at the presence of the Lord, yes, yonder Sinai at the presence of the Lord, the God of Israel.

    ⁶After the days of Shamgar son of Anath, after the days of Jael [meaning here Ehud] the caravans ceased, travelers walked through byways.

    ⁷The villages were unoccupied and rulers ceased in Israel until ^[b]you arose--you, Deborah, arose--a mother in Israel.

    ⁸[Formerly] they chose new gods; then war was in the gates. Was there a shield or spear seen among 40,000 in Israel?

    ⁹My heart goes out to the commanders of Israel who offered themselves willingly among the people. Bless the Lord!

    ¹⁰Tell of it--you who ride on white donkeys, you who sit on rich carpets, and you who walk by the way.

    ¹¹Far from the noise of archers in the places of drawing water, there shall they rehearse the righteous acts of the Lord, even the righteous acts toward His villagers in Israel. Then the people of the Lord went down to the gates.

    ¹²Awake, awake, Deborah! Awake, awake, utter a song! Arise, Barak, and lead away your captives, you son of Abinoam.

    ¹³Then down marched the remnant of the nobles, the people of the Lord marched down for Me against the mighty.

    ¹⁴Out of Ephraim they came down whose root is in Amalek, after you, Benjamin, with your kinsmen. Out of Machir came down commanders and lawgivers, and out of Zebulun those who ^[c]handle the pen or stylus of the writer.

    ¹⁵And the princes of Issachar came with Deborah, and Issachar was faithful to Barak; into the valley they rushed forth at his heels. [But] among the clans of Reuben were great searchings of heart.

    ¹⁶Why [Reuben] did you linger among the sheepfolds listening to the piping for the flocks? Among the clans of Reuben there were great searchings of heart.

    ¹⁷Gilead remained beyond the Jordan, and why did Dan stay with the ships? Asher sat still on the seacoast and remained by his creeks. [These came not forth to battle for God's people.]

    ¹⁸But Zebulun was a people who endangered their lives to the death; Naphtali did also on the heights of the field.

    ¹⁹The kings came and fought, then fought the kings of Canaan at Taanach by the waters of Megiddo. Gain of booty they did not obtain.

    ²⁰From the heavens the stars fought, from their courses they fought against Sisera.

    ²¹The torrent Kishon swept [the foe] away, the onrushing torrent, the torrent Kishon. O my soul, march on with strength!

    ²²Then the horses' hoofs beat loudly because of the galloping of [fleeing] valiant riders.

    ²³Curse Meroz, said the messenger of the Lord. Curse bitterly its inhabitants, because they came not to the help of the Lord, to the help of the Lord against the mighty!

    ²⁴Blessed above women shall Jael, the wife of Heber the Kenite, be; blessed shall she be above women in the tent.

    ²⁵[Sisera] asked for water, and she gave [him] milk; she brought him curds in a lordly dish.

    ²⁶She put her [left] hand to the tent pin, and her right hand to the workmen's hammer. And with the wooden hammer she smote Sisera, she smote his head, yes, she struck and pierced his temple.

    ²⁷He sank, he fell, he lay still at her feet. At her feet he sank, he fell; where he sank, there he fell--dead!

    ²⁸The ^[d]mother of Sisera looked out at a window and wailed through the lattice, Why is his chariot so long in coming? Why do the hoofbeats of his chariots tarry?

    ²⁹Her wise ladies answered her, yet she repeated her words to herself,

    ³⁰Have they not found and been dividing the spoil? A maiden or two for every man, a spoil of dyed garments for Sisera, a spoil of dyed stuffs embroidered, two pieces of dyed work embroidered for my neck as spoil?

    ³¹So let all Your enemies perish, O Lord! But let those who love Him be like the sun when it rises in its might. And the land had peace and rest for forty years.

Judges 6

    ²And the hand of Midian prevailed against Israel. Because of Midian the Israelites made themselves the dens which are in the mountains and the caves and the strongholds.

    ³For whenever Israel had sown their seed, the Midianites and the Amalekites and the people of the east came up against them.

    ⁴They would encamp against them and destroy the crops as far as Gaza and leave no nourishment for Israel, and no ox or sheep or donkey.

    ⁵For they came up with their cattle and their tents, and they came like locusts for multitude; both they and their camels could not be counted. So they wasted the land as they entered it.

    ⁶And Israel was greatly impoverished because of the Midianites, and the Israelites cried to the Lord.

    ⁷And when they cried to the Lord because of Midian,

    ⁸The Lord sent a prophet to the Israelites, who said to them, Thus says the Lord, the God of Israel, I brought you up from Egypt and brought you forth out of the house of bondage.

    ⁹And I delivered you out of the hand of the Egyptians and out of the hand of all who oppressed you, and drove them out from before you and gave you their land.

    ¹⁰And I said to you, I am the Lord your God; fear not the gods of the Amorites, in whose land you dwell. But you have not obeyed My voice.

    ¹¹Now the ^[e]Angel of the Lord came and sat under the oak (terebinth) at Ophrah, which belonged to Joash the Abiezrite, and his son Gideon was beating wheat in the winepress to hide it from the Midianites.

    ¹²And the Angel of the Lord appeared to him and said to him, The Lord is with you, you mighty man of [fearless] courage.

    ¹³And Gideon said to him, O sir, if the Lord is with us, why is all this befallen us? And where are all His wondrous works of which our fathers told us, saying, Did not the Lord bring us up from Egypt? But now the Lord has forsaken us and given us into the hand of Midian.

    ¹⁴The Lord turned to him and said, Go in this your might, and you shall save Israel from the hand of Midian. Have I not sent you?

    ¹⁵Gideon said to Him, Oh Lord, how can I deliver Israel? Behold, my clan is the poorest in Manasseh, and I am the least in my father's house.

    ¹⁶The Lord said to him, Surely I will be with you, and you shall smite the Midianites as one man.

    ¹⁷Gideon said to Him, If now I have found favor in Your sight, then show me a sign that it is You Who talks with me.

    ¹⁸Do not leave here, I pray You, until I return to You and bring my offering and set it before You. And He said, I will wait until you return.

    ¹⁹Then Gideon went in and prepared a kid and unleavened cakes of an ephah of flour. The meat he put in a basket and the broth in a pot, and brought them to Him under the oak and presented them.

    ²⁰And the Angel of God said to him, Take the meat and unleavened cakes and lay them on this rock and pour the broth over them. And he did so.

    ²¹Then the Angel of the Lord reached out the tip of the staff that was in His hand, and touched the meat and the unleavened cakes, and there flared up fire from the rock and consumed the meat and the unleavened cakes. Then the Angel of the Lord vanished from his sight.

    ²²And when Gideon perceived that He was the Angel of the Lord, Gideon said, Alas, O Lord God! For now I have seen the Angel of the Lord face to face!

    ²³The Lord said to him, Peace be to you, do not fear; you shall not die.

    ²⁴Then Gideon built an altar there to the Lord and called it, The Lord is Peace. To this day it still stands in Ophrah, which belongs to the Abiezrites.

    ²⁵That night the Lord said to Gideon, Take your father's bull, the second bull seven years old, and pull down the altar of Baal that your father has and cut down the Asherah [symbol of the goddess Asherah] that is beside it;

    ²⁶And build an altar to the Lord your God on top of this stronghold with stones laid in proper order. Then take the second bull and offer a burnt sacrifice with the wood of the Asherah which you shall cut down.

    ²⁷Then Gideon took ten men of his servants and did as the Lord had told him, but 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.

    ²⁸And when the men of the city arose early in the morning, behold, the altar of Baal was cast down, and the Asherah was cut down that was beside it, and the second bull was offered on the altar which had been built.

    ²⁹And they said to one another, Who has done this thing? And when they searched and asked, they were told, Gideon son of Joash has done this thing.

    ³⁰Then the men of the city commanded Joash, Bring out your son, that he may die, for he has pulled down the altar of Baal and cut down the Asherah beside it.

    ³¹But Joash said to all who stood against him, Will you contend for Baal? Or will you save him? He who will contend for Baal, let him be put to death while it is still morning. If Baal is a god, let him contend for himself because one has pulled down his altar.

    ³²Therefore on that day he called Gideon Jerubbaal, meaning, Let Baal contend against him, because he had pulled down his altar.

    ³³Then all the Midianites and the Amalekites and the people of the east came together and, crossing the Jordan, encamped in the Valley of Jezreel.

    ³⁴But the Spirit of the Lord clothed Gideon with Himself and took possession of him, and he blew a trumpet, and [the clan of] Abiezer was gathered to him.

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

    ³⁶And Gideon said to God, If You will deliver Israel by my hand as You have said,

    ³⁷Behold, I will put a fleece of wool on the threshing floor. If there is dew on the fleece only and it is dry on all the ground, then I shall know that You will deliver Israel by my hand, as You have said.

    ³⁸And it was so. When he rose early next morning and squeezed the dew out of the fleece, he wrung from it a bowlful of water.

    ³⁹And Gideon said to God, Let not your anger be kindled against me, and I will speak but this once. Let me make trial only this once with the fleece, I pray you; let it now be dry only upon the fleece and upon all the ground let there be dew.

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

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³¹And He descended to Capernaum, a town of Galilee, and there He continued to teach the people on the Sabbath days.

    ³²And they were amazed at His teaching, for His word was with authority and ability and weight and power.

    ³³Now in the synagogue there was a man who was possessed by the foul spirit of a demon; and he cried out with a loud (deep, terrible) cry,

    ³⁴Ah, ^[a]let us alone! What have You to do with us [What have ^[b]we in common], Jesus of Nazareth? Have You come to destroy us? I know Who You are--the Holy One of God!

    ³⁵But Jesus rebuked him, saying, Be silent (muzzled, gagged), and come out of him! And when the demon had thrown the man down in their midst, he came out of him without injuring him in any ^[c]possible way.

    ³⁶And they were all amazed and said to one another, What kind of talk is this? For with authority and power He commands the foul spirits and they come out!

    ³⁷And a rumor about Him spread into every place in the surrounding country.

    ³⁸Then He arose and left the synagogue and went into Simon's (Peter's) house. Now Simon's mother-in-law was suffering in the grip of a burning fever, and they pleaded with Him for her.

    ³⁹And standing over her, He rebuked the fever, and it left her; and immediately she got up and began waiting on them.

    ⁴⁰Now at the setting of the sun [indicating the end of the Sabbath], all those who had any [who were] sick with various diseases brought them to Him, and He laid His hands upon every one of them and cured them.

    ⁴¹And demons even came out of many people, screaming and crying out, You are the Son of God! But He rebuked them and would not permit them to speak, because they knew that He was the Christ (the Messiah).

    ⁴²And when daybreak came, He left [Peter's house] and went into an isolated [desert] place. And the people looked for Him until they came up to Him and tried to prevent Him from leaving them.

    ⁴³But He said to them, I must preach the good news (the Gospel) of the kingdom of God to the other cities [and towns] also, for I was sent for this [purpose].

    ⁴⁴And He continued to preach in the synagogues of Galilee.