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

Samuel’s Birth and Dedication

1 There was a certain man of Ramathaim, a Zuphite^[a] from the hill country of Ephraim, whose name was Elkanah son of Jeroham son of Elihu son of Tohu son of Zuph, an Ephraimite.^(A)

²⁵ Gibeon, Ramah, Beeroth,

²² Beth-arabah, Zemaraim, Bethel,

² then going from Bethel to Luz, it passes along to Ataroth, the territory of the Archites;^(A)

Legal Decisions by Priests and Judges

⁸ “If a judicial decision is too difficult for you to make between one kind of bloodshed and another, one kind of legal right and another, or one kind of assault and another—any such matters of dispute in your towns—then you shall immediately go up to the place that the Lord your God will choose,^{(A) 9} where you shall consult with the Levitical priests and the judge who is in office in those days; they shall announce to you the decision in the case.^{(B) 10} Carry out exactly the decision that they announce to you from the place that the Lord will choose, diligently observing everything they instruct you. ¹¹ You must carry out the law that they interpret for you or the ruling that they announce to you; do not turn aside from the decision that they announce to you, either to the right or to the left.^{(C) 12} As for anyone who presumes to disobey the priest appointed to minister there to the Lord your God or the judge, that person shall die. So you shall purge the evil from Israel.

²⁶ And they judged the people at all times; hard cases they brought to Moses, but any minor case they decided themselves.^(A)

¹⁹ Now listen to me. I will give you counsel, and God be with you! You should represent the people before God and bring their cases to God.^(A)

¹³ The next day Moses sat as judge for the people, while the people stood around him from morning until evening.

⁸ And Deborah, Rebekah’s nurse, died, and she was buried under an oak below Bethel. So it was called Allon-bacuth.^[a](A)